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April 2008

Friday, April 4, 2008

Red Vines Giveaway

National Licorice Day is on Saturday, April 12th. Why licorice only gets a day when peanut butter gets a whole month is beyond me. (Here are some more candy days.)

In recognition of this Red Vines contacted me a few weeks ago offering up some prize packages for Candy Blog readers. I’ll be giving FOUR (4) of these prizes away. (Rules below.)

Here’s what’s inside:

image

  • Original Red Twist Jars 4-LB x 1
  • Original Red Twist Trays x 3
  • Black Licorice Twist Tray x 1
  • Pink Strawberry Twist Tray x 1
  • Red Cherry Twist Tray x 1
  • Strawberry Sugar Free Vines x 1
  • Black Licorice Sugar Free Vines x 1
  • Plus you’ll also get a hat, tee shirt, sticker, water bottle and three temporary tattoos!

    So, if you’re a Red Vines lover (or haven’t tried it before and would like to experience a representation of their line of products) just follow these simple directions:

  • Answer the following question by leaving a comment: Do you think Red Licorice should be called licorice at all, since it doesn’t actually have any licorice in it?
  • Leave a real working email address. I will not share this with anyone, but I will need to contact you if you’re the winner. If I don’t hear back from you in 72 hours after notifying you that you’ve won, I’ll draw a new winner. Winning packages will be shipped directly from the Red Vines folks.
  • Don’t click the “get updates to comments” or else you’ll get hundreds of updates. (If you do it accidentally, there’s an unsubscribe at the end of each email.)
  • All entries must be received by April 12th, 2008 at 10 AM Pacific.
  • There is no geographic restriction on this one! One winner can be from outside the US, so please leave your country in the Location field of your entry comment. (You may be responsible for tariffs or taxes for gift items shipped to you, depending on how your government operates.)
  • Winners will be drawn randomly from all eligible entries (so there is no right answer but I’m interested to hear opinions).
  • Feel free to encourage your friends to enter (because they’re your friends, they’d share, right?) but getting this listed on sweepstakes/contest websites only lowers everyone’s odds. (I like to think of these giveaways as a bonus to readers, not a way to boost traffic on the site.)
  • If these odds aren’t good enough for you, Red Vines is also running a contest on their website, too for actual scholarship or travel money.

    (Other fine print: Red Vines are made with wheat and are not suitable for those with wheat/gluten sensitivities. Above photo was provided by Red Vines, not taken by me.)

    UPDATE: Four lucky winners were drawn and their packages shipped out this week. They should have them in their hot little hands right now. The winners were Tara, Shelley, Kim & Paul. Congratulations!

    Related Candies

    1. Kookaburra Licorice
    2. Organic Finnska Soft Licorice
    3. Licorice Assortment
    4. Good & Plenty (Fresh from the Factory)
    5. Dutch Licorice
    6. Salted Licorices: Djungelvral and Dubbel Zout
    7. Haribo Licorice Wheels

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:00 am     CandyFeatured News

    Thursday, April 3, 2008

    3400 Phinney: Fig, Fennel & Almond and Hazelnut Crunch

    Theo 3400 Phinney - New BarsTheo Chocolate, the only all Fair Trade and Organic chocolate company that makes their confections from bean to bar in the United States is growing. This year they added two new bars to their 3400 Phinney line, bringing the total to four milk chocolate bars and four dark chocolate bars.

    They are all a standard format of two ounces in four sections and feature artwork on the wrapper by Kitten Chops.

    3400 Phinney - Fig, Fennel & Almond in 65% Dark

    I picked my full-sized samples of the new bars at the Natural Products Expo last month. The Fig, Fennel & Almond in 65% Dark was the one I was most looking forward to.

    Let’s see, favorite things:

    Figs? I never knew fig love until I had my own tree. Check!

    Fennel? Love it in salads, prefer licorice in candy. Check!

    Almonds? I eat them every day. Check!

    65% Dark Chocolate? Not too dark, not too dry is the way I like it. Check!

    Upon first bite this was too dark, too complex, kind of a mess. But like some Philip Glass piece, the spareness of each note eventually started making music.

    It took about half the bar, but I started liking it more and more. The fennel stands out in the scent of the bar, a light and grassy licorice or anise note. Upon letting a bite melt it becomes a bit acidic, a little tangy and rather like raisins, but fresher. Not quite figgy but the seeds help. Later the little bits of crushed almonds pull it all back together.

    The chocolate is dry and not quite as buttery as I’d like for a “candy bar” but for a chocolate bar, it has a nice bitter component that keeps the figs from feeling to sticky sweet. Still, it requires a bit too much effort for me to just eat the bar.

    Rating: 6 out of 10

    3400 Phinney Hazelnut Crunch in Milk Chocolate

    I had a very hard time with this bar ... I have a very hard time not eating it all before I finished writing this review.

    It’s simply called Hazelnut Crunch Milk Chocolate.

    It smells hazelnutty, and has little bits of crushed hazelnuts and a toffee crunch mixed into the creamy and rather dark milk chocolate.

    The toffee bits are what makes this really fabulous. They’re very salty (in fact, there’s a lot of salt in this bar: 140 mgs) but man, each little milligram makes a little jolt of electrical energy delivering those flavors right to the pleasure centers of my brain.

