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March 2011Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wee Glee GumI don’t chew a lot of gum because I prefer gum made with real sugar, not artificial sweeteners. Glee Gum is not only made with real cane sugar, it’s also one of the rare gums made with authentic chicle. Today most gum is made from synthetic gum base. But if you’re ever curious about what early gum was like, check out Glee. I recently picked up this box of one of their newest products, Wee Glee Gum. The little pieces are bigger, more rounded than Tiny Size Chiclets. I found that four or five was a good portion for chewing. It’s a stiffer chew. The shell is crunchy but not thick or hard to get through - it incorporates quickly. But it’s not so sugary that it becomes soupy or sticky. But as more sugar goes away, the gum does get thick and hard to chew, especially in cooler conditions (such as chewing gum outside in the spring). The pieces come in four flavors and colors, all of which are mild and blend together pretty well. Tangerine (orange) is a mild orange flavor. Orange has never struck me as an ideal flavor for gum, and that’s coming from a huge fan of citrus flavors. This tangerine is all sweetness and little else than a hint of fragrant citrus peel. Banana (yellow) is sweet and a great soft flavor for gum. It doesn’t have that chemical note to it, though it still feels cooler on the tongue than the other flavors. It goes well with the other flavors, just like a banana thrown into a smoothie is usually a welcome addition. Triple Berry (dark red) is fragrant and does have a mild berry note to it, which berries I’m not sure but I suspect they’re of the raspberry variety. Bubble Gum (pink) is just a flavor, not an attribute. I didn’t get many of these in my assortment, but I can say that they’re pretty worthless when it came time to try a bubble. However, I liked the smooth, mild flavor. It was clean but still had that note of “not quite a natural flavor” that the combination of flavors that bubble gum is made from evokes. The chew does get softer as the sugar goes away. The tooth-sticking issues I had with Glee Gum when I bought it and reviewed it years ago have gone away for the most part, not due to any action on Glee’s part. At the time it was my fillings that were made from dental amalgam (those dark metal fillings) which I’ve slowly had replaced with dental composites. I have less of an issue now. Still, the chicle is like a cross between the modern synthetic gum base and the old chewable wax lips. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:29 pm All Natural • Candy • Verve Inc • Gum • 7-Worth It • United States • Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Milka NAPS Mix (Assortment)One of the most popular chocolate brands in Europe is Milka. It’s currently distributed by the international food conglomerate Kraft but began its existence as a family chocolate brand made by Suchard back in the early 20th century. I tried the version that’s available in the States about four years ago. Milka is, of course, known as milky chocolate, very similar in profile and price to Cadbury. However, instead of putting vegetable oil in the chocolate, Milka uses just a touch of hazelnut paste. Milka is now widely available in the United States but I wanted to pick up some while I was in Europe, just in case it was a little different. I did find this assortment called Milka NAPS Mix in Germany. It features four different varieties of tiny bars: Alpenmilch, Crunchy Caramel, Erdbeer & Creme au Cacao. The little bars are about 4.25 grams, individually wrapped and easy to identify your favorite. The bars are about 1.5 inches long. The traditional Milka is just as I remember it. Milky, sweet, smooth and not very chocolatey. They’re a good candy and at this size, and excellent little tough-covering pick me up. The hazelnut is just a light hint of roasted nuts, not like a thick gianduia. It’s much creamier than I recall the American packaged bar I tried, though as someone who likes a lot of either chocolate in my chocolate or hazelnuts in my gianduia, this didn’t quite fit my personal profile. The Milka Crunchy Caramel is the same little bar with some toffee chips in it. (Not Daim chips, for some reason.) I liked the crunchy texture and light salty hint, though sometimes they tasted a bit like butterscotch and not quite like toffee. This was my favorite of the mix, now I’m sorry I didn’t pick up the Daim version of Milka. The Milka Erdbeer is the milk chocolate with dried strawberry bits in it. The strawberry bits taste real, but have a grainy quality to them that kind of ruins the texture of the chocolate at time. Still, the milk and strawberry flavor was great, it reminded me of neapolitan ice cream. This was the only filled bar in the mix. The center was a thin little strip of chocolate creme. It really didn’t taste that much different than the standard Milka Bar, mostly because of the proportions. It had more of a chocolate frosting flavor to it though. It was my least favorite of the mix. I like that Milka comes in so many different varieties and that the European versions also come in different sizes and seasonal variations. This box of chocolate though was a bit on the expensive side, compared to the large 100 gram (3.5 ounce) tablet bars at 3 Euros (about $4). Basically, I could have bought one of each of these varieties as a full sized bar for about the same amount of money, but had more than 3 times as much candy. I have a dark chocolate version of a Milka bar at home, I’m hoping that’s a bit more to my personal liking, but mixes like this always have something to please most folks. (And I did finish most of the box without any help from anyone else.) Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:34 pm Candy • Review • Kraft/Mondelez • Chocolate • Nuts • Toffee • 7-Worth It • Germany • Monday, March 14, 2011
Panda Candy Coated LicoriceOne of the candies I was looking forward to seeing in the United States from Panda Licorice was their Candy Coated Licorice. They’re little, beefy one inch rods of licorice with a candy shell. What’s interesting about these that’s different from most licorice pastels is the fact that the shells are flavored. They come with two flavors in each bag - lemon (yellow) and peppermint (white). As with all Panda licorice, the ingredients are all natural and vegan. In Europe a slightly different version of this candy is available. I bought a bag in Amsterdam called Liquorice Comfits, which had three different colors (more about that in a moment). This particular bag is small, it holds 100 grams which is 3.5 ounces. The retail price is pretty steep for a sugar candy, I paid over 2 Euros for mine in Europe and it appears that the American version will be prices around $2.50 to $3.00 per bag. The pieces are consistent and attractive. They’re not slickly smooth, but they are shiny. The yellow is creamy and the white is stark and bright. (The green ones are from the European mix.) The white ones are Peppermint and I was hoping they’d be similar to Skoolkrit, which I love so much. The licorice center is soft and chewy but not deeply flavored. It’s a bit doughy, like Panda can be, but missing the dark molasses notes. The licorice flavors are exactly that, the mellow and lingering sweetness of the licorice root. Though they have aniseseed oil in them, there’s less of that flavor in the profile. The mint shell gives is a fresh start and finish. It’s crunchy and sweet as well, but doesn’t really stick with me after consuming. The lemon was a bit more of an unconventional combination. It was definitely sweeter to me with a lemony start that reminded me of icing. The licorice just seemed sweeter in this version. Both are fun to eat, but I kept waiting for some stronger licorice flavors that I was relieved when the bag was empty and I could move on to something else. The European bag I picked up of the Panda Liquorice Comfits is unflavored, as far as I can tell, though I did get a bit more of a floral note from the green ones, but natural colorings can do that. Without the flavored shell, you’d think they’d have more of a licorice punch, but it was the same thing. Too sweet, not enough rich burnt toffee notes. I don’t expect that I’ll pick these up again. I’m sure there are plenty of folks who will like these and I expect for parents who want a great family licorice, this is a good place to start, especially with younger kids who are turned off by strong flavors. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I like Good and Plenty better, I certainly prefer the price. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:39 pm All Natural • Candy • Panda • Kosher • Licorice Candy • Mints • 6-Tempting • Finland • Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tayas Damla - Filled Fruit ChewsDamla is a chewy candy made by Tayas in Turkey. They’re known throughout the Middle East and Europe and are even seen in ethnic stores here in the States from time to time. Damla comes in a wide variety of flavors, including the most common fruits, which I tried: Raspberry, Strawberry, Orange and Grape. They come in single flavor packages and mixes. Each piece is individually wrapped with an inner wax wrap and an outer twist wrapper that features a picture of the fruit and color coding. Inside all the pieces are white, there are no colorings added to the candy. I got my sample bags directly from Tayas at their exhibit at ISM Cologne last month. The chew is smooth and soft, similar to Starburst but a little more like HiCHEW from Japan. They’re not quite bouncy but have a great texture that doesn’t become grainy like some true taffy does. (This has gelatin in it, which I think is what keeps it so well emulsified.) The feature that sets them apart from those two though is the jammy filling. Raspberry - I opened this package first and shared it around. These were fantastic, creamy and light with a decent berry flavor. The “sauce” center didn’t really do