The Great New York Candy Extravaganza, Part II: The Haul

It doesn't seem like so much now that it's all laid out, but I was trying to be pretty selective. So, from the back we have:

• two varieties of Pucca: regular shell with chocolate creme filling and chocolate shell with chocolate creme filling. I bought two boxes because these are made by Meiji, the same company that brought us the fantastic Chocorooms. The first thing I did after leaving the store was bust open the box of original flavor. They are little shapes that look like Goldfish and the ghosts from Pacman (or are they octopi?). I was disappointed. The shell is shinier and less crunchy than the Chocoroom stems, which were like a crunchy cookie. But for $1.79 a box, it seemed like a good deal.
• A can of Charms Sour Balls: I'm not particularly big on hard candy, and I seem to have quite a large stash of it right now, but these reminded me of my PopPop. He always had a can of these by his easy chair.
• British Double Decker: I couldn't remember if I had ever tried one of these. I don't think I have. Of course, I threw out the wrapper, so I can't tell you the proper description, but it was nougat and crisped rice in milk chocolate. I wasn't so sure about it at first; the nougat seemed a bit too "fake" to me, but in the end, I decided I really liked it. Here's what the Brits do right: their crisped rice is more sturdy and crunchier than ours.
• A box of Leone Candy Originals in Orange: I have no idea what these are, and at $2.99 for one ounce they were pricey, but the box is so beautiful. They're from Italy and the box says "Breath of Sicily."
• Cadbury Picnic: "Packed with Peanuts and Raisins." I haven't tried it yet.
• Fruitips Fruit Pastilles: These confused me because they have some sort of Asian writing on them. At first I thought they might be a Japanese candy, but I finally saw that it said, "Made in the United Kingdom." The wrapper says 4 times real fruit juices. Four times more than what? Rocks? The first one I sampled was on the Subway when PIC said she was afraid she was going to barf from not eating all day. I gave her one and it seemed to help her, while it did the opposite for me. The two that I've had both had a musky taste to them. Ick.
• Economy Candy's own brand of chocolate in Belgian Milk Chocolate Smores and Belgian Milk Chocolate with Roasted Almonds: First of all, I should've read the ingredients on the almond bar because it clearly says "roasted almond bits." This is my candy bar pet peeve. When you chop nuts up into miniscule pieces, they have an unappetizing texture and no flavor. These were very disappointing. The chocolate was not very good (on par with a stale Hershey bar) and the mix-ins were meager. I'd never know it was a Smores bar if you didn't tell me. I could find nary a marshmallow.
• Tropical Razzles: Again, I couldn't remember if I've already tried these so I figured I'd get them just in case. Haven't tried them yet, but the flavors are pineapple, strawberry-banana, tropical punch, tangerine and kiwi-lime.
• Chick-O-Stick: I bought this thinking it was a Coconut Longboy. Oops. It proudly sports a "Made in the USA" label.
• Adams Sour Cherry Gum: I remember this from when I was little. So far I've just sniffed it and it has that wonderful cherry Bubble Yum scent to it.
• Doscher's Famous Banana French Chew Taffy: If I had read the ingredients first, I probably wouldn't have bought this. Check it out: Corn syrup, sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils, egg albumen, soy albumen, corn starch, sodium bicarbonate, artificial flavor and artificial color. They should call it French Artery Clogger.
• And lastly, Ice Cubes, because I need them to do the "I" painting in my ABC series.

Oh, and I bought this tiny little candy dispenser (it was empty; I filled it with Jujyfruits). I figured the Sugar Baby would love it. I was right. It's now become the "special treat." When he does something good, he gets to take the little scoop and get one (yes ONE, Memaw) Jujyfruit.

Next update: candy from a freaky deaky Greeky store.

Random Candy Tidbits

There's been a lot going on around here this summer. Or rather, not around here, but everywhere else. We've been on the road a lot and I have all sorts of random candy tidbits to share.
First of all, we spent a week with the von Schokolats and extended family, at which time we divided into two teams and had a huge scavenger hunt. One of the items on the list was a package of Coconut M&Ms. The Baroness was the only one who found them. First she went to Rite Aid, but no luck. Then she went to the dollar store, where she found a display for them, but it was empty. She somehow managed to find the last package in the store. So it was 2 points for the Evil Knievel team. Woo hoo!* Overall, they were a hit. I thought they had that fake suntan lotion kind of coconut taste, so I was a bit disappointed. I don't have a picture, because somewhere along the way, the package got used as a coaster.
During that same trip, "Uncle Subtle" found a candy store and bought me a present: a licorice pipe and Mary Janes. Um, trying to tell me something in code? Nice. (In fact, he had never had Mary Janes before which led to a discussion about them. As they're made by Necco, I suppose they might be a New England thing. I thought everyone knew what Mary Janes were.)

