Valomilk

As many know I will try anything once.  Candy related that is.  I'll also often go on a bit of a hunt, an epic journey if you will.  Almost Lord of the Rings style, to find a certain candy I may have heard about.  One such candy is VALOMILK (which is how the company writes it), I stumbled upon these a few years ago after watching an episode of Martha Stewart where they were discussing retro and nostalgic candy.

According to the company website for Sifers, the makers of Valomilk, the candy was invented by accident around 1931 by essentially a drunk employee.  The employee in question was making marshmallow but as he drank the vanilla essence in the process (which has an extremely high alcohol content) he stuffed something up and the marshmallow didn't firm up.  So instead of firing the alcoholic worker they decided to make a profit instead and scooped the runny marshamllow into chocolate cups.  The candy has been made ever since by the same family and now remains as the only product they make.

Valomilk as a chocolate has a bit of a cult status, produced in the United States in the state of Kansas, it is not available nationwide.  Every batch is still made by hand and the company website actually features a section that links fans to location where the product can be purchased.

So, you can imagine that with such an elusive nature surrounding it, Valomilk was definitely a candy I wanted to get my hands on!  And thankfully I did.  They were shipped to me in a parcel from the U.S.  And survived surprisingly well.

One of the key features of a Valomilk chocolate cup is the runny and often leaky middle.  The packet I received had two cups in it, given I was expecting a sticky leaky chocolate treat I wasn't disappointed.  One cup had haemorrhaged it's filling everywhere, but the cardboard tray the pair sat on held the marshmallow in a sort of resevoir that was easily eaten with a spoon.

The second cup was intact, a little dry in the middle which I suspect was due to heat and time spent in mailing transit.  It was delicious though, cocoay chocolate and the sticky vanilla middle is satisfying.  I have seen recently a competitor called "Mallow Cups" but I don't really know all that much about them so couldn't really say whether they are a superior product or not.

I'd really like to try these when they haven't travelled through the U.S. Postal service and then through Australia Post to reach me, however realistically I think I'll have to travel to the Valomilk next rather than the other way around.

The Final Verdict: 3 - I was really excited to receive these and sample them, what let them down was the condition they were in and how messy they were to eat.  They tasted great!  And I think that if I got the chance to sample them fresher and in better condition then I'd probably rate higher.