Easter's on its way!

Hey Easter Peeps! It's been a while, I know, but rest assured: candy is still always on my mind. Of course, the big day is coming up and I've been on the lookout for something new and fun to try this Easter. I was very excited to find coconut Hershey Kisses. I liked these a lot. They don't have an overwhelming suntan lotion flavor like many coconut-flavored things tend to have, and they had bits of toasted coconut mixed in the cream filling, which gave them a nice texture.
Last week I had wisdom tooth removed, so the night before I thought I'd finish off my last meal with some Cadbury Mini Eggs. Man, was I disappointed. For some reason, the candy shells weren't crunchy. I don't know if it had anything to do with the freak warm weather we were experiencing or what, but it didn't make for the chocolate orgy I had been anticipating.

And last but not least in my Easter stash is a Lindt Gold Bunny. This is my favorite bunny to give and receive. The chocolate is smooth and creamy and, although it's hollow, it's got pretty thick walls. This year, Lindt is doing something that's really cool. They're donating 10 cents for every bunny purchased to Autism Speaks, a science and advocacy organization. They're also donating $1 for every free Lindt Easter e-card sent. Check it out at www.lindtgoldbunny.com. 

Creme Egg Cad-apult!

Feeling a little passive-aggressive? You've got to try this: http://www.returnofthegoo.ca/en/

Make Your Own Creme Eggs!

I'm not a big fan of Cadbury Creme Eggs-- way too sweet for me-- but when my friend KrisFromHawaii sent me a link on how to make your own on Instructables, I thought that was really cool. But then when I saw that they are having a candy making contest, well now.... Check it out.

Stride Shift: It's Fruity! No Wait, It's Minty!

You know that scene in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" where Violet Beauregarde snags a piece of the three-course dinner bubblegum that's still in testing mode? She starts chewing and tastes tomato soup, roast beef and then finally blueberry pie, before she, herself, turns into a giant blueberry.
You have to wonder how long real gum companies have been working on creating a taste-changing gum. Well, now Cadbury has apparently achieved that with their new Stride Shift, "the first-ever flavor changing gum." The two flavors are Berry-to-Mint and Citrus-to-Mint. I definitely had my doubts about this. I figured it was like so many other fruit-mint products that combine the two different flavor profiles, usually resulting in something awful.
Well, I have to admit, they did succeed with this challenge. The gum starts off with a berry (or citrusy) taste and then evolves into mint. I'm sure this was much more exciting to the focused taste testers than it is to the general public, who don't pay quite as much attention to what they're chewing. The fruity flavor seemed to be strong during the first ten or so chews, and then the mint started to kick in. I suspect some of this flavor technology has to do with the little gritty bits in the gum (not unlike the scrubby stuff in apricot facial cleansers). Over time the texture gets softer and the flavor turns into a sweet, not-too-strong mint. It's pretty good stuff. I'll be curious to see where they take this technology. You know what I think would be cool? A triple-mint gum: peppermint, spearmint and wintergreen. Now that would impress me.

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?

Cadbury Mini Eggs Smackdown: U.K. vs. U.S.

Exhibit A: Cadbury Mini Eggs from the U.K.
Exhibit B: Cadbury Mini Eggs from the U.S.

Bazooka Betsy and her candy-hating other half presented me with two baggies of Cadbury Mini Eggs the other day. They had gotten some genuine, bona fide British eggs from some friends and they were excited for me to taste the difference.
“They really taste different!” said Monsieur Candy Hater, as if I would be surprised by this. Of course they’d taste different. Any chocolate aficionado knows there’s a big difference between chocolate from the U.S. (often not even really chocolate) and chocolate from overseas (often better quality).
I was sure I’d like the U.K. version much better.
Guess what? I was wrong. Pretty shocking, actually.
The American version was milkier and the shell was sweeter, as opposed to the U.K. eggs which weren’t as milky and the shells had a slight sour tang to them.
A note about Cadbury Mini Eggs: people, even those who aren’t necessarily “candy people,” tend to go bonkers over these. Sue MKAFFGGF and the Golden Nose apparently went through several bagfuls throughout March. I think I’m one of the few people who can really take ‘em or leave ‘em. If they’re around, I’ll eat them, but I don’t think I’ve ever bought a bag for myself. What about you? Are you obsessed?

