This Is ALDI's Best Holiday Treat Of 2023

Forget pumpkin spice. When it comes to holiday flavors, peppermint is my jam. I love peppermint ice cream, peppermint hot chocolate, and chocolate peppermint crinkle cookies. This year, I stumbled upon another inductee to my peppermint pantheon: Choceur Dark Chocolate Peppermint Marshmallow Christmas trees, sold exclusively at ALDI.

I'm already predisposed to enjoy ALDI's Choceur lineup, as so many of us are. I swoop up the little mint dark chocolate bars sold near the checkout, and I've also bought the full-sized mint-cream-filled chocolate bar being sold this holiday season.

So when I spotted the tree-shaped marshmallows on a shelf with other holiday goodies, I took home a box. This week, I went back for two more. For $2.99 (prices may vary), you get about a dozen trees, each about two inches high, which the box says are made in France.

That might explain why the mint marshmallow part tastes more like mint from a garden, not the sugary sweet stuff that is so thoroughly loathed. Even more impressively, the chocolate coating is decent dark chocolate, as opposed to the waxy, flavorless kind on many inexpensive sweets.

ALDI advises storing them in a cool place and not exposing them to direct sunlight, but I like them just a little melty. A serving size of two trees makes for the perfect afternoon pick-me-up.

I've converted other shoppers, namely Chicago food writer and podcaster Monica Eng of Axios, an ALDI super fan who owns a wardrobe of ALDI brand apparel. When I returned to the store this week, the Choceur display was running low—a sign that their popularity is spreading.

If you didn't get your hands on an ALDI advent calendar this year, you can still try these seasonal standouts. The trees are an inexpensive but tasty little treat that give you a break from fruitcake, cookies, and stollen, and it'll leave you with minty fresh breath, too.