Pop Rocks on a Roll

Mad props to my friend Susie who always finds me odd and interesting new candies. When she visited this past weekend she brought me the new Pop Rocks on a Roll, that I had never seen or heard of before. Of course, I was eager to try it out.

The package contains what is basically a strawberry fruit roll-up and a small packet of strawberry Pop Rocks. It's up to the eater to construct the treat for themselves and I had a feeling it was going to be a messy job. Step 1: I found a flat surface and rolled out the fruit roll-up. Step 2: Opened the packet of Pop Rocks and generously sprinkled it over the fruit (there was plenty to go around). Step 3: Rolled the fruit skin back up containing the magic Pop Rock ingredient. Step 4: Took a bite.

Overall, Pop Rocks on a Roll was...interesting. I think the fruit skin kind of suppressed the popping action of the Pop Rocks, so they seemed more like a crunchy candy than a popping candy. Fruit roll-ups are good, and Pop Rocks are good, but as a combo, they are no peanut butter and chocolate.

Pug Cakes

My sister is totally in love with her pug dog Presley, so I knew she would love these pug cupcakes I made for her birthday. I got the instructions for them out of the excellent new cookbook Hello Cupcake! by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. Not only does this cookbook have some of the most creative and adorable cupcake decorations I have ever seen, many of the designs use some of my favorite candies. Take the pug cupcakes for example, the ears are made of flattened and shaped Tootsie Rolls and the tongue is made from a strawberry Starburst. The eyes are made out of brown mini M&M's with a dot of white frosting in the middle of them. (Oops! I forgot to mention that the nose is made from a black licorice Jelly Belly. The box I bought didn't have enough black ones to go around, so on some I used the brown Chocolate Pudding flavor which worked just fine.)

One of the great things about this cookbook is that you don't have to be an expert baker to achieve great results. All of the cupcakes in the book can be made with box cake mix and canned frosting. The candies used for decoration are also very common and readily available at most drugstores, gas stations...you get the picture. I really appreciate how this book made me look at candy in a new light. Before seeing this book, would I have ever pictured green Runts as green peas or a lemon Starburst as a pat of butter? Probably not. It's great to learn new things.

Indiana Jones loves Mint Crisp M&M's

Is anyone else excited about the new Indiana Jones movie, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", or it is just me? The movie opens nationwide May 22, just in time for the big Memorial Day weekend box office. Will it beat Iron Man? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. However, Indiana Jones has already won in my book because as far as I know, Iron Man doesn't have the awesome Mint Crisp M&M's tied to its release. Yes, Mint Crisp M&M's, and they are delicious. They blow the recently reviewed Wildly Cherry M&M's out of the water. If you are a fan of the mint chocolate combination found in Andes Mints or Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, then you are sure to love these.


From the outside, Mint Crisp M&M's look like puffier versions of plain M&M's. They come in the mint-inspired colors of dark green, light green, and white. In place of the trademark "M" in the center of each candy shell, some pieces feature movie themed icons like a skull or the famous Indiana Jones hat. Biting into a piece reveals the crisp in the "Mint Crisp" name. At the center of each piece is a tiny ball of rice crispies which lend a nice, light crunch to each bite. The crispy center is surrounded by a layer of mint flavored chocolate. Now maybe I am examining them a little too closely, but I swear I can detect 2 chocolate layers. One, the traditional M&M milk chocolate filling, and around that, a very thin, darker layer of chocolate where I believe the minty burst of flavor lies.

Mint Crisp M&M's are only available for a limited time, so if you want to try them, search them out soon. CVS has them in both the small, single package and the large bag. You can't miss them, the bag looks all ancient-y and Indiana Jones is right on it. You can also visit the M&M's website to play a game where an M&M searches ancient ruins for a secret stash of Mint Crisp M&M's hidden underground by the Mayans. Check it out at: http://www.m-ms.com/us/indianajones.

Slap Stix

There are three kinds of people in this world: those that love Slap Stix, those that hate Slap Stix, and those that have never heard of a Slap Stix. For those that have never heard of a Slap Stix, allow me to enlighten you. Slap Stix is a caramel sucker that contains a beautiful, chewy center of swirled yellow, pink, and white nougat. The nougat is said to be banana, cherry, and vanilla flavored, but anyone who has eaten a Slap Stix would confirm that the predominant flavor is banana. Therefore, if you are not a fan of artificial banana flavor, as I have discovered many people aren't, you will probably not enjoy a Slap Stix. But that's okay, there will be more for me.

