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September 2010Thursday, September 9, 2010
Eat with your Eyes: Stacked FruitFor a long time I’ve thought that Arcor candy is some of the worst in the world. Arcor is a huge company and makes candy for many Central and South American countries and actually has quite a big presence in the United States as well. I find their chocolate products disappointing, as well as those with cookies or nuts in them. So I was rather surprised at how much I liked these filled hard candy fruit rods I picked up in July. They little wrappers call them Veni. They’re made in the Italian tradition of fruity filled hard candies. The wrappers are also nice, a heavy foil with a wax paper lining. The anana (pineapple) was particularly good. POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:09 pm Candy • Argentina • Highlight • Featured News • Photography • Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Werther’s Original CaraMeltsThe past few times I’ve been in Target I’ve eyed these Werther’s Original CaraMelts. I wasn’t quite sure what they were, but the did seem to be different. I like the bag, it’s a little gusseted mylar/plastic bag that stands up easily. There’s not a lot of extra air or weight to it, so it seems efficient but still inviting and durable. The package says that they’re Soft Creamy Caramel that Melts in Your Mouth. I didn’t know what that meant because the image on the front was just a drawing, not a photo of the actual product. The ingredients list didn’t actually sound that tasty: Sugar, Vegetable Fat (from one or more of the following: Sheanut Oil, Illipe Butter, Mango Oil, Sal Oil, Palm Oil), Cream Powder, Sweet Whey Powder, Butter Fat, Maltodextrin, Skim Milk Powder, Fat Reduced Cocoa, Soy Lecithin, Caramel Sugar Syrup, Artificial Flavor, Salt. It sounds like some sort of artificial coffee creamer. The pieces inside are individually wrapped and look a lot like other Werther’s Original Caramel products. Each was well protected and emerged looking in good condition. The pieces are odd. They’re stocky oval swirls of solid “white confection” in some sort of butter toffee flavor. I was thinking they’d be like butterscotch baking chips. The color is kind of dead - it’s not yellow (or even artificially colored at all) but more of a that grayish color that some people turn before they faint. They’re shiny, but not slick looking. The color reminds me of support stockings. The smell is, well, buttery. It’s fake but not like the Buttered Popcorn Jelly Belly. It’s pleasant and not overwhelming. There’s a lot of milky dairy notes to it, and guessing from the ingredients that’s an authentic scent. The bite is like a white chocolate confection. It’s quite smooth but lacks a good melt - it’s like the melting point is a little too high for the human mouth. So it’s vaguely waxy and greasy at the same time. The flavor is lightly salted and buttery with a toffee and caramel note. I just can’t figure out why I’d want to eat these, unless I was looking to put on weight and perhaps get some calcium (8% of your RDA in 7 pieces). They’re not too sweet, but also just not very satisfying for any of the cravings I get on a regular basis. I like the classic Werther’s products, but their diversion into chocolate products (I don’t know what to even call this) is hugely disappointing. I think the best caramel product Storck makes is Reisen. Related Candies
Monday, September 6, 2010
Cowgirl Chocolates Mild Milk Chocolate SarsaparillaCowgirl Chocolates is an Idaho confectioner that makes spicy things. They’re known for their hot pepper caramels and and spiced up chocolate bars. Some of their flavors are less intimidating but also provoke curiosity; combinations like Spicy Dark Orange Espresso, Spicy Milk Chocolate Mint and Spicy Dark Huckleberry. The wrapping on the bars is cute and simple. The text is bold and dominates with the name of the bar, which is basically a description of the flavor combination. The chocolate comes in spicy or mild and milk, white or dark. Each package is color coded and features a silhouette of a woman on a horse in the center. I was drawn to the Mild Milk Chocolate Sarsaparilla at a local restaurant supply store called Surfas. Sarsaparilla is a new world vine that’s the basis for the flavor. Sarsaparilla was used in conjunction with Sassafras to create the flavor we know now as Root Beer. I don’t drink much soda any longer, but if I were to pick something up, it would probably be a really strong root beer. True Sarsaparilla is