Coming Soon!

Yes, on Monday I'll launch my first head-to-head review. I'll take on the original gummi bears, Trolli and Haribo. I'll tell you what flavor each color actually is and give you my assessment of which bear is best.

Pop Rocks Dips

Name: Pop Rocks Dips
Brand: Pop Rocks
Place Purchased: Sample from CandyWarehouse.com
Price: $.95
Size: .63 oz
Calories per ounce: 100
Type: Sour

I'm old enough to remember Pop Rocks when they were first introduced (then made by General Foods which later dropped them). And I liked them then. I also liked to experiment with them. You know, what happens if you put them in soda? In milk? Will the dog eat them? What if you dry your tongue out by holding it in front of a fan for twenty minutes and then put the pop rocks on it? The variety as a child was endless. (I guess my mother never stressed that whole, "don't play with your food thing.")

This new iteration of Pop Rocks solves one of the issues of dispensing Pop Rocks for consumption. Before you'd either have to pour it into your mouth or out onto you hand and it'd invariably get sticky there. This packet of Pop Rocks includes a little rocket shaped lollipop (of the same flavor) for wetting in your mouth and dipping into the foil pack. The lolly itself is pretty good, not terribly sour or flavorful, but a good delivery device.

Pop Rocks themselves are interesting, probably a candy to be enjoyed in a group. Tart and crunchy with a good fizz. When I was a kid, I think the only flavors they came in were orange and grape. I liked the orange best. The rocks themselves are more like flakes (I'm not sure, but I thought they looked like little crisped rice kernels when I was a kid, but who knows).

If I have one tip for the packaging is to put the lolly in a separate package and make the Pop Rocks envelope a little smaller. It's damn hard to get the little lolly into that big bag where the Pop Rocks only cover the bottom of it. Also, it's been damn humid here lately, so if you open the package and don't eat it right away, be sure to close it tightly, mine ended up being one big pop rock.

Good fun. Additional Info - How Do Pop Rocks Work?, Mikey from the Life Cereal Commercials and Pop Rocks, Super 70s Website and the unofficial Pop Rocks website.

Rating - 6 out of 10 (I might buy it again if they made orange)

Junior Caramels

Name: Junior Caramels
Brand: Tootsie
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only Store
Price: $.99
Size: 4.5 oz
Type: Caramel



What took the Junior line so long to expand? Apparently they've been around for a while, but not everywhere (I guess they're sold in Canada?).

Junior is currently owned by Tootsie Roll. Junior Mints have long been a favorite of mine. For the record, I like them equally as well as peppermint patties - their fillings are rather different with the only similarities being they're both white and mint flavored.

Junior Caramels are just soft caramel balls about the size of a garbanzo bean in chocolate. What's good about them is that the caramel is actually soft and chewy, unlike Milk Duds, which I think must be subsidized by the dental care industry because they're probably designed for pulling out fillings. (Don't get me wrong, I love Milk Duds ... especially since they started using real milk chocolate on them, but Milk Duds don't love me.)

You can pop more than one in your mouth at a time. But they're kind of fun to bite in half, too.

The caramel in the Junior Caramel doesn't have that good burnt sugar/toffee taste that Milk Duds do, but they're still a good chew. They're sweet and need a little something to counter that. I've been eating this huge box with some raw almonds and pretzels, I've found it's a good combo. I haven't tried them yet at the movies, but I'd think that they're the perfect movie candy because each one takes a while to chew and actually goes well with popcorn.

Rating - 6 out of 10

Other resources - find a rerun of this episode of Unwrapped to see them made!

Japanese Black Sugar Candy Finds

One of the best things about this blog is finding out about completely new varieties of candies I'd never heard of. One of these is Japanese Black Sugar Candy. Known as kuro sato, black sugar is basically brown sugar/molasses.

True brown sugar is basically sugar made from the whole boiled cane instead of just the cane juice that keeps the molasses. Molasses and black sugar is high in potassium as well as traces of iron, calcium and even a little salt. The taste of black sugar is similar to muscovado and has a salty, smokey taste to it. In the States, most brown sugar that you buy in the grocery store is just white sugar that has a bit of molasses added back into it.

Some Japanese just eat nuggets of black sugar as a treat (similar to maple sugar candies or Mexican panela). In fact, I used to eat brown sugar right out of the box as a kid. I loved the flavor of it. Many doctors and pharmacists have for years used muscovado-type sugars for medicinal use, either as a base for cough remedies or added to make medicinal syrups.

The Japanese use the bold taste of kuro sato to full effect in a lot of candies. Most are hard candies which are either for eating or for use as cough drops (often with the addition of honey or menthol).

Here are a few I found:

Name: Kuro Ame
Brand: Kasugai
Place Purchased: Jbox
Price: $2.00
Size: 200 grams
Calories per ounce: unknown
Type: Hard Candy

from JBox - "A wonderful traditional Japanese hard candy, this is "Kuro-Ame" (Black Candy), a famous Japanese treat loved by everyone since the 1860's. With a long history and a unique brown-sugar taste, this is a classical Japanese treat. One bag includes 22+ individual wrapped candies."

Name: Pocket Black Sugar Throat Treatment Candy
Brand: Nobel
Place Purchased: Jbox
Price: $1.50
Size: 50 grams
Calories per ounce: unknown
Type: Hard Candy

In the tradition of a cough drop (similar to Ludens), this black sugar candy is packaged to carry easily in your pocket. Each piece is individually wrapped and has the distinctive taste of black sugar mellowed with a tinge of honey and menthol.

