First thing I have to say about Brach’s Milk Maid Chocolate Caramel Candy Corn is that the name is too long. If the name takes up three lines, it’s too long. These are tiny little pieces of candy ... the name should not weigh more than the candy itself.

I knew this candy existed, but I was having trouble finding it. I was delighted not only to find it at Walgreen’s, but also in this 7 ounce bag (instead of the 9.5 ounce Caramel Apple Candy Corn a few weeks ago and the mondo 22 ounce bag I got of the the Caramel Candy Corn last year).

The package says that it’s made with real cocoa and real milk. I’d never really thought about candy corn being a dairy product. (Makes me think about creamed corn.)

The pieces are attractive. A medium brown bottom, a darker brown middle and a white tip.

My bag was exceptionally sloppy. There weren’t many well-formed pieces, some were missing a color but mostly they were just irregular. Part of the fun is the attractiveness of candy corn. This didn’t quite measure up.

The base flavor is the caramel. It’s a bit salty and has that fake butter flavor to it that I can handle in tiny doses. The middle section has a light cocoa flavor and the white top is, of course, unadulterated sweetness. They taste a bit richer than the typical orange & yellow candy corn, but I found the fake butter a little too artificial to keep me eating these.

It makes me wish they sold these in 1 ounce bags. That would have been enough to satisfy my curiosity.

The ingredients list salt above the actual milk in here. There’s also gelatin, so no good for vegetarians and it’s not Kosher.

This was the first Brach’s package I’ve seen so far that makes note of the new Farley’s & Sathers ownership.

I was rather excited to see the Brach’s Assorted Halloween Mellowcremes on the same shelf. I thought they discontinued or perhaps only available in bulk.

The package joyfully tells me it’s America’s #1! (It’s also made in Mexico.)

Honestly it’s been so long since I had the Brach’s Mellowcremes, I didn’t remember whether they were flavored or not. (The Autumn Mix is not distinctly flavored.)

These little fondant nuggets come in four colors and eight shapes: crescent moon, black cat, pumpkin, jug, jack o’lantern, bat, corn cob and sheaf of wheat.

The flavors are determined by the color of the Mellowcreme.

Yellow = Banana - either you love fake banana or you don’t. As strong as my aversion is to fake butter flavor, my affection for artificial banana matches it. The flavor is mellow, with a touch of honey and salt. It’s soft and slightly grainy but melts easily.

Tan = Maple - this was the surprise of the package. I fully expected these to be the caramel flavor. Instead they have a nice woodsy/toasted taste to them, like a hunk of brown sugar.

Dark Brown = Cocoa - far more cocoa flavored than any Indian Corn I’ve ever had. But not really that good either, terribly empty and cardboard tasting, like a Tootsie Roll that’s been freeze dried, pulverized and smashed into a bat shape.

Orange = Candy Corn - the pumpkins are faithful to the Brach’s Candy Corn flavor. Sweet, bland and with a slight touch of honey. (Though there’s no honey in here.)

The package I picked has more yellow and tan ones, so I think I did well here as those are the ones I’m picking out to eat anyway.

The salt really helps these out. There’s 110 mg of Sodium in every serving, which is quite a lot for a candy (but an excellent stat if this was a canned soup). Consider it a boost to your electrolytes, maybe athletes will start carrying Mellowcremes as a recovery supplement.

I think the bragging rights are earned here. I now think that Mellowcremes are worth the search. (These also contain gelatin.) 7 out of 10

Related Candies

1. Pumpkin Spice Kisses
2. Zachary Candy Corn & Jelly Pumpkins
3. Candy Corn Kisses
4. Jelly Belly Deluxe Easter Mix
5. Gourmet Goodies Candy Corn
6. The Great Pumpkin Roundup

Name:	Milk Maid Chocolate Caramel Candy Corn & Assorted Halloween Mellowcremes	RATING: SUPERB YUMMY TASTY WORTH IT TEMPTING PLEASANT BENIGN UNAPPEALING APPALLING INEDIBLE
Brand:	Brach's
Place Purchased:	Walgreen's (Echo Park)
Price:	$1.39
Size:	9.5 ounces
Calories per ounce:	99
Categories:	Caramel, United States, Mexico, Brach's, Halloween

It’s the first day of fall, so my thoughts turned to harvest.

