Smackdown! Turkish Raisin Sausage vs. Chinese Traditional Food Fruit Candy

On the way home from Tennessee, we realized that our dear friends The Professor and Maryanne The Painter lived just an hour out of our way, so we stopped in to spend the night.
The Professor has always understood me on a very primal level. He gets my passion for all things candy-related, so I was ecstatic when he said he brought me back a little something from his recent trip to Turkey.
I won't keep you in suspense. Here it is, folks. One genuine Raisin Sausage with Walnut.*Now, first off, it looks like a giant turd. There's just no way around it. But I kept an open mind. The ingredients were simple enough: sugar, walnut, wheat starch, grape molasses and citric acid. What's so wrong with that, right?
I'll tell you what's wrong. This stuff was like biting into plastic tubing stuffed with walnuts. The resistance on your teeth made it feel like you were eating something from Home Depot, not the grocery store. It's like you could find it in the aisle between the PVC piping and the bathtub caulk. Truly foul. Had this been from anyone else, I would've thought they were either trying to mock me or challenge my devotion to candy. But I know in The Professor's mind, this was more than just candy; it was an experience. That's why he "gets" me. Fortunately, he made up for his transgressions by allowing me to taste some of the chocolate-covered Seafoam he'd gotten from McDonald's Homemade Candies in Michigan. Now this was some tasty stuff. Little chunks of airy, brown-sugary seafoam with a thick coating of dark chocolate. Mmmmm!It all went to hell, however, once the "Chinese Traditional Food" Fruit Candy was pulled out. I can't even remember what was in it, but it was more disgusting than I thought it would be. Match it up against the Raisin Sausage with Walnut and I don't know who'd win.
He had some other crazy-ass candy from Turkey and it was all right, but the true winner of the visit came from The Professor's daughter, Chocolate E-Clare. She generously gave me one of the Kinder Bueno bars she had hoarded from their trip to England. Isn't that the sweetest thing ever?! She said it was her favorite candy bar, and it's easy to see why. Creamy chocolate, crispy wafers, hazelnut filling ... now that's a candy I can love.
Being a good guest, I brought The Professor my own contribution to this extravaganza of sweetness: half a box of Mint Moon Pie Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches. When I bought them, I thought they were mint-flavored Moon Pies-- the soft cake with marshmallow filling. Only after I opened them did I realize that they were cookies. These were pretty yummy, very similar to Girl Scout Thin Mints, only with a cream filling.We had a lovely visit. We see them far too less than we'd like, but distance and busy lives get in the way. The Raisin Sausage *almost* makes up for the distance. Almost.
*In the upper corner of the sausage package, it says "Aphrodisiac." Believe me, nothing says love like a Raisin Sausage.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate with Raisins & Pecans

Surprising as it may seem, I don't always remember every candy bar I've tried. It took me a while before I stopped being surprised by Reese's Dark. For some reason, they always looked new to me, and then after buying them I'd remember that I'd already had them.
So here's the deal: I bought a Trader Joe's Organic Dark Chocolate Raisins & Pecan bar the other day, not remembering if I'd tried it before. I was about to go through the Candy Yum Yum archives, but then I thought, wait, let me write a review first. Then I'll go back and see if I've written another review about it and how they compare. Here goes nothing:
I actually hesitated about this bar because pecans are not my favorite nut. If this was raisins and almonds or peanuts, I would've scooped it up in a minute. But pecans? Eh, not so much. The chocolate is 57% which is low on the dark chocolate snob scale, but I find I really like this percentage. It was a very fruity dark chocolate, which I also like. The raisins were appropriately sticky and chewy and the pecans were a nice balance. I really, really liked this bar.
Now let me go back and look. Nope, I guess I haven't had this one before. Thumbs up!

Let's Talk Fruits and Nuts

There was a time when I wouldn't touch a candy bar (or anything else for that matter) with raisins in it, but in my old age, I've come to believe that the raisin/nut/chocolate combination is quite possibly the most perfect blend of ingredients a candy bar can have.
It started with Cadbury Fruit & Nut bar. I don't remember when I first had one, but it changed my thinking on the whole raisin situation. (This was back when Cadbury chocolate actually tasted good. These days, I find it to be too grainy to enjoy.) And of course there are Chunkys, which I haven't had in forever, but I'm thinking I need to re-try soon. So when I saw that Toblerone came out with a raisin nut bar, I was ecstatic.
Like the other Toblerone bars, this one is composed of little triangular pieces that are easy to break off. I'm guessing the theory is that you would eat one triangle at a time. I, however, have yet to experience an occasion when I could eat just one. I love the rich creaminess of the classic Toblerone, and this bar continues that tradition. The chocolate is smooth and flecked with bits of honey almond nougat and raisins. I dare you to eat just one piece.