[*Unfortunately, our 2 points for the Coconut M&Ms were negated by the 10 points the Baron won in the drinking contest and the eating contest--Five lobsters in one sitting-- and the 2.5 points won by Uncle Subtle in the marshmallow-and-toothpick construction contest.]Not really candy, but sweet nonetheless: Bazooka Betsy gave No-Nuts a giant box of fortune cookies that she's been saving from all her Chinese take out. Unfortunately, due to the extreme humidity, the cookies became so soft we were able to unfold them into perfect circles. So No-Nuts decided to do a craft project with the fortunes. Strangely enough, there were no duplicates. Perhaps they really are one-of-a-kind fortunes! (Art project is not shown. Actually, art project was never really made.)

And lastly, my partner-in-crime put together a goodie bag for me to get me through the many long drives I've made this summer. Check out these British beauties: Smart Alecs, Aero, Bounty, Milky Bar, Lion, Lee's Chocolate Mint and Galaxy Caramel. I had the Aero on a night I was particularly craving chocolate and it was blissful. I don't understand why Aero bars don't have less calories than other candy bars, though. It seems like they should, considering they're filled with tiny air bubbles. The Galaxy Caramel was particularly exciting, because I've never had one and a friend recently recommended it. She said she had them all the time while she was serving overseas and hasn't had them since then. All I can say is: YUM. This was like the Caramello of yore, when they were actually good and not grainy. The chocolate was smooth and the caramel was all flowy. So good. So there you have it, a few sweet tidbits to start off your week. What about you? Do you have any candy news to share?

They Can't All Be As Good as a Kit Kat Dark

The Sugar Baby and I found ourselves near the UK Gourmet last week, so naturally we had to stop in. I've been on a quest for Jelly Tots ever since I read about them on Daisy Chain's blog.

I tried to be reasonable in my purchases, so I only bought a few things, pictured at left. What you don't see is the Galaxy Ripple that the Sugar Baby and I devoured in the car. This was a long, thin stick of chocolate that's all wavy-rippley. I had no expectations-- I simply bought it because I promised someone a special treat if he behaved in the store, and it was plain chocolate and smaller than the other bars. But holy cow, it was G-O-O-D! The chocolate was so smooth and melty. Now that I've done a little research on it, I've found out that Galaxy is the same as Dove. Ah ha! So why don't they sell Ripples in the U.S.?

I was pretty psyched to try the other candies, since my first experience was so good. Well, it went downhill from there. The Catch was milk chocolate with crispies and "soft caramel," so I expected it to taste like a 100 Grand bar. But no. Ick. Maybe it was just stale, but it was inedible. The Catch was no catch, I assure you. So then I moved onto the Kit Kat Chunky Peanut Butter. Mr. Goodbar said it smelled like wood. It didn't taste much better than that. So disappointing.

As for the Jelly Tots, they're like cute little squashed gum drops, with a chewier texture. I like that one of the flavors is black currant. That's one thing I particularly enjoy about British candies. They were pretty good, but nothing I'd seek out again. All in all, a rather blah British acquisition this time around.

British Bites

There was a British store in the center of Freeport, Maine that was curiously crowded with browsers. I mean, me, I was there for the candy, but what were all the other people there for? Tartan blankets and mini Tower of London replicas? It's a mystery.

In any case, they had a nice selection of candy bars, most of which I've tried before. But I was pretty excited to see these two: Munchies and Refreshers.

The Munchies are little square chocolates with a toffee and biscuit center. It sounded much better than they actually are. There's not much flavor to them, more of an overall sweetness.

I was particularly psyched about the Refreshers, because they sounded like a candy I'd had as a kid. I can't really tell you what that candy was because I don't remember. But these are little fruity discs that have an effervescent fizz to them when they hit your tongue. They're really good as you eat them, but they seemed to leave a strange vitamin-y aftertaste in my mouth. So overall, it was a bust. I should've just bought a toast holder and called it day.

