Oh, Tainted Chocolate....

First, Chinese-produced toys are poisoned. Then, tainted Chinese milk poisons thousands of children. And now as a result of the very same milk scare, Cadbury is recalling Chinese-made chocolates. They really need to get it together over there!

Read the story on MSNBC.com

Marshmallow Strawberries

From a candy perspective, one of the best things about living in the Detroit area is the close proximity it provides to Canadian sweets. Ever since I was little I have loved these Marshmallow Strawberries that my mom would buy for me when we went to Windsor, Ontario. I was reunited with them on my recent visit to Toronto. For some reason I cannot find them in the United States! Seriously, why can't someone import these babies in bulk?

The marshmallow strawberry is a beautiful thing. Each small, dome-shaped piece is roughly half the size of a real strawberry. A fine, sparkling red sugar covers each pink, strawberry-flavored marshmallow. The flavor of the marshmallow is perfectly artificial strawberry, kind of like strawberry Nesquik - fragrant, but not too sweet. The texture of the marshmallow is perfect. They are not too soft and fluffy, almost like semi-stale Peeps, and we all know Peeps are best when stale.

I think marshmallow strawberries are also readily available in parts of Europe by Haribo, but the Haribo ones are smaller.  There is a Canadian retailer that sells them online, Bonbon's Connexion Candy, but I have no personal experience buying from them. If you're ever in Canada try these! 

My Dream Home

I just returned from a few days of visiting the lovely city of Toronto. While it may be a hassle to pick up and move my entire life to another country, I think I have found the home to make it worth my while. I was walking down trendy Queen Street West when I spotted it, my dream home - The Candy Factory Lofts. Yes my friends, a real former candy factory converted into lofts. Sigh.


I did some research when I got home and discovered that the building which now houses The Candy Factory Lofts was once home to the Ce De Candy Inc. Ce De Candy Inc. is the creator of, and how perfect is it that it's one of my favorite candies, Smarties! And by Smarties, I mean American Smarties, which are sold in Canada under the name Rockets in order to avoid confusion with the "Smarties" sold in Canada that are the British ones and more like M&Ms. During my research I also discovered that there are more candy factory lofts right here in the US-of-A in San Antonio and Chicago. Is it time for me to relocate?

The Candy Factory Lofts
Smarties

Vote for your Dream Bean

Oh my, August is nearly over and this is only my second post of the month! It's not for lack of candy, that's for sure, I've just been preoccupied. I wanted to let you know that you don't have to wait until November to rock the vote. Right now, Jelly Belly is letting the public vote for their next jelly bean flavor. Your choices are: Mojito, Honey, Sublime Chili Lime, Thai Iced Tea, and Acai Berry. Go to www.dreambeancontest.com to cast your vote.

Frankly, I think my suggestion of a jelly donut flavored Jelly Belly should have made the top 5, but that's just my humble opinion. Maybe I'm a little biased (and bitter).

U-NO this is gross, right?

How fitting that last night I happened to catch a Friends re-run of the "mockolate" episode since I just had a mockolate experience of my very own. Usually I am not a chocolate snob. I don't know what the substance is inside of a Sixlet, nor do I know the chemical compound of the brown coating covering a Charleston Chew, but they taste good to me so I don't really care. My feelings changed once I encountered the U-NO candy bar.

U-NO candy bars have been a predominately West Coast treat since the 1920's. In 1970, the Annabelle Candy Company, which also manufactures the awesome Abba-Zaba, acquired the rights to the U-NO and has been producing them ever since. At first glance, the U-NO looks intriguing with it's shiny silver wrapper and bold font claiming, "Rich Creamy Chocolate". I knew going in that this bar was just going to be a big bite of all chocolate, but I thought I could handle it. Unwrapped, U-NO is a long brown rectangle, maybe a little bigger than a Giant Kit Kat, with slight ripples of "chocolate" along it's surface. The description on the Annabelle Candy Company website describes it as "smooth, rich milk chocolate truffle-like center, covered in milk chocolate and ground almonds". Ground almonds? Well, if they're in there they must be pulverized into dust, because I sure couldn't see them (or taste them for that matter).


