Candy Freak Show

I did it all for you, dear reader.
First, I bought candy at the Christmas Tree Shoppe, thereby breaking my own rule about not buying edible stuff from non-food stores and--
Second, I bought quite possibly the freakiest assortment of candy ever.
Where do I even start? Well, I'd heard of the Yogurt Dots and the Chewy Atomic FireBalls and I have to say, they sounded intriguing. Disgusting, but intriguing. The Dots came wrapped in cellophane and when I tore it off there was a subtle, icky odor. Definitely not a sweet, candy aroma. I opened the box and took a good whiff. Ooooh. So not good. Kind of like a cross between sour dairy and an old spice cabinet. The first one I tried was orange. Actually, it wasn't bad. It was very similar to a Creamsicle. Then I moved on to lime. Egads. What a mistake. This is what I imagine Pledge would taste like. I vowed to stop there, but as I'm writing this, I see the flavors on the side and the others include strawberry, banana and blackberry. I think I have to try the banana. Oh. Imagine chewy banana babyfood with a medicinal kick at the end.
Moving on. The Chewy Atomic Fireballs are smaller than I thought they'd be. For some reason, I envisioned them having almost a white marshmallow kind of center, but thankfully they don't. These are like bigger, round versions of Red Hots. Not bad, actually. These I might actually eat.
So I thought I had scored the ultimate candy mix when there, at the checkout, were these "Limited Edition! Junior Fruit Cremes" in black cherry, orange and raspberry. On the package, the drawings of the cremes look all bright and shiny and oozy in the center. In reality, they're grayish, and the centers are dry, like a thin mint patty. I can't even describe the taste. Gross, like a bad grammar school fruit dessert. I'm not even sure what that means, but it's what comes to mind. I can't imagine how these passed through a taste test. Maybe they didn't. (Note to Junior Mints people: next time you have a new product, give me a shout. We'll talk.) So that was my fun for the day. But it wasn't a total waste because it turns out that the Dots make for a great cat toy. Now they're all over my floor.

My Two Cents

I finally got around to trying the Reese's Whipps and the Junior Mint Peppermint Crunch. I fully expected to hate the Whipps, since most of the other candy bloggers weren't jazzed by it. It's a peanut butter nougat with a thin layer of peanut butter around it coated in chocolate. Here's what I thought: if you compare it to a Reese's, you're going to be disappointed. But if you accept it as its own candy bar, it's actually kind of good.
I had similar expectations for the mints, and they were fine, but really, they weren't that much different than a plain old normal Junior Mint.

What's New

I had to go back to the dreaded Christmas Tree Shoppe yesterday to return some Roman shades I bought for Henri's room. They were really nice, blue with a scalloped edge, and pretty decent quality. Too bad they were an inch too short. Turns out the windows in his room are a bizarre size, so now I have to get custom shades, which means $200 per window instead of the fantastic $9.99 bargains I found. Sigh. In any case, while I was there, I decided to check out the candy since the last time I was there I found the Smarties Parties. As I mentioned before, I have a phobia against food bought at non-food stores, but wouldn't you know it-- they had the new Junior Mints Deluxe that were the hit of the Candy Expo. They're packaged in a rectangular box and each mint is individually wrapped like a Cella Chocolate-Covered Cherry. The whiff of mint you get when you first open the box is intoxicating. As for taste, they're good but they aren't exactly like Junior Mints. In the Deluxe version, the chocolate is thicker and snappier, unlike the soft, waxy chocolate of the regular. And it seemed to me that the filling in the Deluxe was slightly more minty, but that may be just because there was more of it. I like these, though. They're big enough that one is satisfying.
While I was there, I also saw two other items of note: Pop Rocks on a ribbon (I'm guessing it's like a fruit roll-up with Pop Rocks in it) and Mike & Ike and Hot Tamales sprays. I almost bought one of these, but I got scared because I thought they might be really old items. Turns out they're brand new. I've seen candy sprays before. In fact, when I went to the Candy Expo a few years ago, I was accosted by some--ahem-- ladies in bikinis hawking their no-calorie candy sprays. Hmmm. I'm sorry, but I just don't get the appeal. That's just a little too Jetsons for me. Oh, and I did score a box of Christmas ribbon candy that I'll be using for my candy paintings.

What's new

It sounds like everyone is having a grand ol' time at the Candy Expo. Good for them! You can read about Cybele's and Sera's coverage on their websites. I'm particularly interested in the Reese's Whipps (doesn't that just sound good?!) and the gigantic Junior Mints. Mmm, giant mints!
In the meantime, I just sampled the Nestle Crunch Stixx for the first time and wowee, those things are good. They're almost like chocolate-covered Pirouettes (or Yohays, depending on what you call them); crispy, crunchy, chocolatey and addicting. I can't have these in the house.