Now excuse me while I go and have a Toblerone and a good lie-down. I just watched the Buffy where (SPOILER ALERT!) her mother dies. OMG. Seriously. OMG.

Blech.

So. I just tried the Smarties (the British version of M&Ms) and the British Milky Way. I didn't like either of them. The Smarties were flatter than M&Ms, and the candy shells actually had a floral/fruity taste to them. The Milky Way didn't have any caramel; it was more like a 3 Musketeers. Hmmm. It's not often that British candy disappoints.

Delightful!

In a bizarre coincidence (see the post below), I tried the Mars Delight yesterday. It was mighty tasty. The wafer part was like one of those Piroutte cookies, very crispy and flaky. That's all I'll say. I don't want to be responsible for encouraging more rat deaths.

Shield Your Eyes, Friends!

How 'bout them apples, eh? Pretty nice haul, dontcha think?

Top Row, L to R: McVittie's Christmas Irish Cream Bars ("Delicious Cakes with Irish Cream Liqueur, smothered in Milk Chocolate"), Tunnock's Milk Chocolate Tea Cakes ("A delicious biscuit base topped with marshmallow and covered with real milk chocolate.")

Second Row, L to R: Mars Delight ("Surprisingly crispy, deliciously smooth; crispy rippled wafer surrounded by caramel cream ad chocolate cream, covered in milk chocolate"), Walnut Whip Vanilla ("Milk Chocolate whirl with a vanilla flavour fondant cream centre") (I particularly love that the nutritional facts are "per whip"), Revels ("Orange? Coffee? Maltesers? Raisin? Caramel? Chocolate?"), Chewits Blackcurrant ("Flavoured Chewy Sweets")Tregroes Chocolate Waffles ("Toffee Waffle covered with Chocolate") (Damn! I grabbed the milk instead of dark!)

Bottom Row, L to R: Milky Way (because I've never had a British one before), the Granddaddy of all candy bars, the Kit Kat Fine Dark (52% Cocoa Solids; package says, "Have you tried the dunk?" and shows someone dipping a Kit Kat finger into a cup of Nescafe), Jacob's Digestive Creams ("Traditional Sweetmeal Biscuits with a butterscotch flavour cream filling") (Note to all moms: digestive biscuits are great for the little ones because the crumb is very loose, making them easy to chew); Cadbury Dairy Milk Mint Crisp (I actually ate this one and it was very odd. The mint consisted of tiny pieces of very green crunchy stuff, almost like a mint toffee. This wasn't my favorite, but it was okay.)

Missing from photo: Smarties (the British version of M&Ms, but without crappy artificial colors)

So, I bought all this stuff thinking it would make cool gifts for some of my candy-loving friends and family, but I realize now that there's no way this stuff is going to last untouched until Christmas. I mean, I'll try, but seriously, consider this candy gone!

Countdown to Halloween!

HOORAY! Only one week until Halloween! So I'm going to tie up some loose ends so we can get on with full-tilt Halloween coverage. First of all, here's a picture of my glorious birthday cake that June made. Oh, it's loooooong gone, of course.

Next, we have a picture of my Wombat Day present from Sue, MKAFFGGF. Note the empty Kit Kat wrapper. This was a British "Fine Dark" Kit Kat. Now I've had the U.S. dark Kit Kats before and really liked them, but this, THIS! Holy cow. Sue made a bold proclamation: "Dark Kit Kats are my new favorite candy bar." Frankly, I may have to agree with her. The other goodies (which I haven't tried yet) are: Moro (milk chocolate with caramel and biscuit); Twirl (milk chocolate fingers); and Dairy Milk Turkish. Oh, and be sure to check out the comments under the Wombat Day entry. An official Wombat left me a message!


One last thing. I think an intervention needs to take place. I've gone off on a Jujy Fruits bender. I can't stop eating the damn things. I love them! I think the red are my favorite, followed by black, and then the orange, green and yellow are tied for third place. I'm not buying any more once this package is gone.