Brach’s is pretty much the gold standard for Candy Corn for me. There are other good quality makers out there too, like Jelly Belly and Zachary, but I prefer the Brach’s stuff because I can actually taste the honey and that’s what I prefer.

Brach’s has a pretty extensive line of candy corn products and they’ve returned to shelves for fall. I’ve seen the Autumn Mix, Indian Corn and regular Candy Corn on shelves. I picked up this newer version called Milk Maid Caramel Apple Candy Corn this year. I tried the other flavor introduced last year as well, Milk Maid Caramel Candy Corn which I found tasted more like buttered popcorn than caramel.

The pieces are fun and feel like fall and harvest. They’re a medium brown on the bottom, a milky red in the middle and have white tips.

Unlike my experience with the Caramel Candy Corn, this didn’t smell at all before opening the package. Once I did, I found it a pleasant mix of apple, sugar and vanilla - exactly what I would have expected from the name.

Most of the pieces seem pretty big and dominated by the red center.

Like most candy corn, this bag had its assortment of not-quite-ready-for-primetime players. These were shorter pieces that were missing one or more colors. I rather like the variation and ability to eat just one of the flavor layers if I want, so I don’t hold it against them.

The red center has a light apple flavor, rather like apple peels not the sour green apple candy flavor. The brown caramel layer at the bottom has a light salty hit to it and a butter flavor that bugged me when I just at the brown bits alone. But as I’ve noted before, confections that use Red 40 tend to leave a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. So I enjoy these for about five minutes and then I regret eating them. Then I toss them in a drawer in my desk, go away for the weekend and come back and it’s like I’ve completely forgotten about the aftertaste (maybe it has some sort of short-term memory wiping properties?).

As a novelty flavor, I like these better than most. I wouldn’t mind it being added to the Autumn Mix, but I still prefer Indian Corn. Brach’s also makes a Milk Maid Chocolate Caramel Candy Corn which isn’t even mentioned on their website but I saw on ebay. I’m still looking for it.

This candy corn has gelatin in it, so it’s unsuitable for vegetarians and isn’t Kosher or Halal. 

Related Candies

1. Zachary Candy Corn & Jelly Pumpkins
2. Candy Corn Kisses
3. Jelly Belly Deluxe Easter Mix
4. Gourmet Goodies Candy Corn
5. Brachs Autumn Mix

Name:	Milk Maid Caramel Apple Candy Corn	RATING: SUPERB YUMMY TASTY WORTH IT TEMPTING PLEASANT BENIGN UNAPPEALING APPALLING INEDIBLE
Brand:	Brach's
Place Purchased:	Long's (Dublin, CA)
Price:	$1.49
Size:	9.5 ounces
Calories per ounce:	99
Categories:	Caramel, United States, Brach's, Halloween

When I was afraid I was getting sick earlier this winter I turned to candy. After all, many candies started out as medicine. The cough drops of yesteryear are the root beer barrels and cherry LifeSavers of today. Sometimes I eat vitamin C enriched hard candies, figuring, what could it hurt and it might help.

The government keeps candy companies from making grandiose claims, but that doesn’t stop them from trying to nudge us to buy something because it might have nutritional value (I seriously doubt I’m at high risk for scurvy). I spied these Brach’s Gummi+Plus (is that supposed to be said aloud as Gummi Plus Plus?) at the 7-11 and though they might ease an aching throat. I was also intrigued because they had different flavors: Cranberry, Pomegranate, Orange, Apple, Strawberry & Blueberry. I was really curious to taste a pomegranate or cranberry gummi!

They look just like any other gummis, each in a little fruit shape. What gives these their +Plus is an infusion of three antioxidants: 25% of your RDA of vitamin A, Vitamin C & Vitamin E.

Though they’re throwing “immune boosting” powers at us, it’s obvious that they didn’t really commit to the whole line, as they didn’t even bother to make up molds for these new fruits.

Blueberry looks like a bunch of grapes. Let me tell you, blueberries do not grow in bunches.

Besides the freaky shape and unnatural color, the flavor is, well, kind of like a berry of some sort. You could tell me it’s a black raspberry and I’d probably believe you.

The Strawberry looks comfortingly familiar. What’s more, it’s a delicate shade of light red (though actual strawberries are a very deep and rich color).

