Product Review: Strawberry Creme Filled Twinkies

Recently my boyfriend came home proudly clutching a package he declared was a "special treat". When he does that, I tend to get nervous given that past presents included everything from batteries for the remote to a hat he just knew I'd love. This time the treat fell in the middle. The treat he had clutched behind his back was a package of brand new Twinkies filled with strawberry crème.

The strawberry crème Twinkies are a new addition to the Hostess lineup and since he knew I liked fresh strawberries and strawberry flavored candy, he assumed that I'd like these too. I can't fault him since I'd been talking about them for a few weeks, every since they hit the stores in California where a friend lives. Here in Ohio we were a little behind and just got them recently. When he brought the package home, I had yet to even see them in the stores.

Going by the package, these look highly similar to regular Twinkies. The front of the package though has a label that declares these are a limited edition Twinkie, similar to the banana flavored ones Hostess released a few years ago. While the strawberry crème Twinkies might look like the regular flavor, one whiff reveals a different story.

As soon as I opened the package, I was hit by a strong fake strawberry scent. It wasn't quite like strawberry candy, but something a little more fake and artificial if that's even possible. The worst part was that the scent seemed to hang in the air, even after we finished off the Twinkies.

The outside of the strawberry crème Twinkies looked like the traditional flavor as well. Each cake inside the package was a golden brown color, soft and light to the touch. You can tell these are a little different though because the bottom of the cakes have a darker color.

Inside each Twinkie cake is a bright pink colored crème, much brighter than I was anticipating. The crème had a fairly obvious fake strawberry taste, but the odd thing was that the scent was stronger than the flavor. I tasted a small amount of the crème before I tried the Twinkie and crème together.

The strawberry crème filled Twinkies aren't necessarily bad, but they aren't that great either. The Twinkie felt a little denser than the regular version and the crème almost overwhelmed the taste of the cake. We split the package in half and both were glad we didn't have to eat the whole thing. These are a cute novelty, but not worth sticking around.