pretty hard to find. The ingredients on this bar list sarsaparilla oil as one of the flavorings. The bar is a light milk chocolatey plank, divided into six sections. It’s a small bar, but I prefer a little taste of novelty flavors instead of the big 3.5 ounce tablets. The scent is light and woodsy with a strong note of sassafras (though there is no actual sassafras in there). The melt is just slight grainy with a hint of dairy flavors. It’s quite sweet, one of my least favorite things about sodas. The flavor is very complex, it’s woodsy, a deep rooty flavor that reminds me of beets and molasses. There are notes of pine, cinnamon, cloves, eucalyptus, wintergreen, lemon and nutmeg. What’s missing is the actual chocolate flavor. It made me wonder if this would have worked better with a white chocolate base ... or perhaps a dark chocolate one. It’s really hard to find root beer flavored candies, especially in the finer quality range. I still finished the whole bar, but the overt sweetness gave me a sore throat so I had to eat it in three different sittings. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:48 am Candy • Chocolate • 6-Tempting • United States • Friday, September 3, 2010
Eat with your Eyes: Gifts from the SeaThese curious little nougats studded with jelly have a selling point: they’re made with seaweed. According to the woman I met up with in the aisle of the Little Tokyo Market, if it’s from the sea, it’s good for you. POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:06 pm Candy • Highlight • Featured News • Photography • Thursday, September 2, 2010
Baskin-Robbins Hard Candy - Pralines ‘n CreamSince starting Candy Blog my consumption of ice cream has decreased to nearly nothing. Two reasons: I simply can’t afford the calories given my candy habits and as I get older I’m less and less lactose tolerant (which really takes the enjoyment out of it). That doesn’t mean that I don’t miss it. One of the things I miss is the texture; the other is the flavor combinations. Mint chocolate chip just doesn’t work in the same way in any other format than ice cream. Baskin-Robbins has a line of ice cream themed candies. I tried the chewy candies a few years ago and decided that they were not for me. But I did see these hard candies at the 99 Cent Only Store. Baskin-Robbins Smooth & Creamy Hard Candy. I decided to try the Pralines ‘n Cream because it sounded like a flavor that could be made into a hard candy well. The ingredients looked pretty good too: sugar, corn syrup, sweetened condensed milk, salt, natural & artificial flavors, soy lecithin, honey and soybean oil. The candies are individually wrapped and well marked (in case you buy several varieties and want to mix them in a bowl). Each piece was a combination of two colors, a light milky caramel color and a darker toffee color. They smell sweet, toasty and rather like walking into an actual Baskin-Robbins. The texture isn’t quite silky smooth, but they’re still quite slick. I prefer to crunch mine and these have a nice cleave to them (though some could also be tough and chewy - that could be that I left them in my car and it got a little hot). The flavor has a good blend of caramelized sugar notes, butterscotch pudding and a liberal dose of salt. They’re quite sweet, but so is Pralines ‘n Cream Ice Cream. I ate most of the bag in one sitting, so after three or four it got a bit throat searing - that’s a lot of sugar. I was pretty pleased with these. They’re a little different from something like a Werther’s, more milky. The price was pretty good, too. I know the bag only had 3.5 ounces for a dollar, but that’s a decent deal for a very dairy laden candy. I don’t know why the package says “Value Size”, as I don’t know what other package sizes and price points are available. Usually value sizes are large ... I considered this two servings. (Though the package seems to think three is a serving.) Each piece has 20 calories. They’re not really low calorie candies, just small. At 121 calories per ounce, there’s a fair amount of fat in there for a sugar candy, about 2 grams per ounce. The hard candies also come in Very Berry Strawberry and Mint Chocolate Chip. I have my doubts about the success of those flavors in this format, so I’ll probably just quite while I’m ahead. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:37 am Candy • Review • Hard Candy & Lollipops • Kosher • 7-Worth It • United States • 99 Cent Only Store • |
Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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