A while back I got a package of all three varieties of Dark Chocolate Dipped Altoids in the mail. In all of the mess of the past couple of months (work, rabbit, family, working on getting the new digs and all that goes along with that) I sort of neglected them. See, I’m not exactly a big Altoids fan. There is something to the texture that I just don’t much care for so I tend to stick to Ice Breakers for my mint fix and Caribou Coffee Hoof Mints for my cinnamon fix. Eventually I took them to work with me to share them around and see how they are. I ended up pretty surprised by them.

The three varieties are Peppermint, Cinnamon, and Ginger – three flavors that all pair well with chocolate. The packaging is a nice variant on the standard Altoids tin and is pretty well filled with mints. They all have a nice coating of chocolate on them that make them look a bit like Junior Mints, only smaller. And under the chocolate is your standard Altoid so you get a nice little hit of chocolate and a crunchy, curiously strong mint. The breakdown is as follows:

Peppermint: I’m not a big fan of Altoids by themselves. I crunch mints and the texture doesn’t do it for me. The taste I like fine. They aren’t all I’d like them to be but they’re pretty good. Until you dip them in chocolate. Then they become some sort of chocolate and mint equivalent of crack cocaine. These things are addictive. I’ve gone through two and a half tins of the Peppermint in the past two weeks and I’m probably buying another tomorrow. It has a good strong hit of mint and the entire thing balances out almost like a crunchy York Peppermint Pattie. I absolutely love them so I’m giving them an 8.5 out of 10.

Cinnamon: I love crazy hot cinnamon mints and these, while strong, aren’t the crazy strong cinnamon I usually go for. And in this case it’s probably a good thing. If it was a hotter cinnamon it might not go with the chocolate so well. And it does go with the chocolate very well. I don’t like it quite so much as the Peppermint, but I’m a true peppermint addict so you can read into that what you will. I’ll call these a nice 8 out of 10.

Ginger: I’m not going to finish the tin. I just ate my second to make sure that memory of the first I ate was accurate (sadly it was). The taste seems like there is something more to it than Ginger. There is Ginger there but there is also something else like orange peel and it was something I really didn’t expect or care for. There is still a good bit of Ginger to it and some heat at the end, but I just didn’t enjoy it. Just not digging it. Maybe it’s just me, but yuck. I can only offer this a 4 out of 10. Just…. yuck.

Dark Chocolate Dipped Altoids scores two really good hits and one really painful miss. The Peppermint and Cinnamon varieties are both worth seeking out if you like this sort of thing. However, I can’t recommend the Ginger unless you already like Ginger Altoids.

Alternate Takes:
Candy Addict
Candy Blog