Chocolate Covered Cherries

Valentines Day is right around the corner, so the candy is everywhere. During our weekly shopping trip, a package of chocolate covered cherries caught my eye. It's been years since I last had one and for whatever reason, it sounded tasty. As I grabbed a box, I found to my delight that they actually carried four brands. A taste test to break the monotony!

We had Cella's - part of the Tootsie Roll empire and billed as 'The World's premiere chocolate covered cherry brand,' and Queen Anne, the #1 brand of chocolate cherry cordials in the US representing the mass-produced, widely available options.

In the more 'hand produced' category, we found Gertrude Hawk out of PA and home town favorite, Esther Price. Gertrude Hawk seems to have distribution on the east coast, but I'm a bit surprised we found them at Jungle. And I doubt anyone outside of the tri-state could get Esther Price with out shipping.

We purchased the milk chocolate varieties of each brand if there was an option.

First impressions

 

The Cella's candies were all identical, with a glossy, hard shell. The dark chocolate color made me think that this might be a more bittersweet or dark chocolate flavored candy. The package indicated that this was milk chocolate though. Proof is in the tasting! These candies had a heavily artificial chocolate smell. Sort of like the scented erasers or dolls you may have encountered as a child. 

The Queen Anne's had a slightly more varied appearance, although I suspect these are entirely machine made as well. These had a semi-matte appearance and several of the candies had air bubbles breaking through the surface. The Queen Anne's also smelled like artificial chocolate scent, but underlaid with cherry cough syrup and, inexplicably, root beer.

The Gertrude Hawk candies were the only ones I would have identified as milk chocolate from the shell alone.  These varied widely in shape and size but all looked delicious. These had the best chocolate smell. Creamy and rich with a hint of cocoa powder.

The Esther price candies also showed a lot of variation. The shells looked well tempered and inviting. The box smelled very much like an Easter basket, sweet and sugary with a hint of chocolate. 

The fillings

Cella's filling was a delicate shade of pink and completely transparent. This is what I picture when I think of a chocolate covered cherry. The cherry was surprisingly tiny! It didn't look like there was enough gel and cherry to fill the cavity in this chocolate. The machine made nature of these confections was apparent by the uniform thickness of the candy shell.

I was surprised by the creamy, slightly grainy filling of the Queen Anne having always pictured more of a gel-like filling. The cherry was nearly identical to the Cella's (Both companies are based out of Chicago. Perhaps they share a supply stream?) Once again, the uniformity of the shell thickness points to a machine made product.

The Queen Anne's did not prepare me for the psychedelic surprise buried within the Gertrude Hawk shell. The filling was alarmingly red. Like 'what will this do to me' red. On the plus side, hidden in the murder scene was the fact that the filling was almost all cherry. This thing took up the entire cavity of the candy, which just a small bit of cordial/liquid around it. But still...that's awfully red isn't it?

The Esther Price filling was very similar to the Queen Anne, but perhaps a bit stiffer and more vanilla scented. It also seemed creamier, with less visible raw sugar texture.

The Eating!

Enough preamble! You don't buy chocolates to peruse (I'm assuming;) you buy them to eat!

The Cella's had a good snap to the shell. Combined with the glossy appearance, I'll chalk this up to a perfect temper of the chocolate (or maybe chemicals.) With all of the artificial chocolate scent to these, I expected a wallop of chocolate flavor, but instead I got - well, not a lot. Not overly sweet, which I liked, but also not over chocolate or cherry, which sort of seems to miss the point. The texture of the cherry was good though.

Queen Anne's was up next. The chocolate shell sort of smooshed out from around the filling. The center was mostly root beer and vanilla flavors. Almost not cherry flavor at all. While the cherry looked the same as the Cella's, the texture was awful. Sort of...bleh. The cordial was very grainy and generally unpleasant.     

The Gertrude Hawk chocolate had a pleasantly smooth and creamy texture that was more melty than snappy. The cherry was best described as juicy, which was a nice surprise. Great cherry flavor, although this was a little sweeter than I might have liked. I was also surprised at the grainy texture of the filling that surrounded this enormous cherry.

Last up was the Esther Price. These candies also had a smooth and creamy shell. The filling was slightly sugary and almost custard like in both flavor and texture. The cherry wasn't as pronounced as I had hoped, but everything melded beautifully.

The aftermath

(note the missing cherries...Sacrificed to science!)

The Results

After much poking, prodding, and tasting, the Esther Price candies came out on top. While they didn't back the cherry punch of  Gertrude Hawk's, the entire experience was lovely. The flavors melded together beautifully, and the textures were delightful! 

The Gertrude Hawks were a close second though. So if you can find them but not Esther Price, you won't be disappointed.

I suspect that getting either the Esther Price or Gertrude Hawk outside of Ohio is unlikely. Of the two widely available options, I'd reluctantly suggest the Cella's, but only if you simply HAVE to have chocolate covered cherries. Frankly, I'd prefer a heart shaped Reese's cup to either of these brands. 

And the Queen Anne's? The less said, the better. Just...No.

I will say that the Esther Price is pretty spendy though at more than 12$ for the box. The Cella's were less than 5 for a similar volume of candy. I can't deny that you get what you pay for in this case.

The Numbers

Below you'll find my scores for the 5 facets of chocolate covered cherry experience. For Sweetness I gave higher scores to candies that were less 'set your teeth on edge' sweet. The 'Overall' category was a measure of the combined experience, in case the sum was greater than it's parts.

Lastly, Kris also tasted and while our individual scoring was different, he agreed on the ultimate order of preference. 

Brand	Chocolate	Cherry	Filling	Sweetness	Overall
Cella's	2	2	2	4	2
Queen Anne	2	1	1	2	1
Gertrude Hawk	3	3	2	3	3
Esther Price	5	2	4	4	4