Trader Joe's Comes Through Again With Candy-Coated Licorice

I was just sitting here thinking, "I wish I had some candy. Why don't I have any candy? What is wrong with me? I should have some candy." And then I remembered: the box of Trader Joe's Candy-Coated Licorice that I bought the other day. Hallelujah! The night is saved.

I love the retro box. How cute is that? I have to admit, I was a bit scared to try them because my past few experiences with "natural" candy haven't been great. Fortunately, this time was different. The candy shells are crisp and the colors are bright. (Candy companies are really doing a good job recently with making all-natural colors. No more dull orange and green.) The licorice is just the way I like it, sharp but sweet. (I'm definitely not a licorice snob; I just can't get into that salty Swedish stuff.)




I've forgotten how much these are, but I think they were $1.99 or something like that. In any case, I'd highly recommend them to Good & Plenty lovers. "Patti says, 'Really rings a bell!'"

American Candy Canes

There's always lots of candy news coming my way, but I thought this particular tidbit would be of interest. Spangler has announced it's boosting its candy cane facility in Ohio. This is good news for folks who have to go on a wild goose chase at Christmastime looking for an American-made candy cane. Hooray! And now back to preparations for the upcoming Halloween 2011 season.

Cute candy jar crafts

Just sitting around, waiting for Irene to come knockin' on the door. In the midst of some mindless surfing, I found this at This Old Chair:

Don't you just love these? They're candlesticks that have jars hot-glued to the top of them. So fun!

Necco gets with the program

The very fabulous June brought this to my attention:

Oh man, the image didn't transfer. Those "O"s are all Necco wafers. In any case, looks like Necco is finally getting on the retro bandwagon. What's your favorite flavor? Mine is the cinnamon, otherwise known as white. 

Celebrations and Lindt Double Lait

I have someone new to introduce you to. Well, actually not new. I've written about my friend Kristina-from-Florida-now-from-New Hampshire before. (You might remember; she's the one who works at Lindt and is in charge of making sure the bunny car doesn't hop off.) In any case, she got married last weekend so she has a new name! She's now Mrs. Chocoletti. Well, not in real life, but her new name is pretty darn close and that's how she'll be referred to here from now on.

 Mrs. Chocoletti is in ecstasy over the thought of getting out of this dress and finally eating some chocolate after a six-month hiatus.

As you might guess, she had Lindt chocolate as the favors for her wedding. All the guests got to chow down on dark raspberry truffles while she ran around and said hellos and did dances and made toasts. A couple of nights before, however, the girls went out to celebrate her last few days of being able to own cheques with Hello Kitty on them pre-marriage bliss and she gave me the most enormous bag of truffles you'd ever want to see. There is no picture because I forgot to take one and the truffles have since been divided up, hidden and otherwise stowed away. But there must have been ten pounds of truffles in that bag. In amongst the mint, milk chocolate and white truffles were these:

Double Lait. Allow me to describe: a milk chocolate shell with a smooth, tangy white filling, almost like a yogurt. In there are some little crunchy bits. Creamy, crunchy, tangy. I love these. LOVE these. Quite surprising, because I would've never picked them out on my own, but I couldn't stop eating them. I think I've finally had my fill though. Now about those other nine pounds of candy ... that's another story.

Nine out of ten dentists approve!

When this shows up on your doorstep, you know it's going to be a good day:

Last week I received a sample of Enstrom Almond Toffee. There are people who are totally gaga for toffee; I am not one of them. In general, I can take it or leave it. However, when toffee is really good, then I turn to hoarding mode. This, as you might guess, is really good toffee. Here's what makes it a winner: 1) There's a good balance of chocolate to toffee. Just enough chocolate to get the meltiness and the taste, while not overpowering the toffee; 2) the almonds are big and whole, which is always a good thing; and 3) the toffee doesn't stick in your teeth. I'm not sure how they managed to produce a toffee that I don't later have to pick out of my fillings, but they've done it.
The toffee came packaged in a sturdy, elegant box, so this would make a great gift. (And good price point, too: $19.95 for a one pound box, which goes a long way.) www.enstrom.com

r&d chocolates: A little chemistry, a little culinary magic

Yes, I'm still here. It's been a hot, humid summer in Connecticut, but that hasn't stopped one serious chocolate lover from selling her hand-crafted chocolates at the local farmers' market. Check out my story here.

