What we're eating

I'm happy to say that we've finally found some new candy to try here at Candy Yum Yum. It seems like the candy world has been so slow lately. Limited Editions have come and gone and now it's just the occasional random new thing that makes its way onto the shelves. What's going on, candy makers? I'm bored! I want more!
I took the Sugar Baby to a cabaret-style play yesterday and we loaded up on the snacks. One of the fun things I brought was a bag of Snyder's of Hanover York Peppermint Pretzel Sandwich. These are round pretzels filled with peppermint filling and dipped in dark chocolate. I wasn't sure about them at first, but then I discovered that if you pry the top pretzel off with your teeth and eat that first, then you have a layer of bumpy peppermint fondant filling that you can eat next. It tasted much better to me that way. Needless to say, the Sugar Baby loved these. I wasn't paying attention to how much he was eating until I looked over at him halfway through the play and saw that he was holding his stomach. Oops.

As for Mr. Goodbar and I, we've been fighting over a bar of Lindt Limited-Edition Mocha Coconut. This new flavor was the winner of the Lindt Excellence Recipe Challenge, a scholarship contest for students at the Culinary Institute of America. According to the press release, Meredith Walker developed the concept for the bar after pairing mocha and coconut to create a birthday cake for her mother and uncle. Holy cannoli, this bar is good. Get one while you can. Check it out at www.lindtusa.com.
 

Product of the Year!

This really doesn't come as a surprise, but M&M's Pretzel Chocolate Candies were named the 2011 Product of the Year in the candy and snacks category by Product of the Year USA. If someone were to ask me (and no one has, but that's okay), I'd say they succeeded on several different levels. One, I love the packaging. So cute. Two, who doesn't love pretzels and chocolate? An obvious choice for M&M; just surprised it took them so long! And three, they are a dieter's friend. At 150 calories per bag, you can have your daily dose of chocolate without the guilt. Congrats to Pretzel M&M's!

The Sugar Baby's Candy Blow-Out!

The Sugar Baby is officially 4!

Wait until you see the candy buffet I made for him.

Just wait ...

Wait for it ...

Here it comes ...

Oh.
Guess what I forgot to take a picture of? Can you even believe it? I've been obsessing over this dang candy-themed brouhaha for weeks now and I forgot to take a picture of the sugary spread. Here's what I had: Haribo Raspberries, Haribo Strawberries & Cream, Haribo black licorice spirals, candy buttons, Mike & Ikes, gumdrop kabobs, Grapevines, wax bottles, M&M's, jelly beans, Ring Pops and sour fizzy marshmallow cones.It's hard to say who liked it more-- the kids or the adults. My Partner-in-Crime called me the next day to say that her husband got into bed that night with a goodie bag he made for himself,
complete with wax bottles. Awesome.

The day started off very stormy, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to hang my decorations, but the sun came out just in time. I got some colorful balls and wrapped them in cellophane to look like candies. (I had also tried to make giant swirly lollipops out of foam board, but gave up halfway through.)
Since the Sugar Baby is into mushrooms as much as he's into candy, I tried to make a mushroom-shaped cake, but instead we ended up with this hot mess:
It tasted pretty good, though. Lemon cake with lemon frosting. I figured we'd need a break from chocolate.

In other news, I found Pretzel M&M's at the store and bought some for The Baroness to try. She looked at the package and said, "Only 150 calories for the whole package!"
That's something I forgot to mention. Yes, 150 calories, but there were a lot fewer in there than in a bag of peanut M&M's.
I talked to Alexandra Super Shopper today and she also has tried them. Her comment was that the chocolate/pretzel ratio should be more like a peanut M&M. I totally agree. She liked the idea of mixing them with plain M&M's. Perhaps there will be an M&M Fun Mix in the future?!

Pretzel M&M's in the House!

Finally. I've been waiting with baited breath all week to get my hands on the new Pretzel M&M's. As I mentioned before, I think the package is really cute. But would the candy stand up to my ideals?
First off, these M&M's are fat and round like gumballs. I tried to put them on a slanted surface and they rolled right off. My impression of these evolved as I made my way through the package. With the first M&M I thought, too dry. Not enough chocolate. Second taste: these are good, but yes, definitely need more chocolate. These would be great mixed in with a bunch of plain M&M's. Third bite: good salt/sweet balance. Last piece: where'd they all go?!
I tried eating them several different ways-- crunching straight into them, sucking on the candy shell and chocolate to get to the pretzel, and biting them in half. These are good, and I'd definitely buy them again, but next time this is how things will go down: I'll get a big bowl. I'll pour in the pretzel M&Ms and then add some plain M&M's in a 60/40 ratio. Then I'll wonder how they disappeared so fast.
These should be hitting the stores this week (if they haven't already), so keep your eyes peeled for the blue wrappers. Let me know what you think!