It’s soft and tangy and has a good strawberry jam flavor to it.

Not exciting in a plus plus way, but tasty.

The package had no purple on it, but did show a red “berry” that I’m going to guess is this one: Pomegranate. The shape is a pretty good patch to what pomegranate seeds look like if you peel away the membrane carefully.

It’s quite a good flavor, like a combination of raspberry and cherry ... not quite pomegranate, but certainly a lot less fuss.

Very traditional shape for the Apple and of course they go with the green instead of red.

It’s a good apple juice flavor instead of just the fake green apple (but there’s a little bit of that in there too).

In fact, the ingredients list apple juice as an ingredient (I’m guessing they use it instead of a splash of water so they can say “made with real fruit juice!”

You’re thinking, oh, that’s cherry. Uh, uh. This is Cranberry. I’m also here to tell you that cranberries do not grown on paired stems like this.

No matter, this one is much like the pomegranate. Very deep, with a much more tart and acidic overtone. I welcome the cranberry to the gummi mix! I hope it sticks around, as far as super sours go, cranberries are overlooked.

Ah, the classic Orange. This one has a lot of zest to it, almost too much. It’s downright bitter.

I rather liked that, it made it feel more medicinal, more like candied orange peel or some sort of soothing tea.

As far as the antioxidant properties, I still got the flu, but then again I didn’t finish the bag until I decided to write these up while I’m traveling. (Gummis are great traveling candy.) I couldn’t detect any flavors that were particularly indicative of “vitamins” and vitamin E can be like that sometimes.

Brach’s also offers an assortment of Tropical Gummis. One of the fun parts of this was that the only flavor that intersected with the Gummi +Plus was Orange. I got to test whether the fortified gummis really tasted different from the regular ones. (Nope.)

You can tell here, too, that they’re similar molds.

Orange was just as zesty.

Purple was probably raspberry. It’s hard to tell because there is no retail label on the bulk bag. It tastes like a very sweet raspberry jam.

Strawberry Banana was kind of cute. At first I didn’t know what that shape was. But the pink color and mild, sweet strawberry flavor (less tart than the Gummi +Plus) kind of cinched it. It reminds me a little of yogurt. The banana component is a little artificial tasting, but that’s okay with me.

Lime was cute. It’s nice to see lime instead of apple. It was zesty, a little bit of that bitterness that I noticed in the orange, but definitely convincing.

Lemon was pretty dark in color and I often mistook it for the orange. The shape and size were perfect, but the flavor was sadly bland. Not bad, just not rising to the same level as the rest.

Pineapple was what drew me to this mix in the first place. Look at it, it’s a cute little pineapple shaped gummi! Soft and tangy, with the floral note and that little thing that only pineapple can do to the salivary glands. (But luckily it didn’t burn my tongue, like I do sometimes with fresh pineapple.)

The texture of the gummis is far softer than something like Haribo, but not quite as pliable as Trolli. They do well sitting out, I left some out on my desk, and though the outside was a little drier after a weekend, they were still soft. The flavors are distinct, the molding very good and of course the price is quite reasonable. So many of the Brach’s candies are made overseas, these were made in the USA. 

Related Candies

1. Starburst GummiBursts
2. The Simpsons Fruit Snacks
3. Krunchy Bears
4. Gummi Lightning Bugs
5. Lifesaver Gummies
6. Haribo Gummi Bears vs Trolli Gummi Bears

Name:	Gummi +Plus & Tropical Gummis	RATING: SUPERB YUMMY TASTY WORTH IT TEMPTING PLEASANT BENIGN UNAPPEALING APPALLING INEDIBLE
Brand:	Brach's
Place Purchased:	7-11 & samples from CandyWarehouse
Price:	$1.49
Size:	6 ounces & 6.6 pounds
Calories per ounce:	103
Categories:	Gummi, United States, Brach's

One of the few candies that seemed to be in our house regularly when I was a kid were Cinnamon Imperials. Perhaps it was because they were considered “baking products.”

Around Valentine’s Day each year they’re available in little heart shapes. (Actually, lately this is the only way I can find them unless I’m willing to buy the stupidly expensive packages from the cake decorating companies, teensy boxes of Ferrara Pan Red Hots or in huge quantities via the web.)

