Candy Yum Yum + Regretsy - Michael Jackson = Tootsie Pop Owl

There are times when I think, okay, I'm pretty creative. I've got it going on. And then there are times when I think, wow, now that's why I'm not famous. Like whenever I read Regretsy. With her rapier wit and razor-sharp sense of what makes something craptastic, April Winchell is one of my bloggy heroes. Her site, in which she showcases handmade items of questionable quality, was the kick-start for her newly-released book, seen here. (Don't click to look inside because nothing will happen. Go to Amazon for that bit of magic.)At a recent book signing, one of her fans was wearing a T-shirt with the Tootsie Pop owl on it. She writes, "I thought it was intentional, but he didn’t even know: my father was the voice of the owl in this commercial. And it was the day before Father’s Day, and just a few days from the 5th anniversary of my dad’s death. So it was a little weird."Weird, yes, but also fascinating. I had to know more. April kindly agreed to an exclusive interview with Candy Yum Yum about this amazing bit of candy history.

CYY: In a recent Regretsy post, you revealed that your father was the voice of the owl in the iconic Tootsie Pop commercial from the 1960’s. Does that mean you’re rich?

AW: Sadly no. My father didn't leave his money to his children.

CYY: That’s a really cool piece of family trivia and I’d brag about it to everyone. Do you take advantage of the opportunity or do you save that gem until you’re deep into a relationship?

AW: I don't talk about my dad too much. It's not that I'm not proud of his accomplishments, because I really am. But I never wanted to feel like I was trading on his name, or getting undeserved favors from people because of their affection for him. I just got used to being discreet about it. When I got older and made a name for myself, I relaxed about that, and it became interesting personal trivia about me, as opposed to something I threw around to open doors for myself.

CYY: Was it your father’s idea to pronounce the “two” like “a- two-whoo”? Cuz that’s really cool.

AW: Well that's hard to say. I've done cartoon voice over work for over 30 years, and it tends to be a fluid, collaborative thing. I can't really remember where ideas come from; good directors bring interesting things out of you.

That being said, the voice he used for the owl was very similar to voice he used for a puppet on his TV show. The puppet was named Snitchy, and it was a very proper, almost British sounding snail. He had been doing Snitchy for so long that the "a-two-whoo" probably just came out of his mouth naturally.

CYY: Did you get a lifetime supply of Tootsie Pops? If not, have you ever considered contacting the company and asking for some kickbacks?

We did not get a lifetime supply of Tootsie Pops, but then, they probably had no idea how long the spot would run. It turned into an incredibly iconic, classic piece of advertising. He recorded that in the 60's, and people still love it.

My dad actually had a very long association with the Tootsie Roll people. Before I was born, he had a prime time variety show that was sponsored by Tootsie Roll. They invited him to tour the factory, and my mother still talks about it. This was over 50 years ago, and standards were very different then. She said people were smoking while they rolled out the candy! She didn't let us eat Tootsie Rolls for years.

CYY: I used to own a kick-ass Mini Cooper. It was blue with white racing stripes and I had a Tootsie Pop Owl on my antenna. Then I had a kid and there went the car. Would it be really lame to put the owl on my Hyundai Sonata?

AW: On the contrary. I think putting the Tootsie Roll Owl on a Hyundai would elevate it considerably.

CYY: If you could invent a Tootsie Pop flavor, what would it be?

AW: Gin. With an olive in the middle.

CYY: Is there anything else you'd like to say to all the candy lovers of the world?

AW: Only that it's the greatest thing on earth.Thanks April! If you're ever in town, I'll bring you a pair of Lederhosen made from Tootsie Pop wrappers.

Candy Jewelry and Ornaments

Please stand by while we here at Candy Yum Yum suffer through a bout of pink eye. In the meantime, check out these goodies I found on Etsy. I just love that website; do you think I can do all my Christmas shopping there?


Tootsie Roll Pop broach from Candy Calamity
Starburst bracelet from Butterfly Gem
Reese's Cup Ball Gown ornament from Toomuch

Tropical Tootsie Roll Pops: A Taste of the Islands?

I finally got my hands on a bouquet of Tropical Tootsie Roll Pops. I'm not a huge Tootsie Pop fan, but when I heard that one of the flavors was pineapple, I was suddenly on a mission. The only problem was, I found them in a really creepy dollar store and, if you're a regular reader, you know I have issues with buying food at non-food stores (particularly creepy dollar stores). But in the end, I did it. I figured I'd hand them over to No-Nuts to do a trial taste and if she didn't pass out or grow horns, then I'd be willing to try them, too. So Yumsters, I give you a Pineapple Tootsie Roll Pop:

And ... it was really good! Nice pineapple flavor and I didn't even mind the combination with the chocolatey Tootsie Roll, which I kind of feared. I also tried a tangerine, which was quite good, too. No-Nuts had the watermelon and some kind of tropical punch and she liked both.
As an aside, we went to my parents' house and raided their candy dish. No-Nuts took a cherry Tootsie Roll Pop, which you can see below. Of course, my camera is just not up to par for these detailed shots, so what you aren't seeing is the lack of quality control. This was one messed up pop. The Tootsie Roll was oozing out of one side and the pop was all mangled and scary-looking on the other side.