Name: Kasugai Honey & Black Sugar Candy
Brand: Kasugai
Place Purchased: Jbox
Price: $1.50
Size: 250 grams
Calories per ounce: unknown
Type: Hard Candy

Shaped like little gems, these black sugar hard candies are individually sealed and packed with a little silica gel pack to keep them dry. They have a very smooth, sweet taste because of the honey. Not as smokey tasting as the Kuro Ame made by the same company, these are probably a great one to carry as a little pick me up and throat soother. Of the three products I bought, this is the one that is already gone.

Ratings - Kuro Ame - 6 out of 10
Pocket Black Sugar Throat Treatment Candy - 7 out of 10
Kasugai Black Sugar & Honey - 8 out of 10

For more reading: Black food power, Sugar Cane - Okinawa's Way of Life, Kokutoo - Black Sugar

Also - see previous review of Asahi Drops (I didn't know what Japanese black sugar was when I reviewed them)

Starburst Sours

Name: Starburst Sours
Brand: Starburst (Mars)
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only Store
Price: 33 cents
Size: 2.07 oz
Calories per ounce: 120
Type: Chew (Sour)



I love sour stuff, though I must admit that as I get older, I'm not really into the tortuous super-sours that I pursued as a kid. So, basically what I look for in a sour is something that gets my salivary glands to tingle, but also delivers flavor and hopefully doesn't trash my tongue too bad.

The issue I run into with many of the more modern sours is that they've gone off and created rather chemical tasting candies. I'm kind of a fan of citrus sours, but the new sour flavors like green apple just taste like something I'd clean my windows with. The Starburst Sours are green apple, blue raspberry, cherry and watermelon. Now, I don't think I've ever had a sour watermelon in my life, so that one was especially puzzling. But perhaps I should drop logic and reality from this review.

First flavor was watermelon. It's got a nice sour bit to it without overwhelming the watermelon flavor. Green apple is chemical through and through. Very sour and creates (sorry to be gross) some pretty unpleasant burps for me. Blue Raspberry reminded me of blue highlighter pens (and a bit like those scented markers we also had as kids) - the flavor is just like what I'd expect for a red raspberry, but I think that'd be too many pink things in the package, so they made it blue. I think the most successful flavor in the package is the cherry one - though I'm not a big fan on the flavor cherry (mostly because I associate it with poison because the red dye #2 thing back in the 70s) but this has a lot of flavors within it. It's got a good sour bite to it that goes on through the whole chew, a nice woodsy cherry flavor and then a sweet maraschino topnote.

On the whole, I think Starbursts are great. They were a great addition to the market when they first came out because they filled that hole - they're chewy like taffy but not likely to pull out your fillings (or as a kid it seemed like I was always losing a tooth or a new one was growing in so taffy was pretty hard to eat). Starbursts have that great chew but are forgiving and not so rubbery as to pull on anything. Don't get me wrong, they can get plenty stuck in your teeth, they're just not taking your teeth out.

These are not a flavor pack that I'm likely to buy again (I really love the originals though and will continue to buy them or Skittles) but I appreciate the addition to the line for those that like artificial sours.

Rating - 7 out of 10

Know When to Hold 'em, Know When to Eat 'em

I'm as big a fan of novelty items as the next person, but what always disappoints me is that the actual product rarely matches the packaging. Here's an exception. CandyWarehouse gifted me with these incredibly cute poker themed chocolates. There are playing card mint truffles and milk chocolate poker chips. Poker, as we know, is all the rage, with tourneys going on all over the country and of course those crazy celebrities getting in on it. If you're like me, you've probably played for pretzel sticks at some point in your life. While playing with real food is dangerous (because you're likely to eat your winnings), it's also a bit more fun (at least to me) than playing for money.




Name: Chocolate Poker Chips (Milk Chocolate)
Brand: Madelaine
Place Purchased: CandyWarehouse Sample
Price: $14.40
Size: 36 pieces
Type: Milk Chocolate



These chocolate poker chips come in a clear plastic tray that you could actually use for racking real chips. Like chocolate coins, the disk of milk chocolate is held inside a foil top and bottom. The chocolates themselves have no embossing, so their value is lost once you unwrap them (or is it?). The milk chocolate is creamy and smooth, very sweet and would be a great complement for other card playing snacks like pretzels.

For folks who are seriously interested in using these as real chips, you'd better pick up the 5 lb version. The high-stakes chips are like the mint chocolate cards below.

Name: Chocolate Poker Playing Cards (Mint Truffle)
Brand: Madelaine
Place Purchased: CandyWarehouse Sample
Price: $9.60
Size: 16 pieces
Type: Chocolate (Mint)



These were seriously good and I've had to restrain myself. Think of a giant Andes Mints. Because of the dastardly heat wave here in SoCal, I've been keeping these in the fridge and they're wonderful served that way (I don't usually like chilled chocolate). The mint is very strong and the chocolate combo (two layers of semi-sweet chocolate with a minted white chocolate in the middle) is just right. It melts easily on the tongue and refreshes.

The face card theme is fun (but entirely unnecessary in my opinion). Forget poker with these, I'd prefer to play blackjack with them and keep having the dealer hit me.

If I were going with a Vegas themed party, I'd absolutely order some of these up because the chocolate was of good quality and the packaging was very well done.

Ratings - Poker Chips - 7 out of 10 (I think the mint chocolate chips would be 8s)
Playing Cards - 7 out of 10

Light Lollipops

Name: Finger Lites
Brand: Malibu Toys, Inc.
Place Purchased: sample from CandyWarehouse.com
Price: $28.80 a case or $.80 each
Size: .5 oz
Calories per ounce: dunno
Type: Lolly (with battery)

Here it is, the neatest thing to hit candy since citric acid. That's right, the ultra-cheap LED technology is now being applied to candy. Malibu Toys has created a whole line of light up candies, with the Finger Lites as the center of the line. They have other products, like clip ons and necklaces, but they're based around the same center of a battery hooked up to an LED. Personally, of all the formats I prefer the ring, since I really don't want a slobbery piece of hard candy hanging around my neck and getting lint stuck to it.