They’re the perfect little candy and a rather simple construction. The center is a tiny pressed hard candy in the shape of a heart. They’re then tumbled in a panning machine and given several coats of red flavored sugar syrup and then shined up with a little edible wax.

They’re not super hot, just a pleasant spicy cinnamon. These feature the devilish Red #40, but for some reason the cinnamon flavor masks it well enough for me to keep eating these. Of course everyone knows I’ve been eating them because my tongue has been red for the past week.

They’re a fun candy to share and great for putting in a covered jar for everyone to enjoy. Definitely something to put on your list of items to pick up when they’re wildly on sale after Valentines.

I’ve never noticed much difference between the brands. I’ve had Ferrara Pan & Necco and probably a bunch of other brands that I never managed to figure out. The Food Network’s Unwrapped show did an episode on Valentines candy last weekend and showed a company named Primrose in Chicago also making them.

I’m fairly certain these were produced after Brach’s was taken over by Farley’s & Sathers last fall. The coding on it is the Farley’s & Sathers style. This particular bag has a code of 7332CYP5, using a Julian date system for the first four characters which means that it was produced on the 332rd day of 2007. That’d be November 27th, 2007. I’m guessing that a panned hard candy like this is good for at least 12 months. Tasted pretty fresh to me. 

Related Candies

1. Gobstopper Heart Breakers
2. Gimbal’s Lavaballs
3. Atomic Fireballs
4. Chuckles
5. Hot Tamales and Hotter Tamales

Name:	Cinnamon Imperial Hearts	RATING: SUPERB YUMMY TASTY WORTH IT TEMPTING PLEASANT BENIGN UNAPPEALING APPALLING INEDIBLE
Brand:	Brach's (Farley's & Sathers)
Place Purchased:	RiteAid (Vermonica)
Price:	$.99
Size:	8.25 ounces
Calories per ounce:	113
Categories:	Hard Candy, Cinnamon, United States, Brachs, Farley's & Sathers, Valentines

There’s rarely anything “new” in hard candy, so I was pleased to see Brach’s has a new assortment of hard candies called Soda Poppers.

They boast real fruit juice and come in four licensed soda flavors (from Cadbury Schweppes): A&W Root Beer, Doctor Pepper, Orange Crush & 7-Up.

Rather than just being a mix of hard candies in soda flavors, the twist on these is that they’re shaped like little cans and feature a firm goo center. (There’s no carbonation, though.)

7-Up - the uncola! The taste is really reminiscent of the soda. It’s tangy and has a very strong zest attribute with a slight bitterness that goes with it. It’s actually different from most other lemon-lime candies, so it’s not like it’s the same as any other lemon drop out there.

Orange Crush - I haven’t had an orange soft drink in a long time, though grape and orange were one of my favorites as a kid. This has a spot on orange soda flavor. The goo center verges on orange jelly slice to me, but that’s not a bad thing.

Dr. Pepper - my experience with Dr. Pepper is rather limited. I like the idea of it, but never the taste. It smells slightly like grape and has a little tinge of tartness at first then a black cherry and maybe even some root beer woodsiness. Whatever it is, it’s not something I plan on eating again.

A&W Root Beer - I’m a huge root beer fan and often eat the Brach’s A&W Root Beer barrels (though I’m not really particular). The flavor here is sufficiently intense. The soft center is definitely different and really makes the flavor intense.

I’m a hard candy cruncher, so I liked that I could crunch these pretty quickly and get a whole new texture. They were kind of sticky once crunched, but I don’t mind digging piece of hard candy off my teeth as an afternoon diversion.

Like the assortment that Jelly Belly has called Soda Pop Shoppe, there’s no cola in this mix. Strange, as that’s one of the flavors that’s unique to the carbonated drink arena (besides Dr. Pepper).

Would I buy these again? Probably not. I prefer the simple root beer barrel, lemon drop or orange slice. If they managed to get a cola flavor in the mix, well, now then we’d have something! As a flavor mix and the fact that they added the chewy jelly filling, well, it certainly changes the ordinary hard candy idea on its head. These are being sold in bulk in Pick a Mix and in small bags (I think 7 ounces).

