Friday, August 5, 2016

Enjoyable, Not Exceptional, Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop-Tarts!


The Good: Good flavor, Wonderful aroma, Not the worst nutritional value
The Bad: Price/environmental impact, Not terribly nutritious, When toasted, the breadiness overwhelms the sweetness and peanut butter flavor
The Basics: Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts are good, but not truly great - certainly worth trying once!


A few years back, I tried Kellogg's Limited Edition Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts (reviewed here!) and that might have, honestly, been the last time I had Pop-Tarts until today. Today, I'm trying the Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts that my wife picked up for me. And they're good and they are fun, but they are hard to enthusiastically recommend, especially to anyone who is even remotely health-conscious.

Basics

Kellogg’s Pop Tarts are toaster pastries, which are basically semi-hard flat bread pouches filled with a flavored filling. The filling has the consistency of peanut butter and some, like the Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor, come with frosting on them. The frosting is hard and when the Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter flavored Pop Tarts are heated, the frosting has a tendency to crack and flake off; it never becomes supple.

Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts come in a box of six or twelve with the Pop Tarts paired up in thin foil pouches. The foil pouch helps to protect the Pop Tart and keep it fresh.

Ease Of Preparation

Pop Tarts are one of the easiest foods in the world to prepare. Simply tear open the foil pouch and pull a Pop Tart out to eat it. It is truly that simple. Of course, you should dispose of the foil wrapper in an environmentally appropriate manner. Outside that, preparation is unnecessary as Pop Tarts taste great at room temperature.

But, for those who like them hot – which makes the filling more like a warm pie – Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts may be heated in a toaster , toaster oven or microwave. I actually like heating the Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts in the microwave for thirty seconds because it makes the corners softer and makes the pastry a little less dry.

Taste

Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts have a very strong cocoa scent to them. In fact, fresh out of the package or warmed, the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts smell like hot chocolate, which is delightful and inviting.

At room temperature, the Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts are dominated by a very bready taste at the corners only. Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts taste chocolatey and soft and the moment the brownie-like crust is punctured, the peanut butter filling explodes with flavor. The center of these Pop Tarts is sweet and creamy, with a very mild nutty flavor. The dry, sweet chocolate frosting on the top overwhelms the peanut butter flavor inside.

Served warm, the Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts are all right, but when the crust firms up, these lose some of their chocolate flavor. The dryness of the crust when toasted influences the overall flavor by either overwhelming or accenting the peanut butter filling. The drier the Pop Tart is cooked to, the more the crust takes away from the peanut butter filling.

These Pop Tarts leave a sweet aftertaste in the mouth that lasts for a few minutes after the last of the pastry is consumed.

Nutrition

Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts might be considered “part” of a balanced breakfast, but they are putting a lot of faith on you eating other things to actually have even a remotely healthy breakfast. A single pastry is considered a serving and one Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tart has 200 calories, 45 of which are from fat! With 5 grams fat, one Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tart gives you 8% of your RDA of fat and 10% of your RDA of sodium. The 36 grams of carbohydrates provide 12% of your daily recommended intake! On the plus side, this flavor Pop Tart does have 10% of your RDA of Vitamin A, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin and Vitamin B6, which makes it more nutritious than some juices!

Still, there is not a lot to laud in the nutrition department. Right after Enriched Flour in the ingredients comes corn syrup, sugar and high fructose corn syrup, so it is unsurprising these are not terribly nutritious. The ingredient list quickly becomes a chemistry equation.

There are notations that the Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts contain wheat, peanuts, milk, almond and soy ingredients. They are not marked Kosher.

Storage/Clean-Up

Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts are very easy to clean up. Simply throw away the foil wrapper in an appropriate place, brush up the crumbs and you are done! Kept in their foil wrappers, Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts will remain fresh for a while.

Overall

Frosted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pop Tarts taste like exactly what they are supposed to and they are a fun breakfast option, but not an indispensable one.

For other breakfast foods, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Solid Gold Bars Ginger Cacao! Bars
Thomas' Limited Edition Cinnamon Vanilla English Muffins
Nature's Path Organic Pumpkin Flax Granola cereal

5/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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