One of the most popular tablet and phone games is Candy Crush Saga, which is a variation on the “match 3 on a grid” style of timed puzzle games. (I was a fan of Bejeweled when it first came out.) The overriding theme, of course, with Candy Crush is the fact that it’s candy-themed. Why didn’t they come out with this a year ago?

The game has finally been licensed for actual eating instead of just virtual play by King.com to Healthy Food Brands. The launch of the candy line includes four varieties: Candy Crush Sour Fruit Gummies, Fruit Mix Gummies, Jelly Fish and Color Bombs. They come packaged in boxes, with between 3 and 3.5 ounces in each. I picked mine up at Dylan’s Candy Bar where they’re priced at $4.00 a box.

The design of the box is trippy and colorful, matching the design elements of the game very well along with more animated characters on each box. Today I’ll review the Gummies together (the others later this week).

The Candy Crush Mixed Fruit Gummies box features a colorful unicorn on the front. There gummi flavors are: Blue Raspberry, Green Apple, Lemon, Cherry, Orange and Grape. Each of the candies, as you’d imagine, relates to a candy piece within the game.

The gummis are soft with a bit of a matte finish to them. Most are about 1/2 an inch in diameter, with the red ones clocking in at almost one inch.

I don’t know what the pieces are supposed to be in the game, if they have names or represent some sort of real world candy.

Orange Oval is orange. It’s mild and ordinary. It’s a soft chew with a nice balance of zest, juice and tartness.

Green Cube is green apple and it’s completely weird. It tastes rather ... grassy. There are the apple juice notes and less of the fake Jolly Rancher flavor to it, but mostly it was weird. It was also inconsistently sized. Some were cubist, some were flat.

Purple Berry is grape. The shape indicates it should be raspberry, but the flavor is definitely grape, as in grape soda. Nice, not too dense and artificial but a note of the colorings does taint it with a bit of a metallic note.

Yellow Drops are lemon. These are nice, well rounded with a lot of zest, a zing of tartness and just a little sweet lemon poundcake note.

Red Stripes are cherry. Well done black cherry. It’s much more intense than the orange or purple flavors, a better gummi version of Life Savers than the Life Savers gummis.

Blue Dots are blue raspberry. This is quite nice, they’re understated and rich. There’s a floral note to begin with, then a sort of black-tea seediness that really sells the berry flavors. They’re a little tart, so it’s kind of jammy. I’m not usually a fan of the blue varieties of raspberry, but this one is good.

The gummis are good, the flavor variety is different from the standard Haribo or Life Savers gummi combination, so there’s that going for it. The pieces are quite small, so you can get quite a few flavor combinations in a single handful if you’re into that.

The Candy Crush Sour Fruit Gummies are just a sour sanded version of the fruit mix. The flavor variety is the same: Blue Raspberry, Green Apple, Lemon, Cherry, Orange and Grape. This box has a green theme and a friendly alligator on the front.

(Nope, there are no plays on this game board.)

Orange Oval is orange. Sour orange is actually less flavorful than the regular one. It seems less about the zest flavors are more about Tang.

Green Cube is green apple. It’s hard to say much about these since I only had two of them in my bag. They have the same weird grassy flavor combined with apple juice but this time it’s quite sour to start then too sweet at the finish.

Purple Berry is grape. Shazaam! These are a curious little, poppable version of grape soda.

Yellow Drops are lemon. These retain all of their zest but get the extra zing of the sour sand. Very well done without being too acidic.

Red Stripes are cherry. These are quite tart, which brings out more of the wild cherry flavors and less of the dark berry notes of the black cherry. (As if there’s much of a difference.)

Blue Dots are blue raspberry. The seed flavor that’s kind of like iced tea doesn’t quite work in the super sour version. It’s still floral and tart, but towards the end it gets into something that’s trying to be sincere but just feels sarcastic. It’s too sweet with a sort of vanilla note to balance with the earlier tartness.

Of the two candies, I preferred the Mixed Fruit. The sours just weren’t as good as many other sour gummis I’ve had. As far as whether or not they meet my expectations of what the candy from the game should be, I kind of though the candy pieces were different kinds of candy - that some were like Runts, others hard candies and some might be jelly beans.