The origin of the Slap Stix is unknown to me. I do know that they have been around since at least the 1980s because I ate them as a kid. I also know that they are a product of the classic candy company NECCO. In 1920, Howard B. Stark of the Howard B. Stark Candy Company, which was later named Stark Candy Company, created the Snirkle which shares some similarities to the Slap Stix. Snirkle, which is no longer made, was a caramel candy with a vanilla nougat swirl. Very similar to the swirled Slap Stix, minus the banana-cherry bonus. Somewhere along the way, the Stark Candy Company ended up being bought by NECCO, which leads me to go all Nancy Drew and conclude that the retired Snirkle was the predecessor to the Slap Stix.

By the way, I would not recommend actually slapping someone with a "Slap" Stix. It hurts quite a bit, or so I've been told.

Hubba Bubba Glop

Let's take this back to the 3rd grade.... An onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it is describes. I believe this is what the people at Wrigley had in mind when they named their latest bubble gum creation Hubba Bubba Glop. Glop. The word doesn't necessarily conjure up the most appetizing visual, but for this product it kinda works, and I don't mean that as a diss.

What we have here are 5 very large egg-shaped pieces of Hubba Bubba bubble gum covered in a flavored candy shell and filled with a liquid center. Of course, we've seen liquid filled gum before, probably most famously in Freshen Up. The Hubba Bubba Glop is similar to Freshen Up except that there is much more liquid and it's thicker, gloppier if you will. The glop actually reminded me of the gel stuff in those Squeeze Pop liquid lollipops. Hubba Bubba Glops come in two flavors, Strawberry Gush and Watermelon Rapid. I tried the strawberry flavor and thought it was pretty decent. All three components - the gum, candy shell, and glop are infused with strawberry flavor. I do think the flavor could have lasted a bit longer, but other than that it was a tasty chew.

Twix Java

Admittedly, I am not a coffee drinker. Each morning I wake up with a steamy cup of Earl Grey or English Breakfast tea, but never coffee. I enjoy the smell of coffee, however I just cannot seem to embrace the taste. Going into Starbucks and ordering a tall Vanilla Bean (a blended, non-coffee drink that tastes like a vanilla milkshake), getting strange looks from waitresses when I refuse a cup at breakfast - these things only remind me of my outcast status. Naturally, when I heard about the limited edition Twix Java, I was not as ecstatic as a real coffee lover might be, however I still picked up one up when I spotted it at my local Kmart store.


I am not entirely opposed to coffee-flavored candy. I like the somewhat granny-ish Coffee Nips, and occasionally crave chocolate-covered espresso beans. Unfortunately, I found the coffee flavor in the Twix Java too intense for my taste. The bar consists of coffee-flavored caramel, a chocolate cookie, and the standard milk chocolate coating. The caramel tasted like Folger's crystals were ground up in in it, which may be true judging by it's dark shade of brown. I was also not crazy about the chocolate cookie. I believe the traditional butter cookie is one of the best parts of the regular Twix, and am still puzzled over why the new version of the Twix PB has the inferior chocolate cookie when the old Peanut Butter Twix used to sport the delicious butter cookie. These things keep me up at night.

In order not to be entirely biased against the Twix Java, I had a known coffee addict give it a try and their opinion was that it was too sweet and artificial tasting. I've read other reviews online and most people rave about this new bar. Best thing to do is pick one up and try it for yourself, that is, if you are one of those coffee people.

Math is Delicious Again!

This calculator I found on fredflare.com could actually make me like doing math. It looks like a real chocolate bar AND it's scented. Kinda has a 1980s vibe to it, but it's still totally awesome! Check out the website if you want to pick one up for yourself.

