Botticelli is an upscale chocolate brand in Canada that makes nice bars at reasonable prices. I’ve never seen them in stores, but last year my husband brought me one that he got a London Drugs, so they’re pretty easy to find.

Sam, whom I met at All Candy Expo earlier this summer sent me some excellent bars to try in their Signature line. I want to post about all of them, but I have to finish tasting them all. I had to post about this one first because he sent me TWO bars and both are gone now. The listing of quality ingredients on the label alone made my mouth water.

The Cashew Butter Truffle is a milk chocolate bar with a filling of cashew butter. It’s not quite truffle-like in my estimation, more on the nut butter end of things, but that suits me just fine. The smooth and nutty butter has a good salty hit (though it says there’s no added salt) and a true-to-life flavor of cashews that just sends me over the moon.

My only disappointment about the bar was there were some “unfilled” squares on one end of the bar that were just chocolate. I like chocolate and all, but I really wanted more of that cashwey goodness.

Cashews are so rare in consumer branded chocolates it’s so refreshing to not only find a bar, but find it to be good. If you’re a nut fan, this might be the bar for you. If you’ve seen them in stores in Canada, do let me know where they’ve turned up.

Mmm, more Mentos from the Pacific. These little cuties were also in my package from Santos. It was a mixed bag of miniatures in three flavors. Grape, Apple and Watermelon.

Starting from the left the light yellow-green ones are Apple. It’s a mild apple, not very tangy, but floral and sweet and very pleasant. The candies themselves are a little smaller than the normal Mentos, not just small pack like you’d get Lifesavers.

In the middle are little lilac wonders in Grape, these were, to put it mildly, odd. They were kind of concord grapey and completely unlike those malic acid wonders you find in a roll of SweeTarts. These were floral and had a sort of balsam note that reminds me of concord grape skins when you eat them fresh off the vine. At first I was a little put off, but I chalk that up to the whole expectations thing. When I stopped thinking about it, I really like them and now I’m regretting sending a bunch of them off to the Mentos winner last month.

The more vivid green ones are Watermelon which are very sweet and have an odd note of mint to them (which could be a manufacturing problem). The melon flavor is true and has that sort of woodsy note to it, but no tartness to it. Not my fave but not terrible.

I have to call this one the deal of the month. I find a lot of great deals out there in candy world, but I had to mention this one because I gave the Queen Anne Milk Chocolate Covered Cherries a bad review last year.

So that makes it all the more wonderful that I took a chance on these.

I found them at the 99 Cent Only Store. In fact, I saw them for several weeks at several different stores, which usually means it’s a new item and probably more likely to be fresh. I’ve seen the Queen Anne line at Von’s for $2.99, so at 99 cents, it was quite a deal for 5 ounces of chocolate. They come in a rather elegant stand up cardboard box/bag with a sealed cellophane pouch inside.

I’m a huge fan of Chocolate Covered Candied Orange Peel and the fact that you can’t get such a thing at Trader Joe’s is rather disheartening (I got the “orange sticks” once thinking that’s what they were, but it was a jelly stick covered with chocolate).

These were fresh and glossy and had a wonderful scent of orange zest. The orange peel inside was firm and a little chewy but not overly sweetened. The dark chocolate though not the best in the world was a wonderful sweet complement to the zesty innards.

If I see these again, I’m definitely going to pick them up. I have quite figured out how to decipher the code on the back as to how old these are (164513 was all it said), so I consider them a limited opportunity good deal. At this price they’re an 8 out of 10, at regular price they’re a 6 out of 10 ... so I’m calling them in the middle for the review rating at 7 out of 10.

(Queen Anne Candy is made by the same company that makes those World’s Finest Chocolate bars that the band kids are always trying to sell you.)

I know it’s Halloween, but I’ve decided to cover chocolate covered fruit today. I’ve just had a craving for it, maybe it’s because it’s fall or maybe it’s because I’m lacking some micronutrients or something. I’ve also discovered that chocolate covered fruit is great for snacking on while writing. Especially when mixed with a few nuts like plain raw almonds and pretzels.

Trader Joe’s and their wonderful panned candy supplier have done it again. I just spotted Figments a couple of weeks ago and picked them up immediately. They’re dried black mission fig pieces covered in dark chocolate.

The pieces are quite variable, some as large as the tip of my finger and others the size a sunflower seed. The big ones, of course, were the best because there was a high density of both chocolate and fig. The figness got lost in the smaller pieces.

Dried figs have a wonderful earthy flavor to them, less sweet and tart than raisins. There’s the added bonus of the texture of the seeds, which some people don’t care for, but I think of as tree caviar.

Sometimes the chocolate overpowered the figness and sometimes the figness just wasn’t very powerful. This is definitely an excellent treat to have by your side when writing a novel. (Which I plan to start tonight at midnight, but have sadly eaten all my Figments already.)

I have only one gum that I consume regularly. It’s plain old Chiclets (peppermint). They’re not that easy to find (and I think made in Colombia now) so when I see the multipack at the 99 Cent Only store I usually grab one.

I then empty out the box on my desk and divide the pieces up into groups of three. I chew three pieces at a time and then spit it out when the sugar is gone. Rinse, repeat. A whole box of 12 pieces might last an hour.