According to their website, Healthy Food Brands is the international marketer of “better for you” confections and chocolate products. The Candy Crush Fruit Gummis are made with white grape juice from concentrate, along with sugar and corn syrup, a touch of sorbitol (a sugar alcohol that bulks up the product but adds less sweetness than sugar) and a bunch of artificial colors and flavors. They’re made in Mexico.

This isn’t the first game-app-themed gummi I’ve tried from Healthy Food Brands, as they also make the officially licensed Angry Birds Gummis. Those packages were also made in Mexico but marked as peanut free and gluten free. I don’t know why this product couldn’t also qualify for that notification. There’s actually no allergen statement at all on the package. If you have questions, they list only a mailing address… no email, no website. Not exactly what I’d say fulfills something called a healthy brand.

Related Candies

1. Candy Crush Jelly Fish
2. Candy Crush Color Bombs
3. Haribo The Smurfs Gummi
4. Angry Birds Fruit Gummies
5. Sky Bar Twilight Saga - Eclipse
6. Au’some Snerdles Super Mario Power Up Box
7. Sunkist Fruit Gummies
8. Wii Candy Dispenser & Nintendo Gummis

Hershey’s hasn’t announced much that’s new for Christmas this year, and it’s a little early for Holiday candy in some stores, but I did spy these new Hershey’s Peppermint Bark Bells at Target over the weekend.

As you’d guess with Hershey’s, the white confection is a quasi-mockolate like their Candy Cane Kisses. It’s made from sugar and a mix of vegetable oils including cocoa butter, palm, shea, sunflower and/or safflower. The ingredients list on the package is long, so long that it might account for why there’s no other marketing or propaganda on there. There’s the name of the product on the front and bag but nothing else ... no description, really nothing other than the obligatory ingredients and nutritional panel.

They’re pretty big, probably bigger than you’d think. A Hershey’s Kiss is about 4.75 grams while a Peppermint Bark Bell is 9.5 grams ... twice the mass. So a single serving is only 4 pieces for a total of 190 calories. The swirled foil is a mix of red, green and black (or maybe that’s brown) on silver.

The candy is simple structure: the top of the bell is a minty flavored white confection with nonpareil crunchies on top of a thin base of semi-sweet chocolate.

I can’t help myself, I like these. I like Smooth and Melty Mints even though I know they’re not real white chocolate. I don’t care. The white confection has a decent melt and mouth feel, it’s not quite silky-creamy but not completely grainy. There’s a good dairy note to it, it’s clean and fresh tasting with the peppermint addition. The dark chocolate base is dark enough that it balances out the sweetness of the bell. It’s a little on the dry side, but that’s okay.

It’s a very sugary confection, and one goes a long way (remember, it’s twice the size of a Hershey’s Kiss) but it’s just enough for me to get my white minty fix. I’ll probably still stick with the M&Ms White Chocolate Peppermint, since it’s all cocoa butter, but the foil wrapping on these would still be great in a candy bowl. The Dove Peppermint Bark is very similar, though quite a bit creamier but a bit more tame on flavors, and is still tops especially in ingredients.

Hershey’s is slowly rolling out its Rainforest Alliance certified line, starting with Bliss. I don’t know when they’ll get around to the holiday products but all of their chocolate is supposed to be ethically certified by 2020. Ingredients also include palm oil which should be RSPO certified by 2014. Other ingredients of note, artificial colors (in the nonpareils) and PGPR in the chocolate.

Related Candies

1. M&Ms White Chocolate Peppermint
2. Dove Promises White Chocolate
3. Russell Stover Peppermint Bark Snowman
4. Dove Peppermint Bark
5. The Mint Kisses: Chocolate Mint & Candy Cane

It’s the day after Halloween and a lot of kids are sitting around ranking the candy they took home from Trick-or-Treating. Many come down to three piles - the good chocolate stuff, the tasty sugar candy and then the bad sugar candy. The grown up candy like Necco Wafers often ended up there. You might eat it, but only after everything else is gone.