Booze for the kids

Will you getta look at these beauties! The photograph was taken by Sue, my kick-ass, firefighter, garden-guru friend. She wrote to me last week and said, "Have you ever heard of Wine Gums?" In fact I had. I've seen them at the candy table at the British Invasion car show I used to go to every year and I always *almost* bought them. I didn't quite know what to make of them, though, so I never ended up buying them. But when Sue mentioned them, I figured it was high time. I assumed I'd have to go to the British import store, so imagine my surprise when I found them in Stop & Shop!
I was pretty psyched because the box has drawings of the candies labeled with (what I thought were) the flavors: Chablis, Port, Claret, Hock. (Wait ... what the heck is Hock?) I was surprised when we opened the package and there were even more flavors represented: Gin, Rioja, and a few others. But here's the thing: there was an orange gin and a red gin. A purple port and a yellow port. Huh?
I took one of the purple ones with a gin and gave it a chew. Definitely not gin. More like black currant (which I have to say is quickly becoming one of my favorite candy flavors). I've been trying to figure out what to compare them to. Here's Sue's take on the whole thing:

I couldn't help thinking they were like Swedish fish. The flavors were bright and pleasing but the food snob in me wanted them to really be wine flavored or cocktail flavored, or perhaps at least gooseberry, or kiwi. The texture is really the best part. I love chewy candy, even better if they don't stick to your teeth. Also, "Hock" is short for Hocheimer which is a German varietal wine. This makes me think that I would rather be in Germany, on the Rhine at a small restaurant drinking hock and eating schnitzel. MMMMMMMMM....

She's right about the chew. It's unusual. Not too chewy and I think a little stiffer than a Swedish fish. Not as greasy, either. More of a waxy taste. These remind me of some type of gummy candy, but I just can't place it. Kind of a like a gumdrop without the sugar? Hmm. I'll have to ponder this some more. And I have no idea what the whole booze theme is about, since they don't taste anything like wine or spirits and don't list anything remotely close in the ingredients. Any Brits out there care to shed some light on these things?

STOP THE PRESS! It just came to me: Dots! They're the same texture as Dots. Phew. Now I can get on with my day.

Chocolate ear wax, gov'na?

Great article in today's New York Times on British vs. American candy. Maybe this will put a bee in the bonnet of American candy makers and they'll realize that we really do want good chocolate, not waxy flavorless soy lecithin cheapy chocolate.

Making lemonade out of lemons (or what to do with the melted package of chocolate)

My friend Melissa has quite possibly one of the best senses of humor around. She'll laugh at anything, from Little Britain to the death scene in that new movie "Evening." We first met in grammar school when she used to draw me pictures and attach little presents to them, like a ring from the gumball machine. She sat next to me in second grade when we had the very evil Ms. Hertel as our teacher (note the Ms., NOT Miss; this was the 70s after all), a statuesque woman who was bitter that she was a teacher and not a model. Anyhow, Melissa was telling me how her kids received a package from her friend in England. As it is summer in Raileigh, North Carolina, the temperature was a balmy 200 degrees, so she was a little dismayed to open it and find packages of molten Aero Bubbles. Not one to be daunted, she and the kids got out some plastic Christmas candy molds and poured the now-liquid chocolate in, making a batch of Aero reindeer heads. Hooray! She said they tasted just like an Aero bar with the added benefit of keeping her kids occupied for five minutes.

Ladies and Gentlemen, What You've All Been Waiting For!

This, dear readers, is a Sherbet Fountain. It took me a while to open it because I was afraid of it, and I couldn't figure out how to eat it. Perhaps there's a reader from the UK who can tell me if I did it right or wrong, because I still have no idea.
First, the presentation is a little strange because the licorice "straw" actually hangs outside the cardboard tube package. That seems mighty unsanitary to me.
When you open it, there's a bunch of white powder inside. So there's the question: do you lick the licorice and dip it into the sherbet? Are you supposed to add water? (I eventually did and it turned into a fizzy, soggy mess, so I can't imagine that was the right thing to do.) The powder itself is pretty good-- fruity/creamy like sherbet with an acidy fizz, like the center of a Zotz. Surprisingly, the licorice taste goes well with it.
Has anyone else ever tried one of these? Please share your thoughts!

Hello Dolly!

This, my friends, is why we should all have access to British candy. Dolly Mix is the quintessential "candy" candy: fun colors, different shapes, unusual flavors. When I think about Willy Wonka, this is the kind of stuff I imagine.

