Sunday, August 26, 2018

Hokey Halloween Horror: Caramel Apple Mike and Ike

    Halloween candy has officially been in stores for a couple of weeks now but when I saw these Caramel Apple Mike and Ikes I could not resist. I knew I had to review these because 1. I like Mike and Ike and 2. The packaging is kind of fun. It's not all out Halloween for Mike and Ike (this isn't Mummy Mix, after all) but it is definitely fall. Caramel apples, falling leaves, and a brilliant orange background just put me in that wonderful, magical autumnal mood. Seriously, as I'm looking at this I'm pretty darn sure that I hear the ghost of Vivaldi playing the Autumn from the Four Seasons on my front lawn. Or maybe I've just eaten way too many Mike and Ikes. Who knows? Anyways, let's explore these delicious little delicacies after the break...




 The front of the box is great but the back is even better! Check it out! Not only do we get the same brilliant orange color and the falling leaves from the front but we also get a cel-shaded looking basket of tart, green, Granny Smith apples along with a huge caramel apple. Do you think that caramel apple is to scale? Maybe it takes a basket or two of little apples to join together Voltron style to make one giant caramel apple. To be honest, though, the presence of the caramel apple on the back of the package is essentially directions. Yeah, the caramel candy and apple candy tastes great in its own but when you mix it together it really does manifest the essence of a real honest to goodness caramel apple inside of your mouth.
    * Popping these open you're going to find two colors of candy: A light tan for caramel and a light green for apple. The color diversity isn't as impressive as I may have hoped for but I'm not sure what else could have been done. Maybe orange "fall spice" Mike and Ikes as well? Of course, that wouldn't have blended with the flavors as well so I'm going to go ahead and say that Just Born made the right call by sticking with caramel and apple.
 The caramel Mike and Ike is a bit underwhelming visually, but that's kind of true with caramel, isn't it? I love those sweet flavors like butterscotch, caramel, and toffee, so I'm predisposed to like caramel Mike and Ikes. They do taste like caramel (and they don't yank your dental work out, which is appreciated) but they'd be underwhelming on their own. If I were none the wiser or had no sense of smell like Dewey Cox, I'd assume that maybe these were peanut butter candy just from the visual appearance.

On their own, the apple candies are a bit better. They're both sweet and sour and have the nice tangy tartness of a Granny Smith apple. Plus, the light green is really pleasant. It's not quite Halloween slime green (which is it's own color) but the apple candies do have a little bit of spotting on them that definitely makes me think of produce. I don't often think of produce when eating candy but I did here and I'll admit that I enjoyed the experience.

Of course the real test of these is mixing them together, right? That's how you eat Mike and Ikes anyways: Start by trying each flavor individually for awhile and then eventually pour entire servings of them directly from the box into your mouth. These taste great together. It's not just a general blended, sweet flavor, either; the caramel and apple really go together well and taste like caramel apple. It's a gosh darn mystery how Just Born did this, but they did it.
   This is the first Halloween based food item of Halloween 2018 that I've tried and, fortunately, it's a winner. Definitely mix these. Do not give someone a caramel and then an apple. Give them too at once or give them a swig from your box. These are meant to go together. They're not spooky but they're very, very fallish and they will absolutely get you in the mood to drink cider, run through a corn maze, and rake leaves. Caramel Apple Mike and Ikes are a great way to kick off the Halloween 2018 season and I'm glad that they're real.

2 comments:

  1. Was this the candy that Al Pacino was talking about in that movie...uh...SIMONE? As weird as this may seem, this is the first time in my entire life that I've seen Mike & Ike candy.

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    1. I'm not sure. I've never seen Simone. Maybe? Mike and Ike are pretty good. They're kind of like elongated jelly beans but a bit tangier and maybe a bit chewier. They tend to do a lot of specialty mixes through the year!

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