The ring comes sealed in a little plastic pouch. To activate the light, you pull out a little paper tab that allows the battery to make contact with the wiring for the LED. Then it starts flashing. And flashing. The package says it will stay lit for at least two hours. Mine is still flashing and it's been a week since I pulled the tab and ate the lolly.

I picked an orange one, though they come in a large variety of colors/flavors and have themed shapes for different holidays (Easter means bunnies and duckies, Halloween means vampires and pumpkins). The orange one was a little bland, not terribly tart or flavorful, but then again, it's a novelty.

Would I buy this again? Hell yes, I'm planning my next party around them. I think the cool thing to do is probably figure a way to hang up the eaten ones on a string or something (maybe I'll do it for a Christmas party and hang them on the tree). Some convenience stores are refusing to carry Finger Lites because they think that kids will chew up the LED/Battery. I'm one of those people who can't help but chew up my hard candy and had no trouble telling the difference between the candy and the hard plastic housing for the light. In fact, I don't think I could break it with my teeth if I tried. I'm wondering if those convenience store people tried them.

I know, I know, it's not a terribly eco-friendly product either. Forgive me, I usually make good choices when it comes to that stuff, but I couldn't help myself.

This candy gets points mostly for novelty, not taste, but it's still a winner in my book.

Rating - 8 out of 10

Ginger Bears

Name: Ginger Bear
Brand: Buderim
Place Purchased: Trader Joe's
Price: $3.29
Size: 12 oz
Calories per ounce: 90
Type: Gummi/Ginger

It's a like a dream come true. Someone's combined one of my favorite candies with one of my favorite flavors.

Well, it's the thought that counts.



Ginger Bears are gummi bears with real ginger in them. That's why they're kind of cloudy looking. I'm not sure if that expains why they smell like photoprocessing chemicals. Not the bears themselves, just when you smell them in the bag. I know that ginger in and of itself doesn't have a great scent, kind of like wet earth. But this was more of a chemical smell and might be from the bag itself. I took a few out and let them air out on the desk, they seemed find after that.

These bears are a bit larger than the ones we're used to from Trolli or Haribo. They're also not quite a gummi, think Swedish fish, really. But, they're very spicy, not too sweet and are decently priced.

What I like about them is that they're not sticky. While I like the Ginger People's and Chimes' Ginger Chews, they are very sticky and might one day yet pull out some of my fillings. These are soft, chewy but with a good consistency and not the slightest bit sticky. They could use a little work on the appearance but other than that, they're a solid recommend as long as you keep your nose out of the bag.

Rating - 7 out of 10

Mike and Ike Orange 'n Cream

Name: Mike and Ike Orange 'n Cream
Brand: Mike and Ike (Just Born)
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only Store
Price: 33 cents
Size: 2.0 oz
Calories per ounce: 110
Type: Jelly

Mike and Ikes are made by the Just Born candy company. They make such love-'em-or-hate-'em products as Marshmallow Peeps, Hot Tamales and now Goldenberg Peanut Chews.

Now, this review probably comes a little late as I've found no mention of these on their website (that's what I get for shopping at the 99 Cent Only Store). They're a special edition of Mike and Ikes in Orange 'n Cream.

Think of a chilly orange creamsicle.



Then think of orange aspergum.

It's somewhere in between.

Don't get me wrong, I think Mike and Ikes are great. Well, I've loved Hot Tamales for years. They were like the original Jelly Bellys because they actually put lots of flavor into the candies instead of those bland jelly beans that were on the market before. In fact, Just Born makes a line of Teenee Beanees.

Mike and Ike also put out a limited flavor last year called Root Beer which I liked in principle but not in practice. However, Just Born did the right thing by making the hotter version of Hot Tamales.

So, to sum up, don't buy really old candy that's been discontinued. They probably stopped making it for a reason.

Rating - 4 out of 10

Canadian Treats

Name: Chocolates made with Icewine
Brand: Canada True
Place Purchased: Vancouver (gift)
Price: $4.95 (CDN)
Size: 1.4 oz
Calories per ounce: 143
Type: Chocolate (filled)

Name: Maple Chocolate Truffles
Brand: Canada True
Place Purchased: Vancouver (gift)
Price: $4.95 (CDN)
Size: 1.69 oz
Calories per ounce: 166
Type: Chocolate Truffle

My husband recently went to Vancouver and picked up these Canadian themed candies. The truffles are maple flavored and the Icewine chocolates are in the shape of maple leaves.



First, as far as I'm concerned a chocolate truffle is defined as the following: a soft chocolate made by combining good quality chocolate with cream and butter. It melts at a lower temperature than chocolate and is therefore extremely fatty and tasty. Chocolate truffles are usually covered in chocolate, so as to contain the melty insides (some places will just roll them in cocoa, but then they're prone to melting and sticking together).

It's hot right now in Los Angeles and at eighty degrees inside the house, the innards of these truffles should have been more yielding. As it was, they were more the solid consistency of say, a frango. Basically just another flavored and rather solid chocolate inside a chocolate shell.

That said, I think maple is a great flavor. It's woodsy and sweet and reminds me of, well, maple. There's not much else like maple. These were very mapley and extremely sweet. I think if I were inventing these I'd keep the center throat-searingly sweet but coat them in dark chocolate as a little respite. The chocolate was good quality but not excellent. As a gift from Canada, I think they were great, but it's not something I'll seek out next time I go up north.