The best way I can think of how to describe the experience of eating a U-NO bar is this: imagine eating a spoonful of Crisco shortening mixed with not-completely-dissolved powdered Nesquik drink mix. That's it in a nutshell. Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if that is the actual recipe. There was an unexplainable greasiness to the bar that left a film on the back of my teeth and roof of my mouth. It didn't melt in my mouth like normal chocolate, rather it kind of vaporized. And there was a bit of saltiness to it too. Overall, this substance called the U-NO bar is a mystery to me. A mystery I don't want to solve. Dare I say, it even gives mockolate a bad name.

Annabelle Candy Company Inc.

Chewy Atomic Fireballs

Adding to the greatness of Ferrara Pan's "chewy" line of classic favorites Chewy Lemonhead & Friends, are the deliciously addictive Chewy Atomic Fireballs. Like Chewy Lemonheads, Chewy Atomic Fireballs manage to maintain the same flavor as the original candy, but with the addition of being chewy rather than hard and crunchy.

Admittedly, I am a lightweight when it comes to spicy foods. My thai food is always ordered mild and I pick the jalapeno pepper off my greek salad. When eating an Atomic Fireball jawbreaker I usually cannot make it through the first two minutes without taking it out of my mouth in order to rest for a while. Be assured, Chewy Atomic Fireballs are just as hot and spicy as the original. I think the first one I ate made my eyes water. By the third one my mouth was numb so I could enjoy the sweet cinnamon flavor...and I wanted more.

Meet Chewy Lemonhead & Friends

After weeks of scanning the candy aisles, I finally found Chewy Lemonheads at Rite-Aid! I was seriously on the hunt for these. I once saw a crushed up empty box in a gutter and nearly went crazy trying to figure out where it originated from. I am happy to say that all of the torment was worth it, Chewy Lemonheads are candy magic! Actually, they are called Chewy Lemonhead & Friends because the box includes a chewy assortment of all the "head" candies - Orangehead, Applehead, Grapehead, Cherryhead, and of course, the classic oval-headed dude Lemonhead.

Ferrara Pan, the company responsible for creating Lemonheads was founded by Salvatore Ferrara in 1908 in Chicago, Illinois. Lemonheads were not introduced until 1962. Before that Ferrara Pan was known for creating a variety of sweets like sugar coated almonds and in 1932, they began making cinnamon Red Hots. I think the chewy versions of the "head" family are an excellent way for Ferrara Pan to update a classic. I'm not saying Lemonheads needed updating, I love the crunch of the original version, but I'm also a sucker for the combination of chewy and sour. It is executed really well in the Chewy Lemonheads, and best of all, they still taste exactly like the Lemonheads I know and love. I don't know how they accomplished that, but honestly, they taste exactly like original Lemonheads. All the goodness of the chewy outer layer x2.

My only gripe about this product is that I want a whole box of ONLY Chewy Lemonheads. There were not enough of Lemonheads in the assortment. I like Grapeheads and occasionally buy Cherryheads, but I'm not crazy about Appleheads or Orangeheads and there were a lot of them in the box. An all Chewy Lemonhead box would be ideal. Are you listening Ferrara Pan? We need an all Chewy Lemonhead box. Thanks.

Junior Fruit Cremes

Sometimes "limited edition" is a good thing. Case in point, Junior Fruit Cremes brought to us by the same people who make the far superior candy classic Junior Mints. I wasn't sure what to expect from Junior Fruit Cremes. They come in three flavors: black cherry, orange, and raspberry. The box boasts "creamy coated fruit centers!" and just going by the illustration on the box which shows a liquid-like substance flowing out of a candy shell, I expected them to have the same texture as a Junior Mint - melty shell with a soft fondant center. Fruity Junior Mints they are not. Junior Mint Cremes are a completely different animal.

The candy pieces are similar in size and shape to Junior Mints, but come in the pastel colors of purple, orange, and pink. They don't break apart when squeezed like a Junior Mint because their centers are too dry and pasty. The hard center covered in the more waxy, less creamy fruit shell makes for a bad texture combination. The orange tastes exactly like a Creamsicle and had the least dry center of the three. It was the best flavor in the box. I have a bad history with black cherry flavored stuff (bad frozen fruit bar as a child - still grosses me out to this day), so I wasn't that keen on it going in, but it didn't really taste like cherry, or black cherry for that matter. All I could taste was sweet. The raspberry was also sickeningly sweet and reminded me of those candy coated marshmallow Easter eggs that are always leftover on the store shelves weeks after Easter. Sorry I can't provide a more insightful flavor explanation, but I don't want to have to taste them again. I already have a stomachache from eating four of them. Needless to say, I will not finish the box.

