Swiss Miss

Sometimes, I really crave pudding.  Such a great comfort food, for times when I don't want cold ice cream, and still want something creamy.  As you may have read about last week when I reviewed another brand of packaged pudding, packaged pudding is just not something I grew up with.  And thus, I've been on a quest to find an easy, grocery store accessible, version of packaged pudding (I didn't review it, but, Trader Joe's had a Belgian chocolate pudding that was FANTASTIC, but, alas, discontinued).  

My quest lead me to find Swiss Miss.  A brand you likely know ... for their packaged instant hot cocoa.  Did you know they also make pudding?  I sure didn't.  Literally their only other product, besides a slew of cocoa offerings.  It is rather hard to find, as shelves are dominated by Snack Pack and Jell-O brand usually.  In fact, I think you may not be able to find it in a grocery store at all.  I found it via a food service distributor, which, obviously, is not what most people have access to.  It requires refrigeration at all times, so not quite as easy to have on hand as shelf-stable versions.

Anyway, I'm glad I found it.  It was considerably better than other packaged puddings I've tried (like Snack Pack or Handi-Snacks, both of which I've reviewed before).  Sure, not as good as homemade, labor intensive pudding, but it takes the top marks for packaged pudding that I've found so far.

Tapioca Pudding.

"The great taste of Swiss Miss pudding with old fashioned tapioca."

The first flavor I tried was the one I was most eager for: tapioca.  I was just really craving tapioca pudding, what can I say?

It was nicely creamy, but had no real flavor in the pudding base.  Was it vanilla?  There was really just nothing to it.  

And the tapioca?  There were so few in there, it was easy to think it had none.  The tapioca that did exist were a nice size and not soggy nor too firm, but there weren't nearly enough, and the supporting base didn't give any flavor to make up for the lack of tapioca.

This needed a lot of goodies added (fresh blueberries, whipped cream, and sprinkles did the trick for me), and although the tapioca was good, the base just wasn't.  I wonder if adding cinnamon could be nice too, kinda like a rice pudding vibe?

***.

Vanilla.

"The great taste of Swiss Miss pudding in a creamy vanilla flavor."

Next I went even more simple, with plain vanilla, which, given how unremarkable the tapioca base pudding was, didn't seem like a recipe for success.

This was actually really quite good.  Rich, thick pudding.  Not super strong "vanilla bean" or anything like that, but far better than any other packaged pudding I've ever had.  Not overly sweet, no cloying or plastic taste.  Just, decent, really.

I added banana as a topping, along with a drizzle of caramel, some sprinkly balls, and sugar cone bits, and of course, whipped cream, and made quite a nice creation.

***+

Chocolate.

"The great taste of Swiss Miss pudding in a creamy milk chocolate flavor."

Next up, chocolate.

Like the vanilla, this was a good thick pudding.  It had decent chocolate flavor, but yes, it was still packaged pudding, not quite as rich as homemade.

***+.

Butterscotch.

"The great taste of Swiss Miss pudding in a butterscotch flavor."

And finally, my all time favorite pudding flavor: butterscotch. 

For packaged pudding, this was good.  Better than other packaged butterscotch I've tried.  Like the vanilla and chocolate, again, thick, rich pudding.  But I found it too sweet for me.

I needed to cut it with lots of whipped cream, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I wouldn't get this flavor again.

***.