Next up was a long box of chocolates with a tray of little maple leaf-shaped molded chocoaltes with a filling flavored with Icewine. I didn't know what icewine was so out to the internet I go (and by the way, the website listed on the box is um, bad). Turns out icewine is made from grapes left on the vine through the winter (so maybe it's really raisin wine?).



The idea of a cream center flavored with this sweet white wine is great. The chocolate shell was nice, a crisp milky chocolate. The center was not too large (sometimes a large center that's really sweet kind of ruins the ratio of chocolate to filling) and smelled vaguely of fruit. However, there was something a little off. I tasted the fruity wine notes distinctly, but I also tasted plastic. I'm not sure if it was the tray that they were packaged in or what, but they were a little off. I ate them anyway, but didn't find it a good combo.

Ratings - Chocolates made with Icewine - 5 out of 10
Maple Chocolate Truffles - 6 out of 10

Nestle Toll House Candy Bars

Name: Nestle Toll House Candy Bars
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only Store
Price: 33 Cents
Size: 2 oz
Calories per ounce: 125
Type: Chocolate Candy



If you've got a jones for sugar and something a little more satisfying than a candy bar, this might be the thing. Inside is a dense, crumbly cookie bar topped with caramel then a few chocolate chips and all enrobed in sweet milk chocolate.

The cookie part of the treat was least impressive. Because it was so thick it lacked that cookie feel and tasted more like a blondie and had no strong flavor of its own besides sweet. The caramel was non-existent, as it'd been absorbed by the cookie part and had no distinct chewy-ness to it. The occassional chocolate chip was a nice addition as it provided some actual flavor. The milk chocolate coating is all sweet and milky, but no real chocolate taste. What makes a Toll House cookie is the balance of the sweet and bland cookie to the complex pop of the dark chips.

There's none of that here.

However, I still enjoyed the bar and found it rather satisfying. If I had anything to say about it, I think I'd suggest leaving the caramel out and maybe making the cookie just a smidge saltier. I'll give the brownie bar a try to see if the flavor balance on that one is bit better. I've also seen that Hershey started selling cookies a while back (I've had the York ones and enjoyed them quite a bit) so I'll have to check those out.

Rating - 6 out of 10

Gummi Sushi

Name: Mikakuto Osushi Gummy
Brand: Uha-Mikakuto (distributed by Hosada Bros)
Acquired from: www.candywarehouse.com
Price: $14.90 for a set of two boxes
Size: 1.41 oz
Calories per ounce: 98
Type: Gummi/Marshmallow



This has got to be one of the cutest candies I have ever seen. It's gummi sushi. The fish is little fruit-flavored gummies, the rice is marshmallow and there's a little chocolate goo inside the marshmallow (I'm not sure what that's supposed to be).



Inside the box are eight individually sealed pieces. There's a huge variety. As far as I can tell: a grape octopus, a pineapple roe, a raspberry tuna, a green apple something (looked kinda like edamame, but you don't usually have that on rice), a berry shrimp ... I think that's about it. I'm guessing the variety differs depending on random chance. There's a little guide on the inside of the lid ... in Japanese, but at least it shows you all the varieties.



The gummi part is very fragrant, soft and fresh. The marshmallow is a really nice complement to the tart gummi, but the chocolate center just kind of ruins it for me.

As a gift or stocking stuffer, this is great. It's novel and well packaged (easy to wrap) and the images on it are really cute. It's a little expensive, but I'd be willing to buy something like this for the right person. For just eating, I'll probably stick to regular gummi bears.

Interesting fact from wrapper: no MSG!

Rating - 7 out of 10 (because of the price and funky chocolate filling)

Wonka's Oompas

Name: Oompas
Brand: Wonka (Nestle)
Acquired from: CandyWarehouse.com
Price: $.80 each
Size: 1.85 oz
Calories per ounce: 108
Type: Fruit Chew



Now, when I was a kid there was a candy called Oompa-Loompas and they were nothing like this. Well, they were something like this - they came in a bag and were about the same size as these but they were like a mash-up of M&Ms and Reese's Pieces (this is all a vague recollection, correct me if I'm wrong). When you bit into the little disks (like fat, large, plain M&Ms) the top layer was peanut butter cream and the bottom was milk chocolate and it was all covered in a bright candy shell.

Wonka discontinued those pretty quickly.

Now we've got the new Oompas which are pretty much jumbo Skittles.

Oompas are brightly colored and about the size of garbanzo beans (about two or three times the size of Skittles). Where most of us eat two or three Skittles at a time, I'd probably only eat one of these at a time. Thus losing out on one of the great things of Skittles which is flavor combos - you put a lemon and lime in your mouth at the same time. Generally with Skittles consumption I spill the bag out on my desk and separate them and eat pairs of comparable flavors - citrus with citrus, although lemon can be combined with grape or strawberry, etc.

Okay, enough with the Skittles comparisons. Oompas come in six flavors: Green Apple, Cherry, Lemon, Orange, Grape and Strawberry. What's especially interesting about eating these is that they're very sweet when you start to chew and they get more sour and zesty as you go (which is the opposite in most chews). Though I don't care for the intense sweet start, these have a nice finish and are less grainy that some other chews. Think of them more like Starbursts than Skittles.

My thing about these assorted flavor packages of stuff is that I invariably only like a few of the flavors. I don't care for the cherry at all, though it does have a strong flavor. I didn't like the strawberry or green apple either, and again, that's personal preference, I'm not saying they were bad. What I did like was the orange and lemon and the grape was just okay. If I liked the majority of the flavors, I think I'd be able to give this a higher rating. As it is, they're pretty good and I wouldn't turn them down if you put a big bowl in front of me and I could discreetly pick out the flavors I like.

