Candy Blog

There are so many ways this review for Topp’s new Blue Razz Wazoo could start.

I could talk about the fact that this candy bar is unlike any other that I’ve ever tried.

I could talk about how it is the antithesis of most new candy bar launches: it has no extra fortification of vitamins or caffeine or omega3 fatty acids. There are no marketing tie ins, it’s barely even branded with the name of the company that puts it out. It’s not low in calories, it’s not made from 100% recycled plastic it’s not biodegradable.

I could talk about what I think a wazoo is (and dictionaries agree).

I could talk about the cultural references it brought to mind. Like Woody Allen’s Sleeper, in which his character finds out when he wakes up 200 years in the future that all the organic rice, wheat germ and tiger’s milk are inferior to steak, hot fudge and cream pies.

Mostly it made me think about the late George Carlin had a bit in his stand-up back in the 70s about blue food:

Why is there no blue food? I can’t find blue food - I can’t find the flavor of blue! I mean, green is lime; yellow is lemon; orange is orange; red is cherry; what’s blue? There’s no blue! Oh, they say, “Blueberries!” Uh-uh; blue on the vine, purple on the plate. There’s no blue food! Where is the blue food? We want the blue food! Probably bestows immortality! They’re keeping it from us! (source - watch clip)

Instead of all that, I’ll try to stay clinical.

The Blue Razz Wazoo is similar in format to a bar like 3 Musketeers, though a bit smaller. It clocks in at only 1.6 ounces and is about 4.5 inches long.

The structure is pretty easy to understand. Two layers of flavored chewy filling covered in a blue version of a white confectionery coating and then sprinkled with festive colored crunchies.

Those in cupcake circles may be more comfortable with the shocking appearance of this bar than I am. Unlike George Carlin, I usually suspect blue food is poison. (Because it’s made with poison!)

The bar smells like raspberry. It smells a lot. If you are looking for a way to freshen up your house and don’t want to splurge for an air freshener, pop down to 7-11 and pick up one of these. Put slices of the bar on saucers in every room in the house. The scent is actually rather nice, it has booth the floral perfume and the woodsy seed notes down pretty well.

The assortment of crunchies are fun, and they’re actually flavored too, a little tangy berry flavor to them. (The package says they’re made in Thailand, the rest of the bar is made in the USA.)

Biting into the bar, it’s a soft nougat texture with a tangy raspberry flavor to it. One layer is sweet and the other has the tart bite to it. It’s a little grainy towards the end of the chew, kind of like a fluffy AirHead. The blue confectionery coating is also flavored (or if it wasn’t when it was put on there, but the time it gets to the consumer, it’s been infiltrated by the plethora of raspberry).

Frankly, it’s not a bad bar. It’s funky looking and I can see that being a huge appeal to kids. The package design does portray the bar accurately. It’s certainly different, so I didn’t feel like it was a retread of other bars that have been around for ages.

So kudos for Topps for coming up with something original. I think the name is unfortunate. (Do they not have an internet connection at the Topps research and development facility? Or participate in English-speaking culture?) But then again, I never would have thought the Baby Bottle Pops would be such a huge sensation. I can’t see myself buying this again ... though I’ll be curious to see if other flavor variations come out.

UPDATE 3/20/2009:

Topps finally included the Wazoo on the website. They’ve also launched an advertising campaign. Here’s a commercial:

If you enjoyed that, or were freaked out by it, you might really like these outtakes from the commercial shoot.

For those having difficulty getting a hold of the candy, they may be a little hard to come by. According to one of my industry insiders, there have been some manufacturing difficulties that may interrupt shipping.

Sera of The Candy Enthusiast has a photo of the Wild Berriez version.

Related Candies

1. Topps Wild Berriez Wazoo
2. Big Bite Gummy Bear
3. Junior Fruit Cremes
4. 3 Musketeers Cherry & Raspberry
5. Bratz Candy Cosmetics
6. Gummi Lightning Bugs
7. Rolly Pop
8. Kinder Egg

I check in with Valerie Confections from time to time, they’re about a mile from my house. The crazy little secret is that I go there for their teacakes. Especially in the summer, when I want something with a touch of chocolate but can’t bear a whole piece, the bottoms are dipped in chocolate. The cakes are moist, dense & lightly infused with flavors.