The first piece I ate was one of the little black bears. I had assumed it would be licorice, so boy, was I surprised at the flavor. It took me forever to place it. Violet? Nope. Something tropical like mango? Nope. Finally it came to me. Black currant. So unexpected yet a wonderful surprise. Next up was one of the round yellow pieces. It was lemon, but not in a typical too-sweet lemon way. It was funky. I liked it. The little square pieces are strange. I think the brown one is chocolate with coconut. This is the candy I've been looking for for my next series of paintings. I can't wait to do some huge canvases of Dolly Mix!

The first of the British haul

The Brits may not be known for their cuisine, but boy, they know how to do candy right. During my first trip overseas when I was 20 years old, I drank too much tap water and ended up having some nasty GI problems. I survived on a big bag of candy bars that I bought at a petrol station, mostly Lion bars. Yum!

So I've started diving into my new stash of candy from the UK store. First up was the Milky Way. I almost didn't buy this, because I thought it would be the same as our Milky Way, but then I saw it was described as having a "white whipped centre." There's no caramel here like in the U.S. version. It was pretty similar to a Three Musketeers, only a little thinner. It was fine, but wouldn't be my first pick.

Next up was the Cadbury Fudge. Oh, those cheeky Brits. The wrapper said, "Fudge covered with milk chocolate," so I assumed it would be chocolate fudge. But it was vanilla, I guess. I was very surprised by this. It was small, which I liked. I wish we had more variety in the size of our candy bars, and by that I mean smaller bars, not the giant King Size ones that can feed a family of four.

After that I moved onto the Original Yorkie. I've had the Yorkie with biscuit pieces and raisins before (it also has a quizzical slogan: "Not for Girls." Huh?), but this one was plain chocolate. At first I was disappointed, but it turned out to be really yummy chocolate. And fine, I'll admit that I dipped a few pieces of it into a jar of peanut butter and it was really, really good.

So no, my diet is not going well, but I don't care. Candy is a part of my life. I just need to accept that and move on.

The British are Coming! The British are Coming!

I went to visit a friend this morning who lives out in the boonies and on the way home I got an unexpected bonus. I found a store called UK Gourmet. It was a tiny little store, but chock-a-block with lots of yummy British delights. Here's what I got:

Dip Dab: Sherbet dip with strawberry flavour lolly
Dolly Mix: (looks like an assortment of gummi/jelly candies)
Cadbury Fudge: Fudge covered with milk chocolate
Milky Way: (described on the package as "milk chocolate with a light white whipped centre)
Cadbury Dairy Milk Coconut Rough: ("Milk Chocolate with Dessicated Coconut")
Original Yorkie
The Big Green Triangle: (and yes, it's a big green triangle; "milk chocolate with nut praline centre")
And last, but not least, something called "Sherbet fountain: Fizzy sherbet with a liquorice dip."

So get ready for some yum yum fun!

Okay, here's the latest on the Euro candy. First of all, on the Curly Wurly Squrly package it gives nutritional information "per squrl." Ha! Ya gotta love the Brits. The second bar I tried was Cadbury Fuse-- "A Fusion of Milk Chocolate, Raisins, Crispy Cereal, Peanuts and Fudge Pieces." This was sooo yummy. The perfect balance of goodies in Cadbury chocolate, which is, of course, much creamier than our chocolate because it has a lower sugar content. I would absolutely buy this candy bar again.
The second I tried was Cadbury's Double Decker-- "Big Up Top." It's described as "Milk Chocolate filled with smooth, chewy nougatine and crisp, crunchy cereal." Now, here's the thing. I love real nougat--none of our American candy bars really have it. (Charleston Chew, maybe, but not really.) And, of course I love crunch. But upon first try of this candy bar, I didn't like it. The crunch seemed too textured for the smooth nougat. But then I tried it frozen and it was a whole different experience. The nougat got hard and was perfect with the crunch. Would buy this again and stick it in the freezer first.
Speaking of nougat, it reminds me of my days at Munson's. Every Friday afternoon, this tiny 40-ish woman would come in and order 2 lbs. (our biggest box) of dark chocolate almond nougats. One day I asked her what she did with all these. She said she eats them all herself. So then I commented on how thin she was and she said she did two hours a day on the treadmill just to be able to eat these chocolates. You go, girl!

Yesterday I ordered $15 worth of British candy from a website called British Delights. I can't wait to get the shipment...all sorts of lovely chocolates with biscuits and raisins and toffee. It's lovely, gov'na.