    Rating: 9 out of 10

    Where I had trouble with the FF&A, the Hazelnut Crunch was one I couldn’t believe I ate the whole thing when it was gone. It’s a perfect afternoon bar, not too filling, not too sickly sweet and the little dose of nuts makes it feel very satisfying. In fact, I’d probably eat it anytime, anywhere ... but the Fig, Fennel & Almond would definitely need to be the kind of bar where I’d need to be in the mood.

    Theo’s 3400 Phinney line is now Kosher (dairy).

    Related Candies

    1. Zotter Candy Bars
    2. Theo Confections
    3. Vosges Haut-Chocolate
    4. Figamajigs
    Name: 3400 Phinney: Fig, Fennel & Almond and Hazelnut Crunch
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Theo Chocolate
    Place Purchased: samples from ExpoWest
    Price: $3.25 retail
    Size: 2 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 140 & 165
    Categories: Chocolate, Nuts, Toffee, United States, Theo, Kosher, Fair Trade, Organic, All-Natural

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:22 am    

    Wednesday, April 2, 2008

    Lifesavers Gummies Sour

    Lifesavers Gummies SoursI see these at the 7-11 all the time. It’s one of those candies that I just don’t buy, thinking one day I’ll run out of things and those will be there for me to review.

    But more recently I was sick. A bad head cold and whatnot. You know how it is. Sometimes I don’t want a delicate chocolate that makes me pay careful attention to nuance. Sometimes I just want the texture burned off my tongue.

    I’m a huge gummi fan, don’t get me wrong. But I’m very happy with the plain old traditional Haribo Bears. Sometimes I enjoy the Japanese gummis, especially when they’re covered in chocolate.

    Opening the bag, it smelled like fruity shampoo.

    The bag holds five flavors: Strawberry, Tangy Cherry, Watermelon, Black Raspberry & Tangerine.

    Those who have been reading here for a while know which one puts me over the moon, Tangerine. (I used to love the single-flavor Tangerine Lifesavers that were once available and can now only be found in the Tropical Mix.)

    Lifesavers Gummies Sours

    They’re soft and pliable gummies, sanded with a tingly sour coating. They’re larger than the old hard Lifesavers, a little larger than a quarter.

    The colors are a little hard to tell apart. The Orange, Red and Light Red all kinda look the same in incandescent lighting (years from now people won’t know what I’m talking about when incandescents are illegal and everyone has CF or LEDs).

    Smelling them didn’t help, but believe me, it’s pretty easy to tell them apart by taste.

    The Tangerine is wonderful. It’s tangy, it’s zesty, it’s fruity and just tastes like I should have some peels lying around when I’m done.

    Tangy Cherry, is well, a light cherry. I don’t like it as much as the regular cherry Lifesavers Gummies, but it’s okay.

    Strawberry is one of those odd flavors. I don’t want my strawberries to be sour. If you gave me sour strawberries I’d probably tell you to take them back to the grocery store and get your money back. These were also okay, but looked an awful lot like the tangerine, so I ate a few more than I wanted to by mistake.

    Watermelon is rather like Strawberry, it should be sweet and fragrant. Sour is wrong. But here I am, and not only is it sour, but it’s also green. It tastes just horrible, but the good news is that my husband thought this was the best flavor and has no problems rummaging through the bag and getting rid of them.

    Black Raspberry is also pretty intense. It has a nice jammy base, with some good tartness and then of course the wonderful floral raspberry flavor.

    These aren’t so sour that they ruin your mouth. Pretty much like Sour Patch Kids, but with a gummi base instead of a jelly one.

    By a strange coincidence I also tried the Lifesaver Gummies after another cold for similar reasons.

    Unlike many other Lifesavers products these days, these are made in the USA.

    Related Candies

    1. Sour Jujyfruits
    2. Sour Patch Extreme
    3. Sour Gummi Bears
    4. Sour Extinguisher
    5. LifeSavers
    6. Lifesaver Gummies
    Name: Lifesavers Gummies Sours
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Lifesavers (Wrigley's)
    Place Purchased: samples from CandyWarehouse.com
    Price: $1.39 retail
    Size: 7 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 92
    Categories: Gummi, Sour, United States, Wrigley's

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:59 am    

    Tuesday, April 1, 2008

    Plain and Fancy Laces

    The first pair of Candie’s I had were a simple pair of white sneakers. I loved them because they were perfect with my candy striper uniform. (I kid you not, I was a candy striper at the hospital when I was 8th grade, I even got a commendation for completing 50 hours of volunteer work.)

    imageMy uniform really wasn’t much. It was just a smock that I’d wear over whatever else I had on, but as this was an era of clogs, I always made sure that I had “quiet shoes” on when I went to the hospital because my rounds were on the geriatric floor. Mostly I’d refill water pitchers, help patients open their mail and later when meals were served, I’d feed those who needed help or cleared their trays.

    I’ve kind of been searching for those sneaks again, and prowling around on eBay in hopes that someone has some.

    I found these, which are pretty close, but I’m not a size 5.5 (I’m a 7.5). Of course I probably was a size 5.5 in junior high.

    But my point is, back then plain white shoes were pretty fashionable, and it was all about the fancy way you’d lace them. If only we’d had the internet to show us cool techniques like this!

    UPDATE 6:00 PM: Yes, it was an April Fool’s joke. It was all my brother’s idea. (You can see how it looked here.)

    The regular edible candy reviews will resume tomorrow.

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:59 am    

    Page 6 of 6 pages ‹ First  < 4 5 6

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