Of note: Brach’s was recently sold by French chocolate company Barry Callebaut to Farley’s & Sathers (which itself is made up of a bunch of other candy companies rolled into one: Heide, Trolli, Farley’s, Sathers, Bob’s, Now & Laters and RainBlo gum). These candies were made in Argentina. 

Related Candies

1. Kenny’s Licorice Pastels & Root Beer Twists
2. Soda Can Fizzy Candy
3. Ramune & Cola Bubble Ball
4. Bottlecaps

Name:	Soda Poppers	RATING: SUPERB YUMMY TASTY WORTH IT TEMPTING PLEASANT BENIGN UNAPPEALING APPALLING INEDIBLE
Brand:	Brach's
Place Purchased:	samples from All Candy Expo
Price:	unknown
Size:	7 ounces
Calories per ounce:	unknown
Categories:	Hard Candy, Brach's

There used to be rules and people followed them. Oh, they were informal; things like no white shoes after Labor Day, your shoes should match your belt. Seasonal merchandise wouldn’t be put out until the previous holiday was over (no Christmas goodies before Thanksgiving). But those rules are long gone.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Halloween candy out already at the RiteAid before Labor Day. But at least this was something different. Instead of fruity flavors, this twist is from Brach’s Milk Maid line and is called Caramel Candy Corn.

Most of us have a love-hate relationship with Candy Corn. Well, some folks have a love-love or a hate-hate ... which averages out in the big scheme of things to a love-hate for the general population. I hate-love candy corn. I don’t really like eating it, but I love looking at it and the smell of it.

This stuff smells really promising, if a little overwhelming. Like caramelized sugar. It smelled so great in the store, I really wanted to take it home. Of course in the car (which I admit was as hot as one of those scented oil diffusers) the smell started getting to me in the way that candle stores do.

It all boils down to this, if you like Buttered Popcorn Jelly Belly, you’ll probably like Caramel Candy Corn. I don’t and I didn’t.

The texture is good, a nice smooth fondant. The white tip is unflavored and the two lower layers, orange and brown, are butter flavored fondant. The caramel flavor that the smell implies is completely missing, instead it has that intense note of butter flavored popcorn just crackling away in the microwave.

I just didn’t like them as much as I wanted to. Not nearly as much as the Brach’s Autum Mix (candy corn, Indian corn and mellow cremes). I was really unhappy that it was $2.29 for the bag to boot ... yeah, it’s a 19 ounce bag, but what do I need 19 ounces of buttered popcorn flavored candy corn for?

Related Candies

1. Milk Maid Caramel Apple Candy Corn
2. Caramel Previews: Mitchell Sweets & Caramoos
3. Spangler Candy Canes
4. Gourmet Goodies Candy Corn
5. Mary Jane Peanut Butter Kisses

Name:	Milk Maid Caramel Candy Corn	RATING: SUPERB YUMMY TASTY WORTH IT TEMPTING PLEASANT BENIGN UNAPPEALING APPALLING INEDIBLE
Brand:	Brach's
Place Purchased:	RiteAid (Vermonica)
Price:	$2.29
Size:	19 ounces
Calories per ounce:	99
Categories:	Caramel, United States, Brach's, Halloween

The full name on these is Brach’s Pastel Fiesta Malted Milk Eggs which of course made me wonder if they have another product that is perhaps primary colors or just black and white. Malted milk eggs at Easter were a particular favorite of mine. They were one of those interactive candies, you can lick the shell and then color your lips with the coral pink or white chalky edible makeup. (That white lipstick was quite the look when I was very little.)

Now of course I’m much more interested in the “real milk chocolate” part of the wrapper. Brach’s has been owned by Barry Callebaut since 2003, so maybe they were teaching Brach’s a thing or two about chocolate. They don’t need to be taught how to make boiled sugar candy, they do that just fine.

The Fiesta Eggs are big and bold. They make a satisfying clacking sound in the bag when you roll them around. They can be eaten whole (or applied liberally over the face) but I prefer to bite them in half and have a look. I don’t know what I expect to find, as it has always been the same ... malt center, chocolate layer and then hard colored shell. But you never know! (Actually, I’ve eaten very old malt balls before and every once in a while I’ve gotten ones with “melted” centers but shells that are intact or just a little dented.)

Fiesta Eggs smell like Easter. They’re sweet and have a slight vanilla hint to them. This bag was very fresh, the shells were super crisp and the centers were light and airy.