Stark Assorted Candy Wafers are another one of those crunchy disk candies (now made by Necco since the merger back in 1988) that just don’t come to mind as a favorite candy. But they’re still a valid candy format. What sets the candy wafers apart from other candies are the texture and flavor variety. The wafers are made from a dough of sugar held together with gelatin and vegetable gums which is colored and flavored then stamped out into coins.

There are 19 candy disks in the package. It’s a bit more packaging than Necco Wafers. There’s a little brown paperboard tray that the candies are stacked in, and the whole thing is wrapped in clear cellophane, instead of the glassine wrapped roll of Necco Wafers.

There are six colors: White, Yellow, Pink, Orange, Green, Purple.

The texture is slightly airier and crunchier than Necco Wafers. They’re also not as dense as Sweehearts. The flavors are subtle but the colorings are a little more vibrant than Necco Wafers.

Green is Lime. It’s light and a little ordinary but pleasant.
White is Wintergreen. I liked that this one was white, because the Necco Canada Wintergreen mints always have an weird aftertaste. These aren’t as strong, but have a clean wintergreen flavor.
Purple is Grape. At least I think it’s grape. It’s very subtle, only slightly flavored and on the bitter side towards the end for me.
Yellow is Banana. Again, it’s a very subtle flavor. It’s not caustic, just a sort of vanilla pudding with banana notes.
Pink is Strawberry. It was awful, but this is just me and my problem with Red40 food coloring. There were some fragrant berry notes, but mostly bitterness.
Orange is Orange. Sweet with just a hint of zest to it.

Overall, the flavor offering is hit and miss for me. I liked wintergreen, banana and orange, but that left me with only half of the flavors as keepers. They’re exceptionally durable, I’m sure they store well and travel well. But they weren’t minty enough to keep them as an Altoids alternative and not flavorful enough for me to call them a treat. I wouldn’t be surprised if these go uneaten at Halloween. But hang onto them for decorating Gingerbread Houses.

Related Candies

1. Original Necco Wafers Return
2. Life Savers Pep-O-Mint & Wint-O-Green
3. Cool Honey Altoids
4. All Natural Necco Wafers
5. Canada Wintergreen
6. Necco Conversation Hearts (Sweethearts)
7. Astra Flying Saucers

Sometime about a year ago I picked up some Root Beer Puffs, which were like buttermints but flavored like the soda. A few weeks later I got a note from a company called Red Bird Brand that makes candy puffs in a huge variety of flavors. It took me quite a while to find them, but I did pick up Soft Assorted Puffs at the 99 Cent Only Store that includes 15 different flavors. (Though perhaps not always in the same bag.)

The flavor variety is, well, extraordinary: Peppermint, Cherry, Lemon, Green Apple, Wintergreen, Strawberry, Orange, Grape, Peach, Blueberry, Butterscotch, Watermelon, Cream Penny, Cotton Candy, Passion Fruit. There’s a menu guide on the back that shows the key for the combination of colors and stripes. There are about 25 candies in the bag, but the flavors were not distributed evenly.

One of the differences between this style of Puffs and the traditional Buttermint of After Dinner Mint is the size. These are quite large, at about 1 inch across and all of them are individually wrapped. (No more candy dish with the stuck together.)

Cherry was bold and easy to spot. It’s a flavor that’s both heavily scented and with a light tartness to it. It was smooth and had a good melt, but overall, it’s not usually my favorite though at least this didn’t have a lot of red coloring in it.
Lemon smelled rather like lemonade drink mix. The flavor was a bit on the metallic side, but mostly reminded me of lemon meringue.
Green Apple is a strange flavor for this candy. It’s not intense enough to really stand out, so it may as well be lime.
Wintergreen is quite medicinal, with a wholesome Root Beer sort of flavor. Because it was green and not pink, like many wintergreen candies, I didn’t notice any extra aftertaste from the artificial colors. I would eat this one again. (But I only got one in the bag.)
Strawberry and cotton candy looked very similar, but I’m pretty sure this was Strawberry. It was light and fruity, but not floral enough. It was almost like a strawberry lemonade because of the little tangy note.
Grape was more intense than I expected with full on tartness but very little grape flavor. The softness of the whole thing was good, but the flavor was too artificial.
Peach was bland with a little note of peach fuzz or apricot. It was not that tempting overall.
Blueberry was what the whole bag might have smelled like. It’s quite fruity, a little floral and not really what I’d call a candy flavor, more like an air freshener.
Butterscotch is warm and sweet, a little on the maple side. I liked this one quite a lot.
Watermelon was pure nostalgia. It tasted like a Bonne Bell lipsmacker. It was one of the more intense flavors in the package and I both loved it and hated it. I’m not really that fond of watermelon candies, as I don’t eat watermelon for the flavor anyway. But this had that fresh flavor that balanced the sweetness and the tartness of the rind and a green flavor.
Cream Penny was a mystery. This one is all white with a dark red dot in the center. I still don’t know what it’s supposed to be. It was sweet, but had no other detectable flavor notes so I’m going to say that it’s vanilla.

