White Strawberry Shortcake m&m's - Target (exclusive)
New year, new limited edition m&m flavors! Recently the cherry flavored ones were re-released, and Walmart had some new chocolate-based strawberry ones (review coming soon), and now we have these fancy white chocolate Strawberry Shortcake ones that are Target exclusive! I guess 2016 is the year of the strawberry, and as a fan of all things berry flavored, I'm all about it!
This flavor was released for Easter, but everything about this packaging says "Valentine's Day" to me. We have a gorgeous pink background, lots of pink and red toned colors, and a delicious looking slice of strawberry cake. Even the Green m&m's bunny ears could work for Valentine's day. (You know, if you're into that.) Surprisingly, she's not as sexualized (and creepy) as she's been in past bags and advertisements. (Which would have been easy given the bunny ears and the whole Playboy Bunny kind of thing they easily could have gone for.) With this color scheme, this product could work double duty for both Valentine's Day and Easter.
Okay, let's talk about these colors, because they're freaking adorable! We have a white, a blush-y pink, and a creamy beige tone. All of these colors bring to mind cupcakes, sweets, and Sweet Lolita fashion. These look gorgeous in a candy dish, and even though this is an Easter themed product (hence the bunny ears on the Green m&m), these colors work perfectly for Valentine's Day.
Under my photo lights, these candies smell sugary sweet, a little floral, and buttery. From the scent alone I can tell that these are a white chocolate based confection, but it came off as more cupcake or cotton candy-like than anything strawberry related. In fact, these candies reminded me a lot of my favorite cotton candy scented candle from Target, which was awesome... at first. The longer I left the bag open the stronger the scent became, and after a while it got to be a bit too much for me. Then again, this is candy, it's meant to be eaten, not sniffed, so let's see how these taste!
I grabbed a few candies and tossed them into my mouth. Once I made my way through the candy shell, the chocolate inside tasted sweet and buttery, similar to the white chocolate Candy Corn m&m's, but with a stronger cotton candy note. I gotta say, this is pretty high quality stuff! I wish the normal chocolate m&m's were this rich and decadent. At first the white chocolate has a faint strawberry-like cotton candy note to it, but as the candy melts on your tongue you get hints of vanilla cake and strawberry jam. The flavoring it's terribly authentic, it's more like a Tastykake strawberry Krimpet than a homemade cake with real strawberries, but that's still quite impressive.
I took a bite of the candy to get a better look at what's inside, and it looks like each m&m is white chocolate through-and-through. There's no layering, like the Hot Chocolate m&m's, and no hint of coloring from any strawberry-based powders or mix-ins. So all that strawberry and vanilla flavoring must be colorless and mixed right into the white chocolate base itself. When I was eating these slowly, one at a time, they were great! You could really appreciate the subtle cake and strawberry notes, but if you're just tossing handfuls of these into your mouth, it gets to be a bit cloying and overwhelming. I recommend taking your time and savoring each candy, especially since the white chocolate quality makes these so rich, sweet, and buttery. Personally, I can only eat a few in one sitting. These things are so overwhelmingly sweet that it gets to be too much for me if I eat more then 4-5 pieces in a row, but I think they taste best when you really savor them and eat them one at a time anyway, so it works.
If you're into rich, buttery, white chocolate based confections, or sugary sweet cotton-candy flavored goodies, these are definitely the candy for you. They're beautiful to look at, and the white chocolate quality is pretty darn great. 2016 has only just begun, so who knows what new flavors m&m's will be sending our way. (We've already heard about the Sundae themed ones that'll be Walmart exclusive and available very soon for Easter.) If the rest of their limited edition seasonal flavors are like this, I'll be a happy camper.
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