By Charly SHELTON

Universal Studios Hollywood recently opened its Halloween Horror Nights event. Along with it, Universal CityWalk Hollywood’s Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen has gotten into the spirit of the season as well. Coinciding with the opening of HHN, a new shake has debuted at the Dessert Foundry counter inside the restaurant. This joins another new shake that has been on the menu for a few weeks that is exclusively for USH annual passholders. CV Weekly was recently invited to experience HHN (you’ll find that article from last week on our website www.cvweekly.com/LEISURE) and while we were there we popped into Toothsome to try both new shakes.

The Grave Awakening: A Halloween Horror Delight

First up is the spook-tacular shake in honor of HHN: The Grave Awakening. This wickedly sweet concoction features vanilla soft serve ice cream studded with the colorful crunch of Fruity Pebbles cereal, a bleeding, oozing strawberry sauce and a ghostly white marshmallow swirl for extra creaminess and that classic Halloween candy flavor. This now monster-sized shake is topped with a white chocolate skull that’s bleeding from its gaunt eye sockets and nestled in a lair of orange whipped topping, chocolate rocks and Halloween sprinkles. And to make it even better, The Grave Awakening arrives in a souvenir Halloween Horror Nights plastic mason jar, adorned with heat-reactive printing that transforms from a skeletal white to Halloween orange as the bone-chilling temperature drops.

Okay, that’s enough Halloween words. But seriously, there’s a lot going on in this shake and it’s all good. While I never really considered myself a fan of Fruity Pebbles, there’s something about it that definitely screams childhood and that, paired with the Halloween candy flavors of the strawberry sauce and marshmallow swirl, is just a big dose of nostalgia. And sugar. I enjoyed this one even more than I expected to, which is saying something because my standards are high for Toothsome.

It may not be my favorite shake on the menu (there are so many amazing ones that it’s hard to pick a favorite) but it’s in the running.

Not Your Average Bread Pudding: A Passholder Exclusive Treat

For Universal Studios Hollywood annual passholders, there’s a shake that’s as exclusive as it is delicious. Not Your Average Bread Pudding is a limited-time creation that is available as part of the Pass Member Appreciation Days at USH. The Appreciation Days are almost over, ending on Sept. 30, but this shake bears mentioning since we’re doing a shake review. It has a little less going on than the previous shake but it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.

Not Your Average Bread Pudding is exactly what it says. It’s a bread pudding shake. There’s literally bread pudding blended into the vanilla ice cream and then accented with caramel and cinnamon. It’s then topped with vanilla whipped topping and more caramel, and a hockey puck-sized disc of bread pudding sealing off the top of the mason jar from which the straw pokes through.

It really tastes like bread pudding that you can slurp. There are not as many flavors and surprises as with The Grave Awakening, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It does its job, and it does it well. It’s bread pudding, but not in the average way you’d have it at any other restaurant.

So whether you’re an annual passholder looking for that exclusive sip, an HHN fan who is getting sugared up before your run through the fog or just someone in need of a cooling treat to grab and go on these last few warm days of summer, Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen offers a special drink for you.

For more information, visit UniversalStudiosHollywood.com.