Random candy tidbits

I've got a new computer, which should be a good thing, but it came equipped with Windows 8, which is a bad thing. It's the most un-intuitive, difficult abomination of a system I've ever experienced. I'm telling you this because I'm just going to start posting some random candy stuff since everything seems to be working okay tonight. You never know what will happen tomorrow.

First up, candy from Singapore. The Sugar Baby's friend from preschool (who has the same name, only spelled differently), moved to Singapore for a couple of years. But last summer, Shuger Babee returned from the other side of the world, much to everyone's delight. And lucky me! His mom brought me some super yummy hard candies called Sticky. I love these. First of all, they're visually fantastic. The Passionfruit Rock looks like little pieces of passionfruit. The I (Heart) Mango Pudding has little red hearts in the center and the Pineapple Rock has pineapples in the center. The Lychee Pillows are little pink and green puffs. They're adorable. Even better is the taste. They're juicy and tart. Why can't we have hard candy like this in the U.S.?

 

 

 

Next up, a picture of the contents of the Sugar Baby's piñata. He turned 7 in May and I filled his Minecraft Ghast piñata with Ring Pops, Laffy Taffy, SweetTarts, Bottle Caps and other assorted sugary delights.

 

Lastly, we have this York Peppermint Patty-flavored creamer. My boss put these out at work one day and I couldn't wait to try some in my coffee. Looks yummy, right? Wrong. It was too artificial tasting and it didn't do anything to satisfy my chocolate craving.

The Best Candy of 2010 (and the Worst, and the Strangest)

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Looking back at 2010, I feel like it was kind of a low-key candy year. There weren't a lot of new candy releases, and there wasn't much that totally rocked my world. But, having said that, there were some definite highlights to the year.
Worst Candy of 2010
Let's get the negative stuff out of the way first. Unfortunately, it's usually pretty easy for me to pick the year's worst candy, and 2010 was no exception.The Sugar Baby got a nasty expired Chick-o-Stick and Cow Tale in his trick-or-treat bag, although I can't really claim that was the worst, since it had everything to do with the date and nothing to do with the product. So the winner (or loser, I suppose) is Haviland Wintergreen Mint Patty. I don't feel too bad saying that, since the product has since been discontinued. Their Orange Mint Patties, however, are delicious.

Most Unusual
The most unusual candy I tried this year was a Shiitake Mushroom Truffle. What was even stranger than the truffle was the post I wrote about it.

Other candies of note that I tried this year included:

Some more deliciousness from Q.bel (which was the Best Candy of 2009).

I took one for the team and sampled some Sorbee Sugar Free Chocolate.

There were near-riots in the house between me, Mr. Goodbar and No-Nuts over See's Easter Truffles.

I was excited to try Toblerone Fruit and Nut.
I loved the whole concept and taste of South 'n France Bon Bons (especially the coconut ones).

Wonka impressed me with their new bars, Marvels and fruit jellies.

While not my all-time favorite M&M flavor, the Pretzel ones were fun to try and a good option for dieters.

A company I'd never even heard of before-- DeMet's-- surprised me with their yummy caramel Treasures, and the fact that they're made just a few towns away from me.

Best new packaging goes to Crown Nuggets Creme & Liquor-Filled Caramels.
People
2010 was a year for personalities. The Sugar Baby introduced me to "Mr. Candy," an invisible (hopefully) character in his life. He came up in several conversations before fading away.

I made some new friends this year. Kendra from Ontario, I still owe you some chocolates! I haven't forgotten. You're the sweetest!

The Candy Professor brought some real street cred to the candy world.

I was so psyched to be able to interview April Winchell, a.k.a. Helen Killer from Regretsy, about her father's role as the Tootsie Pop Owl voice.
And someone actually wanted to interview me! I love Jen's blog, My Morning Chocolate.

A fun event for me was a conversation about candy that actually turned into a three-part news story.

And what a way to end the year. Yumster Philly sent me a photo of a cupcake that she created from my drawing of Mr. Candy Corn! How awesome is that?!

Birthdays

2010 was the year of the big 4-0 for me and lots of my friends. Candy buffets and gifts were plentiful.
There was also the Sugar Baby's 4th birthday which was a candy theme.
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. What was the best candy of 2010? I've narrowed it down to the following:

Green & Black's Organic Milk Chocolate Peanut: caramelized peanuts with sea salt in creamy milk chocolate.
Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Nutty Bits: "a crunchy mix of almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, pistachios and sweet toffee. They're kettle cooked in small batches, then dipped in rich, dark chocolate and sprinkled with just a touch of Fleur de Sel, for a superbly sweet and slightly salty treat."
Ritter Sport Milk Chocolate with Strawberry Creme: Creamy, crunchy and tangy.
Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Shortbread Stars: Lovely dark chocolate and crunchy cookies.
Trader Joe's Pound Plus Milk Chocolate: Seriously creamy, decadent milk chocolate.