Guest Review: White Chocolatey Tootsie Rolls

This just in from Alexandra:

I found something new & exciting (or so I thought) at the Christmas Tree Shop. I invested my hard earned 95 cents in some Tootsie Roll Holiday Mini Chews - White Chocolatey Coated Mini Tootsie Rolls. Sounded good....I finally got around to trying them today... at first glance they reminded me of Good & Plenty candies but a bit bigger. The taste and feel I can only compare to a crayon. It's waxy! (Okay, more the feel since I've never eaten a crayon that I remember!) If I were to eat a crayon I'm sure this is what a white crayon would taste like until the coating dissolves away and the Tootsie Roll is discovered. What were they thinking?!?! There isn't even that chocolatey smell of the Tootsie Roll in the box, in fact there is no smell. Tootsie Rolls are one of my favorite candies - from the midgets to the pops, but not these! To quote the box - "The combination of flavors and textures is a wonderful taste sensation. Mini Chews deliver the Tootsie Roll taste you love and a sweet goodness you can only find at the Holidays!" Yes, the Tootsie Roll taste is there, but I couldn't find any sweet goodness. I hope Santa doesn't fill my stocking (or anyone else's) with these. Save your money or spend it on the original Tootsie Roll.

Toot, Toot, Tootsie Goodbye ...

First of all, a great big yummy thank you! to everyone who participated in the Tootsie Pop Drop Giveaway. It's exciting for me to hear from all of you. I wish I could send candy to everyone who submitted their favorite flavors, but alas, I picked three people at random. The lucky dropsters are:

Traci
Christian
Candy Queen (even though I take issue with her name ... I think there's only room for one Candy Queen in the Kingdom of Candy)

If you're one of these people, send me your postal address and I'll get the goodies out to you! If you're weren't picked, never fear; there's more candy giveaways to come. (And the Red Vines giveaway will be coming up shortly.)

Some interesting things that I learned from your posts: people have very strong opinions on their favorite flavor Tootsie Pops, although no one flavor stood out. As for flavors you'd like to see, I was surprised that mango was mentioned several times. I'm not a mango fan, but hey, who am I? A few of you suggested pineapple, which I would totally LOVE. Vanilla and peach were also mentioned, and then there was banana and peanut butter which at first I thought "Ick," but then I thought they might be good with the Tootsie roll inside.

Again, thanks everyone! Happy eating!

Check out these pictures

Wow-- you guys are great! Keep your responses coming for the licorice and Tootsie Pop Drop giveaways. There's still time to get your name in!
One of the wonderful readers who responded sent the link to her Flickr page where she has these fantastic photos of food from the 70s, including a picture of the original Tootsie Pop Drop package. So cool! I nearly fell off my chair, however, when I saw she had a picture of the plastic tooth filled with gum that I know I've written about before. (I just can't find the post.) My friend Melissa and I went to a store afterschool one day where we found these plastic teeth and she thought they were the funniest things. Check 'em out at Traci's retro site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tracis_retro
So cool!!

Free Candy! Free Candy!

I must admit, I've sort of had writer's block about these new Tootsie Pop Drops. ("Tootsie Pops without the stick!") I'm not sure why, because I really, really dig them. The kind folks over at the Tootsie headquarters sent me a gajillion of these; some to taste, some to give away. So yes, dear readers, it's another fun candy giveaway! The thing is, I can't decide whether to send the whole big shebang to just one person, or divvy it up and share the love. I still don't know. So here's what you do. Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite Tootsie Pop flavor is (or one that you'd like to see) and I'll pick one or maybe a few people to send these to. I need to clean off my desk, so let's say I'll pick the lucky popinator on April 4. Now, on with my comments.

Totally addictive. I know I say that about lots of things, but these are sort of under-the-radar addictive. As in, you wouldn't expect to keep going back for more, but you do. These are great because a serving size is four pieces and only 60 calories, so you can eat a bunch and not feel like you've gone overboard. I was a little nervous about these, because I totally hated the Blow Pop Minis, but here's the difference: with the Blow Pops, you're left with gum and you have to decide whether you want to chew the gum or have another pop. Here, you eat the Tootsie Roll center, then move on to the next piece. No hard decisions to make.

I brought a bunch of these to Easter dinner for No Nuts and her brother D-Sword to try out. They attacked them like a pack of ravenous, starving college students, which makes sense, since that's what they are. I casually observed them and noticed this: D-Sword ate all the orange ones, and No Nuts ate all the grape ones. "Orange are the best," said D-Sword. (Just like my little friend Alexander!) "I don't like orange," said No Nuts.

Now you'd think they'd team up and do a swap or something, but since, as I mentioned, they're siblings of college age, they make it a point not to talk to each other. So there, on the Easter table, were two separate piles of "leftover" Tootsie Pop Drops. (Not for long, however, as I really like all the flavors, including the blue raspberry which, strangely enough, was absent from both D-Sword's and No Nuts' bags!)

So that's the story. These are new. These are yummy. These can be yours!

Who has the best friends? Me!

