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May 2008

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Roca Buttercrunch Thins

Roca Buttercrunch ThinsI knew the Roca Buttercrunch Thins were coming out, but I still haven’t seen them in stores. There are four varieties, milk chocolate, 60% dark, dark truffle & caramel truffle. Luckily I got this sample box of the 60% Cacao Roca Buttercrunch Thins from All Candy Expo (the one that I was most interested in!). 

While I love the toffee center of Almond Roca (and the Mocha Roca), I’m not fond of the greasy mockolate coating and messy crushed almonds. (Yes, I sometimes scrape them off and just eat the center.) Isn’t it nice that Brown & Haley finally recognized that they can use better ingredients.

The 2.8 ounce box holds 8 pieces, each in their own little slot in a divided tray. It’s about the size of a VHS box (maybe a little thinner), but it seems like a lot of packaging and protection for what are probably pretty durable little candies.

The initial description of them as Thins was intriguing, I was picturing little toffee tiles like Valerie Confections sells. Instead I saw a post on Chocolate Traveler that showed that these are little sticks, which is fine with me.

Roca Buttercrunch Thins

The smell like toasted nuts, burnt sugar and dark chocolate. The dark chocolate coating, in my case, was slightly bloomed (and I blame myself for that, as it started to get absurdly hot in Los Angeles and didn’t follow my own precautions). The texture was just fine though. (And the last two got really bloomed, so I know what bloomed chocolate is in this case.)

I love the Roca toffee, it’s crispy and buttery at the same time. It has wonderfully complex burnt sugar flavors and the added nutty bits of almonds. The dark chocolate was also a smooth and creamy, adding a little more dimension with its own dark palate of flavors.

While I consider this a very successful confection, I find the packaging a little overdone. Does it really need to have both the fold over flap (hand purse style) box, plus the tray? The whole thing is then overwrapped in cellophane.

The price point, as far as I can tell from the Brown & Haley website is $3.95 a box, which puts it at over $22 per pound. For that price I’d either go up a notch and have some Carey’s of Oregon, Poco Dolce or Valerie Confections, or go down a notch and have a Heath Bar (why oh, why won’t they make them in dark chocolate?).

Related Candies

  1. Sconza 70% Dark Chocolate Toffee Almonds
  2. Shaymee’s Toffee
  3. Valerie Toffees & Nougats
  4. Enstrom’s Toffee
  5. The Rocas
Name: Roca Buttercrunch Thins: 60% Cacao
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Brown & Haley
Place Purchased: sample from All Candy Expo
Price: $3.95 retail
Size: 2.8 ounces
Calories per ounce: 150
Categories: Chocolate, Toffee, Nuts, United States, Brown & Haley, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:57 am    

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Jelly Belly Ice Cream Parlor Mix

Jelly Belly is always coming up with new flavors and themes. This spring it’s their new Ice Cream Parlor Mix inspired by Cold Stone Creamery. Cold Stone is known for their freezing plank of granite where they scoop & mix your custom mix of ingredients (or you can pick from their standard menu). An appropriate tie in with Jelly Belly that already produces an extensive list of “recipes” for combing beans.

Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream Parlor Mix Jelly Belly

As a mix, the list of flavors here is pretty short:

  • Chocolate Devotion: combines the flavors of Chocolate ice cream, chocolate chips, brownie and fudge. This is pretty similar to my reaction to all chocolate flavored items, it’s watery and being jelly based, it doesn’t even have the mild dairy component that Tootsie Rolls have. It’s not as sweet as I expected.

  • Apple Pie a la Cold Stone: combines the flavors of French Vanilla ice cream, cinnamon, graham cracker pie crust, apple pie filling and caramel. I’d say that they nailed this flavor, though part of me asks why they’d even bother. It has a nice cinnamon & apple essence at the start, which descends to a sweet frenzy of artificial graham and vanilla notes.

  • Our Strawberry Blonde: combines the flavors of Strawberry ice cream, graham cracker pie crust, strawberries, caramel and whipped topping. It smells only lightly of strawberry, but sweet. It’s immediately tangy and nicely berry, much like a strawberry sauce. I get nothing else, perhaps a hint of vanilla ... it tastes like a strawberry sorbet might. Nice and simple (and I’m kind of glad I don’t taste the caramel & graham crackers).

  • Birthday Cake Remix: combines the flavors of Cake Batter(tm) ice cream, rainbow sprinkles, brownie and fudge. This is very sweet, with all the artificial enjoyment of a boxed yellow cake mix. It does actually evoke a cake batter ... but then again, I don’t care much for cake or overly sweet frosting & sprinkles. It is a cute little bean, with little multi colored confetti flecks.

  • Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip: combines the flavors of Mint ice cream, chocolate chips, brownie and fudge. As I found in my tasting of the Baskin-Robbins Soft Candy, mint chocolate chip is probably best enjoyed as actual ice cream. This flavor is very minty but similarly watery tasting and flat. The cocoa notes are barely perceptable, and come in with that Tootsie Roll flavor.

    While I think that some folks may enjoy these mild little beans, I have to wonder if you want to grab a handful and actually mix the Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip with Apple Pie a la Cold Stone. Some combos obviously work fine, but I like to think that a custom mix like this would be completely compatible. The only ones I ended up eating were the strawberry.

    Jelly Belly are Kosher and Gluten Free. There are no dairy products in here (even though they’re ice cream flavors) so they may be suitable for Vegans (as long as you’re okay with beeswax). Made in a facility that processes peanuts.

    Related Candies

    1. Baskin-Robbins Soft Candy
    2. Mint Crisp M&Ms (Indiana Jones)
    3. Jelly Belly Dark Chocolate Jelly Beans
    4. Mentos Xtrm: Mint & Spearmint
    5. Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe
    Name: Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream Parlor Mix
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Jelly Belly
    Place Purchased: samples from Jelly Belly
    Price: unknown
    Size: 3.1 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 99
    Categories: Jelly, United States, Jelly Belly, Kosher

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:35 am    

  • Wednesday All Candy Expo Link Wrappers

    Dave Simmer’s excited about the new Star Trek Pez (and the chocolate candy tablets ... we’re going to have to disagree there).

    imageChicago Sun Times has an excellent set of tasting notes (I have to disagree with a couple of items) including Crackheads, Crown Tequila Nuggets, the new M&Ms Premiums, Giant Chewy Wonka Nerds and more. Don’t miss the photo gallery and the separate story about customizable M&Ms that you can put your own face on! (photo by Keith Hale/Sun-Times)

    Medill Reports adds a few comments on trends, and further info & a glimpse of the new M&Ms Premiums packaging.

    Fellow candy writer Elizabeth LaBau who edits the candy section for About.com has some stellar coverage so far. Here’s her rundown from the first day but don’t miss her great photos, especially of Joseph Schmidt’s chocolate creations.

    image

    A big tip of the hat to Candy Addict and their notes from the floor:

  • Candy Expo Day 1 - Brian’s Notes - I’m so happy to hear we’re finally getting Spearmint Mentos and his thoughts on the M&Ms Premium line.
  • Candy Expo Day 1 - Caitlin’s Notes - I completely understand how overwhelming it is (and it’s not a first-timers thing, I think it’s always like that).
  • And finally, just for fun, relive Cameron Gray’s Tuesday with photos as they were posted from the floor.

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:00 am     All Candy ExpoCandyFeatured News

    Baskin-Robbins Soft Candy

    Baskin Robbins Soft CandyAs a child (and young adult) I was known for being indecisive. So when presented with too many choices, I usually froze up and often opted for nothing at all, or worse, panicked and made a bad choice. I never had this problem at Baskin-Robbins, probably because even my less successful choices were still treats. (I think the worst flavor I ever had there was bubble gum, probably because frozen gum isn’t much fun ... and I ended up swallowing some.)

    My favorite flavor was always Mint Chocolate Chip. The cool mint goes well with the smooth & chilly dairy fat and the little wafer bits of dark chocolate gave it an air of elegance. (My second favorite was Peanut Butter & Chocolate.)

    While Baskin-Robbins has had a line of Smooth & Creamy Hard Candy made by Best Sweet for a while, I wasn’t terribly interested in some hard candies that approximated ice cream flavors, after all, there were very good candies that actually were many of those flavors. (A little too self-referential.) Enter their Soft Candy line.

    The Russian Dolls of Candy Packaging - three layers, for your protectionThe first thing that struck me when I opened the candy was how, well, packaged it was. Each end of the box has a “tamper evident” plastic seal.

    Inside is a pink mylar pouch that holds the candy.

    Inside that are the pieces, which are individually wrapped in folk.

    I’m pretty sure one or more of those layers could be eliminated and still have a safe & fresh product.

    The ingredients are pretty understandable: Sucrose, Corn Syrup, Coconut Oil, Corn Syrup Solids, Non-Dairy Dried Milk Powder, Glycerine, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Gum Arabic, Soy Lecithin, Flour, Salt, Blue #1 & Yellow #5.

    The only curiosity on the list was Non-Dairy Dried Milk Powder and had to look it up ... it’s actually not milk, it’s some sort of other product, perhaps potato, perhaps rice, maybe soy. I’m guessing soy.

