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HalloweenWednesday, October 26, 2016
M&Ms Boo-tterscotch (Target Exclusive)Five years ago Mars introduced White Chocolate Candy Corn M&Ms for Halloween. It was probably one of their most successful seasonal flavors to date, with my evidence amounting to the fact that it’s been five years and they keep returning. Other flavors come and go, but these just keep coming back, like candy corn itself. This year there’s a new Halloween flavor at Target called M&Ms Boo-tterscotch which are rather similar. They’re also a white chocolate center, but instead of bland note of candy corn these have a strong flavor of butterscotch. These are a Target exclusive, but like other flavors, if they go well, we might see them released to other stores in future seasons. While Candy Corn is absolutely a fall flavor, this Boo-ttercotch, aside from the pun, doesn’t really have much in common with Halloween. The pieces come in three creamy butterscotchy colors: an eggshell white, a burnt yellow and a creamy brown. The smell when opening the bag is overwhelmingly buttery sweet, but not the buttered popcorn smell that I got from the Candy Corn Peeps. It’s pleasant and comforting, if you’re the type of person who likes butterscotch pudding. I’m one of those people. The smell is a bit woodsy, a bit like pecan pie but also a little more fake like Brach’s Butterscotch Buttons. They’re absolutely just flavored, not a sublime scorched sugar flavor like Valrhona created for their dark white chocolate called Blond Dulcey. The authentic toffee notes and deep creaminess of a good Budino are thin here ... but they’re M&Ms. I bought some Candy Corn M&Ms to compare, just to be sure that they weren’t the same thing, but after I opened the Boo-tterscotch I realized that really wasn’t necessary. The Candy Corn M&Ms are unflavored compared to these. I liked them, but I’m a white chocolate lover. They’re sweet and sticky and fake. They’re pretty to look at, a bit expensive (the special flavors are in 8 ounce packages while the regular are mostly 9.9 ounces) and of course in limited supply and sold only at Target. They’re probably good to mix in with other snack items, especially things like salty peanuts, pretzels or popcorn. I could also see them going with regular M&Ms, just as a little bolt of extra sweet. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:38 pm Candy • Halloween • Mars • M&Ms • White Chocolate • 7-Worth It • United States • Target • Saturday, October 31, 2015
Happy HalloweenI’ve got something for everyone if you come knocking at my front gate this year: Justin’s Peanut Butter Cups, Payday Bars, Airheads Minis, Charms Sweet & Sour Pops, assorted Wrigley’s sugar free gums, and some lemon drops. If you’re curious what Halloween in Los Angeles is like, one of my digital buds has been tracking what he gives out and what costumes the kids appear with going back 10 years. Happy Halloween! Stay safe, eat lots. Thursday, October 29, 2015
Candyology 101 - Podcast Episode 25 - HalloweenIt’s the Candyology 101 podcast anniversary. Our first episode was also about Halloween. This year we talked about some of the new products we’ve seen, recommended candies for dietary restrictions (allergies) and the goofiest candy poll we’ve seen in years.
Happy Halloween, sweet friends!
POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:05 pm Candy • Halloween • Highlight • Radio Interviews • Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Brach’s Sea Salt Chocolate Candy CornBrach’s has a few new versions of their classic Candy Corn this year, in addition to the return of Apple Pie, Pumpkin Pie and Caramel Macchiatto. The Brach’s Sea Salt Chocolate Candy Corn says it’s made with real honey and comes from the same factory in Mexico that makes all the other Brach’s candy corn. The image on the front of the bag shows what looks like chocolate truffles coated with far more salt than anyone should be eating. The good news is that it’s just an artistic representation, it’s there’s not that much salt on them and certainly none that’s visible. Brach’s classic candy corn has 70 mg of sodium per serving of 19 pieces. The Sea Salt Chocolate version has 95 mg of sodium. The ingredients label lists both regular salt and sea salt as ingredients. The sea salt, which is the defining feature that the product leads with is way down at the end of the list after the first salt, after the palm kernel oil, after the natural and artificial colors and some extra dextrose. The only items lower on the list are gelatin, honey and the artificial colors plus sesame oil and soy lecithin. So, back to that picture on the front of the bag, it took me a little while of eating the pieces in layers to realize that the picture is actually a code for the candy. The base layer is sweet, though a little less sweet than a standard candy corn fondant. There’s a light cocoa note, like that feeling that you get when you go into the kitchen and realize that someone left a package of hot cocoa mix open. The next layer, the middle one, is pretty much the same, expect I think I caught some fake butter notes. Then the white top layer is not that “bland white tip of the candy corn flavor”, instead it’s actually salty. There are actually little crunchy bits of salt in there. The whole thing tastes every so slightly less sweet than standard orange and yellow candy corn, but not actually chocolatey. It’s missing the honey notes and the weird butter flavoring really didn’t belong at all. Of the recent novelty flavors, I think the Caramel Macchiatto was my favorite, but I’d love them to try an espresso or maybe affogato. This one seemed a little too late for the trend and not well executed. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:58 pm Candy • Review • Halloween • Brach's • Ferrara Pan • Fondant • 5-Pleasant • Mexico • Target • Thursday, September 3, 2015
