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April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

Hollywood Chewing Gum

Hollywood Chewing Gum

Here’s one of those weird purchases I made at a liquor shop called Mel & Rose that sells imported candies. There, within sight of the Hollywood sign, I bought Hollywood Chewing Gum: Chlorophylle. But it’s not a quaint local brand or even American. It’s made in France, by Cadbury (now owned by Kraft). It’s not even one of those original gum brands from the final days of the Victorian era.

Chewing gum first arrived in France in June 1944 along with the US troops during World War II, but it was not until 1952 when former GI Courtland Parfet returned to France that the first French chewing gum was launched. Named Hollywood, the green stick offered a soft mint taste called chlorophylle (spearmint).

The gum is simple and pleasant. It’s the classic style of stick, right down to a real foil wrapper on each piece. The flavor is spearmint and it’s quite mild but with a good enough punch to make me feel refreshed and clean without a sticky or artificial feeling. The package also boasts that it has chlorophyll in it, you know, that stuff that allows plants to photosynthesize. I remember it was popular in gum and mints in the seventies, but hadn’t seen it on a package in quite a long time.

I like that it was made with real sugar, so few stick gums are these days. So if you’re looking for something to remind you of the classic Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum, this is probably the closest you can find since Wrigley’s went to artificial sweeteners. The sugar isn’t terribly grainy, but the flavor and sweetness does go away pretty quickly, much quicker than Chiclets, but this is a more adult gum than Chiclets.

Related Candies

  1. Wee Glee Gum
  2. Choward’s Spearmint & Lemon
  3. Spearmint Leaves
  4. Classic Gums: Black Jack, Clove, Beemans & Teaberry
  5. XyliChew
  6. Mentos Xtrm: Mint & Spearmint
  7. Tiny Size Chiclets


Name: Hollywood Chewing Gum
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Cadbury
Place Purchased: Mel & Rose Wine and Spirits
Price: $1.50
Size: 11 pieces
Calories per ounce:
Categories: Candy, Cadbury, Kraft/Mondelez, Gum, Mints, 6-Tempting, France, Mel and Rose

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:37 am     CandyReviewCadburyGumMints6-TemptingFranceMel and Rose

Friday, April 27, 2012

HiCHEW Haskap Berry (Honeyberry)

HiCHEW Haskap BerryI have learned more about the fruits of the world through candy than all of my trips to grocery stores and farmers markets. Japanese confectionery, in particular, includes a lot of these lesser known fruits and flavors. HiCHEW from Morinaga have been particularly good at introducing me to new fruits through their limited edition regional flavors.

The Haskap Berry is native to Hokkaido, the large northern island of Japan. The berries grew wild and were an important source of vitamin C for the locals but were only domesticated and more widely cultivated starting in the late 1960. Relatives of the Haskap, known commonly as honey berries, are grown in Russia, Northern Europe, Canada and the United States. The berries themselves are shaped kind of like bullets, long and sometimes with a flat bottom. The Haskap, from the photos and descriptions I’ve seen, is more football shaped. The great selling point with the Haskap variety is that after being frozen, the skin melts away, so making sauces or ice creams means there’s no bitter skin or unattractive flecks in the resulting sweet.

HiCHEW Haskap Berry (Honeyberry)

The flavor of the fresh berry is said to be similar to blueberries, but more tart. It’s too sour for some people that they prefer to use the berries in jams, preserves or within baked good. Basically, they’re not for eating fresh off the bush.

The Haskap Berry HiCHEW look a little bland out of the wrapper. They’re a sort of grayish purple. The flavor is also less distinctive than I’d hoped. It tastes like a cross between black raspberry and cranberry with a little note of concord grape skin. It’s tart and has a good floral flavor to it with some grassy notes of blueberry seeds. They’re good HiCHEW, but the flavor isn’t really any better or distinct enough to warrant me forking over $4 again plus shipping from Japan to get this taste again.