Unlike the normal chocolate covered malt balls, the Fiesta Egg is more about the combination of the texture of the hard sugar shell and the light crunch of the malted center. The chocolate layer provides a little bit of a creamy texture, but not much flavor. In the Brach’s chocolate, as far as I can tell, is too too sweet.

These still aren’t my ultimate malted egg. I’m not sure I’ve found it yet. I wasn’t blown away by the Jelly Belly ones either and I picked up some more vibrant colored ones (but I don’t know the brand) a the Sweet Factory a few weeks ago in the bulk bins. The tasted too much like food coloring and not enough like malt. Perhaps such a candy doesn’t exist.
See the previous review on Mighty Malts from Necco (and a photo of the Whopper’s Robin’s Eggs, for reference).

But you can be sure that I’m going to finish these! How do I look with lilac lipstick?

Name:	Pastel Fiesta Malted Milk Eggs	RATING: SUPERB YUMMY TASTY WORTH IT TEMPTING PLEASANT BENIGN UNAPPEALING APPALLING INEDIBLE
Brand:	Brach's
Place Purchased:	Long's (Laguna Woods)
Price:	$1.50 (on sale!)
Size:	7.5 ounces
Calories per ounce:	132
Categories:	Chocolate, Malt, United States, Brach's, Easter

Yeah, candy corn. What can I say about candy corn? Some people love it, some people hate it. Joanna at SugarSavvy.net already covered one of my favorite passages about candy corn by Lewis Black.

Based on her review I went off in search of candy corn last week. My results were dismal. I came home with one bag. Some stores did not have ANY candy corn at all (well, some also had CHRISTMAS candy out already so they had the lame reindeer corn). I picked up the Brach’s Autumn Mix. It’s a mix of pumpkin mallowcreams, candy corn and Indian corn.

Brach’s always makes nice looking, high quality candy. Their candy corn is no different and uses top-notch ingredients. Though candy corn is basically sugar and corn syrup boiled into a stiff fondant, Brach’s throws a little honey in there for taste besides the colorings.

The candy corn is big and narrow. Good definition between the colors, bright and with an attractively sweet smell. It’s soft and a bit grainy, but I kind of like that. Plain candy corn is eaten by putting the entire thing in the mouth and chewing.

Another variety of candy corn that is seen from time to time is often called “Indian Corn” but is really chocolate candy corn. Well, kind of chocolate. Someone walked by a vat of candy corn batter with a chocolate bar.

In order to rationalize the purchase of Indian corn, one must eat it by biting off the chocolate bottom first. It tastes like candy corn, but perhaps with a tint of a Tootsie Roll chocolatey-ness added.

The big plus in this bag of the Autumn mix is that it has the pumpkins in it. They’re a dense, semi-soft piece of sugar. There’s a throat burning sweetness that makes you want to go back to eating the candy corn for a moment until the lure of the large, compact sugar-singularity calls to you again. By the time you learn your lesson, the bag is empty, your teeth hurt and your stomach aches. 

When I was in grad school I saw a production of a play called Seventy Scenes of Halloween by Jeffrey M. Jones. Candy corn is featured heavily in it. I don’t know why I mention that, but you know, in case someone was looking for advice on what plays to include in a candy themed theatre festival, I’d love to help!

I like candy corn as a concept. I like it as decoration. I don’t think it’s great as a candy, but I have to give it a passing grade because I keep eating it. I really like to buy it when it’s 10 cents for a pound of it sometime in late November. Then it scores a 7 out of 10.

For another view on Brach’s Autumn Mix, Rebecca coincidentally posted on the same product today.

Related Candies

1. Zachary Candy Corn & Jelly Pumpkins
2. Candy Corn Kisses
3. Jelly Belly Deluxe Easter Mix
4. Gourmet Goodies Candy Corn

Name:	Autumn Mix	RATING: SUPERB YUMMY TASTY WORTH IT TEMPTING PLEASANT BENIGN UNAPPEALING APPALLING INEDIBLE
Brand:	Brach's
Place Purchased:	Rite Aid (Echo Park)
Price:	$.99
Size:	11 ounces
Calories per ounce:	109
Categories:	Chocolate, Mexico, Brach's, Halloween