Interesting fact from the wrapper: made in New Zealand.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Field Trip

Candy Blog hit the road yesterday to visit Candy Warehouse in Irwindale, CA. The president and founder of the company, Chris, gave me the full tour of their facility and has entrusted me with tasty samples to review in future blog entries.

So, look forward to the following: Trolli Gummi Clown Fish, a lollipop bouquet, gummi and candy sushi, finger lites (a lollipop candy that flashes), pop rocks dips, craniyums pops, chocolate poker chips and mint truffle chocolate cards, Wonka's new Oompas, gummi sharks and hot peppers (they're really hot) ... gah! That's it. I've take photos and now I'm going to have to start tasting. I can say already that there's some great stuff in here.

Read longer report here at la.foodblogging.com.

Butterfinger Crisp

Name: Butterfinger Crisp
Brand: Butterfinger (Nestle)
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only Store
Price: 33 cents
Size: 1.76 oz
Calories per ounce: 143
Type: Peanutbutter Crisp



I've always been fond of wafer and creme cookies. They're a pure blast of sugar in a rather bland styrofoamy cookie. I figured this bar was similar to that, only butterfingery.

Essentially there are bland wafers with a butterfinger creme which is a sweet peanut butter flavored concoction. The whole bar is then enrobed in a chocolatey wax and some more crumbled "crunchety" bits.

What I can say, beyond the fact that this bar is a great mix of textures, is that it's salty. I know that sounds like a weird thing to mention, but there're 140 mgs of salt in this bar. Don't get me wrong, I think that the salt is a great complement to the flavors in this bar, but it's very noticeable.

That aside, the crisp wafers and smooth and strongly peanutty creme is a great combo and if I could just find that as a cookie, I'd be pretty happy. What makes this a candy bar though, is that they dipped the whole thing in some sort of chocolate flavored wax (similar to what they put on Butterfingers). This waxy coating is the reason I don't enjoy Butterfingers. In fact, if you gave me a Butterfinger, I'd probably scrape the chocolate off and enjoy the great peanutbutter crisp center. I couldn't even find any mention of the chocolately coating in the description of the bar on the Butterfinger site, so they must not think it's much of a selling point either.

What I should mention is that the bar I tried was manufactured in Venezuela. I don't know if this is the norm for all bars sold in the states of if it's how I was able to purchase a normally 75 cent bar for 33 cents. (And it was fresh.)

In general, if I feel like a nutty crisp bar covered in chocolate, I go for a 5th Avenue.

Rating - 6 out of 10

Dars Bitter

Name: Dars Bitter Chocolate
Brand: Morinaga
Place Purchased: Jbox
Price: $1.25
Size: 50 grams
Calories per ounce: unknown
Type: Chocolate



This was one of the purchases from Japan I was most worried about ordering through the mail because of the summer heat. Luckily it made the trip in perfect condition.

Morinaga makes excellent consumer chocolate and for a decent price. I've had their Hi-CROWN chocolate and liked it very much. This one is about half the price and still comes in a snazzy package great for sharing. (In fact, I shared about a third of this with others.)

Inside the box is a mylar sealed tray with an array of a dozen chocolate nuggets, each a diminuitive bite of chocolate. Because I ordered this directly from Japan, there is no English wrapper on it and I can only glean a few things from the packaging. One is that it's 45% cocoa solids and the other is that it's dark chocolate. I have to say, if they're not putting a lot of sugar in it, and it's only 45% cocoa everything else must be cocoa butter and that's a good thing. This is exceptionally creamy and smooth dark chocolate with a wonderful smokey chocolate flavor with a slight cognac note to it. Not too sweet and not at all grainy.

Bonus to Moninaga for putting a freshness date on there too.

Rating - 9 out of 10 ... if only I could find it easily nearby

Take 5 ... Take a dozen! They're good!

Name: Take Five
Brand: Hershey's
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only Store
Price: 33 cents
Size: 1.5 oz
Calories per ounce: 147
Type: Chocolate/Caramel/Peanut butter



If I were to create the perfect candy bar, a great snack bar that would give me energy and taste good, it would contain the following: chocolate, pretzels, caramel and nuts. It'd be a great mix of simple carbs, fat and protein so as not to overwhelm the bloodstream with too much sugar. In my world it'd be a super turtle with a pretzel base, chewy caramel then pecans all covered in semi-sweet chocolate.

On a visit to the Chocolate Homeworld, er, sorry, Chocolate World in Hershey on New Year's Day, this was the sample they gave us at the end of the ride. I quickly bargained with the other people in our party for theirs.

Hershey's is dang close with the Take 5 bar. It's got a pretzel center covered with peanut butter then a layer of caramel, a few chopped peanuts and then it's all enrobed in milk chocolate. (Maybe I got that order wrong, it's hard to tell.) The proportions are solid and the pretzel has got a great salty kick. If anything, the milk chocolate is a little sweet, but the salt on the pretzels and the slight saltiness of the peanut butter (which tastes like the center of a Reese's ... maybe sweeter) balances well. If it only came in dark chocolate I might be in heaven.

The packaging is good, there are two little pieces in a tray and sealed in a the plastic packaging so they stay intact and are easy to slide out. I really wish they could figure out how to make this without hydrogenated oils, though it's pretty far down on the list of ingredients and doesn't show up on the nutrition part. For now I'll keep buying it when I need a little boost during the day. It's especially good with a morning cup of coffee, as I'm having the second piece right now.