Hmmm. Notice a trend here? Trader Joe's did a bang-up job this year in the confection department. I suppose I have to disqualify the chocolate stars, though, as they are really cookies. I loved the Ritter Sport Strawberry Creme, but I still prefer their Cornflake version, so that rules that one out. I think I have to say, based on taste, uniqueness and all-around good lovin', I'm going to choose Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Nutty Bits as the Best Candy of 2010. Would you believe I don't even have a picture? It just so happened that I tried these during a time when I was having camera woes. In any case, I would have preferred to choose a candy that is readily available throughout most of the U.S., so my apologies to you Yumsters who don't have a TJ's near you. Perhaps 2011 will be a more all-inclusive year.

Here's hoping that 2011 will be the sweetest year yet!

Holiday Gifts #2 & 3: Stocking Stuffers

I love the new Wonka Exceptionals products. It's like they take a typical candy and tweak it just a bit to make it different. Such is the case with their Peppermint Shortbread Chocolate Pieces. Each little piece is wrapped in foil like a present and the candy is milk chocolate with shortbread cookie and peppermint candy pieces. A new twist on peppermint bark.
I was very excited to see these limited edition Paul Frank Nestle Crunch bars. Who doesn't love a monkey with their chocolate? The package is actually a cardboard box/card. The only disappointing thing is that I expected the actual chocolate to have a monkey on it, but it was just a regular King Size Crunch. Still fun though. Love the packaging. The Paul Frank bars are only available at Target, by the way.

Wonka Giveaway Winner!

Congrats to Ashley who was picked to receive an assortment of Wonka candies. And thanks to all of you who entered. Check back again soon; I'll be having lots more giveaways and good candy fun!

Wonka Giveaway!!

One of my fellow taste testers told me that her daughter's junior high class was having a Willy Wonka theme for their dance. How cool is that? The parents decorated the gym with giant lollipops and candies and all sorts of other cool stuff. My eighth grade dance theme was "Almost Paradise" (from Footloose) and we had palm trees and big flowers. Booooorrrring.Here is the lovely Miss Jacqueline hanging out at the candy store. I love how they cut out pictures of candy jars and put them on the wall.
While we're on the subject of Wonka, I have a giveaway to announce! The kind Oompa Loompas over at Wonka have given me an assortment of their new bars and fruit jellies to give to a lucky Yumster.So here's what you have to do to enter: leave me a message saying what kind of decorations you'd have if you were hosting a candy-themed party. I'll pick a winner at random on June 21. Be sure to tell me how I can contact you. Continental U.S. residents only, please.

Wonka Bars: Now That's What I'm Talking About

Last week I reported on the new Wonka Jellies and Marvels. Today, it's all about the chocolate. "Wonka Bars" have been around since the '70s. They're milk chocolate with pieces of graham cracker. I always found this to be astoundingly disappointing, since the Wonka Bar (according to the book, anyway) was supposed to be Willy Wonka's ultimate creation. Somehow I'd expect it to be a little snazzier than just some second-rate chocolate with cookie dregs. Every now and then I'd buy one hoping that it was better than I remembered, but it never was. But good news folks. That lame bar is now a thing of the past and is being replaced by three new, much better bars.
First, the Scrumdiddlyumptious Chocolate Bar, which is milk chocolate with toffee pieces, cookie pieces and peanuts. Much more exciting, don't you agree? I only got a small taste of this bar. Somehow I think Mr. Goodbar and the Sugar Baby made quick work of it while I wasn't looking. It was good. The chocolate was creamy and the crunchy bits were properly crunchy.Next, the Wonka Chocolate Waterfall bar is a blend of milk and white chocolate. This is a pretty sweet bar. If white chocolate is your thing, then this bar is for you. I found it a bit cloying.Lastly, there's the Domed Dark Chocolate Bar: a slab of dark chocolate with milk chocolate domes on top. Out of all three bars, I expected the least pizazz out of this one, but it turned out to be my favorite. The dark chocolate was exceedingly rich and not at all grainy. It was smooth and had a wonderful mouth-feel.
Overall, I'm very impressed with the new Wonka Exceptionals line. It seems to me like someone was really listening over at the Nestle R&D labs. They took what was a boring, unexceptional bar (The Wonka Bar) and instead created three new yummy, and even somewhat sophisticated, candy bars.

