Summer is coming and that means summer nights spent roasting marshmallows for s’mores while you gaze at the stars. Or, if you’re here in Southern California like us, the building lights amidst the air pollution. Unfortunately it’s not always convenient to find or build a bonfire. So, what do you do when that hankering for s’mores hits and there isn’t a flame around? Luckily, according to @candyhunting on Instagram, Target has released a mass amount of s’mores products under their Favorite Day brand. Naturally, we here at Sporked needed some more on these s’mores. We collected every Favorite Day seasonal s’mores product we could get our hands on. Then, we tasted and ranked the six s’mores products we scored, taking into account how s’mores-like the product was, as well as how good they are as products themselves. Here’s what we found!
- Favorite Day Mini S’mores Kit
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S’more but mini? Adorable. When I first saw this cylinder of s’more, I imagined stuffing this into my purse and embarking on an impromptu picnic with friends. But after trying it I might just opt for getting the ingredients for s’mores and having a more planned outing.
Pros: Unlike many of these products, this is fully a s’mores snack. Which makes sense because it is quite literally a s’more, just tiny. The tininess is a pro, it makes it easy to transport, less messy, and honestly just really cute! I also appreciated the inclusion of a tealight so you get the experience of roasting s’mores without needing to build a bonfire. Is this the most practical snack? Maybe not. But is it a fun activity to do with friends? I’d say yes!
Cons: Yes, the teeny weeny s’mores are cute, but who wants to keep roasting little marshmallows over and over again until they feel like they’ve eaten a single full-sized s’more? I think if there was something else going on with this kit, some new flavor or spin on a s’more, I could understand it, but unfortunately this is just a regular shmegular s’more that is now a little more difficult to eat. Bring on the Jet-Puffed and Honey Maid instead.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Favorite Day Rainbow Twist S’more Kit
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I’ll just say it: I didn’t want to like this one. I can’t help but to be skeptical of something so glitzed and glammed up. I was worried that it would be a bunch of show for little reward. Now that I’ve tried this Target s’mores kit…I actually don’t know if I was right or wrong.
Pros: It’s an actual s’more; I have to give it that. Plus it’s very easy to prepare. All you need is a microwave and you have a s’more (though I think that can be said about even your traditional s’mores kit). I ended up liking the rainbow stranded marshmallow, not just because of the aesthetic, but I felt like the smaller fragments of marshmallow and larger amount of surface area gave the marshmallow more a chew and prevented it just from being a gooey mess. I also will admit I enjoyed the popping candy in the chocolate when I was able to find it.
Cons: Allow me to stress the “when I was able to find it” addendum from the pros. The lack of popping candy is a major con. On every bite one of three things will happen: 1. You don’t get any popping candy and are left feeling puzzled and betrayed, 2. You get melted popping candy that no longer pops and instead annoyingly sticks to your teeth and hardens, or 3. You get a popping candy experience in your mouth that you may honestly hate because it doesn’t really compliment chocolate. Besides this element of the treat, it’s honestly just a s’more. The graham cracker isn’t special, the chocolate itself is just okay, and the marshmallow, no matter how colorful, just tastes like a marshmallow.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Favorite Day Smores Cake Pop
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I had to put on my chef hat for this one and pull my favorite Great British Baking Show episodes for support. Okay, it wasn’t actually all that bad, because despite needing to make these cake pops, they are no-bake! All you need is a little cream cheese, butter, a fridge and a microwave, and you got yourself a dozen cake pops (and, yes, the box actually gave enough to make 12!).
Pros: These are really good! I will admit that when I was mixing the no-bake mix with my cream cheese and butter and it just looked like a bunch of cocoa powder rocks in a bowl, I started to lose hope on these cake pops. But with some effort and refrigeration time they came out with the perfect rich, dense, and creamy chocolatey flavor cake pops are known for. Besides the pop itself, my shining star is the graham cracker crumble. Because the cake pop is so rich and creamy, the graham cracker balances it well by adding a little salty bready flavor with a nice dry and crunchy texture.