As far as I'm concerned this bar could have lots of versions. A pecan/maple version, a pecan/dark chocolate turtle one, maybe white chocolate and walnuts or macadamias (not really for me, but a solid combo - I know that a white version of this same bar exists but I haven't seen it yet) then another version with mint cookies and almonds.

Rating - 9 out of 10 (just make a dark version or a pecan one!)

See also: The Message Whore's review (both milk chocolate & white)

S'mores

Name: S'mores
Brand: Hershey's
Place Purchased: 99 Cent Only Store
Price: 33 cents
Size: 1.65 oz
Calories per ounce: 145
Type: Chocolate Candy/Marshmallow



To follow up on the earlier review of the Cup-O-Gold I figured I'd contrast that with Hershey's S'mores bar. The S'mores bar is marshmallow on top of a graham cracker crust covered in chocolate. If you recall the S'mores most of us have made, they were a toasted marshmallow (or two), a few squares of Hershey's chocolate between two graham crackers. What was great about that combo was that you'd freshly toasted the marshmallow so it was retardedly hot in the middle and of cuorse melted the chocolate and the ratio being the dominance of the graham crackers (which also kept your fingers from being burned).

In this bar Hershey's has the ratios all askew. By far the dominant feature of this bar is the marshmallow center. It's not a traditional white marshmallow but a slightly tan version that seems a tad nougaty ... perhaps they're trying to make it taste toasted. Much sweeter than it needed to be and lacked that meringue feeling that a good marshmallow has. There no graham cracker here. Instead the crust seems to be a crisco and cookie bits amalgamation. Then it's covered in very sweet milk chocolate.

Too sweet, not enough toasty flavor and the graham cracker thing was just plain wrong. Move along, nothing to taste here.

See also: Taste the World's Review and Writers/Artists Snacking at Work's Review

Rating: 4 out of 10

Cup-O-Gold

Name: Cup-O-Gold
Brand: Hoffman's (made by Adams & Brooks)
Place Purchased: 99 cent store
Price: 33 cents
Size: 1.25 oz
Calories per ounce: 168
Type: Chocolate/Marshmallow



Okay, I'll admit I bought this in an effort to diversify my offerings on the site. I like the idea of supporting some smaller candy companies, and this one is made right here in Los Angeles. I didn't think I'd like it. I'm not that keen on marshamallow as a rule. I love toasted marshallows, but for some reason I don't think of those as candy. Most other marshamllow candies are just to sticky sweet. The only one to date that I like (and buy regularly) is See's Scotchmallow - which is a marshmallow top on a disc of caramel covered in chocolate. Their mallow has a bit of a honey note to it, which complements the caramel well.

Anyway, this little delightful cup is made with milk chocolate with bits of coconut mixed in and crushed of almonds. Inside that is an incredibly light and foamy marshamllow creamy filling. I also liked the package. The graphics are bold and smooth and appealing.

The complex flavors really blend together well. The bits in the chocolate offset the sweetness of the chocolate and the foamy center gives a smooth texture and lightness to it all. The thing is, I'm still not sure if I'll buy these again. Maybe if I get a jones for a scotchmallow and I'm not in the mall.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Does NOT need more Cowbell

Name: Vaque Tona (Chocolate and Caramel)
Brand: Lorena
Place Purchased: Big Lots
Price: 33 cents
Size: 1.05 oz
Calories per ounce: Unknown
Type: Frosting?

In an attempt to be more international, I picked up these curiosities last week at the Big Lots, after being sent there by a blog posting about ice cream toppings.

Now, I know I said that buying candy at dollar stores is scary. And I don't think this review should dissaude you from that notion.



I could not get an accurate translation of Vaque Tona on the web. I tried both Spanish and Portuguese (the manufacturer is in Brazil) but didn't get much out of it. So I've decided these are called Cowbells. I think that's what they're supposed to look like. Unless they're udders.

What they are is a little tube that ends in a mesh dome. You press up on the plunger inside the tube to dispense lickable goo ... something akin to frosting. You can suck it right from the plunger or smash the little ring into it and lick it off of that.

The two flavors I picked up were chocolate caramel and caramel.



It's basically frosting. A cutesy delivery device for frosting. And that'd be okay if it was actually good frosting. Frosting isn't that hard to make, so it's beyond me why these can't be good. First, they're rather stale tasting. Sure, they're sweet, but the chocolate one doesn't really have a cocoa punch to it, more of a cardboard taste to it. It's mostly smooth and creamy except for a plethora of little chunks of what I think are sugar. They don't seem to be distributed consistently enough to be a feature, but they were both like that. The caramel one was very strong in its flavor, which I think is kind of an artificial vanilla flavor.

I'm gonna have to give this one a resounding thumbs down. Though the packaging and concept is sound, the execution is, well, unappealing.

Rating: 3 out of 10

RealAudio and PodCast for Good Food

If you missed the broadcast of KCRW's Good Food with Evan Kleinman on Saturday morning, it's now available at their website:

Listen here with RealAudio

or

Download the podcast here.

You'll find my segment starting at 34:20 (though they're all great fun, especially the drive-in food segment before mine).

Wilbur Buds

Name: Wilbur Buds
Brand: Wilbur
Place Purchased: Phone Order from Factory
Price: $26.99 (plus shipping)
Size: 5 lbs (that's $5.40 per pound)
Calories per ounce: 162
Type: Chocolate

I've mentioned my favorite chocolate before, it's Wilbur. Wilbur is made in a small town in Pennsylvania, Lititz, a scant 27 miles from the more famous Hershey. Wilbur, in fact, predates Hershey and even has a version of the kiss, known as the Wilbur Bud (which was also introduced several years earlier than the Hershey Kiss).

