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November 2007

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Ice Cubes

Ice CubesAs a kid I loved Ice Cubes. They’re little squares of hazelnut mockolate. Their unique selling proposition included the fact that they were individual pieces that sold for 10 cents a piece and had a wild, cool feeling on the tongue when they melted instantly.

I remember buying them at the student union on the Kent State University campus when I was a kid waiting for my mother to be done with classes or my father to be done with work. (I usually panhandled to get the money to buy them, I was pretty shameless in the lengths I would go to get my fix.) Later when I was in college on my own I would use my meal points at the Jolly Giant Commons to buy these by the tub.

The little candies have been around since the mid-thirties, made in Germany by a small company called Nappo and sold by Albert’s in the States. They’re similar to the Caffarel Gianduia, except for the fact that they’re made with partially hydrogenated coconut oil instead of nut paste and chocolate.

Ice Cubes Stack

I was really excited to find these looking so smart and crisp at The Candy Store in San Francisco on Friday. I see them every once in a while, but they always look sad and melted. The Candy Store had a whole jar of pristine looking Ice Cubes in both wrappers (they’re switching to a gold wrapper from the traditional blue and white so there’s a crossover right now).

They don’t smell like much, a little sweet, a little nutty, but nothing like chocolate. They have a soft bite and an immediate hit of cool on the tongue. They melt quickly (as partially hydrogenated coconut oil has a melting point of 76 degrees F) and have a decent mix of nutty flavors, a little milkiness and a little hit of cocoa. A little grainy, they’re not quite as good as I remember.

Now, for the sobering part. Read the ingredients: partially hydrogenated coconut oil, sugar, low fat cocoa, dried sweet whey, soy flour, hazelnut paste, soy lecithin, artificial vanilla flavor.

There is no nutritional info included with these, but this page tells me that just one of them is 22% of my daily value of saturated fat (65 calories).

So while I enjoyed this little trip back in time to taste those little cubes of obsession and trans fats, now that I’m all grown up and have found good sources of candy, I don’t think I’ll ever eat these again now that I’ve found Caffarel Gianduias. (The traditional ones are perfect, the novelty shaped ones are fun & make a cute stocking stuffer.) In fact, at The Candy Store the price for Caffarel and Ice Cubes was identical ... 75 cents each. I bought a handful of Fig and Chestnut ones ... something I’ll feel a little less guilty about eating.

Related Candies

  1. Milka Alpenmilch
  2. Nutpatch Nougats
  3. Ferrero Mon Cheri
  4. Lake Champlain Hazelnut Eggs
  5. Scharffen Berger Gianduja
Name: Ice Cubes
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Albert's (made by Nappo)
Place Purchased: The Candy Store (San Francisco)
Price: $.75
Size: .39 ounces
Calories per ounce: 168
Categories: Mockolate, Nuts, Germany, Albert's

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:36 am    

Monday, November 19, 2007

Brach’s Soda Poppers

There’s rarely anything “new” in hard candy, so I was pleased to see Brach’s has a new assortment of hard candies called Soda Poppers.

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They boast real fruit juice and come in four licensed soda flavors (from Cadbury Schweppes): A&W Root Beer, Doctor Pepper, Orange Crush & 7-Up.

Rather than just being a mix of hard candies in soda flavors, the twist on these is that they’re shaped like little cans and feature a firm goo center. (There’s no carbonation, though.)

  • 7-Up - the uncola! The taste is really reminiscent of the soda. It’s tangy and has a very strong zest attribute with a slight bitterness that goes with it. It’s actually different from most other lemon-lime candies, so it’s not like it’s the same as any other lemon drop out there.
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  • Orange Crush - I haven’t had an orange soft drink in a long time, though grape and orange were one of my favorites as a kid. This has a spot on orange soda flavor. The goo center verges on orange jelly slice to me, but that’s not a bad thing.
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  • Dr. Pepper -  my experience with Dr. Pepper is rather limited. I like the idea of it, but never the taste. It smells slightly like grape and has a little tinge of tartness at first then a black cherry and maybe even some root beer woodsiness. Whatever it is, it’s not something I plan on eating again.
  •  

  • A&W Root Beer - I’m a huge root beer fan and often eat the Brach’s A&W Root Beer barrels (though I’m not really particular). The flavor here is sufficiently intense. The soft center is definitely different and really makes the flavor intense.
  • I’m a hard candy cruncher, so I liked that I could crunch these pretty quickly and get a whole new texture. They were kind of sticky once crunched, but I don’t mind digging piece of hard candy off my teeth as an afternoon diversion.

