A sweet study...

When we were kids, there were Ding Dongs and Wagon Wheels, and later on... Viva Puffs. Nowadays, Ding Dongs are known as King Dongs or King Dons, but I will refer to them as Ding Dongs. There are also Chocolate Swiss Rolls and Jos Louis. What do these treats all have in common? Stuff inside a chocolate coating. Wagon Wheels and Viva Puffs  contain a marshmallow filling with a cookie-ish base, and both now come with extra flavour added in the form of raspberry or strawberry jelly inside as well. Of these two, Viva Puffs are the clear winner. The chocolate tastes like chocolate and the  marshmallow is marshmallow-y. More flavour, more texture. You bite into it and get a sensation, other than the plain, flat Wagon Wheels, which, by the way, are now considerably smaller than way back when.

Ding Dongs, Swiss Rolls and Jos Louis are all chocolate cake with a cream-ish filling and chocolate coating. I did a taste test of these last week, but hadn't quite figured out what I wanted to say. Of these, Jos Louis are at the top, Ding Dongs a distant second and Swiss Rolls at the bottom. The Swiss Rolls come in a small package of two, easy to eat, but rather lacking in taste for some reason. The cake was an almost pale brown colour, the cream filling too sweet, almost like what I recall inside a Twinkie, but this might be because there is a higher ratio of filling to cake. The Ding Dong was a little better in the taste department... and being about the shape and size of a hockey puck, you get more in a bite... size and flavour. The cake part was more chocolatey looking and tasting, as was the coating. The cream filling seemed a nicer texture than the Swiss Rolls for some reason. Basically, just more to sink your teeth into. As for the Jos Louis... I have written about them before... The cake is more like a red velvet chocolate cake... the texture is almost fluffy, and the cream filling actually doesn't taste as sweet as the others, but probably because it is offset by the chocolatey goodness of the cake part. Even the chocolate coating seems a higher quality. The interesting thing is that these three treats are all made by the same company. (Correction: As I was agoogling, I found out that Ding Dongs are a Hostess product, the same company that makes Twinkies.)

So the winners are Viva Puffs and Jos Louis. Of the two... it is hard to say, as they are for all intents and purposes, both very good, but for completely different reasons. If you close your eyes and go with the texture of that first bite, Viva Puffs are it...  For flavour and overall satisfaction I would have to go with the Jos Louis.  However, I may have to conduct further tests.

Oh... and not included in this particular outing, there is also a super sweet treat called a Passion Flakie... Not chocolate, but if in need of a sugar rush? I haven't had one in ages. Oh... and I just remembered Sno Balls too...

Argh... not really a good time of day to have written this...