Starburst GummiBursts

I came across these new StarBurst GummiBursts at CVS last week and thought I would give them a try. I should start by saying that I am very picky when it comes to gummy candy. I do not like gummies that are too slimy, loose, greasy, or chunky. In fact, I find my ideal gummy to be the Haribo brand gummy bear - nice chew without slip sliding all over my mouth. Unfortunately, I found the Starburst Gummibursts to be exactly the type of gummy that I do not like.


Gummibursts come in the traditional Starburst flavors of lemon, orange, cherry, and strawberry. My 1.5 oz. bag contained mostly lemon flavor among the random assortment of about 12 pieces per bag. Each gummy piece is about the diameter of a nickel and 1/2 an inch think. What sets this gummy apart from others, and puts the "bursts" in GummiBursts, is the small well of corresponding flavored liquid that fills each gummy center. The liquid is pretty tasty and not what ultimately turned me off to these candies. In fact, I thought the cherry liquid center was the best tasting thing in the bag. It was sweet and tangy with a slight cherry cold medicine edge to it, but I kinda liked that.

What I disliked most was the texture of the gummy. I found it way too thick, so much so that when I chewed it, it broke off into little chunky pieces. I can equate it to eating Jell-O that has been sitting in the fridge a little too long and developed hard ridges on it's edges. When I made this correlation in my mind, I almost gagged because I hate eating Jell-O like that. As a picky gummy eater, I did not like this product. If I am looking for a tasty Starburst product I will stick with Sour Starbursts, which I am kinda hooked on right now.

Test Your Candy Bar Knowledge

Back in the day I wrote about an online cross-section candy bar quiz. Now, treat yourself to an all new candy bar ID quiz compliments of AOL Food. I got 19 out of 20. In my defense, I've never eaten the candy bar I misidentified, but I won't tell you what it is because I don't want to influence your test score. Feel free to share your scores in the comments!

http://food.aol.com/play-with-your-food/candy-bar-id-quiz

Candy Land Cake

I celebrated my birthday last weekend. As a surprise my mom and sister made me this awesome Candy Land cake resembling the children's board game of the same name.

All of the major Candy Land landmarks were represented. The Peppermint Forest, Gumdrop Mountains, Lollipop Woods, the Chocolate Swamp, and last but not least (not to mention my personal favorite), Candy Castle. Candy Castle stood at the the top of the cake. Marshmallow ice cream cones were dipped in colored sugar to mimic the ice cream cones that make up the Candy Castle. The marshmallow cones were then surrounded by giant chunks of blue rock candy, as a path of sour Starburst spelled out "Happy Birthday". It was truly a thing of beauty.

Sweets from the "Island of Enchantment"

I recently returned from a restful summer vacation in Puerto Rico. Of course, while there I tried to get a feel for the local candy scene. While much of the candy in Puerto Rico is very similar to the offerings here in the States, Walgreens seems to be universal, I did stumble upon a few surprises. For the most part, the local candy reflects the tropical climate of the island incorporating a lot of coconut, guava, mango, and pineapple flavors. The sampler box (pictured above) contains typical PR candy. There are flavored coconut bars like Coconut Ginger, Coconut Pineapple, and Coco-Cream. The coconut bars that I have tried so far are very tasty, but have an unexpected crumbly and dry texture, almost like a cookie.

Sesame seeds also play big role in Puerto Rican candy. I saw them suspended in lollipops and sold in a semi-solid bar state called Ajonjoli. Usually I am a big fan of sesame seed candy, I love the honey sesame seed sticks I get here at home, but the Ajonjoli didn't do much for me. The sesame was in a thick, gooey substance that looked and tasted like tar. Not very appetizing.

I am a big fan of the pilones, or lollipops. I saw pilones in strawberry, cherry, and coconut flavor, but chose a bag that had a coconut pineapple combo. They are delicious! The coconut is rich, creamy, sweet and balances well with the pineapple for a nice pina colada finale.

Pachy's sells authentic Puerto Rican candy online. Visit www.pachys.com to see their selection.

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.