Candy bar round up

Okay Yumsters, I have a backlog of candies that I need to review, so I'm just going to do them all in one big lump. Right here, right now. Settle in.

First up, we have Nutffles. I found these at the grocery store for .99 cents and they came in different varieties. (I tried the almond and hazelnut; there's a red velvet variety that looks a little more tempting.) I was so excited to find something new and totally different. Only they weren't that different. Turns out these are a clone of Ferrero Rocher. Same creamy center with a nut, same crunchy outside. I was hoping there would be something really snazzy about them, but they were just okay. I haven't seen them since I initially bought them about six months ago. Like I said, maybe the red velvet ones are more unique.

Next we have Jelly Belly Snapple jellybeans. Back in my taste-testing days, I used to sip all sorts of Snapple flavors. These jelly beans are pretty true to the taste of the drinks, in flavors of Fruit Punch, Kiwi Strawberry, Mango Madness, Cranberry Raspberry and Pink Lemonade. A box on the back of the package says, "We include real ingredients whenever possible to create our famous true-to-life flavors." Um, real ingredients as opposed to what? That's kind of scary. I still prefer the Sour Jelly Bellies to all the other flavors, but if you're a Snapple lover, you'd like these. 

Lindt has two new Excellence bars out: Caramel with a Touch of Sea Salt and Coconut. I was initially surprised by the caramel. The picture on the box shows a square of chocolate with flowy caramel behind it, so I assumed this would be a liquid-center bar. However, the bar had crunchy bits of caramel and sea salt crystals in it. It was delicious, to be sure, but I think some people may be very surprised if they don't read the description first.

The coconut was delicious, as far as I can remember, because the Sugar Baby and Mr. Goodbar devoured most of it. You can't go wrong with dark chocolate and coconut ...

 ... except when it's in a 3 Musketeers. I saw the 3 Musketeers Coconut at a rest stop in Maine this past weekend, so I figured I'd try it, even though I've never had good luck with limited edition Musketeers in the past. This was no exception. To my taste buds, there are two types of coconut: fresh, tropical coconut and artificial, suntan lotion coconut. Unfortunately, this bar fell into the lotion category. It was overly sweet with that grainy, malty aftertaste of a regular 3 Musketeers, with "coconut flavor" thrown in. I'm not a fan.

Oh the anticipation! New candy bars on tap from Mars

Breaking news from Mars! Check this out candy lovers. There's some good stuff here!
1) 3 Musketeers Coconut will hit the shelves in December. Unlike other coconut bars that I so looked forward to (Twix Coconut, for one), this one scares me a little. I'm not sure it sounds that good, but I'm certainly willing to check it out.
2) M&M's Dark Chocolate Mint. Now these, I'm anxiously anticipating.
3) In May, 2012, look for M&M Snack Mixes. Milk Chocolate Candies Snack Mix features milk chocolate M&M’s, mini chocolate chip cookies, mini pretzel twists and peanuts; Dark Chocolate Candies Snack Mix comprises dark chocolate M&M’s, raisins, almonds and mini pretzel twists; Peanut Chocolate Candies Snack Mix has peanut M&M’s, mini shortbread cookies, almonds and mini pretzel twists. YUM!
4) Snickers 3X Chocolate 2 To Go bars (that's a lot of numbers in a candy bar name) will feature peanuts in chocolate caramel on top of chocolate nougat, covered in milk chocolate.

More Easter Sweetness

Marshmallow seems to be a big thing this Easter. I had high hopes for these 3 Musketeers Marshmallow squares. I was fantasizing that they'd be soft and slightly gooey, like marshmallow tends to be. Sadly, they were not. The insides were just like a regular 3 Musketeers-- that kind of whipped, slightly nougatey/fudgey texture-- and had that strange 3 Musketeers throat burn. The marshmallow part was, I guess, the flavor, but I'm thinking that if you gave one of these to someone without telling them what it was, they'd say it was a plain ol' Musketeers bar.I have the chocolate-covered Peeps Peepsters on my list for this week. They're on sale at CVS, if I can ever get over there.In the meantime, Mr. Lindt Easter Bunny is anxiously awaiting spring. It's taken all my will power this week not to chomp off his ears. Hopefully my strength will hold out until Easter, although I wouldn't bet on it.

Free Candy! 3 Musketeers! Hooray!

Calling all Yumsters! The sweet folks at 3 Musketeers have put together two yum-filled baskets of whippedy love for two lucky readers. Here's all you have to do: in the comments section, post your favorite 3 Musketeers "recipe." Feel free to be creative! Make sure you leave your e-mail address so I can contact you, and as always, U.S. residents only, please. I'll pick the two lucky Yumsters at the end of February. Good luck!

Those Fruity 3 Musketeers

I've always had mixed feelings about 3 Musketeers. They've never been my favorite, but I would never turn one down if offered. They do have fewer calories than most candy bars, so they've got that going for them. But I've always just wanted something more out of them. More texture? More flavor? I don't know. Something. So I've continuously been excited about their limited edition flavors. I was very excited for the mint, but sadly, it didn't meet my expectations. I never got to try the orange, which is sad, because I feel like I could've really liked them. Well now the Musketeers have donned their Valentine's hats and Easter bonnets in the form of: Raspberry and:

Cherry.

The first whiff of the raspberry ones (delicately-colored pink) reminded me of the raspberry creams from the chocolate shop where I worked in college. What can I say? It tasted like you'd expect a raspberry 3 Musketeer to taste like. Fruity, but with that same wheaty, malty Musketeeriness. These are pretty good. Still not something I'd go out of my way for, but I wouldn't turn down.