The flavors not in my bag: Peppermint, Cotton Candy, Passion Fruit and Orange.

For the most part I didn’t like the fruity flavors. The others like butterscotch and wintergreen were more to my liking, even the unflavored Cream Penny were pleasant.

One of the other items I picked up many months ago were the Red Bird Soft Hot Cinnamon Puffs. The bag holds only 4 ounces and was also $1.00, this time at Dollar Tree.

The puffs themselves are quite nice, I liked them more than the variety package. There’s a floral, sort of honey note to them. But they’re also quite cinnamony. I wouldn’t call them hot though, it was a nice heat but they never approached anything like the fire of an Atomic Fireball.

The cinnamon smell is strong, even when they’re in the package, so I had to keep them separated from other candies.

The package for the Assorted Puffs said it was Gluten Free, they’re also Kosher Pareve and appear to be vegan ingredients.

It was strange that I didn’t get the classic Peppermint in the Assorted mix, which is what Red Bird Brand is known for. Overall, the texture was good, they softened up nicely. The package mentions that they’re rather hard when they’re first made, but if you prefer a softer puff, to open the package and wait ... it was true. After a couple of months, mine reached the melt in your mouth texture that I was expecting.

Related Candies

1. 10 Underrated Candies
2. Katharine Beecher Party Mints
3. Pennsylvania Dutch Candies - Root Beer Puffs
4. Cedrinca Gran Mix
5. King Leo Dark Chocolate Crunchy Patties
6. Mint Cremes from the Makers of Jelly Belly
7. Canada Wintergreen

Walgreen’s has expanded their house brand line of candy called Good & Delish with some strong packaging designs and diverse product offerings.

Their products come from numerous suppliers and in a way remind me of the now discontinued Choxie line from Target. The line includes cookies and trail mixes, but has an exceptionally strong presence in the candy aisle, especially in the larger Walgreen’s stores. They have large chocolate bars featuring Belgian chocolate (like Dark Chocolate, Pear & Almond), individually wrapped and bagged chocolate pieces (like Red Velvet Caramels) and gable boxes of caramels and of course this offering: Good & Delish Milk Chocolate Cornflake Clusters.

The package was on sale for $2.99 for 5 ounces, which seemed pretty fair to me since it was real chocolate. Some of the other products are made in Belgium, but this one is made in the United States.

Each piece is about a third of an ounce and 1.25 to 1.5 inches in diameter. They’re just plops of milk chocolate mixed with corn flakes. They reminded me of the Harry London Mint Cookie Joys that were minted milk chocolate mixed with chocolate cookie bits. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if these were made by Harry London under the Walgreen’s house brand.

The milk chocolate is sweet but quite creamy and sets off the crunchy, malty and slightly salty corn flakes very well. I found them a little on the sweet side at first, but I enjoyed the density of the corn flakes. The crunch made them feel more like a snack, but the sweetness made me set a limit of three in a sitting, otherwise it was just too overwhelming.

My go to treat for corn flakes and chocolate has always been the Ritter Sport Knusperflakes, which is about $2 to $2.50 per 3.5 ounce bar, which is still a better deal. I bought one just for comparison, and found the corn flakes a bit lighter but less malty. But I did like the portioning of the Good & Delish and the fact that a house brand is doing something that the big brands aren’t. I want to explore more of their unique offerings in the future.

