Given the deliciousness of the mixed berry variety, I was more or less expecting this to knock my socks off..and was then rather immediately reminded why we don’t go into any review harboring any expectations whatsoever.
The basics of Sun Best’s apple/cinnamon version are the same as the mixed berry: baked crispy pastries with swirls of icing across the top, and the titular filling in the middle. I thought I pretty much knew the flavor going in…and was immediately surprised upon my first bite, because these aren’t anything at all like I was expecting. The first clue: pay close attention to the image on the front packaging.
More specifically, what kind of apple is it? I have to confess that I didn’t give that so much as a second glance, and honestly would have just cast that information aside even if I had. But it does give an extra clue as to how this is going to taste, that completely eluded me. The answer? It’s a Granny smith, and it’s appropriate because these things are sour.
| They do look like the name brand pastry crisp. |
I mean, not just “slightly” sour, but these almost reach candy levels of tart. The first bite or so, the sourness takes a little bit to get going; by the third or fourth bite, it stands front and center. The cinnamon does do its job by offering a counterbalancing sweetness – like the old good cop, bad cop routine, only in pastry crisp form – but it can only do so much, and ends up being overwhelmed.
This is that rare Dollar Tree food product that isn’t off-putting because of textural issues, or an overtly poor taste: it’s just not my cup of tea. If your tastes skewer more toward the tart side than the sweet – as my wife’s does – you should enjoy these a lot more than I did.
Overall: 5/10. Now here we have a Dollar Tree food product that’s disappointing…but not for the usual reasons. The crisp itself is soft, and there’s a generous amount of adequately-textured filling. It’s just that I expected a more typical apple cinnamon pairing, and totally missed the “granny smith” pictured on the packaging. Well let me say, that isn’t just there for show: the filling is very tart, with a sourness that the cinnamon sugar can only partially compensate for. This one just comes down to personal preference, and it just wasn’t my cup of tea. (For a counter-opinion: my wife, whose tastes slide more toward the “sour” side, really enjoyed them.)