As for the cherry, well, I just don't do cherry and chocolate. The color of these was much brighter and quite festive. But the taste reminded me of the strange little fondue set I had as a kid. I'm sure I've mentioned it before. Stale mini marshmallows, cherry "fondue." Little plastic fondue forks. Weird. So I deferred to Mr. Goodbar on this one.

"Nothing wrong with that," he said. So there you go.

I'm not sure what flavor I'd like to see next in 3 Musketeers. I'd almost like to see what they could do with the Musketeer texture combined with marshmallow flavor.

In the Easter aisle

Spotted at Evil Wal Mart: orange 3 Musketeers. I didn't buy them, though, because I didn't want a whole bag, especially since I didn't like the mint ones. But if any of you feel daring enough to try them, let me know!

Old Timey Candy

This is so cool. It's a website of nostalgic ads with lots of candy-related stuff. This picture is from a sales book from the 1940s. There are also ads for Chuckles (assorted and all-licorice), Nickel Nacks (little boxes of candy corn, lemon drops and other yummies), 3 Musketeers (the original with three flavors!), Stark "The World's Longest Candy Roll" (looks similar to Necco Wafers), and-- you've gotta love this-- "Mason Cocoanut Queens: A luscious, tasty chocolate flavored coating, impervious to temperature extremes covers a moist, flavorful cocoanut center."

There's lots more, too. You'll have tons of fun looking at these. Which reminds me, I have an old Life Savers ad that I need to get framed to hang in the H-man's room.

Random Candy Memory: Charleston Chews by the pool

Here's a lovely, summery candy memory from my friend Neil, who will probably be mortified that I'm writing this. But it's so cute, I had to do it.

We were talking about candy and the subject of Charleston Chews came up. "They remind me of being a kid," said Neil. He said he would go to the town pool and work up the courage to buy a frozen Charleston Chew from the hottie teenage girl in the bikini who worked at the snack shack. I can just picture him all moony-eyed with a cracking, pre-pubescent voice saying, "One Charleston Chew, please."

And then, like millions of other teenage boys, he'd take the frozen candy bar and thwack! it on the ground so that it broke up into a million pieces.

Good times. Good times.

This then got me thinking about the gender of candy. There are some candy bars that are just boy-oriented; fewer that are girly. Charleston Chews are definitely a boy candy, as are fireballs, jawbreakers and most other round candies. Twix are definitely boy-oriented, although probably just as many girls like them. 3 Musketeers are boy candy, as are Milky Ways. What do girls get? Stupid candy like Mary Janes, Bit o' Honeys and Necco wafers. I'll have to ponder this some more. What do you think?

You got your 3 Musketeers in my York Peppermint Pattie!

I really, really wanted to like the new 3 Musketeers Mint. I somehow feel an allegiance to the mint/chocolate combination, maybe because I grew up with an appreciation for York Peppermint Patties, my mom's favorite. It's just one of those ideal flavor pairs, like chocolate and peanut butter or raspberry. But you can see where this is heading already...

The bar is thinner than a regular 3 Musketeers and it's actually two separate bars. Visually pretty appealing, but you can't help but feel like you're being ripped off since this special edition is smaller than the regular thing. The wrapper, which goes from the traditional silver into a minty-green bleed says, "Fluffy Chocolate-on-Mint Taste." Wha?? What the heck is that supposed to mean? What marketing guru thought that gem up?

The bar itself looks really yummy. It's dark chocolate and the inside is a bright fluffy white. Kudos for presentation. But the first whiff of it is disappointing. It smells like those cheapy peppermint patties you see at Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then there's the taste.

"It's like a big York Peppermint Pattie," said Brian.

That was my first thought, too. But it's not as minty and then there's the aftertaste ... a sort of malty, grainy flavor (not texture, just taste). I guess that's what makes it a 3 Musketeers.

Like I said, I really wanted to like this bar for some reason. But the aftertaste just stuck with me. I don't think I'll ever be a 3 Musketeers fan.

Random stuff

A big Hershey's Hug to Sera for pointing out an interesting fact about 3 Musketeers: the bar is called that because originally it was three pieces with three different fillings, vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Now that sounds intriguing. Why don't they bring that back?
Some other miscellaneous stuff:
I tried the Dolly Mix from my big stash o' British candy. I can't wait to tell you about it. Exciting stuff!
Last night we watched a DVD of Mitch Hedberg, the comedian who died way too young. Anyhow, he had a couple of good candy comments, like:
"I can't wait for this set to be over because I have a roll of LifeSavers in my pocket and pineapple is the next flavor."
AND
"I like Kit Kats, as long as I'm not with four or more people."

Who hearts 3 Musketeers?

Yesterday was my friend Katie's birthday, so I'm dedicating today's post to her, a true candy lover. She has the unique distinction of being the only person I've ever known who will willingly choose a 3 Musketeers over other candy bars.
We became friends in high school. I was a sophomore, she was a freshman and we both worked at the library. She invited me to her house one day and we decided to walk to 7-11 and get some snacks. Now you have to understand, Katie is Barbie-doll beautiful, tall and blonde. So when she bought three candy bars and ate them one after the other, I was mighty impressed. Here was someone who loved candy as much as I did! But I'll never forget that her first choice was a 3 Musketeers. When I questioned her about this, she said, "I don't know. I guess I just figure that they have the most chocolate." Hmm. I wouldn't call that stuff in the middle "chocolate," but I appreciate her sentiment. Happy Birthday Beastie!