Sweet Treat of the Week: Elise Chidley

Elise Chidley, author of “The Wrong Kind of Wife?” and “Your Roots are Showing” is today’s Sweet Treat of the Week. You can check out her website at www.elisechidley.com.

What is your favorite candy?

I'm a huge fan of Cadbury's Snack bar, which is available in South Africa (where I'm from). When we go back to visit, I take a lot of (bulky) presents home to my family, and then fill in the freed-up space in my suitcase with chocolate on the return trip. The Snack bar is milk chocolate with crunchy, cookie-like pieces in it.

Share a childhood candy memory.

We used to go on an annual camping vacation with several families to a remote beach in Mozambique, a country that had barely any bread on the shelves of its stores, let alone candy. Oh, except for these hugely expensive chocolate 'umbrellas' which our parents would never buy. So we always brought bags of candy to tide us over, but these were supposed to be reserved for Christmas day. (Remember, this was in the southern hemisphere, so Christmas was in the summer time.) One year, my best friend and I found the candy supplies and pretty much flattened them on the sly. Boy, did we catch it afterwards. Good grief. That's not really a pleasant memory.

Favorite fruit flavor in candy?

Candy should not be fruit flavored. If I want to taste banana, I'll eat a banana. But orange chocolate is tolerable.

Which do you prefer: gummies or hard candies?

Gummies. I'm too impatient to suck hard candies, and chewing them means you have candy stuck in your molars all day.

What’s your favorite candy holiday?

Easter, because it's all about chocolate.

What’s best: milk, dark or white?

Milk is definitely best, though I'm trying to persuade my taste buds to like dark because that just seems more grown-up and dignified.

Circus Peanuts: yay or nay?

Do you know, I've never brought myself to try one. We didn't grow up with them, you see, so I think I by-passed that window of opportunity when a circus peanut looks appetizing.

Thanks Elise! Now go out and get yourself some Circus Peanuts, just so you can say you've tried them.

What about you, dear Yumsters? What are your candy preferences? I'd love for you to be a future Sweet Treat of the Week! Contact me at candyyumyummail@yahoo.com.

Listen closely as I explain how this:

Came from this:

1. Wake up at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning to a whiny 2-year-old running around the house saying "Chacka Bar! Chacka Bar!" because he wants chocolate for breakfast.

2. Ingest a pot of coffee whilst 2-year-old cries because Elmo is not on television on Saturdays.

3. Grab whiny 2-year-old and tell him as soon as he finishes his chacka bar you're going out to look for tag sales.

4. See a tag sale sign at the end of the road. Follow it to the Mother. of All. Tag Sales.

5. Get accosted by neighborhood urchins selling lemonade and cookies at the tag sale. Smile at the charm of it all until you see that they're charging $1 for lemonade. Opt for the 25 cent cookie instead. Wonder to self when the heck lemonade stopped being 5 cents a cup.

6. Give cookie to whiny 2-year-old who is already hopped on sugar from previous chacka bar.

7. Kick in to serious tag sale mode; begin creating a pile of stuff and tell lemonade hucksters to make sure nobody steals it.

8. Across the yard, spy a Melissa and Doug easel you've been coveting for months. See that it's $10. Tell the lady you'll take it.

9. Start talking to lady while 2-year-old discovers the Little Tikes playhouse that doesn't have a price tag. Ask lady how much the house is, figuring she'll say anywhere from $50 to $150.

10. Nearly pass out when her husband says, "Eh, fifteen bucks."

11. Scream, "I'll take it!" before thinking things through.

12. Gloat when other tag salers express how much of a bargain this truly is.

13. Realize you have no way to get gigantic house home.

(Pause for intermission)

1. Call Sue MKAFFGGF's husband (Mr. Chops) and ask if I might possibly borrow his truck.

2. Recruit Mr. Goodbar in the mission to collect the house and easel from the Mother. of All. Tag Sales.

3. Pick up truck from Mr. Chops. Try and tune out the Sugar Baby as he says, "Big truck! Big truck!" over and over.

4. Arrive at tag sale. Dance a jig when lady says ten other people wanted the play house.

5. Load up the goods and deliver it home.

6. Present the playhouse to the Sugar Baby.

7. Try to remain calm as the Sugar Baby insists on ignoring the play house to instead play in the "big truck."

8. Try to convince Sugar Baby that the house is more fun at the exact time he picks up a penny ("cookie money!") and drops it, ever so gingerly, into the big truck's gear shift.

