Pillsbury Sweet Moments

One of the nice things about the winding down of summer is that people begin giving me chocolate again, not so afraid of the destroying/melting powers of the sun. To usher in the fall this year, I received a couple of bags of Pillsbury Sweet Moments. Pillsbury is launching two new flavors of these, Caramel Cheesecake and Raspberry Cheesecake. I received the former, but got a coupon in place of the latter for availability reason. The store I went to only had the Cocoa Fudge Escape flavor (the fourth flavor in the series is Cocoa Caramel Obsession), so it is that flavor that I will look at along with the Caramel Cheesecake.

The tag-line on both bags states, “take a bite, close your eyes–this moment is yours.” The description lines are in the same frilly, indulgence terms. Cocoa Fudge Escape, for instance, is described like this: “layers of moist fudgy brownie and rich decadent fudge; all enveloped in a shell of cocoa-kissed perfection.” That should give you a good idea of the type of product here.

These are bite-sized brownies with a layer of chocolate to coat them; the caramel and light brown stripes meant to add visual appeal really don’t do much after the dozen brownies are bashed against each other in the bag, but I’d say the attempt still counts for something. What also sets the Sweet Moments apart from other brownie bites is that they’re refrigerated “to accentuate each decadent layer and to magnify each distinct texture for the ultimate indulgent bite.” That description may be a bit too decadent itself, but it does get to the point. Being cold, these brownies are able to stay moist, hinting at more richness and begging you perhaps to contemplate them just a little longer than regular brownie bites (which I do find to be too often dry). The chocolate layer, also, has the benefit of adding another texture when it is cold; otherwise, it’s less noticeable, and adds hardly anything at all.

As far as the flavors go, well, there isn’t too much variety, anyway. When I cut the brownies in half, the layers showed themselves off not so well as on the packaging. In tasting, I nearly always forgot about the caramel layer that separates the cheesecake and brownie halves of the Caramel Cheesecake. I’m sure this one tastes different from the Raspberry version, but the caramel doesn’t speak out very much on its own. Even though I really don’t like cheesecake, I do find the cheesecake brownies more interesting than the plain Cocoa Fudge ones. There, all you have are two layers of brownie that are said to be split by fudge. The cheesecake element I find to add more diversity and singularity–most people will probably find that it adds to the idea of indulgence.

“Indulgence” is the word I can’t argue with here. The Sweet Moments aren’t pretty enough or fine enough to serve to company. But when it’s just for the household, they’re more ready and available than a brownie mix. I would categorize them in the same spot as boxes of Entenmann’s donuts. I do, though, have one last problem: the top of the bag opens by tearing, after which there is no seal to close the bag up again. I point this out because this is the sort of product you can have in your refrigerator while you slowly take out one or two brownies at a time–shouldn’t the rest be able to stay safe and fresh in the meantime? Oh, well, I guess I never did notice a difference because of this. The indulgence is too simple to be bothered by such.

You might also like...