The 'Lord of the Rings' stars tried butter tarts in Toronto and 1 hobbit says he almost cried

The hobbits may have once embarked on a perilous journey to destroy the One Ring, but their latest quest in Toronto involved something arguably just as powerful: a quintessentially Canadian treat — the butter tart.

Lord of the Rings stars Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan, who played hobbits Sam, Frodo, Pippin, and Merry, were in Toronto over the weekend to attend Fan Expo.

During the event An Evening With the Hobbits: In Celebration of 25 Years on Saturday night, the four stars marked their Toronto visit by trying a butter tart for the very first time, and let's just say their fellowship was immediately divided.

Astin, ever in keeping with his character Samwise's love of food, wasted no time in digging into the dessert.

"I was gunna say, ' Shall we try it? ' Sean Astin's halfway through it," Monaghan, who played Merry, pointed out.

It seems po-ta-toes might have competition, because Astin was temporarily speechless after his first bite.

"It's incredible," he raved. "Oh God, it is so good."

Apparently, one bite was enough to transport Astin into a Hallmark movie. "It's like being in Banff on December 14," he mused. "Curled up by the fire, little bit of champagne, and then a warm kiss from my wife, and a bite of this, forget about it, it's incredible!"

The other members of the fellowship, however, were not quite ready to follow him into butter tart bliss.

"I'm actually on completely the other end of the spectrum," Monaghan said. "I'm gunna say, too much pastry, and it's claggy."

Luckily for Monaghan, he wouldn't have to suffer through another bite. Upon hearing this, Astin promptly got up and took the butter tart off his plate.

"This is the reconciliation of nations; it's got maple syrup and apple pie. It's just incredible," he gushed.

Unfortunately, Astin's passionate defence of the butter tart wasn't enough to persuade everyone.

Wood, who starred as Frodo, was also less than convinced.

"I personally find it... it's a bit claggy. It's a little bit too much pastry, and it's a little too sweet."

"It's in the pecan pie family," he continued. "So it has that sort of sweet, kind of custard base, which I like when paired with something a little salty, which kind of offsets the sweetness; this is just pure sweet train, right down sweet train alley."

"Thank God for that," Astin chimed in.

Boyd, meanwhile, took a slightly more diplomatic approach to his critique.

"I like the graininess of the filling," he said. "I like that you can taste the brown sugar. I feel as if the pastry, I don't know if this is a good one or a bad one, but I feel as if the pastry should be more of a puffy pastry, a little lighter."

"If this were represented in more of a traditional pie form, like with a pie crust, I think I might prefer it," Wood said.

But while some of the hobbits were busy offering notes, Astin appeared to have transcended to another plane of existence entirely. He was still enjoying his two butter tarts with a dazed expression on his face.

"I feel like I'm gunna cry it's so good," he said as he licked his fingers.

Sensing some of the hobbits were in deep water with the patriotic crowd, Monaghan attempted to restore diplomatic relations before the end of the night.

"I feel like 50 percent of the hobbits liked it, and then 50 percent didn't like it that much," he said. "So to try and ingratiate us back into [your] warm hearts and stuff, I'd just like to speak on behalf of the other hobbits when I say that it is 'Lake Ontario.'"

The comment was a reference to the recent controversy surrounding the proposed renaming of the body of water, and judging by the crowd's reaction, it may have been enough to save the hobbits from being banished from the Great White North.

The fellowship may never agree on the perfect butter tart, but one thing is certain: Sean Astin would absolutely go there and back again for another bite.