Today is the final game of the 2010 World Cup, which I thought warranted a special review of some actual South African candy. But instead I’m going to review these.

South Africa Marshmallow Footballers are made by a company called Sweet Cred based in the United Kingdom, which sounds more like an casual clothing company than someone who makes confections. They specialize in gummies, sour ropes and marshmallows along with novelty shapes and holiday themes. The candies themselves are made in China.

Inside the package is a tray with eight little pockets to hold the Footballers. Yes, eight. Not eleven. Maybe it’s a metric conversion thing. You don’t get a whole team.

It’s only 88 grams (which means each candy is just 11 grams) but a huge package - about the footprint of a sheet of A4 paper.

The marshmallow figures are wearing the uniform colors of the South Africa national team. But that’s about as far as the resemblance goes. They’re mostly “peachy” looking guys, but a few are what I’d call “violet putty” color, certainly nothing like the real team. Did you look at the photo there? Yeah, none of them have green hair or huge, puffy noses.

As decorated marshmallow candies, there’s a lot more to them than just the ordinary sugar crusted Marshmallow Peep. These are frosted in several colors and then coated in a sugar crust. They’re a basic strawberry flavor as far as I can tell.

The marshmallow in the center is whatever color the footballer’s flesh is, but it’s all the same flavor after that. The hair, stripes, eyes, smiles and shoelaces are frosted after the sugar crust and are quite a bit more crunchy. The clothing is simply chewier than the marshmallow.

The texture is soft and latexy, it has a nice foamy chew to it but it’s very sweet, even when I took bites without the sugar crusting. Each piece feels like a lot of candy - it’s about three inches high and only a little over a third of an ounce. Kids will probably enjoy them, especially those fascinated with soccer (football).

The candy reminded me of so many other Chinese marshmallow candies I’ve had. It’s passable stuff and in the case of Sweet Cred, they’ve gone the extra mile and are sourcing beef gelatin, so these are Halal.

As with many of the novelty marshmallows I’ve had, I think they make better edible decorations than actual edible products. So for cupcakes or a cake or just a fun buffet in celebration of the World Cup, these would be great. They’re probably also great for giving to kids with vuvuzelas, if only to make them stop for the minute that it takes for them to gobble these.

These were sent to me by a wonderful reader (along with some other items I’ll get to reviewing, like premium nougat).

Related Candies

1. Ball Gum Balls (Football & Tennis)
2. CVS Marshmallow Pop
3. Choco-Fudge Mallow Sundae
4. Marshmallow Pig
5. Frankford Marshmallow Pals

A mint humbug in the colors of the South African flag.

I was cruising the aisles of Cost Plus World Market looking for a pick me up after Christmas and saw this rather generic looking Sukoka Soft Coffee Candy by Unican on the shelf. It said it was made with real milk and apparently real coffee, so I figured it’d have a little caffeinated kick. So I bought it. Then I ate them all, without reviewing them. So I had to buy another bag.

It seemed a bit on the expensive side, 3.2 ounces was $1.99. But it was also only $2 and it might be great, so why not give it a try.

Mostly the package was focused on the nutritional benefits: With 6% daily value Calcium in each serving, which is 5 pieces. So a little more than 1% per piece. There are 30 pieces in the bag, so at least I know if I went wild, I wouldn’t overdose on calcium.

Each little piece was individually wrapped and sealed. I’ve noticed this is common with candy from Indonesia (also Malaysia and Philippines), I’m guessing it’s because people buy single pieces and that the weather there is very humid so sugar candy needs to be well sealed to keep from getting sticky.

The description on the back of the package goes on to extol more of the virtues of the candy:

Sukoka is crafted from the very best ingredients and enriched with calcium resulting in an irresistible coffee candy confection - that’s also a healthy option.

But I don’t think that the ingredients are the very best (that that they’re terrible):

Ingredients: condensed filled milk (sucrose, fresh milk, skim milk powder, palm oil), glucose, sugar, hydrogenated coconut oil, coffee powder, butter (milk fat, non fat dry milk, salt), tricalcium phosphate, artificial flavor, glyceryl monostearate, soy lecithin, BHT.

I don’t know what condensed filled milk is, I’m guessing it’s sweetened condensed milk.

The pieces are about the size and shape of a cough drop. Just light and creamy brown lozenges. They smell sweet and like black coffee. The flavor is immediately like coffee ice cream: milky and with a soft bitter note of coffee and burnt sugar. The toffee notes are most evident and the coffee has a good mix of bitterness, charcoal and woodsiness. They’re firm but have a give to them that’s more dense and more dairy than a caramel. The chew is smooth but never quite gets grainy or diluted.

The coffee flavor wasn’t intense but it was satisfying and rich. I have no idea if there’s a measurable amount of caffeine in them, I didn’t notice any effects, and I’m rather sensitive to it. I bought this second bag yesterday and it’s already gone, so I must have liked them. I wouldn’t eat them for the health benefits though.

These are a great summer candy. They’re exceptionally durable, even in the heat they might melt a bit, but are still perfectly edible even if they lose their shape and reform. They’re creamy and rich, so it’s kind of like chocolate without the sticky mess. The individual wrapping means you can even tuck them in your pocket.