Lindt Excellence: So Good, They're Gone

About a month ago, I received a package from the good folks over at Lindt. They had sent their two newest Excellence bars for me to try: Excellence 70% Cocoa Almond Brittle and Excellence 70% Cocoa Nut Crunch. Yum, right? As you can see here in this picture, I'm enjoying every last bite. Oh wait, there is no picture, is there? You know why? Because Mr. Goodbar infiltrated my secret stash and ate not one but BOTH bars before I had a chance to take pictures. I know that is so wrong. You don't have to tell me twice. 
The good news is, I did get to try both before he inhaled the majority of them and they were both up to the usual Lindt standards of (hee hee) excellence. I feel like an American Idol judge when it comes to Lindt. They've really mastered the type of chocolate they put out; there's nothing I can critique. But believe me, I've become more crafty when choosing my chocolate hiding spots. 

Gummy Madness!!

It's hot and it's summer so that can only mean one thing: Extreme Gummy Invasion! I received lots of gummy samples lately, so No-Nuts and I got down to business. I'd like to say beforehand that I really do appreciate that more and more companies are trying to make better-for-you candy, particularly in the area of colors and flavors. Less artificial junk, more real stuff. That's a good thing. We took that into account when we taste-tested these gummies and gave extra points for healthiness, but flavor was definitely important.
On a side-note, I took the Sugar Baby to a little seaside candy shack a few weeks ago. I figured I'd let him pick out a few little pieces of candy. Holy cannoli, what a scam. The cheapest thing in the place was a regular-sized Hershey bar with Almonds for $1.50. The lady tried to sell me on a tiny bag of gummy worms for $4.95. She kept telling me they were made with 30% fruit juice. Apparently she didn't know who she was dealing with. Anyhow, enough of that. Onto the gummies.

Goody Good Stuff Tropical Gummies:
No picture available because we ate them without thinking. The gummies came in cute shapes, including a bunch of bananas and a palm tree. 

No-Nuts:

"The first one I tried was banana-flavored and good, especially because I don't like banana-flavored things
Raspberry/strawberry-flavored: Okay, but definitely not my first gummy choice
Palm tree: I don't know what flavor it was but I didn't like it. Too much tropical, but with no specific fruit flavor. Probably palm tree flavor."

Me:
"I was impressed with the banana ones, as banana is a difficult flavor to do well. I have to agree with No-Nuts about the Palm Tree. I'm thinking it was probably papaya or some other stinky tropical flavor like that." (Addendum: we finally figured out it was supposed to be coconut.)

Conclusion: These gummies are all-natural, dairy-free, gluten-free, gelatin-free and fat free. In addition, No-Nuts would only buy them if they were free.


Goody Good Stuff Sour Fruit Salad

These are fruit-shaped gummies with a sour citric acid dusting.

No-Nuts: "They reminded me of Peach-O's, but not anywhere near as good.
The pear flavor was different, and I liked it but ... you know."

Me: "The grapefruit was good, but I like grapefruit flavor in general. The thing with these is I was waiting to be hit with "SOUR," but they were really just like fruit slices that you'd buy at CVS for 2 for $1."

Conclusion: I was ready to give major points to these for their natural ingredients, in particular the spinach. The first ingredient is corn syrup, but it's candy for cryin' out loud. A little corn syrup never hurt anyone.
Overall, three stars out of five.

Surf Sweets Sour Berry Bears

These are little gummy bears, all red and orange. They're all-natural, made with organic fruit juice, no corn syrup, gluten-free, vegan. That covers a lot of bases.

No-Nuts: "They were pretty good."

Me: "I really liked these. They had the sour punch I was looking for."
Overall, four out of five stars.



Welch's Tangy Fruits
These are jam-packed with artificial colors, flavors and other suspicious ingredients.
No-Nuts: "I love these. Four stars."
Me: "I hate these. One star."










 Gimbal's Sour Lovers

A giant, 11-ounce bag of cute heart-shaped gummies in 12 (TWELVE!) flavors that are thoughtfully listed on the back.
No-Nuts:
    " Fuji apple :)
     Blueberry: very sour
     Watermelon: +++"
Me: These were yummy.
Four out of five stars. Would've been five out of five, but the artificial colors drop it down a notch.

Summer Candy Giveaway Winner!

Due to extreme heat conditions, I forgot to pick a winner yesterday for the Summer Candy Giveaway. But never fear! The lucky person who gets $15 worth of sweet deliciousness from Blair Candy is ... addictivecreative! Congratulations and thanks to everyone who entered. More sweetness on the way!