    Like the assortment that Jelly Belly has called Soda Pop Shoppe, there’s no cola in this mix. Strange, as that’s one of the flavors that’s unique to the carbonated drink arena (besides Dr. Pepper).

    Would I buy these again? Probably not. I prefer the simple root beer barrel, lemon drop or orange slice. If they managed to get a cola flavor in the mix, well, now then we’d have something! As a flavor mix and the fact that they added the chewy jelly filling, well, it certainly changes the ordinary hard candy idea on its head. These are being sold in bulk in Pick a Mix and in small bags (I think 7 ounces).

    Of note: Brach’s was recently sold by French chocolate company Barry Callebaut to Farley’s & Sathers (which itself is made up of a bunch of other candy companies rolled into one: Heide, Trolli, Farley’s, Sathers, Bob’s, Now & Laters and RainBlo gum). These candies were made in Argentina.

    Related Candies

    1. Kenny’s Licorice Pastels & Root Beer Twists
    2. Soda Can Fizzy Candy
    3. Ramune & Cola Bubble Ball
    4. Bottlecaps
    Name: Soda Poppers
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Brach's
    Place Purchased: samples from All Candy Expo
    Price: unknown
    Size: 7 ounces
    Calories per ounce: unknown
    Categories: Hard Candy, Brach's

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:57 am    

    Sunday, November 18, 2007

    Poll Results: 100 Calorie Preferences

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    I found this fascinating. First of all, I voted for the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I know it doesn’t seem like a huge portion, but the caloric density of the peanut butter is really satisfying to me.

    But I was really surprised at the huge numbers of Jelly Belly fans. I think my second choice would probably be Gummi Bears, just because they take so long to eat.

    The big thing, I think, if you’re going to have an indulgence be aware of how many calories it is, if you’re watching them, and then pick something that will satisfy you. Nothing worse than having a “treat” you don’t like.

    (I don’t know who these rice cake eaters are!)

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:39 am     CandyFeatured NewsPolls

    Saturday, November 17, 2007

    This Week in Candy - Back in my second home

    candy buffetI’m in the Bay Area again. It’s like a second home to me lately. I come here for two reasons, the first is that it’s home to the National Novel Writing Month headquarters. We’re having a big fundraiser tonight called The Night of Writing Dangerously. 200 writers, most from the area but some from as far away as Toronto, will descend upon a ballroom to sit on uncomfortable chairs for six hours to write en masse. My contribution to the evening is a Candy Buffet. I’ve been doing a lot of product photography lately for Candy Warehouse, and one of the side effects of that is leftover candy (I get to keep whatever I shoot). Usually it’s not that much and I can simply hand it off to folks at the office. In this case it was bulk items like Brach’s cinnamon disks, butter toffee, orange slices, mini gummi bears and a huge array of Koppers chocolate goodies ... sooooo much candy.

    So I loaded up my car and hit the road with, literally, my weight in candy in the back.

    This is a huge load off my mind, of course, because now the candy will go to wonderful writers who really, really want it. (And while I really, really want it too, I can’t possibly eat my weight in candy before it spoils, well, I could but then it’d be half my weight in candy.)

    The second reason I like coming to the Bay Area is that it is home to so many candy companies. Some are fine chocolatiers (many of whom I’ve reviewed now: Recchiuti, Charles Chocolates & Joseph Schmidt) as well as factories like Jelly Belly, Scharffen Berger, Sconza, Annabelle’s, Ghirardelli and Guittard.

    Guittard QuetzalcoatlThe cornerstone of my trip was a visit to the Guittard chocolate factory for a personal tour by Gary Guittard. I have been to quite a few factories in my life, but this was the the most immersive I’ve ever had. (No, I don’t mean that I was immersed in chocolate.) Gary was wonderfully open and of course incredibly versed in the intricacies of beans, fermenting, roasting, combining and all the other variables that go into making such painstakingly wonderful chocolate. He was also fantastically patient with me and of course so generous (as are most chocolate people I’ve met). I’ll have more on that as I go through the products that I have for review. It was an incredible experience. If there’s one thing that I came away with was a huge appreciation for the fact that we live in a time with such incredible chocolate. (Something I’ll probably make mention of on Thanksgiving.)

    Of course any city that makes so much candy has to have good candy stores. So yesterday, knowing that I’d soon be free of 135 pounds of candy, I went and bought some more.