Tying Up Loose Ends Before Sugar Shock '10

I figured I should post now before the candy flood gates open up in, let's see, five days. That's when the Sugar Baby's candy-themed birthday party will be in full swing and no doubt he'll be wound tighter than a yo-yo from all the sugar and plethora of grandparents and cousins.
This weekend was a carnival at his school, so I donated a basket full of candy goodies. In some sort of karmic retribution, it turns out that the Sugar Baby guessed the correct number of animal crackers in a jar, so we have 500 cookies headed our way. Oh my.
In other news, I'm anxiously waiting on pins and needles for samples of new Pretzel M&M's. It's been a long time since I was this excited for a new candy. I hope it lives up to my expectations. I love the package, which is surprising because I generally don't like the M&M characters for some reason, but the pretzel X-ray is pretty cute.

Candy Tidbits: A Little of This, A Little of That

(First, sorry for the craziness with the font size. I'm having issues...)

The Sugar Baby got a little Russell Stover heart from his grandma for Valentine's Day. Inside was a chocolate fudge, caramel and a coconut cup. This led me to think: why doesn't Russell Stover make a box of just coconut cups? Everyone always goes for those first. So then I went to the Russell Stover website and voila!
They also had other cool things, like boxes that you can personalize with a photo and bags of candy-covered chocolate pieces in custom colors. Who knew?

We have a missive from the field. Alexandra has found a new fave candy bar. Here's what she had to say:


"Walgreens has them for 3/$1 - so I thought, why not? OMG! They are about the size of Twix bars, the chocolate is pretty - it's almost as if there's a design in it on the bottom of the bars. The inside of the bars is like merengue or freeze dried texture. It's not a messy candy bar. It's described as "Whipped-up truffle on a crisp layer enrobed in real milk chocolate. Each bar is 85 calories and every time, I say just have one, but they're like potato chips - you can't eat just one! But you really should, because halfway through the second one, it gets to be a little sicky sweet. I'm thinking of freezing one to see what happens... (I have a liitle supply of these).

More news on the Mr. Candy front: The Sugar Baby and I were driving along and he just randomly said, "There was a gummy fish on the ground. It was in the dirt." It took me a few minutes to realize that he was talking about the Swedish Fish he saw at his school a gajillion weeks ago. So I said, "Oh yeah! The Swedish Fish that Mr. Candy put there." But then he corrected me. "No," he said. "I don't think it was Mr. Candy. It was Miss Gail." So the mystery continues. Is Mr. Candy somehow related to his teacher Miss Gail? Are they partners in crime? Or is Mr. Candy Miss Gail's alter ego? Stay tuned. I'm sure there will be more adventures. I'm not sure when I had my first chocolate-covered pretzel, but I'm pretty sure it was a life-changing experience. When done properly, with the perfect ratio of chocolate to pretzel, there's nothing better. Except maybe adding some peanut butter to it. That's what Snyder's of Hanover figured out. They make a whole line of chocolate-covered pretzels and peanut butter-filled pretzel sandwiches. I had no idea! When they offered to send me some samples, I said, "Heck yeah!" They use Hershey's chocolate and these babies are sweet... sweet enough so that one or two fulfills a chocolate craving.I took the Sugar Baby to the Yale Peabody Museum last week to see the dinosaurs. I think the concept is still a little lost on him, although his friend (who shares the same name as the Sugar Baby) loves dinos as much as *someone* loves candy and mushrooms. We stopped in the gift shop afterwards and I found these:
KSCHOKOLAT Dark Chocolate Mintettes. I thought these were going to be flat mint squares, so I was quite surprised to see they were little balls. (I would've known that had I read the package which says, "Mini nuggets of natural mint fondant encased in rich dark chocolate.") Here's the thing with these: they're really tasty, but at $2.95 for 1.23 ounces, you have to really savor them. These are the type of candies that should come in a big bag so you can eat them by the fistful.

Aren't these beautiful? I sat and stared at these Oliver Kita chocolates for a long time before trying them. They taste as good as they look.

Disappointment at Trader Joe's

The last couple of times I've been to Trader Joe's, I've noticed they've really scaled back on the samples. Can't say I blame them; people get all wacky when they see free stuff. TJ's was probably losing money hand over fist by giving out mini cups of coffee and cookies. Some samples, however, would've stopped me from making my last two purchases that bombed. The first was a box of pretzel nuggets covered in chocolate and topped with white nonpareils. They looked so good, but unfortunately, the pretzels had a kind of stale taste to them. They didn't have that fresh "snap." But my niece Sarah enjoyed them when we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Of course, that movie was so darn long she probably would've eaten chocolate covered cat food just to fend off the hunger.
Today I bought the second bomb: dark chocolate covered pistachios. I love dark chocolate. I love pistachios. But together, oh no, they do not work well. Pistachios just don't have a substantial enough texture to hold up to the chocolate, and their smoky undertones don't jive with the bitterness of the chocolate. (In fact, I can almost see comparing them to the Vosges Mo's Bacon Bar-- smoke and chocolate don't mix, in my book). I know TJ's has a policy where you can return anything you don't like, but I'm not that type of person. I'll just pass along the rejects to the next unsuspecting guests.