Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2013/08/03/review-ovation-pumpkin-spice.html
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I think this is one of those “self-evident truths” people are always going on about.
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these being Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, and that generic pumpkin spice-flavored chocolate will taste unsettlingly like inexpensive scented candles.
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My Brit girlfriend says that, in her mind, pumpkin spice, and cinammon specifically, is much less popular in Britain than here in the states. Was wondering if that was her generalization or if there was a basis for that. Maybe they don’t try as hard on things that only colonials will eat?
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Sometimes it is instructive to look at the ingredients, and the fine print.
There’s an outfit in the US called Palmer that makes candy; most of their offerings are holiday themed. Valentines, Easter, Halloween, Christmas. In addition to passable jelly beans and gum drops and the like, they make “chocolatey” candy. “Chocolate flavored” crisps, “chocolate flavored” Easter bunnies, and so on. It isn’t legally chocolate because they replace the cocoa butter with cheap vegetable oils.
It is pretty mediocre stuff. Waxy, overly sweet.
I’d love to see the ingredients of that faux orange.
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Yup, that’s it.
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Chocolate goes well with a long list of things. That list does not include pumpkins.
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In my experience, anything labelled “Pumpkin Spice” is to be avoided.
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I’d say she’s right; cinnamon and clove is really only a winter thing here, and think pumpkins are made to make lanterns, not to actually eat (I kinda dread Thanksgiving when my American partner always tries to feed me pumpkin pie - yeuch).
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On my part anyway, I initially did it out of love. Now I know better and avoid making it for her.
In my experience, pumpkin spiced things in America come with a lot of Americana attached. I guess Brits just don’t have as much cultural meaning associated with it, although pumpkin and cinnamon are popular enough. I personally love savoury pumpkin foods like curried soup or oatmeal baked in a pumpkin (http://boingboing.net/2010/10/08/howto-bake-porridge.html). Not so much when the pumpkin is mixed 1:1 with condensed milk in a pie. Pictures of pumpkins or pumpkin scented candles also seem a bit Thomas Kinkade-y to me.
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I know some great chocolate and pumpkin combinations but this was not one of them.
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I enjoy pumpkin products, from pumpkin malt balls, pie, bread, lattes, you name it. This I did not like. I couldn’t even stomach one slice of it before I spat it out.
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I don’t mind pumpkin spice in the right context. It goes well with certain foods - but that is a small list, it certainly doesn’t go with everything as they apparently want you to believe.
I am not a big fan of pumpkin in general, including pumpkin pie which I’ll eat but am usually not pleased with (I still eat it when served it because once in a rare while you get surprised by a pumpkin pie that actually tastes amazing… not sure what they do differently to achieve that though).
ANYWAY - I have always been confounded by the popularity of chocolate oranges and similar things because every time I’ve tried one it was awful (and AFAIK I’ve had decent ones, not obviously shitty ones that have been sitting around since last fall in a craft store). It may just be my peculiar tastebuds but chocolate and fruit rarely go well together for me, and “orange oil” in particular just doesn’t work for me. Adding pumpkin spice on top is an obvious disaster. Kudos for taking the fall and trying it, though.
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I’ll stick to chocolate flavored chocolate
The secret to making pumpkin pie is to not actually use pumpkin. Use acorn squash.
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I think @jsroberts is right - Starbucks in the US sells that pumpkin spice coffee, but I don’t remember seeing it in the UK (and we looked).
I am not generally a fan of pumpkins. However, this stuff is lovely.
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I once had a dark chocolate orange with bits of candied orange peel. It was wonderful. So all you have to do is replace pumpkin with orange, and milk chocolate with dark, and voila!
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eel pie nuff said.
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In case anyone else British was wondering, “pumpkin spice” appears to be a mix of cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg.
I’ve occasionally seen that pre-mixed and sold here in the UK as “Christmas spice”, but I don’t think either is a commonly understood term.
The spices, individually and mixed, are used in British cooking. The most recipes that first come to mind for each are cinnamon buns, ginger cake, eggnog, apple strudel. Mulled wine is a good example of using them all together.
Pumpkin is pretty unusual. It’s sold for playing with in October, but only the largest supermarkets stock ones you’d want to eat. Squash is available – I doubt my dad ever ate one, although it’s popular with vegetarians/vegans.
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