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!'"

And Now, a Word from The Ice Cube Queen

The Ice Cube Queen is in town. She was barely on New England soil when she handed me two hand-written pages. This is what they said:

Dear Candy Yum Yum,
Just wait until the Sugar Baby is a teenager and you go flying around the world with him (or at least down to Florida to visit Mickey)! I'm sitting on a plane with the "no-name" niece and nephew. Actually, this is our second plane today.
Our day started early this morning when Jenny exclaimed, "I didn't realize that candy weighs so much!" Her carry-on bag was filled with candy!
As soon as we boarded the first plane, I said, "Bring on the candy-- what do you have?"
Yes, I've been brain-washed into thinking that you have to have candy at take-off and landing.
First, we opened the Good 'n Plenty box. Next ... don't cringe ... the Circus Peanuts! In the meantime, Tim opened his stash of candy. He had Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (I shudder to think how many packages he bought!) and a huge Hershey's Cookies & Cream bar.
Now we're on our second plane. Out came the Circus Peanuts and then the gummy worms!
What's left you say? Let me ask my sugared-up teens:

-Twizzlers
-Nerds
-Gobstoppers
-Oreo cookie bar
-Wintergreen mints

So if we get stuck circling the airport for hours like the last time we flew to Yum Yum state, at least we'll have candy.

P.S. Jenny informed me that she was going to buy the caramels with the white centers or cowtails, but she couldn't find them.

Well, Ice Cube Queen, it would seem that we're all cut of the same cloth! (I'll overlook the Circus Peanuts.) Perhaps they've earned their own titles. I shall call them: Carry-on Candy Girl (CCG) and The Reese's Kid. And by the way, of course you have to have candy at take-off and landing. It's a Candy Yum Yum rule!

Cherry Lemonade Life Savers and Good & Fruity: eh.

I've been wanting to try the newly-released Good & Fruity ever since it was released, well, a while ago. It didn't get the greatest feedback, so I kept putting it off. But with an impending road trip, it seemed like a good choice.
Then I also spied these Cherry Lemonade Life Savers (and Strawberry Kiwi, too) and thought, hmmm, that sounds good!
What can I say? Both were just eh.
The G&F definitely were not like the classic G&F of my childhood. I remember being able to bite off the sugary shell to expose the chewy center; you couldn't do that with these.
As for the Life Savers, they reminded me of something but I just couldn't place it. Finally, in the middle of the night, it came to me: they taste like Pez. They have a fruity flavor but that same crunchy, not-quite-chalky texture. In the end, my candy choices were not an appropriate road trip food. The box of frosted shredded wheat, however, turned out to be a success, as did the Tupperware container of grapes. Go figure.

Licorice Mix

I've always been a black licorice kind of girl. The cool kids-- the ones who liked caramel-- seemed to prefer red licorice, but that just never jazzed me. I always thought the red variety had a sort of Play Doh taste to it. Not that I'd ever turn it down, of course. When my friend Susan gets Twizzlers at the movie theater, I'll certainly have one or two. But I'd never buy it for myself. The other Sue in my life, the kick-ass firefighter garden guru, said she never liked red licorice. She felt like she was eating plastic.

I'm not that well-versed in the realm of red licorice, and until about college or so, I called it "lick-wish." Now that I'm older and wiser, I pronounce it the sophisticated way, "lick-o-rish." It seems there are two schools of thought in the red realm: Red Vines and Twizzlers. I didn't even know about Red Vines until about three years ago when I "met" my Australian candy pal, Debbie. She's a food writer, too, and we exchanged boxes of candy. She requested Red Vines, which I had never even heard of. She had developed a taste for them a few years back when she was living in California.

Anyhow, licorice seems to be playing a part in my life lately. I was at Trader Joe's the other day and I saw this guy in a business suit, standing in a long line, with only one item in his hands: a box of licorice Scotties. Now that's passion, I tell you. He was willing to wait in line in the middle of the day for his licorice fix.

This past weekend, I received a big ol' 5-lb. box of "Fresh From the Factory" red Twizzlers. These are all about texture. One of my dislikes of red licorice is that it can sometimes be way too hard to chew, but these fresh ones were so soft and pliable that they were actually pretty addicting. I can see a red licorice-lover plowing through a bin of these in no time. I, however, decided to share my bounty with the electrician who's been doing some work on my new casa.

"Help yourself to some candy," I said.

"Oh yeah, thanks. I already had some Twisters. I saw them and thought, 'Wow! Twisters! I haven't had those in years.'"

Um. Okay. I can see how you'd call them Twisters. But dude, they're Twizzlers! With two Zs! Ay-yi-yi.

But lest my tastebuds get too accommodated to the red variety, a bucket of Good & Plenty showed up just in time. This is the latest in the "Fresh From the Factory" line from Hershey's. I have to be totally honest here: the fresh idea was great with Reese's and Twizzlers. But for Good & Plenty? Eh, not so much. The appeal of G&P is the contrast of textures: crunchy candy shell, chewy licorice center. But in the fresh ones, the shell isn't crunchy enough. I almost want to take the lid off and expose them to the air for a while.

That's about all my licorice musings for today. I'd love to take an informal poll, though. Which is your favorite: red or black?

Yumtastic news!

I seriously have about ten thousand things I should be doing right now, but I had to stop and let you know about this new thing that Hershey's is doing because it sounds so yummy fantastic. You can order Reese's, Twizzlers, Good & Plenty and Pay Days hot off the factory conveyor belt. (Well, not hot because then you'd have melted candy, but you know what I mean.) They'll ship you a box of these goodies within 96 hours of them being made. This just gives the taste-tester in me goose bumps. How would super-fresh Reese's compare with a pack you buy at the grocery store? I'll let you know as soon as I find out. In the meantime, you can get more info at their website, www.hersheygifts.com.