SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 9/6/2016

Here are some interesting new and limited edition products found on store shelves by us and your fellow readers. If you’ve tried any of the products, share your thoughts about them in the comments.

Hershey's Spooky Kisses

Hershey’s Spooky Kisses

Snack Size Kit Kat Darkness

Snack Size Kit Kat Darkness

Hershey's Caramel Filled Milk Chocolates in Fun Pumpkin Shapes

Hershey’s Caramel Filled Milk Chocolates in Fun Pumpkin Shapes

Dove Milk Chocolate Ghosts

Dove Milk Chocolate Ghosts

Dove Milk Chocolate Harvest Leaves

Dove Milk Chocolate Harvest Leaves

Nestle Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cups Skulls

Nestle Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cups Skulls

Trick or Treat. Smell my feet. Give me foil-wrapped chocolates to eat. (Spotted by Amanda Y at Target and Rachel C at Walmart and Walgreens.)

Limited Edition Junior Mints with Black and Orange Centers

Limited Edition Junior Mints with Black and Orange Centers

Mmmm. Black and orange food coloring. (Spotted by Amanda Y at Target.)

Charm City Cakes Duff Goldman Wicked Good Premium Cupcake Mix

Charm City Cakes Duff Goldman Wicked Good Premium Cupcake Mix

It’s time to try. Defying gravity. I think I’ll try. Defying gravity. And you can’t pull me down! Sorry. I blame the name and color of these cupcakes. (Spotted by Amanda Y at Target.)

Limited Edition Dannon Spooky Danimals Smoothie

Limited Edition Dannon Spooky Danimals Smoothie

That vampire monkey is going to give me nightmares. (Spotted by Robbie at Walmart.)

Limited Edition Nestle Coffee-mate Marshmallow Hot Cocoa Creamer

Limited Edition Nestle Coffee-mate Marshmallow Hot Cocoa Creamer

Make your coffee taste like hot cocoa! (Spotted by Chris B at Giant.)

Campfire Maple Roasters

Campfire Maple Roasters

It’s odd to see a marshmallow roasting a marshmallow. (Spotted by Robbie at Big Lots.)

Thank you to all the photo contributors! If you’re out shopping and see an interesting new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, and send us an email ([email protected]) with where you found it and “Spotted” in the subject line. Or reply to us (@theimpulsivebuy) on Twitter with the photo, where you spotted it, and the hashtag #spotted. If you do so, you might see your picture in our next Spotted on Shelves post.

SPOTTED ON SHELVES: Limited Edition Kraft Jet-Puffed Jumbo Caramel Apple Marshmallows

Limited Edition Kraft Jet-Puffed Jumbo Caramel Apple Marshmallows

At a quick glance, those marshmallows on the packaging look like a green bikini top with a super tanned torso. (Spotted by Amanda Y at Target.)

If you’re out shopping and see an interesting new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, and send us an email ([email protected]) with where you found it and “Spotted” in the subject line. Or reply to us (@theimpulsivebuy) on Twitter with the photo, where you spotted it, and the hashtag #spotted. If you’ve tried the product, share your thoughts about it in the comments.

SPOTTED ON SHELVES: Blue Bell Camo ‘n Cream Ice Cream

Blue Bell Camo 'n Cream Ice Cream

Can I smear this over my face to camouflage it? (Spotted by Robbie at Walmart.)

If you’re out shopping and see an interesting new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, and send us an email ([email protected]) with where you found it and “Spotted” in the subject line. Or reply to us (@theimpulsivebuy) on Twitter with the photo, where you spotted it, and the hashtag #spotted. If you’ve tried the product, share your thoughts about it in the comments.

REVIEW: Hostess Limited Edition Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Hostess Limited Edition Caramel Apple Cupcakes

I love festivals.

I can’t help it.

I haven’t encountered a pig race, funhouse, or merry-go-round I don’t enjoy. Bring on your strong man contests, your ring tosses, your wooden roller coasters of questionable integrity. Why, between the bells, balloon animals, and clinkity clank music, there’s enough joy here to make a circus look like a film noir.

So it should come of no surprise that I was drawn to these Hostess Caramel Apple Cupcakes. I always, always, always make a moment of having caramel apples at Fall Festivals. I once consumed five of them before going into the corn maze, where I proceeded to get lost for three hours…BUT I survived! All credit goes to caramel apples.

Hostess Limited Edition Caramel Apple Cupcakes 2

Out of the gate, these cupcakes are lookin’ fine. There are smells of cider, crackles of caramel frosting, and red squiggles, all squished in an authentic “I got shipped in a truck and thrown on a shelf” way. Everything is perfect. Resistance is futile.

And, ladies and gentlemen, this is one peculiar cupcake. It’s admirably different, in its own pudgy, small, charming way. There’s the spongy, floury cake, which has bits of woodsy, warm cinnamon and some sort of tanginess that feels like a moderate hint-and-nudge toward the apple, although it speaks more toward a blend of the formerly mentioned cider and melted Jolly Ranchers.

Next up to bat is the crackly top glaze, which tastes of honey and caramel and molasses and vanilla and the burnt top of crème brulée all smooshed together. It’s like an unpaid syrup-harvesting intern got lost in the woods and decided to mix all the sugars. It’s confusing and brilliant, much like interns themselves.

And then there’s the caramel filling. In a color that’s not nearly as terrifyingly brown as the cover portrays, it seems Hostess has repurposed the light, extremely sugary caramel fluff from the Sea Salt Caramel Cupcakes and smashed it in here. Fluffy and sugar-forward, this stuff is less discreet than a mammoth in the knitting aisle. Its strong blast of Cool-Whip-like sugariness levels out the cinnamon of the cake quite nicely. Between these fluffy insides and the caramel-frosted top, caramel becomes the star of the show.

Just one thing: what happened to the apple?? Sure, there was that Jolly Rancher cider thing, but it came without chunks. It came without dices. It came without nibbles, pieces, or slices. What a tragedy. The cake could’ve benefited from a Hulk smash of tart apples. Even real applesauce or apple juice would do. This hint of flavoring? Would make an apple-loving Hulk cry. Don’t make Hulk cry!

Hostess Limited Edition Caramel Apple Cupcakes 3

But let us not dwell on the tears of giants. As it seems to go, the simplest pattern for my enjoying something usually goes 2 moments of curiosity + 1 dose lack of self-control x 8 tons of the positive or negative feedback on tastiness, and these? Are good. The cake is soft and cinnamony, the crackly frosted top stays true to its caramel name, and the inner frosting is a delicious, crazy sweet fluff, and, if you close your eyes and make a wish, it all has a slight echo of something apple-y (although you have to wish really, really hard). Can these be a little too sweet sometimes? Are they a little unbalanced? Would I like to see more apples? Sure, but, on the whole, these cupcakes are peculiar and delightful.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to eat five of them and go find a corn maze I can get lost in.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 Cupcake – 160 calories, 50 calories from fat, 6 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 210 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 18 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.)

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: 1 box/8 cakes
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Soft, cinnamony cake. Crackly caramel frosting top. Fluffy, sweet insides. Syrup-harvesting interns gone amok. Corn mazes. Roller coasters of questionable integrity.
Cons: Where be the apples, yo? Questionable presence of “Hydrogenated beef tallow.” May make Hulk cry. Getting lost in a corn maze for three hours.