Breakfast on a stick

The creative folks at Lollyphile were nice enough to let me sample their maple-bacon lollipop. Yeah that's right, I said bacon...in a lollipop. And hey, why not? Bacon is one of the most delicious foods ever, not to mention it pairs excellently with the sweet, stickiness of maple syrup. Think pancakes people, yummm. With this lollipop, Lollyphile accentuates the best of both these flavors. The maple is sweet and subtle, not at all sickeningly sweet like those maple leaf sugar candies that always seem to show up in stores called "Ye Olde Something-Or-Other". Here, the maple nicely compliments the bacon. And yes, those are real bits of bacon in the pop! There is a nice balance between the sweet and salty, in fact I wouldn't say one flavor dominates the other. Both maple and bacon come together in perfect harmony.

Lollyphile is a fairly new company based in San Francisco. On their website, Lollyphile assures the use of the best of the best ingredients, meaning no artificial flavors and the use of organic maple syrup and bacon. Currently, they have only two flavors in their repertoire, the other being absinthe, but they promise some more exciting flavors in the near future. I'm really curious to see what they'll come up with next. This is definitely a company geared toward making sophisticated candy, in that sense I mean "meant for adults". It probably wouldn't look too good if Little Jimmy showed up at the playground with an absinthe lollipop. Regardless, check Lollyphile out for yourself at www.lollyphile.com.

Update on Nerds Bumpy Jelly Beans

Looks like the Nerds Bumpy Jelly Beans I came to know and love this Easter will be sticking around all year as Giant Chewy Nerds! I saw them in individual packages at The Candy Store in Wyandotte, MI today. I know a lot of people loved this product. This is great news!

They are also for sale online, in case you want a whole box:
http://www.candyfavorites.com/Giant-Chewy-Nerds-pr-3375.html

Wildly Cherry M&M's

According to the M&M's website, the limited edition Wildly Cherry M&M's were introduced back in February, however I just stumbled upon them last week on a trip to my local dollar store. The release of the flavored M&M seems to be trend from the company. I recall seeing a raspberry flavored M&M on the shelves not too long ago called "Razzberry", but never picked it up. I'm usually not a big fan of fruit and chocolate combinations, except when it comes to cherry. I've been known to enjoy a few Cella's chocolate covered cherries in my day, but even when it comes to chocolate covered cherries, I prefer the clear liquid center of a Cella's over those with white, gooey fondant.


The taste of the Wildly Cherry M&M's is very reminiscent of a Cella's. I couldn't tell if it was the candy shell or the chocolate which held the cherry flavor, but it's definitely in there. Cherry flavor exploded in my mouth as soon as I crunched down on the candy. The chocolate tasted a little darker than in a plain M&M, but it compliments the cherry flavor well. Plump all around, the individual candies are larger in size than regular M&M's. They are about the size of the Peanut Butter M&M's, and come in two cherry-inspired colors - bright red and dark red.

I don't know if these candies ended up in the dollar store because they are past their prime (in a marketing sense, not freshness), or because they didn't have a wide release. Sometimes I find interesting things at the dollar store, like a giant box of the newly re-released Good N' Fruity, which I may talk some more about later. Nevertheless, I'll be looking to see if the Wildly Cherry M&M's make it into more mainstream stores in my area.

Peeps Show II

On Easter Sunday the Washington Post revealed the winners of their second annual Peeps Diorama Contest. Here is a link to the slideshow:

Peeps Diorama Contest

The entries range from creative, to fun, to a little strange. I think my favorite is "Nightmare in Pink".

Happy Easter!

(Image scanned from a PEZ postcard)

Reese's Peanut Butter Whoppers

Every once in a while a new candy comes along that I am a little skeptical about. At first thought, the concept may seem downright strange, or the flavor combination a little far fetched. When I first saw this carton of Reese's Peanut Butter Whoppers, I harbored low expectations. Sure, I like Whoppers, and of course I love peanut butter, but I didn't think they would play together well. I'll be the first to admit I was wrong on this one.

Instead of chocolate, the malted milk ball of the classic Whopper is coated with a layer of Reese's peanut butter. The peanut butter is smooth and kinda waxy, but I like it. It's very similar to the peanut butter found in Reese's Pieces rather than that in a Peanut Butter Cup. The combination of malt and nutty peanut butter is a quite tasty. Overall, I am a fan and would definitely by these again. Sometimes it's nice to be proven wrong.