The Wilbur bud comes in milk or semi-sweet chocolate and is pure simplicity. It's just a large chocolate chip, with a little curl on top and a molded bottom that says Wilbur. What's great about the Wilbur buds is that they are incredibly smooth and creamy. Where Hershey and Nestle chocolate has a slight grain to it, Wilbur has none, it's pure chocolate smoothness. The milk chocolate is European style, so those who are fond of Cadbury will appreciate it's milkyness. The semi-sweet is bold, with a strong cocoa taste, complex and slightly bitter but melts easily on the tongue. Part of this explained by the cocoa butter content. I know a lot of people are into this movement of 70%+ cocoa solids, but besides the smoky flavor of chocolate, what sets it apart from all other candies is cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is one of those rare fats that is solid at room temperature and liquid at body temp. The more cocoa butter, the more melty the chocolate.

So knowing all that, it should come as no surprise that I would go to such lengths to purchase said chocolate. A few weeks ago I called up the factory order line and got a five pound box. After all, it's the best deal. And I have a wine fridge to store it in through the hot summer months.

One of the big things about chocolate is that there are two kinds: there are candy chocolates and savoring chocolates. Wilbur, for me, falls into both categories. Because of the high cocoa butter content (only 50% cocoa solids) it's more snackable but the creamyness makes it wonderfully rich. I love eating these with other foods, too. It's great in a homemade trail mix for hiking where you mix in some dried fruits (cranberries, apricots or raisins) and nuts (almonds, hazelnuts or cashews) and some pretzels. When I've got a stash, I usually keep a small bowl of them around at all times.

Rating: 9 out of 10 (if I could find it easily it'd be pure 10)

Blatant Self-Promotion

I'll be on KCRW's radio show Good Food tomorrow (7/9/05) at 11:00 AM talking about candyblog.net. If you don't live in Southern California where it airs, you can also catch the show on the web via real player on this page after it airs. KCRW also offers PodCasts of its shows.

Leave me a note here if you know of where the show airs other places in the country (I was having trouble with a websearch on that).

Green and Black Caramels

Name: Green Tea and Black Sugar Caramels
Brand: Morinaga
Place Purchased: Jbox
Price: $1.75 & $1.60 plus shipping
Size: 60 grams(?0
Calories per ounce: unknown
Type: Caramel

I know, you must think me obsessed with caramels. But they are one of the most perfect expressions of sugar and fat. Soft, yielding, bursting with sugary flavor that lingers in the crevices of your mouth. They're great for summer too, since they're not subject to the temperature extremes of chocolate.

As promised, I'm ready to share my Japanese finds from my recent shipment.


First is Morinaga's Kokutou Caramel. This is what's known as a black sugar caramel, or probably what westerners know of as brown sugar or molasses. This caramel is darker than the milk caramels I've tried from Japan. It has a slightly rummy aroma and a definite molasses bite to it when chewing. It's a really nice, smooth caramel with a good finish. There's no molasses bitterness either. It's not sticky, but plenty chewy with a good milky consistency.

Morinaga also makes a Matcha Caramel, which is a green tea flavored caramel. The nugget is definitely green. It smells of green tea and tastes just like green tea ice cream, with that same smooth roasted flavor and slight bitter tinge. Unfortunately after chewing for a while, it feels a little grainy and slightly bitter, like there are real ground up leaves in there. That aside, they're quite addictive and both caramels complement each other well - so I can just alternate between the two all afternoon.

Rating: Kokutou Caramel - 8 out of 10
Matcha Caramel - 7 out of 10

See also: Morinaga Hi-CHEW, Morinaga Milk Caramel, Super Butter Caramel, Wha Guru Chew

Hershey's Cookies 'n' Mint

Name: Hershey's Cookies 'n' Mint
Brand: Hershey's
Place Purchased: Liquor Store (Hollywood)
Price: $.85
Size: 1.55 oz
Calories per ounce: 142
Type: Chocolate/Mint


I love these bars. Well, I did when they first came out. The thing is, I'm not sure they're out now. I checked the Hershey's site and didn't find any mention of the Cookies 'n' Mint being reintroduced ... so is this a very old bar? It was certainly dusty. (Again, I'd love it if Hershey's started putting freshness dates on their products.) While they're at it, the packaging is a little deceiving - it's milk chocolate, not some sort of green stuff like the picture shows.

That aside, when these were out and widely available I preferred the "nuggets" format. I don't know why, but the flat bar didn't make the crunchy parts sing as well. I think the surface area isn't good for the chocolate either, I think it makes it all more prone to temperature changes.

But I digress.

This is a minted milk chocolate bar with small chocolate cookie bits (think of the cookie part of an oreo crumbled into minty chocolate). It's a great combination. I think the crunch provides a nice contrast, and the fact that the cookie isn't terribly sweet offsets the sweetness of the milk chocolate.

I hope this bar gets reintroduced or at least the nuggets will be available for a limited time every year. If you like this bar, I suggest the Harry London Cookie Joys as an excellent substitute.

Rating: 8 out of 10 (would be more if the bar were fresher)

New Lollies: Jolly Rancher Fruit Chew Center & Way Sour Blow Pop

Lollipops have kind of come back. When I was a kid there weren't many good lollipops. There were those pretty ones that you'd see at the fair or candy shop - you know, those big paddle-looking ones that were of twisted hard tack. But they had no flavor. Then came the Charms pops, the Tootsie Pops and Blow Pops. There were the occasional novelty pop along the way, but that was pretty much it for some twenty years or so (I'm just saying this from memory ... I've done zero research).

Now there seems to be a revisiting of lollies. I noticed this a few years back when I discovered the wonderful Chupa Chups. These are great Spanish lollies that have good flavor, come in a huge assortment and have a PLASTIC stick, which means that it doesn't fall apart on you if you're a slobberer.