Milk Chocolate M&Ms Pumpkin Spice LatteThere are two new flavors of M&Ms out for fall this year. M&Ms Milk Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Latte is a Target exclusive and M&Ms Milk Chocolate Pecan Pie is a Walmart exclusive. I picked up the Pumpkin Spice Latte, though I admit I was a little confused about how different this was from the Pumpkin Spice Milk Chocolate M&Ms from 2013. It’s always a little odd to pick up “seasonal” items when I live in Los Angeles. The package here shows the brown M&M all bundled up with steamy drink. It was 96 degrees in the shade when I got back to my car with the purchase (it’s also hot in a lot of other places around the country, it was still August when these hit the shelves). The pieces are large, as all of the specialty flavors lately have turned out to be. They come in orange, cream and dark brown. (The earlier 2013 Pumpkin Spice were orange, green and dark brown.) The ingredients list no specifics about the flavors, there are no lists of spices and definitely no actual pumpkin or coffee. What I expected to be different about this variety is more of the latte beverage experience. So, I’m hoping for creamy milk notes, maybe some espresso and of course the spice mix known as pumpkin. The flavor combination here is immediately cinnamon with a touch of coffee and chocolate. The spices are warm, but not very evenly balanced, it’s almost all cinnamon and not much in the way of nutmeg or ginger. The coffee notes keep it from being as sweet as some others, though it’s a little inconsistent. The chocolate itself is grainy and not terribly creamy. In general the chocolate quality on M&Ms is disappointing as a chocolate item, but fine as a candy. I’m a little confused how this whole coffee craze can come about and there are no coffee M&Ms, but some how a beverage that includes coffee can actually get the M&M treatment. Related Candies
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Brach’s Peanut Butter Cup Candy CornBrach’s has introduced over a dozen flavors of Candy Corn in the past five years. There are the more traditional flavors like Harvest Corn and Pastel Corn, but also some more trendy flavors like Carrot Cake, Caramel Macchiato and Red Velvet. Though I find myself a purist when it comes to certain candies, I think that the fondant candies are ripe for this sort of flavor exploration. I also think a lot more could be done with shape. I’m not sure why we’re hung up on the layered corn. Perhaps it’s just economical to use the same mold for all new variations and use color to distinguish them. So, I welcome these new Candy Corn shaped flavor experiences. Last spring Ferrara Candy announced the new Brach’s Peanut Butter Cup Candy Corn and I was immediately intrigued. It’s a great idea, peanut butter cups are already layered and the flavors might translate well. Might. The pieces look like a lot of other Brach’s candy corn pieces. They’re large and narrow and have a little notch that goes across the bottom layer and the middle of the center layer. The layers appear to be distinctive flavors, the base is cocoa, the center beige is peanut and the top is “white.” The candy corn has an odd but convincing peanut aroma. It smells more like boiled peanuts than roasted peanuts, there’s a thinness about the scent that becomes more obvious when I ate them. The ingredients list no peanuts or peanut butter. The only thing close is some sesame oil. There is cocoa in the ingredients list, in fact it’s the third item after sugar and corn syrup. I guess the peanuts are all in the natural and artificial flavors. I actually assumed they used defatted peanut powder in this, but sadly no. The peanut layer is bland and has an artificial butter note to it and a sort of diluted peanut flavor, kind of like a cheap frosting. The cocoa base is decent and at least isn’t as sweet as the other layers. I didn’t despise the Peanut Butter Cup Candy Corn, but I didn’t find it as good as I thought it could be. It’s still munchable, just not terribly distinctive. Throw it in with some popcorn or nuts for a snack, and it becomes more than passable. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:19 pm Candy • Review • Halloween • Brach's • Ferrara Pan • Fondant • 5-Pleasant • Mexico • Rite Aid • Thursday, October 30, 2014