Unican also makes a milk tea version called Suteka and a mint chocolate one called Mint Choka as well as a whole line of fruity milk candies called Milkita (strawberry & melon). The tea one sounds like it would be very good. These are marked Halal and should be suitable for vegetarians (but not vegans, obviously).

Related Candies

1. Meiji Pokka Coffee Caramel
2. Javaz - Milk & Dark Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans
3. Coffee Rio
4. Caffe Acapella - Coffee Confections
5. Coffee Beat
6. Bali’s Best Coffee & United Coffee Candy

Beechies are one of America’s older gum brands. Introduced in 1936 by Beech-Nut, maker of jarred food products like fruits, vegetables and most known for their current line of baby food. They invented the vacuum sealed gasket that makes modern canning ubiquitous.

Here in the United States the Beechies gum were like Chiclets, little candy coated rectangles of gum. They came in an array of flavors and were packaged in boxes that had a pleasant rattle to them. They’re still made, though I don’t see them often. Usually it’s the peppermint or spearmint variety in a little box with a corporate sponsors name on it, as a giveaway at a convention or trade show. Though Beechies in the US are run by Richardson Brands, in other countries they’re made by Kraft. This package of Musk Beechies is from South Africa.

Musk is a popular flavor in Australia, I’ve tried a few of their musk lollies and have a hard time getting over the idea of eating an air freshener for you car. But the gum version is something that’s a little easier for me to accept. I’ve had Choward’s Scented Gum since I was a kid and though it’s not something that I actually enjoy, I at least see that other folks might.

The little gum pellets are long rectangles, nicely rounded. They’re bright pink for no apparent reason, except to advertise the weirdness of what one might be about to consume. The candy shell is a bit thinner and less crunchy than Chiclets, but still crispy. The flavor and pinkess goes through and through.

Musk is a bit generic, it’s not earthy or animalistic like it sounds. It’s more commercial, like an incense from a store in the mall. It has honey notes, some sort of deep rose and sandalwood to it. It’s not mouthwatering, but also not as on-the-nose as something like rose or violet.

The flavor did actually last a really long time, at least twenty minutes, which is long after I lose interest in any gum I might be chewing. I’m more of a “chew the sugar out of it and spit it out” kind of person.

I don’t plan on chewing these again, though for some odd reason I bought two packages. So I’ll save the other ones for freaking people out.

Related Candies

1. Swizzels Matlow Parma Violets
2. Musk Sticks
3. Barley Mint Mentos
4. Anis de Flavigny
5. Lifesaver Musk
6. Choward’s Violet

There’s a part of me that thinks that marshmallows aren’t candy at all. It’s probably because the traditional dusty marshmallow puffs are sold in the baking ingredient aisle in big bags instead of single serving packets.

But maybe I should rethink that; it appears that Campfire has. I spotted this little 1 ounce bag of Campfire Mini-Marshmallows at the CVS at the beginning of summer and thought it was a fun idea. Sure they’re far more expensive than the big bag a few aisle away. This was 50 cents for one ounce and the big one pound bag is about $2 - so maybe I’m a schmuck. (The same applies to plain chocolate bars and chocolate chips.)

While the bag only holds one ounce, it looks pretty bountiful. The packaging is just a miniature version of the large bag but does mention prominently that it’s a gluten free food. It also says “naturally fat free” and while that’s natural, some of the other ingredients aren’t, like the artificial flavor and tetrasodium pyrohosphate.

The mascot on the package disturbs me, though it’s hard to really say why.

It’s a boy with a marshmallow head wearing a little backpack and yellow shorts. He’s waving and I guess that’s all okay. But he’s also wearing a navy blue tee with a flaming marshmallow on it. I suppose it’s like any other kid with a Metallica concert tour tee, but it’s a little skewed by the fact that we do actually consume fire roasted marshmallows more often than fire roasted human skulls. (If the research I did is true.)

There’s not much else to say except that these are teensy little marshmallows that I associate more with winter than summer. They’re the perfect kind to toss into a cup of hot chocolate. For roasting over a campfire, well, they’re too small however for a microwave version of S’mores they might do well. As an easy to eat treat they’re pleasant but that’s about it. Like most grocery store marshmallows, they have a powdery starch coating. They smell sweet and a little like plain vanilla (but not very complex like a good vanilla bean).

They’re squishy and a little fleshy and yield a good chewy bite. I prefer mine a little firmer, so I left the package open for a week or so until they were firm and dry. Since they’re so airy, an ounce feels like a lot and if they’re savored properly it’s a good diet candy since there’s less than a hundred calories in a bag. (With regular sized marshmallows it takes about 4 to equal one ounce.) If you need a quick marshmallow fix and a big bag of the giant ones is too much, well this is a good option. They’re probably fun to add to other snacks, like trail mix or popcorn at the movies.

Marshmallows are made with gelatin so are not appropriate for vegetarians. They say they’re gluten free but no other allergen status like nuts or dairy is mentioned on the package

Related Candies

1. CVS Marshmallow Pop
2. Pete’s Gourmet Confections: Marshmallows
3. GudFud Stuffed Marshmallows
4. Frankford Marshmallow Hearts
5. Littlejohn Caramel Marshmallows
6. Artisan Marshmallows: Plush Puffs