Just Born was the buzz of the candy/food blogosphere when they announced their chocolate-covered Peeps. I wasn’t going to review them since Easter is long gone, but I decided that they merited one because I felt that they weren’t worth the hubub.

They were pretty cute, as they managed to maintain the Peeps chick shape. I appreciate the pseudo-eyeball touch! They were also pretty fragile – the chocolate coating cracked pretty easily.

Taste-wise, though, they were just kind of meh. The milk chocolate was Hershey’s style. In other words, too sweet, rather grainy, and tinged with sourness.

The marshmallow inside was entirely yellow, unlike regular Peeps which are white with a colored outer layer. It tasted mostly of sugar.

The texture, however, was lovely. Check out the fluffy air bubbles! It was super soft and squishy, like homemade/gourmet marshmallows are. I guess the chocolate coating is a great air barrier and helps keep the marshmallow fresh.

I wouldn’t buy these again, on sale or at full price, but they’re totally innocuous. An O.

Peanut Chews are peanuts in caramel and coated in a thin layer of dark or milk “chocolate”. Not much chocolate is actually in those layers – the ingredients list for both types have cocoa powder but also hydrogenated palm kernel oil.

Still, both chews were pleasant enough. The Milk Chocolatey bar’s “chocolate” flavor was barely noticeable and mostly imparted a light sweetness.

The caramel inside came across as rather dry because it was so chock full of peanuts, but it also had a pleasant, lasting chewiness. The caramel took a few chews to dissolve, but it didn’t get annoyingly stuck in my teeth.

In addition to being sweet and peanutty, the milk’s filling was also very salty. Too salty, in my opinion. Still, the bar wasn’t bad, like a Snickers without the nougat.

The dark version had the same chewy caramel and peanut filling, but it wasn’t as salty, and the “chocolate” coating wasn’t as sweet. I initially thought the sweeter milk coating just made the filling seem saltier by comparison, but then I checked the nutrition panel.

The milk version had 90 mg/sodium per 3 mini-bar serving, while the dark version had only 55 mg/sodium for the same serving size. I’m not sure why they made the milk version so much saltier, but I much preferred the better balanced dark chews.

Considering the fact that I’m not a big fan of peanutty sweets, I rather enjoyed these, and my friends did as well. They’re not a fine gourmet good, but they make for a nice treat. An O.

I decided to give these guys a review – if a short one. They not only look different from the standard chick/bunny peeps but also taste different as well.

Chocolate mousse is a good moniker for these. They look like it, taste of it, and even share a similar fluffiness.

They’re basically soft, fluffy, cocoa powder flavored marshmallows coated in fine granulated sugar. They have a sweet finish, but they’re Peeps; they’re supposed to be sweet!

Nothing extraordinary, but fun! Worth a try if you’re a Peeps or marshmallow fan, and definitely helpful for future Peeps dioramas. An O.

I’m already annoyed at the name. Shouldn’t it be a lemonade blend, as in a blend of different types of lemonade flavored Mike and Ikes? I understand what they were going for, that the candies themselves are flavored like lemonade blends, but it still bothers me. I can’t be too annoyed though, since JustBorn (same people who make Peeps, by the way) does donate a portion of proceeds to Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a charity that fights childhood cancer. Plus they’re all citrusy, and I love citrus candies.

According to the JustBorn website, these come in five flavors (thanks, Cybele, for pointing me to the website in your review; the flavors aren’t actually listed on the packaging). Clockwise from the top in the below picture, they are lemonade, tangerine lemonade, strawberry lemonade, lime lemonade (back in Texas, we call that a limeade), and raspberry lemonade. Like all Mike and Ikes, these are basically bullet-shaped jelly beans, with a sugar shell and a chewy interior.

Straight lemonade is bright, tart, and lemony while avoiding any reminiscence of floor cleaner. Tangerine lemonade has a lemony finish and is similarly citrusy, but it tastes a bit more round than the plain lemonade. Strawberry lemonade has a mellow strawberry flavor that’s more genuine than most strawberry flavored candies. Lime lemonade has a great zesty lime tang to it, and raspberry lemonade has a seedy finish that I usually find unpleasant in raspberry candies but can tolerate better in this, thanks to the lemonade finish.

I’m convinced that I could tell these guys apart in a blind taste test. However, I’m not sure I would know to recognize them as lemonade blends, though they do all finish on a sweetly sour note, making me think that these all taste like Snapple-fied versions of Mike and Ikes. Despite their lemonade finishes (or perhaps because of them), these never felt heavy or overly sweet. I enjoyed them so much that I may buy them again next time I see them, despite my ever-growing queue of candies waiting to be reviewed. An OMG.