I picked up these Limited Edition Caramel Flavored Tootsie Pops at Big Lots a couple of weeks ago.  I’m not sure how long this Limited Edition ran, but I saw an Amazon review from February 2010 and they are no longer on the Tootsie website.  Now that’s fresh, Big Lots!  I decided to go ahead with the review anyway, because you can still find these on store shelves, their expiration date is still a ways off, and because, frankly, I dug them.

These Tootsie Pops come in a medium-brown wrapper that reminds me of fall.  When I was little, we would all scan our Tootsie Pop wrappers after Halloween to find an Indian shooting a star in hopes of winning a prize.  When researching this today as an adult, I was disappointed to find that this was just something of an urban legend, and that all of my hard work was for nothing.

The world may never know how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, because I Hulk-smashed this sucker (… get it?) with the business end of a large, metal tape measure.  I obviously could have planned this better but I was carried off in the excitement of the moment.  Shards splintered off everywhere, sticking on the bottom of my feet and crunching under my shoes as I tried to clean up the mess.  But it’s okay, because at the end of the day, I smashed the hell out of something and that’s (almost) always satisfying.

Speaking of satisfying, I liked this Tootsie Pop.  I’m a big fan of Sugar Daddies, but I hate how they get stuck in my teeth and cause a minor internal panic for a few seconds over whether this is what lockjaw feels like, or what it’s like to have your jaw wired shut.  This caramel Pop allowed me to enjoy my beloved caramel Sugar Daddy-esque flavor without the after effects.  I actually received a reward in the end (the Tootsie Roll center of the Tootsie Pop, of course) instead of sticky, droopy, regretful caramel.

And here’s one of my candy-related tips and/or secrets: Tootsie Pops (or the giant Blow Pops) are my favorite movie treat because they last a good while and I’m not absentmindedly gobbling 1,200 calories over the course of two hours.  The negative aspect is eating a Tootsie Roll or Blow Pop in public, where people can leer at you and think whatever people think when a woman eats a hot dog or a popsicle or a lollipop.  Get your mind out of the gutter and let me enjoy a treat, you pervs.