Junior Mints - Heart Shaped

I was walking through the aisles of Target a few weeks ago and something stood out at me - Junior Mints.  Now, that's not something I usually pay attention to, but after eating countless Peppermint Crunch Junior Mints during the Christmas season, the candy has now been on my radar.  Thanks to the success of Peppermint Crunch, I had my eyes peeled and picked up a Valentine's Day edition of Junior Mints that I was very excited to see and try.

Had these been your regular, old, boring, everyday Junior Mints, I would have walked on by and waited until December before giving them any more of my money.  But two things stood out and attracted me - heart shaped candies and red filling.  Like I said in my last post, it doesn't take much to lure me in and if you've been reading The Holidaze for a while, you should know that by now.  Red filling?  That's an instant sale.  In fact, if it weren't for the change in color, I don't think I would have even bothered with the heart shaped Junior Mints.  That's cute, but not enough for this manly man to waste a dollar.

After opening the box and looking at the size and shape of these Junior Mints, I realized I would have made a mistake had I walked on by and ignored the heart shape alone.  They're much bigger than I expected and look very cool.  They're perfect for Valentine's Day, but it was still all about the red filling.  If I didn't have that to entice me, this post would have ended here and I'd have nothing else to talk about.  The fact that we still have red mint filling to review is what's keeping this post alive.  Right?  Hmm..

My plan was to bite two, get a picture of the white and red next to one another, and upload them to my laptop.  I didn't intend on eating an entire box, but I had to find that damn red Junior Mint and, believe me when I tell ya, I was getting pissed off.  Bite after bite and all I kept seeing was your traditional white filling.  I thought there was supposed to be a variety here?  I thought I was going to see some red in this box, but I kept striking out on every attempt.  The only reason I bought this candy at all was to see the red filling and pretend I was a vampire or zombie eating a red heart on Valentine's Day, but things weren't looking good.  I bit at least 13 Junior Mint hearts, had only 4 left, before.. finally.. one damn heart.

Just as I was starting to lose hope, there is is!  It's too bad that there weren't any more than one because it truly looks awesome!  Of course I acted as if I was a walker feasting on the flesh of mere mortals.  That's to be expected, right?  Whether it's a celebration of love or not, you don't eat a red filled heart without throwing in a little horror.  Maybe it's a guy thing, but that was pretty much the only reason I bought this box at all.  Fortunately, I was able to experience the thrill of finding a red filled Junior Mint because I honestly thought it was turning into a case of false advertisement.  I have no idea if "one-to-a-box" is what they're going for or if I just caught some bad luck while walking down the aisle, but this was aggravating.  I felt like a kid looking for the Great White Shark in a box of "Shark Bites" fruit snacks.  After a while, you start to whine and throw in the towel.  Luckily I found this one and was able to share it with you.  Otherwise, a boring post would have been even more boring.  The red heart saved us all.

Because I literally bit into every Junior Mint in the box before throwing the wasted half-hearts out, I had to do something special with them.  So I designed a heart using all of my broken ones to give all of my Holidaze readers.  But the kid in me is coming out again and all I see now is a gang of white-filled walkers surrounding the lonesome red-filled heart as they attempt to attack and make him a walker as well.  Yeah, as you can tell, The Walking Dead is back and I'm a little bit more into that than I am Valentine's Day.

Normally I recommend most products I review, but I'd advise you to stay away from this one because you may be disappointed.  I don't know if you'll find more than one or not, but unless you like eating Junior Mints on a regular basis, this one isn't worth the money.

Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch

Wow, can you believe Thanksgiving has come and gone as quickly as it did?  The holidays are truly sneaking up on us and leaving in a hurry.  For as much as I'd like the work weeks to speed up, I want Christmas to take it's sweet time getting to me.  The 25 days of Christmas are upon us and though that may seem like a lot of time to shop, write, party, drink, laugh, and wrap, it's going to move much faster than we realize.  So, because we've reached the last day of November and I'm still recovering from the Thanksgiving overload, I have a quick post for you about a box of $1.00 candy.

When walking down the holiday aisles and scouring through the Christmas section for seasonal items, I see a lot that I overlook and don't consider worthy of my time and effort.  There are some things I buy for me and The Holidaze, and then there are others that I buy for The Holidaze alone.  If it doesn't fit either of those categories, then on the shelf it sits.  Normally, Junior Mints would be one of those products, but not this year.  Because The Holidaze has neglected Christmas in the past, this box of candy may or may not be new, but either way, between the Christmas box and classic Rankin/Bass font, I certainly wasn't passing up on Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch!

Now, if you've never tried these, you may be asking yourself -- what separates these from everything else I've ignored and left sitting on the Island of Misfit Products?  Well, with me, it doesn't take much and the fact that they added "real candy crunch" to the outer shell of these traditional Junior Mints made all the difference.  I just had to see what they looked like and how much of a change these crunchies made to the texture.  And no, Google and other reviews simply wouldn't suffice this time around.

Obviously, the Junior Mints look much more round, smooth, and chocolatey brown on the box art, but that's what I expected.  Junior Mints always come out looking like little black mushroom heads.  However, they're usually much smoother in their traditional pack and I attribute the bumpiness to the candy crunch.  Already, we've found one difference that they've made and, honestly, I don't know if I like it.  The little indentations and change in appearance make the Junior Mints much less appealing, but I was willing to overlook that because of the seasonal effort they put into the recipe.  There had to be a good reason for these distorted Junior Mints to be on sale.

I can't remember the last time I actually bought a box of Junior Mints, but I'm willing to bet it was at a movie theater.  Even then, it was probably because they were sold out of Raisinets, Gummy Bears, and Sour Patch Kids.  What I'm saying is, Junior Mints are never my first choice when buying candy, but they've definitely climbed through the ranks with their Peppermint Crunch.  These are so much better with the candy pieces that I think they should keep them in the mix from here on out.

The traditional Junior Mint flavor hasn't changed, but the texture has and it's enough to make this feel like an entirely new product.  Forget about their shape and appearance, because this is more than that.  Instead of biting down into a gooey Junior Mint that lasts one or two bites before it's gone, now you have a little crunch.  Now you find yourself looking for the little candy pieces to chew.  Who woulda thought a Junior Mint could give us so much to do in the span of 7 seconds?  Now, whenever I go to the movies between today and Christmas, this is the candy I'll be sneaking in with me.  In fact, I may just bring these with me to see "Frozen," tomorrow.  Sounds chilly...