Name: Jolly Rancher Fruit Chew Center Lollipop
Brand: Jolly Rancher (Hershey's)
Place Purchased: Liquor Store (Hollywood)
Price: $.30
Size: .56
Calories per ounce:
Type: Lolly

It's kind of odd that this package doesn't really give this candy a title. It's Jolly Rancher, and it's described in the sense that it's assigned to be "GRAPE - artificially flavored" and "Fruit Chew Center" but it's not really called Jolly Rancher Lolly or anything.



This was very artificially grape flavored and that's okay. The flavor was through and through with a solid tart taste as well. The center was like a grape starburst, if they make those. What was a little weird though was the that lolly wasn't made of a Jolly Rancher. You know, that tacky melty consistency that Jolly Ranchers have ... that's not here. It's not a bad thing, but something I missed.

Name: Way Sour Super Blow Pop
Brand: Charms
Place Purchased: Liquor Store (Hollywood)
Price: $.35
Size: 1.35 oz
Calories per ounce: unknown
Type: Lolly



This is a downright huge lolly. It has a strong orange scent and an excruciatingly sour bite. Well, it's called Way Sour, so I can't complain. But I will. I think it comes from being an adult, there's only so much sour I can take. I can eat Lemonheads because there's a rest period when you've eaten through the sour layer. With the Way Sour Blow Pop, I never got there. I tried for about a half an hour and never made even a dent in this thing.

The flavor is great, very orangy, very sour. It's not a blistering sour, but tart nonetheless.

UPDATE - I gave the Way Sour another try. I thought maybe my mouth was a little tender from eating too much fresh pineapple. Anyway, the second go around was much more doable, it's still very tart, but has a lot of flavor, it's not all about the sour. The gum center is a little bland after all that, and slightly rubbery instead of gummy. I've upgrade my initial score from a 4 to a 6.

Rating: Jolly Rancher Fruit Pops - 6 out of 10
Way Sour Blow Pops - 6 out of 10

See also - Starburst Chew Pops

Hershey's Double Chocolate

Name: Hershey's Double Chocolate
Brand: Hershey's
Place Purchased: Liquor Store (Hollywood)
Price: $.85
Size: 1.6 oz
Calories per ounce: 131
Type: Chocolate



I'm not sure what Hershey's is up to with this one. It's just a bad idea. There are plenty of good filled candy bars, but I'm not sure I understand how you'd go so wrong with this one.

Inside on the little white cardboard tray is a bar with four square segments of milk chocolate. Inside those is something that looks like Hershey's chocolate syrup. Which we all know isn't chocolate, it's just cocoa/sugar/water. So what you end up with is a very sweet milk chocolate outside and a sickly sweet cardboard tasting sugar goo. It's messy, it's sticky.

I hope that this edition is very limited because this bar is just sad and cheap. I ate two out of the four squares and threw the other half out. Don't get me wrong, I think that Hershey's makes good product. It's consistent and fresh and I applaud their use of the "Limited Edition" to try out new flavor combinations, but I'm not sure how this one made it past the test stage. I would also suggest the use of freshness dating.

Rating - 3 out of 10.

Twix Dark Chocolate

Name: Twix Dark Chocolate
Brand: Twix (Mars)
Place Purchased: Liquor Store (Hollywood)
Price: $.85
Size: 2.0 oz
Calories per ounce: 140
Type: Chocolate/Cookie


You know what I like about Mars products? They have an expiration date. When I'm buying candy at a place where it might have been sitting around for a while (read: Liquor Store), I kind of like to know if I'm eating something ten years old.

This one was supposedly fresh, but the chocolate seemed slighly chalky. The liquor store had it's doors wide open and it is now July, so I'm guessing climate control is not as important to them as getting people into the store.

Twix have been around for quite a few years (1979). I remember their introduction and walking to the corner store near the junior high and buying one. I was just mad about the $100,000 Bar and the Marathon Bar at the time and this seemed like a good evolution. But when I eat them they're always too sweet. I don't know what it is, I think that the cookie should be a pretzel or something and have a salty element to it. But that'd be a different candy bar and Mars has been very successful with the Twix and who am I to tinker with the recipe?

Well, Dark Chocolate Twix to the rescue! Where the milk chocolate in the classic Twix is cloying, the dark chocolate here has a slight bitter and smoky taste that complements the caramel and sweet cookie very well. I'm sure if the chocolate was fresh it'd taste even better.

I hope they add these to their repetoire permanently. I'd actually buy them.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Almond Joy Chocolate Chocolate

Name: Almond Joy Chocolate Chocolate
Brand: Peter Paul (Hershey's)
Place Purchased: Liquor Store
Price: $.85
Size: 1.61 oz
Calories per ounce: 143
Type: Chocoalte/Coconut

I wholeheartedly support making Almond Joys with dark chocolate. Because the difference between an Almond Joy and a Mounds bar is not just the nut ... it's the milk chocolate/dark chocolate respectively. In fact, I think the dark chocolate/almond/coconut combo is even better.

This is not that bar though. Because they threw something else in the mix (literally), some chocolate into the coconut center.

You'd hardly know it though. At least I don't. I'm not sure I can tell that there is anything different with this filling. Maybe it's a ruse to get me to now buy a regular Almond Joy to do a side-by-side comparison.

Here's a fun fact though ... this Almond Joy bar has 12% of your daily recommended intake of fiber.

Though they messed around with the perfect simplicity of a classic, this is still a very good bar. I've always found the coconut center of the Mounds/Almond Joy family to be sweeter and moister than the Bounty bars (do they still make those).

Rating: 8 out of 10.