    Baskin Robbins Soft Candy - Mint Chocolate Chip

    The little rectangles are wrapped in heavy foil. They’re about half the size of a Starburst fruit chew.

    They smell like, well, creme de menthe soaked cardboard. It’s not that it’s an unappealing smell, though maybe I make it sound that way, it’s just that sometimes cocoa can smell a little musty.

    The chew is soft, not terribly grainy but not as smooth as some others. It reminds me of Rolaids Soft Chews. The mint flavor is pretty strong, though lacking the creamy promise of ice cream. The cocoa comes in a bit later, and there are little bits in there, but it’s not quite the chocolate chips as promised. It starts to taste like stale cookies (Hydrox, not Oreos).

    They’re not stellar. I don’t expect to finish the package. I’m still curious about the other flavor available - Strawberry, so I might pick those up when I see them in stores. I don’t know the retail price, but I’m guessing it won’t be more than $1.50. (The hard candies are often sold at dollar stores so these may end up there as well.)

    Related Candies

    1. Mint Crisp M&Ms (Indiana Jones)
    2. Mentos Xtrm: Mint & Spearmint
    3. 3 Musketeers Mint with Dark Chocolate
    4. Skittles Fresh Mint
    5. Necco Mint Julep
    6. Chimes Ginger Chews
    Name: Baskin-Robbins Soft Candy - Mint Chocolate Chip
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Best Sweets
    Place Purchased: sample from All Candy Expo
    Price: probably $1.50 per package retail
    Size: 3.1 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 120
    Categories: Chew, Mint, United States

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:18 am    

    Candy Tease: All Candy Expo 2008 #4

    imageName: Altoids Cr?me de Menthe
    Brand: Wrigley’s (Mars)
    Description: New Altoids Cr?me de Menthe delivers the quick hit of strong flavor you expect, but with a “sweet kick.” This new flavor is available in both the Curiously Strong Mint and Chocolate Dipped Mint varieties. Altoids - The only mint that freshens your mouth and your mind.
    Release Date: 6/1/2008
    Notes: I’m not sure what the difference between peppermint, spearmint and creme de menthe is, but I’m strongly curious.

    Name: LifeSavers Gummies Tangy Fruits
    Brand: Wrigley’s (Mars)
    Description: Includes six great-tasting bold flavors and the perfect chewy texture that consumers love. The new Tangy Fruits roll pack include the following flavors: Tangerine, Watermelon, Lemon, Sour Apple, Tangy Cherry and Wild Berry Punch.
    Release Date: 6/1/2008
    Notes: I love tangerine. I will follow any LifeSavers tangerine product to the ends of the earth. Consider me a customer. (I’m wondering if these are like the sours, but without the tart sugar sand coating.)

    imageName: Loud Truck Energy Gummi
    Brand: Loud Truck Energy Gummi
    Description: Loud Truck Energy Fueled Gummies.Taste great. Contains Guarana Extract. Natural energy.Vitamins B12 and C. No crash Energy.
    Whether your playing sports, stayin up late for school,at work or just need that extra boost of energy. 1 oz bags. 12 bags per case.

    Release Date: 3/1/2008
    Notes: I think this is the best name ever for a candy. I don’t know why, but it’s so crazily evocative (and I don’t care much for loud trucks) that I’ll probably end up buying a package just because.

    imageName: WOWzers
    Brand: Maxim Manufacturing and Marketing
    Description: Sour Powder filled tube bubble gum
    Release Date: 5/1/2008
    Notes: It’s like a gum cigar, only with a hollow center with a strawberry Pixy Stix inside.

    Name: Gummi Butterflies
    Brand: Albanese Confectionery
    Description: Bold colors and delicious flavors. Flutter away with the newest version of the World’s Best Gummi!
    Release Date: 5/20/2008
    Notes: I’ve already seen these and I have to say, they’re so cute I wish they made them when I was a kid. They’re also coming out with Theater sized boxes of their 12 Flavored Bears and Super Sour Neon Gummi Worms. (It would be cool to find their stuff more easily, it’s usually reall well priced.)

    (images courtesy of the manufacturers’ press kits)

    Related Candies

    1. Brach’s Gummi+Plus & Tropical Gummis
    2. Lifesavers Gummies Sour
    3. Mentos Plus Citrus Mix
    4. Chocolate Dipped Altoids
    5. Lifesaver Gummies

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:58 am     All Candy ExpoCandyNew Product AnnouncementFeatured News

    Page 3 of 8 pages  < 1 2 3 4 5 >  Last ›

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