    I’ll have larger write ups about these in the future, but here was my itinerary (fellow writer YumSugar also came along on the last three stops!):

  • Miette Confissiere - I bought licorice, some Nougats de Montelimar by G. Savin and a couple of Bergamot caramels.
  •  

  • Fog City News - they have a huge selection of chocolate bars, I got two Fair Trade Zotter bars, the Amano Cuyagua, a Coppeneur Ocumare with Chili & Cacao Nibs, a handful of teensy Fair Trade Divine 70% bars and a San Jose del Tambo 70% dark chocolate bar from Askinosie.
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  • The Candy Store - more licorice, some Caffarel bite size pieces, Ice Cubes, Marich Dark Chocolate Covered Orange Peel, Dark Chocolate Sponge Candy from Parkside Candy in Buffalo, NY and an intriguing assortment from Voisin of France called Papillotes Confiseur that I think includes some nougat, marzipan and ... um, I don’t know what else.
  •  

  • CocoaBella - a very small assortment that included a Lillie Belle Jamaican Spiced Caramel, a Maglio Stuffed Fig (loved it when I had it last year and had it for lunch today), Michel Cluizel Champignon Bolet (hazenlut) and the traditional Champignon (almond), two traditional dark pieces from Mary, a Belgian company that seemed to make a big splash at the Chocolate Show in NYC and finally two pieces from Christopher Elbow: Bourbon Pecan and Bananas Foster.
  • I also popped by Charles Chocolate on Thursday to taste their new winter assortment and catch up with Chuck Siegel since I haven’t talked to him in a year and since that time they’ve opened their new shop & cafe with the factory adjacent. Chuck was gracious and gave me some wonderful items to sample (in addition to the ones eaten on site and on sight) such as their lemon and blood orange marmalade (perhaps something for Thanksgiving will include this?), the new Caramel Almonds Sticks and his new 65% Bittersweet Bar that includes Candied Hazelnut Pieces (which I hope is like this Mallorca bar I had earlier this year)

    Monday: Russell Stover Private Reserve Vanilla Bean Brulee (8 out of 10)

    Tuesday: Mentos - Pine Fresh (Pineapple) (8 out of 10)

    Wednesday: Cadbury Ornament Creme Egg (4 out of 10)

    Thursday: Peppermint Peep Stars (6 out of 10)

    Friday: Sour Jujyfruits (6 out of 10)

    Average for the week 6.4 with a 20% chocolate content.

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:11 am     CandyFeatured News

    Friday, November 16, 2007

    Sour Jujyfruits

    Sour JujyfruitsEarlier this summer I reviewed one of the classic movie candies, Jujyfruits. While I’ve always been fond of the idea of them, and think that when they’re fresh they’re quite fun, they never had quite enough flavor for me.

    Enter Heide’s newest addition to the Jujyfruit family (which as far as I know is an only child), the Sour Jujyfruits. (I’m not sure how long these have been on the market.)

    The most significant difference between these and the regular Jujyfruit is the flavor set: Lime, Grape, Lemon, Raspberry and Orange. The licorice has been replaced with grape (and for obvious reasons, while some may enjoy a salty licorice, I don’t know of any sour licorice candies).

    The shapes are the same though, with each color coming in all the vegetable and fruits.

    And like Jujyfruits which sport a rather out-of-step package design (what’s with that font?) this package also has some cartoon kids sporting sour pusses. I’m not sure who they’re trying to appeal to.

    Sour JujyfruitsOut of the package, they’re not quite as pretty as their original mellow counterparts. They have a sanding of sour & sugar. It’s not unattractive, by any means, but not quite the same as the soft translucence of the originals.

    They’re also a lot moister. Granted, these come in a plastic pack instead of a box which I imagine allows for some drying. These are quite soft, though not as soft as Sour Patch Kids (and also just a denser shape).

    The flavors are good.

    The raspberry is strong and tart with a good floral counterpart.

    The lemon has a great zesty essence along with the sour burst.

    The grape is okay, it reminds me a lot of concord grape juice, which is a really nice change from the SweeTart grape that usually tastes like blue pen ink.

    Orange is sassy with similar zest components as the lemon.

    The lime is probably the weakest of the set of flavors, but still holds its own.

    Overall, I like them. I like the variety of the shapes, I like the colors and the flavors and would really enjoy these as a movie snack. The production on them wasn’t quite as top notch as Jujyfruits. There were a few that were not quite the right shape or conjoined. But of course Jujyfruits are pretty inexpensive, so I can forgive that for a bag that I’m paying about a buck fifty for.

    Has anyone seen them in stores?

    Related Candies

    1. Jujyfruits & Jujubes
    2. Sour Patch Kids
    3. Giant Pixy Stix
    4. Airheads Xtreme Sour Belts
    Name: Sour Jujyfruits
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Heide (Farley's & Sather)
    Place Purchased: samples from All Candy Expo
    Price: retail $1.59
    Size: 9 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 87
    Categories: Jelly, Sour, United States, Farley's & Sathers

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:29 am    

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