Birthday Cake flavor seems to be everywhere these days, from cream cheese to M&Ms to the new Peeps and Russel Stover’s eggs rolled out for Easter this year. I can understand the companies’ desire to capitalize on the trend. The Peeps Brand makes 75% of its profits on Easter candy and that increases each time it adds a flavor to its collection. Bur when I went to investigate the Easter candy at Walgreens, I was surprised by the variety of flavors I found. The seasonal aisle, that had once been an aisle of simple pastel white and milk chocolate had transformed into a cornucopia of indulgences that excited, scared and mostly confused me. So naturally, I bought a bunch of it. You know, for ~science~.
I decided that I would bring my haul, which ended up being Party Cake Peeps, Blue Raspberry Peeps, Sour Watermelon Peeps, Chocolate-Covered Peeps and Russel Stover’s Birthday Cake and Carrot Cake Eggs, to the Berkeley Buttery on a busy weeknight and let the passersby sample the strange assortment of goodies.
Here, for your viewing pleasure and also satisfaction of general curiosity, are the honest reviews:
Party Cake Peeps
photo by Ivy Wanta
“Tastes like a regular peep, but they are cute. I like the sprinkles.”
“They smell amazing.” [Editor’s note: this is an indisputable fact. They smell like yellow cake from the boxed mix, aka like your childhood]
“I would eat this. Even as someone who doesn’t like peeps, I like these.”
Blue Raspberry Peeps
photo by Ivy Wanta
“No. Just no. Just not at all what you want when you want a Peep.”
“It tastes like a Blue Raspberry Slush Puppy. It tastes so much like blue raspberry that you don’t even remember that you are eating a marshmallow.”
“I love this. Can I have another one?”
Chocolate-Covered Peep
“V good.”
Sour Watermelon Peeps
photo by Ivy Wanta
Almost everyone agreed that these were not good. They taste exactly like what every sour watermelon anything tastes like, except that they are in marshmallow form, which is just confusing. The upside, though, is that they are colored accurately (green on the outside, pink on the inside) and who doesn’t appreciate that?
Birthday Cake Russel Stover Egg
photo by Ivy Wanta
“This is pretty good. The middle tastes very much like raw egg, which is troubling when you think about it… yeah, actually, did I say this was good? I don’t know anymore.”
“I would put this in my mouth again.”
Carrot Cake Russel Stover Egg
photo by Ivy Wanta
“Tastes cheap.”
“Maybe I’m just getting old, but this is incredibly sweet.”
“I wouldn’t eat it again, and I definitely wouldn’t buy it, but I don’t hate that it’s in my mouth.”
So there you go. Crazy, crazy Easter candy simplified for the general public. It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it.
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