Wonka Everlasting Gobstopper Egg Breakers

One of the 1980's candies I long for from my childhood are Wonka Dinasour Eggs. I can picture the small, cellophane package containing two glossy, smooth, egg-shaped jawbreakers like it was yesterday. Dinasour Eggs came in great colors too like lime green, turquoise, and lemony yellow. I've searched Wonka and other sites online trying to find some word of their fate, a picture, obituary - anything! I repeatedly came up empty and was beginning to think I imagined them until I found the above photo on grickily's Flickr page, finally proving that indeed they did exist.

While my beloved Dinasour Eggs may long be extinct, I have found a worthy replacement, and it just happens to be an Easter candy. Same company, same taste, just smaller in size, Wonka Everlasting Gobstopper Egg Breakers are the next best thing to Dinasour Eggs. Egg Breakers are miniature versions of Wonka's Gobstoppers with the holiday enhancements of pastel colors and being egg-shaped rather than round. Like Gobstoppers, they share the promise of changing colors and flavors as you suck on them. And while they may not last forever, I am quite happy when I reach the tart, condensed sugar core.

In case you've ever wondered where the word "gobstopper" comes from, just look to those crazy Brits. "Gob" is British slang for "mouth". When you think about it, "mouth stopper" is pretty much the same idea as "jawbreaker" in the US. Wonka's gobstoppers are named after the Everlasting Gobstoppers which appeared in the Roald Dahl classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Roald Dahl was from Wales, hence the use of the word "gobstopper" to describe a jawbreaker.

Cadbury Mini Eggs

Many traditionally "Easter" candies are now available year round. Peeps chicks and bunnies morph into snowmen and pumpkins to make an appearance at Christmas and Halloween. You can buy Jelly Belly jelly beans in August, and now even Cadbury Creme Eggs are available at Christmas. So far, the one Easter treat that has maintained its springtime exclusivity is the Cadbury Mini Egg.

Mini Eggs are a special treat. Their matte, pastel shells lightly freckled with brown dots resembling a robin's egg, seem very sophisticated to me. The combination bite of the crisp, sugary shell with the salty, cocoa-y chocolate does not disappoint either. The creaminess of the Cadbury chocolate seems to coat the whole mouth with goodness, while the sugar shell lasts just long enough to provide a nice bit of crunchiness. Mini Eggs are available in many size packages, but I usually prefer them one small, 50 cent package at a time. I guess it's just a personal preference, I'm sure the large bags taste just as great, but somehow if I have the small package I appreciate eat piece a little more. Plus, when I open the tiny bags they smell just like a package of Swiss Miss hot chocolate - yum!

Cadbury has added the Royal Dark Mini Eggs to their list of offerings. CandyBlog wrote about them last year, but I did not stumble upon them until a recent trip to Kroger. I'm not a huge dark chocolate fan, but curiosity fueled by Mini Egg love got the best of me. The Royal Dark Mini Eggs have darker sugar shells than the traditional Eggs, however they maintain the same matte finish and texture. The combination of the dark chocolate and sugar shell reminded me of nonpareils, in fact I thought they tasted exactly like Sno-Caps. I like Sno-Caps, but I think as an Easter treat I prefer the regular milk chocolate Mini Eggs.

Candy Package

Monday's mail brought me this awesome gift package of international candy. My friend Susie went snowshoeing in France and Switzerland a few months ago and sent me this box of treats she bought for me while on her travels. I've already devoured the Lion bar which I found mighty tasty. It consisted of a cream filled wafer (think those pink and yellow sugar wafer cookies), covered by caramel and krispies - all coated in chocolate. Very big bite, almost a meal in itself.

I'm was so excited to get the Haribo strawberry candies. I used to get candies similar to these when my family would go over to Windsor, Ontario when I was younger. I also picked some up in Germany last summer. As far as I know they are not sold in the USA, which is disappointing. More on their awesomeness, and the other Haribo treats, in another post. Stay tuned...

Ummmmm, mango!