Related Candies

1. Swiss Army Energy Bar Chocolate
2. Walgreen’s Australian Licorice (Chocolate Covered)
3. House Brand Creme Eggs
4. Theobroma Chocolate y Maiz
5. Ghirardelli Luxe Milk Crisp
6. Hershey’s with Crisp Corn Bits
7. Ritter Sport Assortment

After experiencing the lackluster Super Caramel Apple Blow Pop last week, it’s a wonder that I was still looking for the Candy Corn Super Blow Pop. An astute reader said that Walgreen’s was carrying them (which is where I found the Caramel Apple version) so I tried what I call the Super Walgreen’s in Hollywood. It’s near the Arclight Cinema/Cinerama Dome and Amoeba Music, so it was easy to find a reason to be over there this weekend. The store is like a movie set of what a Walgreen’s should be (and maybe it is used as a set for their commercials). The cosmetics have LED lights on each shelf, the aisles are wide and they have a snack bar and prepared sushi in a refrigerated section. And of course there’s a huge candy aisle that’s both clean and has a wide selection. It bears virtually no resemblance to the Walgreen’s where I usually shop in Echo Park, which isn’t even 5 miles down the same road. (Though the staff at both is quite good, no complaints.)

Their seasonal aisle had a good selection of the specialty Halloween items (though not as much bagged candy as other places like Target or KMart). I found the Super Blow Pops there on sale at 50 cents each, so I bought two. Instead of an opaque printed wrapper, this version of the Blow Pop uses a clear wrapper to show off the candy inside, something I’ve not seen them use on the Blow Pop line before. There are only two colors on this, orange and yellow ... there’s no white top on the layers.

The candy part of the Blow Pop is just like the flavor of the Charms Candy Corn Lollipops. It’s a mellow, salty sort of butterscotch without the creamy texture. I found these far brighter and more fun to eat, as the colors were sparkly, unlike the Caramel Apple version which was downright depressing with its brown and dark green. However, the sparkle in this case was created by adding some air to the hard candy, this can create sharp areas as it dissolves. Because the pop is so large, this meant I had a couple of sore spots on my tongue by the time I finished.

The gum at the center smelled terrible, just like the Caramel Apple version. There’s some sort of caustic chemical scent to it and the chew is stiff at first. Biting it sounds like tearing a phone book, a multitude of ripping layers all at once. It softens up and in this case, the flavor is pretty bland. It does become a bubble gum eventually, for a few minutes there’s a right balance between flavor and sugar before it all gives up and becomes like a wad of chewed paper. I’m not sure what flavor the gum is supposed to be, it’s not green apple, it’s not colorful ... it might have been butterscotch.

The initial experience was probably better than any other I’ve had with a Blow Pop this year, but that’s not saying much. But I’ll go ahead and give this a positive review, if you want a jumbo butterscotch Blow Pop, this would be the lollipop for you. It’s pretty, it’s pretty cheap.

Charms pops are made in a nut free and gluten free facility, but always check the labels or call the manufacturer if you’re in doubt.

Related Candies

1. Charms Super Blow Pop Caramel Apple
2. Charms Candy Corn Pops
3. Werther’s Original Hard Candies
4. 6 Candy Corn Candies That Aren’t Candy Corn
5. Whitman’s Candy Corn Marshmallow
6. Puffy Candy Corn
7. Charms Blow Pops & Zip-a-Dee

Tootsie is always a go-to brand for Halloween candy, as they make the popular Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Pops and Charms Blow Pops. Though some adults like to rank them on the Worst Halloween Candy lists every year, they wouldn’t keep making them if someone wasn’t buying them and eating them enthusiastically.

Tootsie has two new Super Blow Pops out for Halloween this year: Charms Super Blow Pop Caramel Apple and Charms Super Blow Pop Candy Corn. I couldn’t find the candy corn version (though I did find the flat Charms Candy Corn Pops), so I wanted to go ahead with this review of the Caramel Apple version.

The Super Blow Pop line is a beefy version of the standard Blow Pop. The regular Blow Pop is .65 ounces, the Super Blow Pop is 1.125 ounces. As a point of reference, a single Starlight Mint is about 5 grams, so this pop is like eating 6 or 7 mints in one sitting.