At the Fancy Food Show, however, Stan & Valerie were excited to show me their new Valentine’s collections. There are three:

The set called Pour Homme is for the gentleman. It has 11 pieces and comes in the dark brown box. Visually it’s dominated by large flat dark milk chocolate hearts that have fleur de sel and little almond toffee bits in them. It’s filled in with dark chocolate hearts with flowing caramel centers.

The set called Pour Elle is geared towards the gals and comes in the classic ivory box. This features large flat white chocolate hearts with rose petals and the small bittersweet chocolate hearts filled with rose petal and passionfruit ganache.

Both have 11 pieces and retail for $30.

For folks who want to share or prefer a different assortment there are boxes of various sizes (9, 18 & 36 pieces) that hold the bittersweet ganache hearts, gianduja rocher, and bittersweet chocolate with almond toffee bits.

I’ll just run down a few of the items I tasted:

Bittersweet Chocolate with Almond Toffee Bits (the smallest dark chocolate hearts shown above) - a simple pleasure. A mix of smooth bittersweet chocolate that has a glossy and smooth melt with little toffee chips and almonds. Sometimes I felt like I wasn’t getting enough toffee ... but then again, if I wanted chocolate and toffee, I could just order the chocolate covered toffee, so this piece is more about chocolate.

Bittersweet Chocolate Hearts filled with Liquid Caramel - a little taller and wider than the other filled hearts, this one has a wonderfully thick and gooey caramel. Lightly salted, it has all the flavor of a toffee but the smooth texture of a custard. Lightly salted, the dark chocolate lends the perfect container and dark woodsy sweetness.

Bittersweet Chocolate Hearts filled with Rose Petal Passionfruit Ganache - a little petal graces the top of these pieces, but just sniffing it I could tell from the fragrance that it was the rose. The center is a white butter ganache with the tangy and tropical bite of passionfruit. The slightly soapy rose took some of the passionfruit earnestness away. There is a bit of a lingering aftertaste, kind of like jasmine. I suggest eating these last. Your dessert’s dessert.

Large Rose Petal White Chocolate Hearts (shown in a small version in the picture above) - this one was a little bland for me, and I did eat it first in my tasting session because I know that white can be a bit delicate and finicky. The white chocolate was smooth and not overly sweet, with a slight malty taste of cocoa. But the floral infusion didn’t quite hit me, but did leave a fresh aftertaste.

Gianduja Rocher - a sweet milky explosion of salt, buttery toffee chips and creamy sweet chocolate. It’s not a pasty, sticky gianduia. It’s a solid form that gives a soft and silky melt to the chocolate and a punch of roasted hazelnut flavor. It is sweet though, luckily the toffee chips and the salt cut through that.

Darkened Milk Chocolate Hearts with Almond Toffee Bits and Fleur de Sel - I want this in bar form year round. The “darkened milk chocolate” tastes like a cross between bittersweet and a European dairy milk chocolate. The dairy notes are complemented well by the toffee chips and the whole thing is set off by powerful zaps of salt in liberal reservoirs throughout.

Bittersweet Ganache in Bittersweet Shells Finished with 23 Karat Gold (the picture here is of a round version of the same truffle - the uneaten one is above). Delicate mix of flavors, as this is all about the chocolate. The ganache is soft and smooth. There’s an immediate acidic bite that gives way pretty quick to some dark charcoal and alcoholic notes like fine cognac and tobacco. The gold version has a bit more chocolate to it, because of the geometry ... the gold flakes do nothing for me, except distinguish it from the toffee chip dark heart.

The attention to detail in the items, with their perfectly placed decorations and well tempered chocolate is exquisite. No bubbles or voids, everything glossy and gorgeous. On the personal side of things, I go all weak in their knees for their nougat and am a little disappointed they don’t have it again this year for Valentine’s (as that’s what my Man gave me last year). But I like it when they try new things and enjoyed the darkened milk with toffee chips most of all. (So I guess I’d have to opt for the Pour Homme ... luckily the box doesn’t say anything about it being geared for fellas.)