Recently I've become a big fan of mangos and mango-flavored treats. While this flavor has yet to really make it big in the American market, I can sometimes find it in candies from Mexico, or US candies in which the package is written in both English and Spanish (you know what I mean). Last night I tore into a package of Tropical Fun Dip not knowing what to expect but being pleasantly surprised. Whereas traditional Fun Dip comes with grape, cherry, or apple flavored powder accompanied by a chalk white Lik-A-Stix, Tropical Fun Dip branches off into the exotic with strawberry, watermelon, and mango flavored powder with a lime flavored Lik-A-Stix. The strawberry and watermelon powder were just okay, but the mango powder was super tasty. Eating it I felt like I was lying on a beach in Puerto Vallarta. However, the lime Lik-A-Stix gets a thumbs down from me. It was kinda bitter and just not good. I usually enjoy eating the chalk white Lik-A-Stix, but this time once the powder was gone I just threw this lime mess in the trash.

Nerds Bumpy Jelly Beans

Easter is one of my most favorite holidays. Not only is it associated with the end of the freezing winter, flowers, and cute bunnies; in my humble opinion, Easter is the best candy holiday. When I was little, me and my sisters would get the most awesome Easter baskets. And not those ghetto pre-packaged baskets they sell at K-Mart which are a pretty good sign your parents don't love you, these were the real deal, each piece assembled and hand chosen by my Mom. We'd wake up on Easter morning and search the house for our baskets, which were usually hidden behind the couch. They usually included a Barbie doll rising above a sea of Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs and plastic Easter grass like Botticelli's "Birth of Venus", except of course Barbie was clothed, at least for the time being. For some reason when I think about my old Easter baskets I am always reminded of getting Goldmine Bubble Gum. They were those tiny, cloth drawstring sacks filled with misshapen chunks of yellow bubble gum meant to resemble gold. "Goldmine" gum is still sold, but for some reason I always think of them when I think of my Easters as a kid.


With that said, it's time to talk about Easter candy. One of the new treats I stumbled upon this year are Wonka Nerds Bumpy Jelly Beans. To be honest, I'm not crazy about regular jelly beans. I love Jelly Belly beans, but the generic ones that you can get in 10 pound bags, don't really tempt me, which is why I was a little leary about trying these. I love Nerds (especially fruit punch flavor, yum), so I figured this bean was half way on its way to being good. These are made up of a clear jelly center encrusted by an entire shell of bumpy Nerds. There are five different color beans each matching a corresponding fruity flavor - lemon, orange, lime, grape, and strawberry (similar to the flavors found in a box of rainbow Nerds). Surprisingly, I do like these jelly beans. The crunchy Nerds shell provides a delicious punch of tangy, sweet flavor that compliments the gummy bean at the center. In fact, the shell is so crunchy it lasts pretty much throughout the entire chew so there is flavor all the way up to the swallow. Over all, this candy was a nice surprise. I have been eating them the whole time I've been writing this and I'm liking them more and more.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone has a sweet Valentine's Day!

Check out this fascinating slideshow from the Necco website on the making of their Sweetheart conversation hearts, the classic way to say "KISS ME". I particularly love slide #2. The orange dough looks like silk.

Marshmallow Cones

Marshmallow Cones are one of the candies that remind me of when I was a kid. I think I was first introduced to them by my mom, who ate them when she was a kid. They are definitely a "nostalgia" candy. Marpro, the company that makes Marshmallow Cones, was founded in 1936 by John Arbino, a tailor whose livelihood was threatened by the Great Depression. At a time when people did not have a lot of money for fancy clothes, Arbino realized they did have spare change for some penny candy. He started making marshmallow candies in his spare time and became pretty successful. Somewhere in the 1950s the Marshmallow Ice Cream Cone came along, and by the end of the 1970s, Marpro discontinued all other marshmallow products and focused exclusively on the Marshmallow Ice Cream Cone.

What is it about this Marshmallow Cone that has made it last for over 50 years? Well in my humble opinion, I think a lot of their appeal belongs to the fact that they are adorable! I love the small, homemade cone topped by the whip of marshmallow streaked with lovely pastel colors. And what do they taste like? There are two components at work here, the marshmallow and the cone. The marshmallow is very light and airy. Lighter than a Peep or Kraft marshmallow, it melts a little on your tongue at first bite, then turns chewy. The cone kinda tastes like a Holy Communion wafer. In combination with the marshmallow, it's a bit strange but even that won't deter me from buying these cute little cones.

Check out the Marpro website for cool pics of Marshmallow Cones being made: www.marshmallowcone.com