much except keep the candy moist, the taffy outside was more than flavorful enough. Strawberry - sweet, floral and lightly tangy with a faint creamy note towards the end like cheesecake. Cherry - this one came in a purple package and at first I thought it was blackcurrant. This is not the standard American black cherry or wild cherry flavor. This is something akin to actual cherry. It’s woodsy and a little bit tannic. It’s strange and something that I actually liked. Orange - I was expecting great things from this but the orange ended up being very ordinary. Not that this is a bad thing, it was a lot like a softer Starburst - intense and fruity with mostly juice notes and a light creamsicle finish. I enjoyed these, especially since the flavors seemed so clear and distinct and they didn’t feel the need to use artificial colors on them. I like getting single flavor packages because I usually don’t like every flavor in a mix as well. These are unique enough that I can see them making great inroads in North America just as HiCHEW has. Here’s another review from Candy Addict. I couldn’t figure out if these were Halal or not, but they do seem to contain gelatin so they’re not for vegetarians. The printing on the back was so tiny, I can’t tell you anything else except that they can do some tiny printing in Turkey. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:05 pm Candy • Goo Filled • Chews • 7-Worth It • Turkey • Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Kraft DaimThe Daim bar is a popular crunchy toffee bar covered in chocolate that originated in Sweden. According to Wikipedia, the development tale is rather curious. Marabou, the preeminent Swedish chocolate company, approached Heath Bar back in the early 1950s for permission to license the Heath name and recipe to be produced for the Swedish/Norwegian marketplace. Heath said they couldn’t but did furnish the basic recipe so Marabou created the Daim Bar. The Daim went on to become quite a sensation, so much so that Hershey’s decided it needed its own crunchy toffee bar and copied the Daim in the US and called it Skor (along with the tag line of “The Taste of Sweden” in their launch advertising). The funniest part of the whole thing about Hershey’s marketing a copy of a Swedish candy that was a copy of an American candy was that Hershey’s ended up buying Heath Bar when they acquired Leaf Candy Company in 1996. Marabou, in turn, was bought out by Kraft back in 1993 which distributes the Marabou chocolate products around the world. The easiest place to find Daim bars is at IKEA. The bar does look a lot like the American Skor. It’s a smallish bar, flat and with a crisp buttery toffee center with a few bits of almonds in there. The milk chocolate coating is a little thicker on top with some attractive swirls and waves. At only 28 grams (about .99 ounces) it’s a small bar but provides a lot of crunch. I’ve bought this bar at least three different times for review on Candy Blog and each time I’ve managed to eat it before reviewing. (The photos here are from a 2008 episode where at least the bar made it into the studio for documentation.) While I was in Europe I was pleased to see Daim widely available. Not only does it come in the familiar bar format, the toffee chips are also used in other co-branded confections, like a version of the Milka Bar (Jim’s Chocolate Mission has a review) Since I knew I could find another bar in the States if I wanted it, I picked up this 100 gram (3.5 ounce) bag of Daim. The package says nothing else on the front - no description, no brand name ... just Daim. Not even the fact that this is not a bar but little chocolate covered nuggets. I guess the picture on the front says it all. My guess is since Daim is available in so many countries, it’s just confusing to say things, why not show them? The back of the package features micro-printing to accommodate at least 8 different language versions of the ingredients and still no actual name of the product. So I’m going to call these Daim Nuggets. The little pieces are actually better, in my opinion, than the bar. I loved them. The chocolate is certainly not of excellent quality but good enough for this purpose. It’s milky and sweet and just creamy enough. It seals in the crunchy pieces of toffee to keep them from getting sticky and syrupy. The toffee has a light burnt taste to it, plenty of milk and a touch of salt. It’s crunchy and every once in a while I think I got a little bit of an almond. The toffee is cooked to perfection - it’s crunchy but not too hard (having small pieces helps) and also doesn’t get tacky or stick to my teeth in large clumps. I bet this is great on ice cream or added to cookies, of course it would need to come in larger bags, because this one is empty. Other Daim reviews: Chocablog, Jim’s Chocolate Mission and Candy Addict. Related Candies
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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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