The pop is structured in layers, the center is bubble gum, the middle layer is green apple hard candy and the outer layer is caramel flavored hard candy. It’s an odd combination and I’d say my initial impression was not good. The caramel flavoring was just that, flavoring with a heavy dose of artificial butter. There was a little hint of salt, so that was interesting. After getting to the apple layer (which was very dark green) I did start noticing a good combination of the two, the falseness of the butter combined with the reassuringly fake green apple flavors.

The texture was a little more ... sandy than I like in my hard candy. It wasn’t completely smooth, though the bubbles were minimal. The size of the pop means that there’s a lot of lollipop before you can crunch to the center.

The most surprising part is the center. It’s not pink bubble gum. It’s green. The texture was horrible, biting into it, it was like packaging material. When I bit off a piece, it sounded like I was pulling apart the paper stick. The smell was bizarre and I can only say that it reminded me of the Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels. (Maybe it’s a mix of the smell of asphalt, gasoline, diesel and apple juice.)

I wanted to like this, mostly because I found the Tootsie Caramel Apple Pops to be quite fun. It just kept getting worse as I got closer to the center. I can only hope that the Candy Corn version was better.

Charms Pops are made in a facility that’s gluten free and peanut free.

Related Candies

1. Charms Candy Corn Pops
2. Jolly Rancher Caramel Apple Lollipops
3. Russell Stover Big Bite Caramel Apple
4. Limited Edition Milky Way Caramel Apple Minis
5. Werther’s Original Caramel Apple Filled
6. Tootsie Caramel Apple Pops
7. Caramel Apple Sugar Babies
8. Charms Blow Pops & Zip-a-Dee

If you like Charms Blow Pops and thought to yourself that you’d be happier with just the candy and not the gum, they make that. They come in rectangular foil packs called Assorted Charms.

There are five flavors: Cherry, Strawberry, Lemon, Lime, Green Apple, Orange, and Raspberry and 10 pieces in the package.  They’re not necessarily distributed evenly among the flavors. I got three cherry and three lime while I only got one lemon, one green apple and one orange.

The fun things about Charms are that they’re square but have a little dimple in the center, and that they’re individually wrapped. So they’re less likely to end up as a sticky single piece like Life Savers. (Of course there’s no pineapple or tangerine in their flavor assortment.)

I’ve seen old candy ads that show that they used to come in single flavor packages, but the only way they sell them now is in the mixed flavors.

The pieces are just shy of 3/4 of an inch square.

I like the individual wrappers, as I’m the kind of person who likes to eat the flavor I want, not the one dispensed to me. It’s actually pretty easy to dump them out of the packet without tearing it, and then put them back.

Orange is nice, well rounded, a little tart but not very complex. Raspberry was good, it’s very floral with an overall soft flavor and a hint of tartness. The Cherry is like time traveling to the 70s for me. It’s not quite as “black cherry” as Life Savers, but of course has the same taste as the Cherry Blow Pop. Strawberry is interesting, as it’s pretty uncommon flavor for hard candy. I didn’t care much for it, it was more like a watery popsicle than jam. Lime is quite citrusy, though not very sour. There’s a lot of zest to it, and even a note of bitterness. Green Apple was nice, it was extremely mild at first, but then warmed up with a lot of juice notes. Lemon was a little too tepid for me, I was hoping for something like a sour ball but it had more sweetness than tart/zest notes.

There’s a lot to like here about the simplicity of the candy. The flavor assortment is different from Life Savers, though I can’t say that they’re better or worse. The packaging is truly charming and simple. The package holds only 1 ounce, so you can’t really feel too bad for chomping through all 10 pieces. There’s no nutrition label but hard candy is usually 95 to 100 calories per ounce ...so these are unlikely to be more than 100 calories per package.

There’s no info on the package about allergens, though other Charms products are gluten and peanut free (but please check before consuming).

Related Candies

1. Honees Honey Filled Drops
2. Tootsie Pop Drops
3. Charms Blow Pops & Zip-a-Dee
4. Tootsie Pops - Regular & Super Sized
5. LifeSavers
6. Blow Pop Minis
7. Goodbye Reed’s