Two New Reviews: Lindt Raisins & Nuts and Nestle Cranberry Raisinets

My goodness, I've had a lot on my candy dish lately and barely any time to write about it. The summer is whizzing by quickly. Before you know it, Halloween will be here. (In fact, that's what the grocery stores would have you think; they've already stacked out the cases of candy corn. I haven't even had a Pixy Stick or a Circus Peanut yet, for cryin' out loud.)
So, given my backlog, this is going to be a rambling, random post full of miscellany.

The Internet candy world has been abuzz with the latest candy bar from Lindt: Raisin & Nuts. Several people have done comparisons between this new Lindt bar and the classic Cadbury Fruit & Nut bar. I used to love the Cadbury version, until some brilliant rocket scientist decided to change the recipe. What used to be a creamy, milky chocolate is now gritty and flavorless. So I was excited to taste the Lindt version and see how it compared. I was not disappointed. The chocolate was smooth, creamy and sweet with a good mix of almonds and hazelnuts. My only complaint is that I wish the almonds were whole, but in the long run, it didn't matter. I wolfed that thing down. Thank you, Lindt, for restoring my faith in fruit and nut candy bars.Speaking of fruit and chocolate, another big buzz has been Nestle's Cranberry Raisinets. Oh how I wish I bought stock in the cranberry industry right before they decided to start selling dried cranberries. It used to be that cranberries were only for Thanksgiving. Now they're everywhere, including chocolate. I passed along a few packs of these to some family members for tasting. The consensus: Eh, they're fine, but nothing great. My mother said, "When I want chocolate, I want CHOCOLATE." Good point there. These little nibblies might be better in say, a cookie, than eaten alone. I love Craisins, but I think I'd still pick the classic Raisinet over the cranberry version.
And lastly these delicious chocolates. Ho, ho. I'm just joking. These aren't edible, they're candles, silly! The Ice Cube Queen was in town last week and she found these candles that are just perfect for the Candy Yum Yum homestead. My favorite is the one with the walnut.

And what about you, dear Yumsters? What has your candy land been looking like lately?