Snacks Across the Pond

I like marshmallow, despite its overwhelming sweetness. I could eat so much it makes my tummy ache, and I generally have to avoid buying foods with marshmallow in them in case I get carried away. It is with some excitement and trepidation that I start on my next snack from the US, Marshmallow Circus Peanuts.

This doesn’t seem like a familiar marshmallow experience, however, as even before the bag is open the contents seem quite rigid, not quite the squidgy substance that I associate with the mallow. Opening the bag, I am overcome with a strong smell of banana flavouring. I’m not much of a fan of fake banana foods. At least, I presume so. I know that years ago I never liked certain banana-flavoured sweets and so have avoided them since. There’s something about the smell of banana-flavoured sweets that makes me think of something almost entirely unlike bananas that repels me somewhat. On top of that, banana-flavoured peanuts? This is a curious snack indeed.

In the interests of science, I tuck in. Grabbing a couple of these fake peanuts from the bag they really aren’t something I would describe as marshmallow. There is almost no give in the snack at all, being a solid orange peanut-shape. Despite my banana-flavouring misgivings I taste one. Hmm, sugary. There is certainly a smell of banana but no apparent taste of it; or there is and my sense of fake banana taste is misplaced. Another possibility is that the chemicals used to colour and ‘flavour’ these sweets, for I cannot bring myself to describe what I taste as actual flavour, swamps what the flavour actually should be.

This is not really marshmallow as I know it, but marshmallow compressed to a stage just before it becomes diamond so that it is a solid chunk of sugar, and the dreaded high fructose corn syrup, that hints at dissolving in saliva. Chewing the sweet doesn’t present anything like eating marshmallow either, but again a compressed sugary substance. Even so, it’s not a terrible experience. There are plenty in the bag, so can be dipped in to for small portions, and I can’t believe that this substance will ever turn bad, despite the best before date printed to make us believe otherwise, so they don’t need to be eaten quickly. In this way it’s a fair enough snack, as it gives your mouth something to chew on and presents some sort of flavour, albeit chemical.

The list of ingredients is essentially sugar or sugar-related products, plus a chemical flavouring and colouring. How they used solely ‘yellow #6′ and created an orange snack is impressive for all the wrong reasons. My favourite part of the packaging is where the manufacturer tries its best to offer an authentic peanut experience, stating that the snack is ‘manufactured on equipment that processes peanuts’. Yes, if you are allergic to peanuts you can eat these fake peanuts and still have a risk of going in to anaphylactic shock. That’s a lovely touch, I think.