I like supporting a local business and that everything is made fresh ... not last year and has been sitting in a warehouse. If you go to the store you can get the petits fours and the tea cakes by the piece.

Valerie Confections
3360 West 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA

(213) 739-8149

Related Candies

1. BonBonBars: Malt Ganache & Scotch
2. Mori Ex Cacao Gift Set
3. L’Artisan du Chocolat
4. Valerie Lemon Hazelnut Nougat
5. CocoaVino
6. Valerie Toffees & Nougats

In the world of chewy twists (red licorice) there are a lot of flavors. I’ve tried all sorts of fruit flavors (raspberry, strawberry, pina colada & cherry), chocolate, cinnamon and root beer.

The one that I was most intrigued with of late is Spearmint Licorice found at Vermont Country Store. (However, I believe that they’re manufactured by Kenny’s Candies - I’ve just never seen them in stores anywhere, just online.)

The packaging isn’t terribly compelling (not even featured on their website). Just a clear plastic bag highlighting the translucent green twists.

They look like they could be green apple at first glance. And if you were expecting green apple and ate one of these you’d probably be pretty surprised.

They’re a wheat-based twist. There’s no molasses in it like most American & Australia-style licorices. They’re glossy, soft and flexible.

The open bag doesn’t smell like much. Not minty fresh, maybe just a little sweet.

The flavor is very subtle. It’s not a blasting mint like the sizzling flavor of the Cinnamon Fire Twizzlers. Instead it’s a not-very-sweet spearmint.

At first I didn’t like them. They were too soft and seemed a bit artificial. The spearmint has a light zing to it, but there’s no cool minty aftertaste.

Then I left them open for about a month and they got stiff and a bit dried out. Kind of hard to peel apart. But the flavor mellowed and though there’s some work on the chewing front, I’m really pleased to say that I’ve eaten over a pound of them now. They’re a comfort flavor, like Spearmint Leaves (those jelly candies sanded with sugar) - they’re not sexy or innovative ... just pleasant. (Even though I call them pleasant, I’m bumping their rating to worth it.)

Kenny’s Candy is Kosher, but this package doesn’t say Kosher on it (so may have been repacked at a non-Kosher facility).

Related Candies

1. Twizzlers Chocolate Twists
2. Barley Mint Mentos
3. Twizzlers (Strawberry)
4. Cinnamon Fire Twizzlers
5. Kenny’s Licorice Pastels & Root Beer Twists
6. Hot Tamales Ice
7. Twizzlers Rainbow Twists

Jelly Belly has had their own take on the ubiquitous Valentine’s Conversation Hearts for several years (introduced, I believe, in 2003). They’re called Conversation Beans.

They include the Sour assortment: Sour Apple, Sour Blueberry, Sour Cherry, Sour Grape, Sour Lemon, Sour Orange, Sour Peach, Sour Raspberry, Sour Strawberry & Sour Watermelon.

The sour family of flavors come in rather vivid, opaque hues, without any speckling. So they’re easy to tell apart as long as you can remember that raspberries are darker than cherries and apple is lighter than watermelon.

What’s special about these is that they’re sporting teensy printing on them.

I’d hazard the visibility of this printing is similar to that noise that only children & teenagers can hear. It’s quite small and rather faint on the lighter color beans (and nonexistent on others).

The words range from mildly flirty to downright benign. Think of it like a very limited version of magnetic poetry. Here are some three bean masterpieces:

Hi, like joy?
You love cool.
U & Me not kiss.
Y Not try lips.

Overall, they’re fun. If you like Sour Jelly Belly or more importantly, if you can’t stand Necco Conversation Hearts but want to spend three times as much to make a sweet connection, this is the candy for you.

I liked most of the flavors. I picked out the Sour Peach ones, which tasted like they had Dr. Pepper added to them, and the Sour Cherry and was pleased with the rest of them. (Eventually I forgot I was supposed to be reading the words ... which I do with Conversation Hearts, too.) The highlight flavors for me were orange, lemon and grape (which was completely fun and artificial) while the blueberry and raspberry were much better than expected. As far as sour goes, well, they’re zappy compared to most regular Jelly Belly.