Ye Olde Candy Giveaway!

Happy Fourth of July! On this day back in 1776, no doubt our Founding Fathers celebrated the signing of the Declaration of Independence with a hearty licorice whip or perhaps a chunk of sugar carved from one of those funky colonial sugar cones. Here at Candy Yum Yum, we've decided to celebrate our freedom with a crazy summer giveaway!
Thanks to our friends at Blair Candy, one lucky winner will be picked to receive $15 worth of candy. Nice, right? So here's what you have to do to throw your tri-corner cap in the ring: Leave a message here telling me what candy says "summer" to you. Maybe you have a childhood memory, or perhaps there's a favorite candy you like to buy from the ice cream man. Whatever the case, leave your answer here, along with a way for me to contact you. Continental U.S. only, please. The lucky candy recipient will be chosen on July 11, noon E.S.T.

A bit of fluff

My piece on local candy here. Oh, the sweet days of summer! Only now you need to save an entire summer's allowance to buy a bag.

Nutcracker Sweet

I've learned over the years that writing about candy is a good way to a) keep your cupboard stocked  with sweets and b) ensure that you'll never lose weight, but it's not the best way to fund a lavish lifestyle of random dollar store visits and twice-a-year haircuts. No, for that, I write a weekly newpaper column about, well, food and booze. So I've got all three food groups represented in my writing portfolio. In any case, for this week's newspaper article, I decided to write about candy, since June is National Candy Month. I'll post my dissertation here after it goes to print. But check out this treasure I found outside one of the candy stores I visited:

A Nutcracker pillow. In June. On the sidewalk. I don't know about you, but I know that when I go walking downtown, I always like to take a festive pillow with me, just in case I start feeling a little snoozy. I had a grand vision of photographing the pillow's progress (would someone move it to the bench? Would it get kicked to the curb?), but when I went back the next day, it was gone.

Hershey's Air Delight

Let's try this whole "aerated" chocolate thing again, shall we? A couple of weeks ago I posted about the new Hershey's "Air Delight" Kisses. I wasn't thrilled with them. They seemed too small to get that whole air-n-chocolate experience. Plus, after I ate a few more, I realized that the paper flag kept sticking to the Kiss and I'd have to extract it from my mouth. Not fun.

Since then, I stumbled upon the Hershey's Air Delight bar at Walmart. I wasn't particularly excited, given my disappointment with the Kisses, but I figured, here goes nothing.
Much, much better. If you're going to do air, this is the way to do it. Because the bar was more substantial, you could actually see the bubbles and experience the combination of chocolate with that melty, texture thing that happens from the bubbles. I enjoyed this. However. (You knew there had to be a however.) This is plain old Hershey's chocolate, like you'd get in a regular bar, which weighs 1.55 oz. The aerated version is 1.44 oz. So I'm getting less chocolate because ....? I'm certainly not paying less. Am I the only one who feels like I'm being a bit duped here?

Dear Readers, Forgive My Ignorance

I'm trying to figure out how to write this post without totally offending a certain candy company while giving a left-handed compliment to another. There's no easy way around it. I'm just going to have to dive in and suffer the consequences.

There are some confections in the candy world that get mocked. Often, it's because they're made of "mockolate," or fake chocolate. These greasy, oily chocolates are often very inexpensive and holiday themed. I avoid these like the plague.


So when I recently received a large box full of samples from what I thought was the offending company, they sat around for longer than usual before I actually tried them. Then, one night, desperate for something sweet, I popped open a box of Palmer's Peanut Butter Crispy Yums.
I was shocked. They were tasty! They weren't at all the mouth-coating, flavorless chocolates I feared. I looked at the ingredients. Real milk chocolate. Real peanut butter. Real molasses. (And yes, admittedly, some partially hydrogenated bad stuff, too.) But the taste was there. The little pillows were filled with smooth peanut butter studded with little crispy bits. I was impressed. This company seemed to be taking a step in the right direction.
But then I looked at the logo. It didn't seem right. No, something was amiss. I did some Googling.
Holy cats.
After all these years, I've been confusing two candy companies. There's Palmer's Candies, out of Sioux City, Iowa, and R.M. Palmer out of Reading, Pennsylvania.
Oh my.
So, here it is, folks, my admission of guilt and my apologies for any negative "Palmer" references. Please tell me I'm not the only person in the candy universe who's made this mistake. On the bright side, there are two other types of candies waiting to be sampled. I hope they're as good as the Crispy Yums.