Marshmallow Treats for Halloween

Entering into our 6th Annual Halloween Treat Challenge is 240Sweet with a new product in two chocolate varieties: Favor Packs which come in 10-piece bags of petite marshmallows.  Each flavor on their website offers this option, in fact, when I checked the favor pack is the only current option for marshmallows. Note: 240Sweet is no longer in business so the links have been removed from this article. We were sent two 4-piece bags in Chocolate Decadence and Chocolate Chip flavors that we tested as a ready to eat treat and in a very basic hot cocoa drink.

The first thing to note about the 240Sweet marshmallows is that they are made with these basic ingredients "glucose, beet sugar, (animal based) gelatin, natural flavorings, water, powdered beet sugar, cornstarch and salt" so if you have an allergy to any of these things, you are now aware.  Then each flavor has it's own ingredients as well such as dark chocolate chips and cocoa in the case of our two flavors.  Finally please note that each of these petite puffs are not the same as the mini marshmallows you might find in stores. Each of these is more than 1X1X1 inch in dimensions so actually a very good size compared to their previous huge puffs that I always cut up to use or eat.  Note: the website lists to different dimensions but I measured the petite puffs for this article.  With this basic information in mind, let's look at both varieties.

Chocolate Chip Marshmallow have Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips in them.  These have a sugary scent with dark chocolate.  They are very soft and sticky.  Very easy to bite into, strong vanilla flavor with intense burst of dark chocolate and sweetness.  The lasting flavor is the semi-sweet chocolate.  Everyone liked them on their own.  In the cocoa it turned more sticky, really adhering to my teeth, and the mini chips were less sweet. An excellent gourmet marshmallow that pleases on every sensory level.

Chocolate Decadence Marshmallow is made with Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder and semi-sweet chocolate chips, so twice the cacao content of the previous variety.  The dark cocoa scent is very strong from these and they are firmer and not sticky compared to the Chocolate Chip Marshmallows were looked at above.  This makes perfect season given that cocoa should create drier products. These have less mini chips but are really very dark in flavor.  It requires more chewing than the previous marshmallows but isn't sticky.  While we liked these it wasn't as good as the other because there is less texture and contrast in flavor.  These also didn't soak up the hot cocoa as well as the previous.

We'd give the Chocolate Chip Marshmallows Sacramental status but not the Chocolate Decadence Marshmallow in this case.  In terms of Halloween these would be great in kids' mugs at a party.  In terms of handing these out, if you do what my grandmother did and buy special treats for special trick o'treaters then these work as well since they come in sealed plastic bags.  I'd maybe add an orange or black ribbon to the normal purple one to make them more festive. 240Sweet makes gourmet marshmallows by hand and offers a wide variety of flavors with seasonal variety year round, it can take time to make their orders so if you are interested go check them out today.  Currently their website says you can get free shipping so if you'd like to check these out, and we think you need to check out the Chocolate Chip Marshmallows at least, now is good time to do it.