9. Tell Mr. Goodbar about the disheartening turn of events; feel better when he says it shouldn't be a problem.

10. Follow Mr. Goodbar to return big truck. Feel a knot in stomach as Mr. Goodbar pulls over to the side of the road.

11. Supress the urge to throttle Sugar Baby when Mr. Goodbar says, "I need to go home and pull apart the dashboard."

12. Freak out at the thought that a $15 playhouse will turn into a $2000 big truck repair.

13. Go to grocery store while Mr. Goodbar works on truck.

14. Go to candy aisle to buy Mr. Chops some Charleston Chews to thank him/apologize to him for the use of big truck.

15. Spy something new: Cadbury Irish Creme.

16. Buy Charleston Chews and Cadbury bar. Get phone call from Mr. Goodbar saying everything's okay with big truck. Breathe sigh of relief.

17. Return big truck. Go home. Play in new play house.

The End.

Epilogue

Oh, the Cadbury Irish Creme bar? Utterly terrible. Disgusting. Chocolate is grainy and nasty-- worse than Palmer fake chocolate. Irish Creme is artificial tasting and sticky-icky. But Sue MKAFFGGF says that Mr. Chops is to mini Charleston Chews as Whitney Houston is to crack cocaine, so it's all good.

Kiwi Candy!

We've been having issues with our mail lately. As in: the mailman is too lazy to walk 25 feet down the driveway and up three stairs to our mailbox, so we got a nasty form letter from the post office saying we had to put a box by the side of the road or else our mail would be only be available for viewing on the Internet. (Actually, they said we'd have to pick our mail up in the next town over. Whaaaa???) Fine. So we put up a new mailbox. I give it three days once school is out and teenage boys take a baseball bat to it. Or I run it over. In any case, now what does the mailman do? He walks across the lawn, past the original mailbox and down the steps to the new mailbox. Whatever. All this is to say that I couldn't get out of the house fast enough when I saw a giant envelope sitting on top of the mailbox. (Yes, on top. Whatever.)

Hooray! It was a super-special parcel from the very fabulous City, a.k.a. the New Zealand Cupcake Queen. We "met" when I sent her my cupcake painting for her Cupcake Project blog. I mentioned how, at this here very blog, FIVE YEARS AGO (holy cow!) I wrote about a candy bar called Perky Nana that I would love to try. And voila! She so kindly offered to send me some.

Let me tell you, I tore into that envelope quicker than a kid getting a college acceptance letter. There, in all its glory, was a bag of miniature Perky Nanas ("Banana flavoured chew bar covered with dairy milk chocolate). Here's what they are, in essence: banana Charleston Chews. Yum! I can't imagine why they don't sell these here. I think they'd be a huge hit. I put some in the freezer; I'll try those later. But they've lived up to my expectations. What a joyful thing!

As I sat down to write this entry, I opened up the bag of Jaffas ("orange coated, chocolate filled.") City makes cupcakes out of these and I see why-- they're yumtastic. They're these little balls of chocolate with a coating similar to M&Ms, only thicker, and they have a very subtle orange taste. I've already developed a way to eat them: I suck on the orange candy part, then carefully bite it away until I'm left with just chocolate. These suckers are addictive. On the back of the bag it says, "Shhh! In the days of cinema with wooden floors, fun loving children would giggle uncontrollably as they listened to the sound of their Cadbury Jaffas bouncing down the aisles. With the introduction of carpet and grumpy adults, this leisure activity is now extinct."

The last goodie is called Pineapple Lumps, which I haven't tried yet. (Hey, I've got to pace myself.) But boy, they look good.

City said she likes Reese's, so I sent her a Reese's Whipp, some Hershey Kissables and a Take 5 bar, along with some funky sprinkles for her cupcakes. She recently made Mountain Dew cupcakes and dressed them up with some shark sprinkles! Cute!

Dontcha just love the Internet?!

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!