If puckering isn’t quite your speed for Valentine’s Day, a new item that Jelly Belly sent me to sample a few weeks ago is their Jelly Belly Love Potion. It’s a little re-closeable plastic bottle that holds an assortment of five flavors of Jelly Belly. (They use this same package for their Soda Pop Shoppe assortment.)

There’s no special printing on the beans besides the Jelly Belly logo.

The pink, red and white mix is rather attractive and might make a nice little offering in a gift basket. (Though if you really love someone with a sweet tooth, back up this little package with a big bag! Then they can refill it.)

The flavors are Strawberry Cheesecake, Bubble Gum, Coconut, Cotton Candy and Very Cherry. All the flavors went together pretty well (though I could have used a pink grapefruit instead of cherry) and the color combination is pleasing if a little feminine.

I don’t know the retail price on these, but the Soda Pop Shoppe bottles sell for about $1.50 to $2.00 retail.

Don’t Miss the Candy Dish Blog & Candy Blog candy giveaway!

Related Candies

1. Jelly Belly Ice Cream Parlor Mix
2. Gobstopper Heart Breakers
3. Jelly Belly - All Natural
4. Sour Patch Kids
5. Junior Mints - Heart Shaped
6. Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe

One of the earlier reviews I did when I started Candy Blog was of Dr. Doolilttle’s Grapefruit & Blackcurrant Pastilles. I liked them quite a bit, even though they were expensive and hard to find.

After a few years, though, Trader Joe’s stopped carrying them and the comments for that post filled up with folks trying to figure out how to order them or even import them by the case.

Flash forward to last Friday, I was returning from a failed sock-shopping trip when I stopped in at Cost Plus World Market. Dr. Doolittle’s Pastilles have returned!

They have completely new and distinctive tins (that I might have mistaken for soap if they were on the wrong shelf) and even come in new flavors.

I picked up all three, even though they’re now $2.99 for a tin that holds only 2 ounces (instead of the Trader Joe’s ones that were $1.99 and held 2.5 ounces).

The other difference is also the actual candy pieces. They no longer have the little silhouette of Dr. Doolittle molded into them. Not that I don’t like the smooth surface, it was just a little plainer than I expected.

Soft Fruit Drops Lemon (Tendres Pastilles Aux Fruits Citron) - these sparkling little gummis boast that they have soothing qualities. They are a gummi with gelatin, but have glycerine in addition to vitamin C.

They are firm, like a Haribo (versus a Trolli or Black Forest bear). But the flavor is much more intense than a gummi bear. The lemon is a marmalade or boiled taste - tangy, sweet and a little zesty but more on the jammy side of things than freshly squeezed. They dissolve slowly for the patient among us. But I like to speed it along by kind of chewing them, by folding and pressing them against the roof of my mouth and teeth.

Soft Fruit Drops Pink Grapefruit (Tendres Pastilles Aux Fruits Pamplemousse Rose) - this is the one that I was most interested in, of course, since Pamplemousse is always a huge favorite.

The pastilles are orange, not pink (the ingredients simply say “natural coloring”).

They have a very intense zesty flavor, much moreso than the lemon. Tangy and with that slight bitter flavor of the grapefruit peel. These were definitely the first to disappear. The oily zest essence persists for quite a while after it’s dissolved, too. Not something that goes well with coffee, but I didn’t mind it with afternoon tea.

Soft Fruit Drops Wild Berry (Tendres Pastilles Aux Fruits Baies Sauvages) - this flavor smelled wonderful. A bit like roses, cotton candy and crushed raspberries.

They’re immediately tangy, sweet and jammy. The flavors of the berries are definitely on the blackberry side of things. A bit like a wine gum, there’s a slightly fermented quality to the dark berry tones and maybe a little blackcurrant note.

All the flavors are winners, again, my only complaint here is price. But they are soothing, full of flavor and even have a little dose of vitamin C. The new tins are really pretty and distinctive, though the tops are curved it means I can’t stack them. But I do plan on reusing them as they’re a great shape, easy to open and stay closed in a bag.