It’s butterbeer season, and as a Harry Potter aficionado, that means my feed has been absolutely blowing up over the last several weeks with sweet treats. I was bummed to miss out on the opening of the Chicago Harry Potter store this week, but it turns out butterbeer season has expanded into stores. Fans can get sweet treats and sweet smells alike.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has a new butterbeer creme puff this year I’ve been desperate to try. And people going to the shops have gloated about sweet treats like these:
But butterbeer season has expanded into homes, and there everything from snacks to glassware and even butterbeer-flavored nail treatments to choose from. I'm still a little shocked about how much I love the butterbeer polish and cuticle oil. More below.
The Sweet Treats In Stores Now
We heard stores would finally be getting their own Harry Potter snacks in recent months. Now they are here, and some of them are quite delightful. I wasn’t sure what to expect from “spellbinding treats” like the Harry Potter Buttterbeer Goldfish, but it turns out they have the butterscotch and shortbread flavors without sacrificing on crunch. If you are someone for whom the OG goldfish are a go-to, the savory cheesy flavor is definitely sacrificed, but as far as snacking goes, once I cracked the bag, I made a pretty big dent in it right away.
The same is true for the Butterbeer popcorn, which should appeal to HP fans who are also into popcorn flavors like Kettle Corn. It’s sweet, but it’s tasty.
If sweet snacks are your jam, you can't go wrong with the butterbeer goldfish, which drop the cheesy component in favor of a graham-cracker flavored crunch, with a twist. View Deal
Sweet and salty, butterbeer-flavored popcorn was a surprising delight. And Skinny Pop's usual calorie count is also a delight, as an entire bag is well under 1,000 calories. View Deal
But butterbeer has been getting more inclusive for years now. Probably the most interesting products to come out this Butterbeer season are the Orly products, which are bringing smell-o-rama nail polish and cuticle oil and foam to the table. I honestly didn’t know what to expect from butterbeer polish, but the cuticle oil smells really nice and the polish is lasting (so far). The other nice thing about the polish is that it's a better gift than a lot of the snackable stuff because it will last longer.
Along with the nail polish, the full set of butterbeer products includes cuticle oil and foam, and it's discounted if you buy them as a set, though individually they retail for between $8.99 and $15. I'm already planning to use the polish the next time I'm visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
While each of the Orly products can be bought separately, they are cheaper as a set. I wasn't sold on the cuticle foam, but it ended up being one of my favorites, both in smell and texture. And the nail polish top coat rocks. View Deal
Still, One Harry Potter Snack Rules Them All
While I think the nail care collection makes for the best gift, if I'm picking a favorite snack, I would highly recommend the Harry Potter Fudge Stripes butterbeer cookies. Retailing at $4.80, the buttery cookies have a fudgy icing the brand says mimics “butterscotch and cream soda.”
Some people have expressed the Fudge Stripes sacrificing a little on the chocolate front, but I like that it tastes both similar and different to the regular chocolate-iced version of the same cookies without sacrificing on flavor. And butterbeer works really well with a cookie that is already soft and buttery. I’d probably pick up several of these products again and again, but if I had to choose one to become a grocery story staple, it would be the cookie.
For fans of both Harry Potter and soft cookies, the buttery, soft, butterscotch-forward new fudge stripes are worth an impulse pickup. I honestly wouldn't mind if these became a Keebler staple. View Deal
Other products include a mini mug set and some Hershey's kisses in the famous flavor.
Unfortunately, Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products has only partnered with brands like Keebler and Hersheys for a limited time, so if you want to bring the butterbeer magic into your own home, you should do so soon. Butterbeer season officially runs until May 31st, and I'm already campaigning for Warner Bros. to get heavily into the candle game next year.