Wonka Fruit Marvels and Fruit Jellies: a professional review from unprofessional testers

This weekend I had a reunion with all my taste tester buddies. They're a wild bunch. I suppose I could blame our trained palates as a reason that we all like to get sauced enjoy fine foods and beverages, as well as each others' company. As luck would have it, I received a box of samples from Wonka earlier in the day, so I thought, hey, why not have the Buds (as we were called) do the taste testing? I put out a notepad for comments since I knew I'd be lucky if I even remembered being there.
I put out three products: Wonka Exceptionals Fruit Marvels in Clementine Orange and Pomegranate flavors, and Wonka Exceptionals Fruit Jellies in Grapefruit.
Here's what the notes say:

• Pomegranate-- yummy!
• Surprise! The Marvel is soft inside.
• Orange: has a soft center. Pleasant surprise! Great!
• Reminiscent of early winter citrus with a hint of cooked orange, candy orange and fresh orange. (Okay, I made that last one up. But it certainly would've come up had the wine not started flowing.)

Here is Taste Tester Ginger with a Pomegranate Marvel in her hand. She took it out of her mouth because she suddenly remembered she gave up candy for Lent. Taste Tester Dawnie told her she could finish it if she said ten Novenas.

So here's the deal: the Marvels are "Hard candies with soft centers, delicately sugar dusted." I have to say, these are a unique candy. I can't think of anything to compare them to, except they're kind of like those little strawberry candies that are hard on the outside and soft on the inside. They're very tasty.
The Fruit Jellies are "Fantastically flavorful soft jellies dusted with sugar." In other words, top-shelf gumdrops in a cube shape.
I really like these products and here's why.
1) I like the packaging. This is how I always envisioned Wonka candies should look like, rather than the goofy Oompas packaging with the cartoon Willy Wonka. These definitely feel like something you could actually get at the Willy Wonka Factory Store, if he had one.
2) The flavors. They could've done plain old orange, but instead they did Clementine. I was thrilled to see they had grapefruit jellies, an under-utilized candy flavor. And of course, there's the sophistication factor of pomegranate and Goji berry. With flavors like these, Wonka/Nestle is obviously trying to appeal to candy lovers of a certain age.
3) They're made with natural ingredients. Yes, there's sugar and corn syrup and modified corn starch in these, so the whole "natural" label is kind of shifty. This ain't health food, folks. But the good news is, there's no artificial colors, which can be a big deal to some parents. The candies are colored with carmine and cochineal. It's probably best not to tell the kiddies that these colors come from ground-up beetles. (So if you're vegan, take note of that. No jellies or Marvels for you.)

New Wonka Gummies: No Artificial Colors or Flavors!

I was pretty psyched earlier this year when I found out that Wonka would be releasing two new products: Sour Puckerooms and Sluggles Gummies. These sounded like just the kind of fun candy the market has been lacking for a while, because, let's face it, gummie worms and bears can only excite and amuse for so long.
The Sour Puckerooms are little mushroom shaped gummies with a sour dusting, similar to Sour Patch Kids. The flavors are cherry, grape and lemon/orange.
In contrast, the Sluggles are sweet and come in bug shapes (but not gross bug shapes, thankfully). The flavors are orange, grape, lemon and strawberry. I found them at Target.
I tossed the bags to No-Nuts and she went for the Puckerooms first. "These are good!" she said. I agree. They are good. Not too sour, but just puckery enough to have you reaching for another one. I like the contrast of the rough sour stuff against the smooth, chewy gummy.
The Sluggles are good, too, although I always prefer sour. These have a dense chew and a slick surface.
My overall thinking was, these are good. But how are they any different than any other gummie candies? One look at the ingredients will tell you: no artificial colors or flavors. Very cool. This is a big deal for parents of kids who have sensitivities to artificial ingredients, so yay for Wonka!

Chocolate and American Idol: What's not to love?

So here's today's PSA: Nestle is having a contest to win tickets to the American Idol finale. Winners will find a golden ticket in their Wonka Bars. Check out www.wonka.com for more info. I must admit that I love American Idol and I'd be happy to be a Wonka representative at the finale. I could hold up a sign that says "I love Simon almost as much as Wonka Bars."