However, if you were from Hokkaido and remember the berries fondly or perhaps you’ve had Haskap Berry ice cream, this is a portable and inexpensive way to get your fix.

Related Candies

  1. HiCHEW Japan vs HiCHEW Taiwan
  2. Panda Blueberry Liquorice
  3. Gimbal’s Honey Lovers
  4. HiCHEW World Fruit: Dragonfruit, CamuCamu, Durian & White Peach
  5. Mentos: Juicy Orange, Lemon Lime & Watermelon
  6. Festival HiCHEW: Candied Apple & Cotton Candy
  7. Dalandan & Juicy Ponkan Mentos


Name: Haskap Berry HiCHEW
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Morinaga
Place Purchased: eBay (from seller "jappy11")
Price: $3.99 (plus shpping)
Size: 2.0 ounces
Calories per ounce: 115
Categories: Candy, Morinaga, Chews, Limited Edition, Japan

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:03 pm     CandyMorinagaChewsLimited Edition6-TemptingJapan

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Perfetti van Melle Lakritz Toffee

DSC_3003rbI’ve often wished that licorice Starburst existed. Until Wrigley’s and Mars recognize licorice as a valid flavor, well, I’ll have to look elsewhere.

Luckily I found this little package in Amsterdam last year made by Perfetti Van Melle (makers of Mentos) called Lakritz Toffee. The black and silver package stopped me in my tracks, the topography, especially on the inner wrappers is also compelling and completely set my expectations of the morsels within. The only thing missing from the package was the warning that this was salted licorice.

For the uninitiated, some licorice from Northern Europe bears the descriptor of salted licorice, which in the time of sea salt caramels sounds enticing, but in reality it’s not sodium chloride, it’s ammonium chloride that’s added as a flavor enhancer. A little reading about ammonium chloride reveals that it has some medicinal properties, such irritating the gastric mucosa to initiate vomiting.

But I paid less than a buck for this little package, and I’m actually game for learning to love salted licorice, so I gave it my best shot.

DSC_3012rb

The little pieces are wrapped and shaped just like a Starburst fruit chew. The color is great, like the creme on a fresh espresso. They’re barely soft but have a satisfying stiff chew. The licorice flavor is mild at first and has a lot of molasses and toasted flavors to it. The salted flavors come out more as a tangy and metallic bite. All is well, until I allow anything to aerate. I suspect that adding air causes the ammonia in the salt to vaporize into the actual gas, which is, you know, caustic.

The nice part of these toffee pieces, when I manged to eat them correctly, was how the “toffee” part, the creamy note, really brought it all together. It was a smooth chew, not quite buttery, but had a good mouthfeel and never became gritty or grainy. The licorice flavors were authentic, more on the root and herb side than the anise that’s more popular in boiled sugar licorice candies. As long as I only ate one or two, my licorice cravings were quelled. Any more than that and the ammonia notes were too strong.

Unfortunately these can’t be legally imported into the United States because they use a food color that’s banned here. But they’re still widely available in places like the Netherlands and Germany in my experience and sometimes folks will pop up on eBay or other online sweet shops. It contains gelatin as well, so is not suitable for vegetarians.

My go-to licorice toffee still has to be the Krema Batna and maybe the second runner up is Walkers Nonsuch Licorice Toffee (both of which are also banned for import) but if you’re looking for a salted version, this might be it.

Related Candies

  1. Villosa Sallos Licorice
  2. 12 European Licorices
  3. Haribo Sali-Kritz
  4. Krema Batna
  5. Goetze’s Licorice and Double Chocolate Caramel Creams
  6. Walkers’ Nonsuch Liquorice Toffee
  7. Organic Finnska Soft Licorice


Name: Lakritz Toffee
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Perfetti Van Melle
Place Purchased: Jamin (Amsterdam)
Price: 1 Euro ($1.35)
Size: 1.45 ounces
Calories per ounce:
Categories: Candy, Perfetti van Melle, Chews, Licorice Candy, 6-Tempting, New Zealand

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:54 pm     CandyPerfetti van MelleChewsLicorice Candy6-TemptingNetherlands

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Wafer Cookies

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Wafer CookiesMy weaknesses are cream filled wafers, peanut butter and dark chocolate. (Well, I have more weaknesses than that.) So it’s only natural that I picked up Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Wafer Cookies last weekend.

