An Elephant Ear marshmallow from 240sweet

Things I love probably more than the average person: getting things in the mail and marshmallows. True story. Both make me giddy and happy in a way I just don’t see often in other people. Which is why when the opportunity presented itself for me to get marshmallows in the mail, I was all over it.

I had read about 240sweet, a Columbus, Indiana brand of artisan marshmallows, on a food blog recently and then not long after I saw them on sale at Fab.com. A few days later BAM! Marshmallow madness in the mail! (And alliteration to boot!)

Salted caramel marshmallow: it'll make you question everything you think you know about marshmallows

Now, to call these marshmallows, which came in two flavors, Elephant Ear and Salted Caramel, just marshmallows, is something of a huge misnomer. These were massive, fluffy fat pillows of sugar and deliciousness. The elephant ear was a plump, soft square with a twinkling coat of cinnamon and sugar on top, giving it a little granular feel to the otherwise spongey softness. The salted caramel, though, was unlike any marshmallow I’ve ever had. Unlike the elephant ear kind which looked like a regular marshmallow in its even consistency throughout, the salted caramel was made almost in layers, which rich, sticky caramel oozing out from between the layers. It looked like some sort of dessert version of pork belly.

Thank God for the gas stove!

But my favorite way to eat marshmallows is lightly toasted over a flame, to give them the light crisp and smokey burnt flavor, so that’s exactly the end these bad boys met over my gas stove. Well, you can just imagine what happened when I toasted the behemoth salted caramel marshmallow: INSANITY. Complete mayhem in my mouth. It already had that sweet-salty combo I love so much, but then when it was burnt a little it added a delicious smokey edge to everything, and the caramel just melted to a warm, perfect stickiness.

Needless to say, these lasted all of about 15 minutes before they were devoured. But with a huge collection of flavors that includes banana pudding, sweet potato and ginger, and amaretto crunch, I might be getting lots of more packages in the mail.