Junior Mints - Peppermint Crunch - Jan. 15, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Tootsie Roll Industries, LLC
Junior Mints - Peppermint Crunch
Good
Weight: .93 oz. (26.4 g.) / 3.5 oz. (99 g.) total package/box
Calories: 113 calories in 10 pieces
Cost: $0.99 (sale) for 1 package/box
Purchased from: Jo-Ann (Fabric and Craft Stores), Mountain View, CA

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Peppermint Theme Week.

Today's handful of Peppermint Crunch Junior Mints from Tootsie Roll Industries, LLC (Chicago, IL) provided a sweet peppermint rocket ride with a hint of semi-sweet chocolate.


I think the milky, creamy white center might have been liquid peppermint sugar. It's a candy after all, and sweeter than most chocolates I've been eating. (It's been several years since I've featured the original Junior Mints on this site.)

How were these different than regular Junior Mints? Red flecks and peppermint flavor mostly. I also remember Junior Mints center being soft, but slightly more solid than these, but I could be wrong.

The box and the pieces themselves looked fairly generously sized, but, again, I didn't have any original Junior Mints to compare them with. (What kind of chocolate mad scientist am I? For shame.)

These Junior Mints were made in a facility that "does not use peanuts, tree nuts, or gluten."

ChocolateBet: August 12, 2012

Chocolate of the Day:

Tootsie Roll Industries
Tootsie Roll - Caramel - Limited Edition
Good
Weight: .6 oz. (17 g.) / 7.2 oz. (204 g.) total bag
Calories: 60 calories in 1 Tootsie Pop
Cost: $0.99 total package
Purchased from: 99 Cents Only Store, Pinole, CA

Today I reached into the chocolate past to taste a sentimental favorite -- a Tootsie Pop from Tootsie Roll Industries (Cambridge, MA). Today was Day #6 of Chocolate and Caramel and Toffee Theme Weeks.

Somewhere between 65 and 70 licks, I gave in to the urge to bite into the artificially flavored caramel candy shell to get to the chewy, fudge center. If I'm not mistaken, the fudge center was smiling back at me. One bag of these economical and satisfying Pops was on sale for 99 cents; and each one was only 60 calories.

ChocolateBet: December 16, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
2 pieces
Tootsie Roll Industries
Candy Cane Tootsie Pop Drops
Good - Good+
Weight: .3 oz. (8.5 g.)/ 3.5 oz. (99 g.) total box
Calories: 30 calories for 2 pieces
Cost: $1.00
Purchased from: Target, Mountain View, CA

There's nothing like the fresh taste of peppermint candy canes to usher in the Christmas holidays. Today was Day #1 of Chocolate and Peppermint Candy Cane Theme Week.

This year store shelves seemed to brim over with peppermint and chocolate candy options. Tootsie Roll Industries (Chicaco, IL) is famous for their individually wrapped chewy chocolates, and for Tootsie Pop suckers with the chewable chocolate center inside a hard, bite-able candy globe on a stick.

Today's Peppermint flavored, white and red-striped, Tootsie Pop Drops contained a "Chewie Tootsie Roll Center." These candy drops were more about the peppermint than the chocolate, but it was a fun to try a new variation on a traditional candy. And, as with the Tootsie Pop suckers, good luck trying to patiently suck down to the chocolate center, without wanting to bite them open right away. ("How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?" asked the cartoon wise owl on the old Tootsie TV commercials..."One...two...three...(crunch!)"

ChocolateBet: July 25, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:

1 tootsie pop/sucker
Tootsie Roll Industries
Pomegranate Tootsie Roll Pop
Very Good
Weight: .6 oz. (17 grams)
Calories: 60 calories
Cost: $0 (gift)
Purchased from: (don't know; this was a gift. Thanks Megan.)

Eating this hard candy Tootsie Roll sucker with the chewy fudge center did bring back fond memories from childhood. Pomegranate must be one of the newer flavors.

Television commercials for this candy (many years ago) invited viewers to discover how many licks it took to reach the chocolate center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. However, during the commercial, one of the characters (usually the owl) would bite into the hard candy outer coating to get to the center more quickly, and then viewers were left to wonder how many licks it took to get to the center.

And, shoot, I bit into mine too, before I remembered this. Ah well, maybe next time I'll find out the answer to this important question.

Also, according to the Tootsie Roll website, Tootsie Roll Pops are gluten free. Good to know. Now I'll have to try all their flavors.