Call me craisi

If the leading brand of dried cranberries calls them Craisins, shouldn't the leading brand of the chocolate covered variety call them Craisinets? It only makes sense.

Nestle Cranberry Raisinets

Price: $2.69 (5.5 oz bag)
Where purchased: Target (thank you, Jackie!)
Rating: 3/5

I love raisinets. I find them to be a great snacking candy. It's really no wonder they have been a movie-goers staple for so many years. And really, as far as candy goes, nutritionally you can't do much better. I mean, you are actually getting some nutrition underneath the sugar and fat of the delicious milk chocolate.

So, one could only expect Nestle would do an excellent job covering cranberries with chocolate as well, right? Right. They did. They did an excellent job of making their chocolate covered cranberries exactly like raisinets. Like... exactly. I really can't tell the difference. I was hoping the dried cranberry would add a little different tang and taste than the raisin, but the flavor is pretty much indistinguishable beneath the milk chocolate coating. This is the same way I think of fried appetizers at restaurants. Fry a mushroom, broccoli, onion... it really doesn't matter. It all tastes like deep fried breading.

So, I rated this product a 3.5 out of 5 not because I was at all displeased with the taste or value, but because Nestle did a poor job making a new product. If a company is going to bother making a different version of a classic, actually do something different. Maybe they should have covered it with white chocolate instead. Or put a little less chocolate to bring out the cranberry - something besides bragging about the antioxidents of the cranberries. Come on, it's been done.

That said, Nestle also has a new cherry raisinet covered in a dark chocolate coating that I will probably have to try. While I do know they make dark chocolate raisinets, I actually haven't tried them yet. In fact, by the time all is said and done I'll probably end up purchasing 4 different packages of raisinets and Nestle will have accomplished exactly what they set out to do. But what can I say - I am only a consumer.