The package promises that they’d be Crunchy, Creamy, Salty, Sweet!

The gusseted bag is rather small, but predicts 8 full servings, if each serving is only four pieces. Not so easy. These are also calorie bombs, if I believe the Trader Joe’s Nutrition Facts label. It shows that that serving of four pieces is 26 grams (.92 ounces) and clock in at 160 calories. That’s 174 calories per ounce. I’m not sure that’s possible when the third ingredient is flour. But there you have it, one of the most calorie dense products I’ve ever reviewed.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Wafer Cookies

The pieces are pretty small, a little shy of a quarter of an ounce each and a little under one inch square and half an inch high. They don’t smell like much, I expected roasted peanut scent when I opened the package. I liked that, I liked that the dark chocolate must have sealed it all in.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Wafer Cookies

The dark chocolate is quite dark but has a good, immediate melt. It’s a little on the bitter side but has strong woody and charcoal flavors. The wafers are pretty thick, much thicker and airier than I expected. Their flavor is mild, but has a light malt note to it. The cream between the wafers is part peanut butter with a little milk or coconut oil to make it smoother. The texture combination is fantastic. The size of each piece makes it easy to cleave the layers apart with my teeth, or just eat it whole. (Eating it in two pieces can be messy, as some of the chocolate may fall off.)

I found them filling, but not heavy like some peanut butter products can be. Each element was well balanced. The chocolate filled its role without overwhelming the peanut butter flavors, the peanut butter wasn’t so thick and sticky and the wafers were light and airy without getting gummy or tacky.

Really what I wish they had was a better name that didn’t use 9 words.

The pieces are great for sharing and munching as a snack. (Though be careful of that calorie count.) They look good in a small bowl, but I’d wager it’d be empty pretty soon. I would buy these again and would love to see them in other varieties.

There’s no notice on the package or Trader Joe’s website about the origin or ethical sourcing of the chocolate and other ingredients. It’s all natural with no preservatives. Contains soy, wheat, milk and peanuts.

Related Candies

  1. Fujiya Look Wafers & Crepes
  2. Christopher’s Good News
  3. Tunnock’s Caramel Milk Chocolate Wafer
  4. Nestle Butterfinger Snackerz
  5. Q.Bel Double Dark Chocolate Wafer Bar
  6. Baby Ruth Crisp & Nestle Crisp Bars
  7. Q.Bel Wafer Rolls


Name: Dark Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Wafer Cookies
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Trader Joe’s
Place Purchased: Trader Joe's (Silver Lake)
Price: $2.99
Size: 7 ounces
Calories per ounce: 174
Categories: All Natural, Candy, Trader Joe's, Chocolate, Cookie, Kosher, Peanuts, 8-Tasty, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:06 pm     All NaturalCandyReviewTrader Joe'sChocolateCookieKosherPeanuts8-TastyUnited States

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Eat with your Eyes: Matthijs Liquorice & Winegums

Matthijs Liquorice is from The Netherlands and comes in an amazing array of shapes, flavors and sizes.

Matthiis Liquorice and Gummis

Animals, toys, fish, geometrics and even money.

Matthijs Liquorice

A school of fish.

Matthiis Liquorice

The Russian Matroesjkas were my favorite to look at. They also come in a combination version that’s half wine gum and half licorice.

Their website has loads more. I’m not certain where to find them in the United States. From the sampling I tried, I’m more fond of their wine gum and cola flavored products than the licorice.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:27 am     CandyISM CologneNetherlandsHighlightPhotography

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