Cons: I have to fault this snack for the preparation aspect. You need other ingredients, you have to really mix cake pop batter, and you have to leave it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before going into more work to decorate the pops. It’s not hard work, but it is work, unlike the majority of these s’mores treats that you can just open and eat. I also have a major qualm with the marshmallow frosting. It just tastes like white chocolate. White chocolate ≠ marshmallow, and no marshmallow = not a s’more. Also, when eating the cake pop you get those little crunchy granules of mix. I personally enjoyed that, but it may not be for everyone and does serve as a reminder that you are eating cake that was not baked.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Favorite Day S’mores Caramel Corn Popcorn
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All it takes is one piece of caramel corn and I am brought back to the county fair. Luckily this popcorn brought me back to fond memories of riding Disko over and over again, instead of unpleasant memories of sitting on a curb chugging a lemonade, and trying not to pass out from the heat.
Pros: Apologies to my dentist, but this s’mores caramel corn is worth getting kernels stuck in between my teeth. It kind of reminds me of Popcornopolis’ zebra popcorn. The chocolate perfectly complements the caramelized popcorn without becoming overwhelmingly sweet. And the marshmallows are these perfectly petite, crunchy, almost dehydrated sweet morsels that give me flashbacks to spoonfuls of Lucky Charms from childhood.
Cons: It breaks my heart to say this, but this caramel corn…. is not s’mores. No matter how heavily the popcorn pieces are showered in graham cracker crumbs, the flavor just does not come through. Even with tasty marshmallow pieces, they are just so scarce and so lost at the bottom of the bag that it feels like winning the lottery to get one with your popcorn. That leaves us with two flavors: caramel & chocolate. Delicious taste. Not a s’mores treat.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Favorite Day S’mores Mini Waffle Cones
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Some people are lucky to be alive at the same time as their favorite music artists, and, no offense Noah Kahan, I love your music dearly, but I am lucky to be alive at the same time that ice cream cone tips have become a snack trend.
Pros: I had lost my faith in Target’s take on marshmallow. until this snack. The S’mores Mini Waffle Cones understand that s’mores does not just mean marshmallow, it means fire-roasted, ooey-gooey marshmallow. There is real melty marshmallow in this snack. It’s creamy, it’s vanilla-y, and the consistency pairs perfectly with the hard chocolate, making this snack not only tasty, but also texturally interesting. The waffle cone has a nice, thin-yet-satisfying crunch, which adds without distracting from what we want: chocolate and marshmallow yumminess!
Cons: While I think this treat reinvented marshmallows the best, I think it’s missing graham cracker. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good waffle cone, but waffle cone is not a s’mores flavor. This snack is also too big. I’m all for a hearty treat that makes you feel like you got enough bang for your buck, but the cone is too big for one bite and the chocolate and marshmallow sit at different levels of the cone, so you really have to work to get a simultaneous bite of chocolate and marshmallow. Also, I may be a little biased but I could’ve done with just a bit more marshmallow filling to give a better 1:1 ratio of marshmallow and chocolate.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Favorite Day S’mores Mini Bites
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Besides the actual chocolate-and-marshmallow-on-a-graham-cracker s’mores snacks, these felt like the most s’moresy treat. The only misleading part of the name would be “mini bites,” because I couldn’t help but gobble as many as I could fit in my mouth.
Pros: These are a top-tier snack. They’re tasty, they’re the perfect size, and the sweet marshmallow smell that wafts from the bag invites you to finish it in one sitting. The thick chocolate coating with the compressed graham cracker ball inside tasted how I imagine homemade whoppers would taste, especially since the dense, grainy graham cracker sphere’s texture was reminiscent of malt balls.
Cons: Even though I’d call this this most s’moresish treat, it still isn’t a perfect s’more. You might be wondering, “where is the marshmallow?” You and me both, buddy. Supposedly there is marshmallow creme between the core and the chocolate shell, but either there’s too little marshmallow creme, or too much overwhelming chocolate and graham cracker, because the marshmallow is undetectable. I think this snack would be both more s’mores and generally tastier if they opted for a thinner chocolate coating and more marshmallow creme.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
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