Brach’s Royals: Caramel Apple and Sea Salt CaramelThe Brach’s Milk Maid Royals candies were always quite special looking. I remember seeing them in the pick-a-mix assortments at the dime store as a kid. I was attracted to the bold foil wrappers that each little flavored caramel rod sported. The looked expensive and sophisticated. The are a lot more caramel choices in the stores now and it seems harder to find the Brach’s individually wrapped candies since the bins of the candy disappeared from many grocery store candy aisles. Royals Caramels are a layered candy, a flavored center chew is surrounded by caramel. It’s a simple construction that’s helped by the fact that caramel goes with just about everything. I’ve noticed that Brach’s has recently started repackaging their standard line of candy and sprucing up the flavor assortments to match current tastes. The new Brach’s Apple Caramel Royals come in a stand-up gusset bag and are positioned right next to M&Ms and the new morsel sized candies like York Minis and Snickers Bites. The package is a lovely apple red but the candies inside are wrapped in neon green waxed paper. It’s kind of an odd, especially because I had two flavors sitting around at one time and I kept grabbing the wrong package. However, Brach’s did use red for their Caramel Apple Candy Corn, so the flavor colors do match on the outside at least. Unlike the foil-wrapped ancestors, these candies don’t look like much in the wrapper. They’re the kind of candy that would probably sit around with the Tootsie Rolls at the end of Trick-or-Treat until I was desperate. The look of the candies unwrapped is odd, the caramel looks good - an opaque medium brown color. But the green center is on the blue side, which makes it look a little more like a caramel filled with toothpaste than a green apple candy. Luckily the smell aligns everything again. It’s sweet and with a light apple peel and milk scent. The chew is soft, the caramel and sort of taffy center mix well. It could use a little bit of salt to bring it together. It’s never quite a smooth and creamy caramel, but much more satisfying than the Brach’s Candy Corn Nougats I tried last week. The ingredients list actual apples plus buttermilk as an ingredient in these, which really makes them one of the closest candies on drug store shelves to actual caramel apples. The Brach’s Sea Salt Caramel Royals come in the same style of gusset bag. It’s a more sedate design, as the colors are more subdued. While caramel apple candies are quite trendy right now for fall, the general salted caramel rage is a year round thing and still going strong. It only makes sense that Brach’s, now owned by the Ferrara Candy Company, would expand into some of these mainstream trends. While they say sea salt on the front of the package, the ingredients list only salt. The nutrition panel shows that there are 180 mgs of salt per serving of 6 pieces. As a point of reference, the Apple Caramel Royals have only 75 mgs. The Sea Salt Caramel Royals are, well, quite nice! The chew is soft with a little difference between the caramel outside and the sort of pasty chew inside. They’re definitely salty, but it does highlight the brown sugar notes of the caramel. I wouldn’t be likely to buy these again, especially at the price when I can get some really good sea salt caramels from Trader Joe’s or just some Sugar Babies ... but I will finish this bag. These candies are made in Mexico. The contain milk, soy and egg ingredients. There’s no notation about nuts or gluten, though. Brach’s Milk Maid Royals have been made since the late 1920s (though I’m sure the wrappers have changed over the years). The flavors are probably also cyclical with changing tastes. The last time I had them I enjoyed the extra-sweet Maple and Butter Rum, but didn’t care for the sherbet flavored Orange. The Chocolate is softer than a Tootsie Roll but didn’t have the reliably long chew. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:19 pm Candy • Review • Halloween • Brach's • Ferrara Pan • Caramel • 6-Tempting • 7-Worth It • Mexico • Tuesday, October 28, 2014
10 Pumpkin Spice Candies I’ve TriedOn the Halloween flavor trend meter, Pumpkin Spice is right up at the top this year. It’s an odd sort of synergy, since pumpkin pie isn’t really for Halloween. The pumpkins we associate with Halloween are for Jack O Lanterns and are not grown for eating. The closest I can come to a true Halloween pumpkin tie in would be pumpkin seeds, which are a seasonal item for folks who do their own carving and toasting of the pepitas. Here are ten of the pumpkin spice flavored candies that have hit store shelves that I’ve tried in recent years. Name: Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Salted Caramels Name: Pumpkin Seed Brittle Dusted with Sugar and Pumpkin Pie Spice Name: Pumpkin Pie Name: M&Ms Pumpkin Spice Name: Pumpkin Spice Kisses Name: Pumpkin Spice Orange Name: Pumpkin Pie Truffles Name: Pumpkin Pie Candy Corn Name: Naked Chocolate Malt Balls: Pumpkin Spice Name: Pumpkin Spice Lollypops BONUS: Actual Pumpkin KitKat Related Candies |
Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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