The aforementioned June came over last week and not only did she bring lunch, but dessert as well. She reached into her bag and produced a Mr. Goodbar, 3 Musketeers Mint, Limited Edition Tootsie Roll Midgees in vanilla, and white chocolate Reese's. Yum! She e-mailed me after the fact saying that she had made a faux pas; she hadn't read enough of my blog to know that I generally don't like white chocolate. But you know what? Those Reese's were damn good. I mean, really good. It makes me want to give white chocolate another chance.

The Tootsie Rolls tasted like chewy vanilla icing. I've talked about the 3 Musketeers before. Oh well, it can't all be good. And then of course, the Mr. Goodbar. How can you go wrong with peanuts and chocolate?

I'm sad ... send me chocolate!

Hello, candy friends. Today, a few miscellaneous items.

First of all, I won't be attending this year's Candy Expo. :(

I couldn't get coverage for the little man, so I had to pass. I'm sad because I really would've liked to meet my fellow candy bloggers. What a hoot that would be! Well, there's always next year. To everyone who's going: have a sweet time!

Second, check out this cutie-pie Tootsie Pops Miniatures "lunchbox" I bought at Target. I had to laugh because it comes shrink-wrapped, so you think there's going to be a whole bunch of Tootsie Pops in there. Wrong. There were three! Oh well, whaddya want for a buck? There were a couple of other types, too: Dots and Tootsie Rolls, if I remember correctly. I was trying to think of what I could use the tin for, and then it dawned on me: my ATCs! My little paintings fit in it perfectly.

Lastly, my candy reserves are dangerously low. I didn't think that was possible with all the bits and pieces leftover from the Great Euro Candy Extravaganza, but it's true. I'll need to do some candy shopping over the next few days.

My new candy friend

I belong to a very top-secret group of writers. There are nine of us from all over the world (well, okay, the continental U.S., Hawaii and Australia) and we've been corresponding practically every day for three years. We call ourselves the Byline Babes and we totally rock. It's a rare and lovely phenomenon when one of the Babes meets another one. I had that good fortune last week. One of the Babes stopped by on her way through a New England vacation with her husband and 10-year-old son Alexander. I made up a goodie bag of candy from my stockpiles for Alexander which opened up a conversation about candy. I asked him what his favorite candy was and he thought about it for a minute. I was fully expecting to hear something like Reese's or maybe Pop Rocks, but he came up with this fantastic answer: Tootsie Pops. I told him I was surprised by that and I said I liked the orange ones. He replied with an excited, "Me too!" Then I asked him what candy he didn't like. Again, he took the time to think about it and answered, "Banana Laffy Taffy."
I think I'm going to start an informal tally of kids' favorites. What fun!

Goodie bag!

Yesterday I had my family over to celebrate Henri's first birthday. (Holy cow, I can't believe it's been a year!)

I made cupcakes using the Magnolia Bakery recipe (although, I must admit, they weren't that great. The cake was a little dry and the frosting a little too sugary, but they were still good.) At the last minute, I decided to make goodie bags because the party store had such good candy and I figured I might as well start a tradition of having kick-butt candy at the H-man's birthday. So here's the rundown of the goods: Mike & Ike's, Hot Tamales, Tootsie Roll Midgies, wax vampire teeth, giant Smarties, Sugar Daddy and a whistle pop.

Props to my sister and her husband for doing the food styling.

Dig in!

I'm addicted to a website that's supposed to be for moms, but really covers every detail of life known to women, including some that really would be best left private. Anyhow, one poster commented on how she was having a dinner party and her husband offered to pick up dessert. She thought he was going to the bakery, but instead came home with a big bag of candy from the drugstore. She was horrified, but it was too late to do anything else. So she said after dinner, she brought out a basket filled with all sorts of fun-sized candy bars and her guests loved it. They went bonkers and everyone had a great time.
That made me think of the big bowl of candy I had in the kitchen. When Henri was about two weeks old, Brian came home from work and said, "What's with the Hello Kitty on the front of the house?"
I had no idea what he was talking about, so I went outside. Yes, there on the front of the house was a giant Hello Kitty pinata. My friend Susan had originally bought it for my baby shower, but she had decided not to use it because she wanted the party to be a classy affair. (She opted, instead, to use the Precious Moments "It's a Boy!" banner, knowing full well that *that* would make me cringe.) So after Henri was born, she left the pinata hanging on the shutters outside my house.
"You might not want to eat the candy," she warned me. "It's been in there for a while." What a tease! How can you give someone a pinata filled to the brim with candy and then tell them not to eat it?!
I dumped it into a big-- HUGE-- bowl and it looked fine. But it was all caramel-based. Those bulls-eyes, square caramels and all different flavored caramel logs. I don't like caramel on it's own. With chocolate, yes, but on it's own, it holds no temptation.
My in-laws, however, LOVED it. First to go were the bulls eyes. Brian and his mom were digging through the bowl to try to find them. My nieces went for the Tootsie Rolls. Eventually the giant bowl dwindled down to a few rogue pieces. It just goes to show, though, that people love candy, even if they won't admit it. It's a great idea to always have a big basket of candy on hand for guests. Candy= FUN!