It is the Thursday after Easter, and that means one thing: it is time to sample candy that would be ridiculously overpriced if bought at a local drugstore, but that is now priced to move at The Grocery Outlet.
The somewhat wrinkled wrapper informs me that it consists of a "milk chocolate egg filled with Reese's Pieces candy". When I was young, Reeses' had two products: Peanut Butter Cups and Reese's Pieces. But now, every month, Reese's has to wave some new combination of chocolate and peanut butter in front of the jaded faces of consumers. The trademarked (literally) brown, yellow and orange color scheme promises us the comforting warmth of the familiar, while slight variations in the design scheme titillate us with the promise of something new. In this case, there is even a challenge: a process that must be followed. This is no simple engorging of myself in chocolate, but something I must "shake" and "break" first. I will have to cease typing for a moment while I begin the process.
The foil wraps away...
I am holding the egg.
What next? Do I have to shake and break or do I bite into it?
I bite off one end of the egg. The little end. I hope this is not too controversial.
It tastes different, more chocolatey, than the standard Reese's experience.
There is a cache of Reese's Pieces inside. All orange. Is that a mistake?
And here I am faced with a choice: do I finish the outer chocolate first? and then eat the pieces? Or eat the pieces in the middle before finishing the chocolate?
I did the second.
Now, having reached the crest of my personal uphill journey, and having cut the gordian knot of candy consumption, I quickly consume the rest of the chocolate shell.
The journey is over, because this was not merely an act of consumption, but an act of discovery. An act of appreciation, as I moved through the ups and downs of the chocolate eating experience. I did not, as the name commanded me, "shake" or "break", but I did divide.
Other than giving an insight into the act of experience, how every experience we have is not given to us fully, but given to us as a puzzle that we must process, I also would rate the Reese's Pieces Shake & Bake as a pretty good bargain as 3 for a $1 as an after-Easter sale, but probably not worth it if I were to buy them before Easter.