Sugarless gum is great for freshening breath and calming a queasy stomach, but Chicklets are like candy to me. But let’s face it, they’re just white tiles ... sometimes I want something pretty to chew on.

So the 99 Cent Only store didn’t have the Chiclets last time I was in there ... so I bought these gumballs (hey, at 4 for 99 cents, how could I resist?). Made by Wonka, they’re plain old large gumballs with Nerds inside.

They’re big gumballs and have a pleasant rattle when you shake them close to your ear. The Nerds inside are confetti colored and have no relation to the outside color/flavor of the gumball itself. Some gumballs had lots of Nerds in them, with 12 being about average. However, there were two gumballs (I consumed two packages) that had four or less.

The gum itself was ordinary with a light fruity flavor.

Orange: orange - mild and pleasant. The tart bump of the Nerds was nice and combined well with the sugary graininess of the gum.

Purple: grape - it had that bitter initial taste to it, which I suspect is the food coloring. The flavor was floral and fruity though it faded quickly but went well with the Nerds.

Red: cherry - a light cherry flavor and a slight bitter tinge but sweet and pleasant after the flavor was halfway gone.

Green: apple - I’m not sure what flavor this was, it was sweet and fruity and had a slight sour bite which goes nicely with the grainy tartness of the Nerds.

Yellow: lemon - sweet and tangy and probably the most flavorful of all of them, not that it lasted very long.

I’m not going to switch to these. The flavor wasn’t very intense, though the gum was nice and soft and had a good sugar charge to it that was supplemented by the Nerds. If you’re one of those people who likes to eat saltines with your gum for a nice crunch, these might be perfect for you.

In my pumpkin roundup the other day I didn’t include an Pumpkin Peeps. I actually went to the store and couldn’t find them. But I did get the next best thing, which would be the Peeps Spooky Cats.

When they were in their little tray they didn’t look very scary, except for that fear I have for conformity. In fact, they didn’t even look like black cats to me, but that could have been the lighting at the Walgreen’s. But no, I got them home and they are most definitely purple.

I can’t really say much else about them. I think I covered my feelings for Peeps back at Easter.

The newish product I was looking forward to showing here were the Cocoa Cats, which are a cocoa dusted/infused Cat Peep. Unfortunately there were none to be had (what’s with Peeps this year?). Anyway, I still have the Cocoa Peeps left over from All Candy Expo.

They don’t taste like much either, maybe a slight hint of cocoa to them, like a watered down cup of hot cocoa. What I found most curious about them is that they’re much less likely to go stale.

I’ve had these since June. I opened the package, took some photos and then put them back into the package. I left them in my tasting drawer (yes, the Candy Blogger has a drawer full of things to taste and write about) and checked them about a month later and they were pretty much the same. I didn’t seal up the bag or anything. So I left them out. Really left them out. Still, after an overnight sitting with a paper towel covering them and they were still soft.  Eventually I got bored (or moved offices or something) and packed them back up and they went back into the drawer in their loose packaging.

Today I took them out and they’re still not stale enough. I bite into them and they give. Okay, maybe they’re a little tacky ... certainly more texture than usual.

Still, not my thing. As bunnies they’re kind of cute ... especially since I had bunnies this color when I was a kid. As a scary cat for Halloween ... well, purple is kind of sassy, a brown cat for Halloween is just lame.

Ah, the last chapter in the Green Halloween series! More lollies.

Yummy Earth introduced their new organic candies at All Candy Expo back in June and I was immediately entranced. They’re not just organic, they’re also vegan and gluten free, so even the most sensitive folks can have a treat.

The lollipops come in four different flavors which gives you some variety but the one that intrigued me most was the Pomegranate Pucker. They’re just getting into stores, so you may be seeing them at Whole Foods or other health food stores soon. I got some samples back in Chicago and promptly ate them, but I didn’t want to do a review from memory so I popped the Yummy folks a note and they sent me this super-cute “Personal Bin” that holds 5.6 ounces & 30 assorted pops (and some other new candies that I’ll share a review of in a few weeks).

Cheeky Lemon - very lemony, like someone threw a whole lemon in a blender and poured it over a stick. The whole lemon taste is here, from the juice to the rind. It’s more of a grown-up lemon flavor than a kids one. The zest part of it gets really intense though never technically bitter, it gives me a kind of buzzy feeling on the inside of my lips after a while.

Pomegranate Pucker - dark and mysterious. It doesn’t taste quite like pomegranate to me but has a complex berry flavor to it with some elements that reminded me of red wine. Smooth and tangy, it’s quite different from other candy flavors and of course isn’t as messy as eating a real pomegranate (oh, how many shirts have I ruined with pomegranate squirts).

Wet-Face Watermelon - sweet, tangy and with a nice floral melon scent that really tastes like watermelon without that bitter chemical aftertaste that I’ve been getting lately from artificially flavored candies. The color is like a watermelon sorbet.

Orange Squeeze - wonderful mix of zesty and tart, like eating a spoonful of concentrated orange juice.

Razzmatazz Berry (not pictured)  - it’s like a fruit punch, kind of raspberry, nicely tart and flavorful.

If you’ve got kids and want to give them little treats or are looking for something for your Halloween basket, this might be the thing. My only recommendation for children is to pick out the Lemon ones, They’re great, I just think that kids aren’t going to like them as much as the other flavors. You still might be able to order online before Halloween!

Even if you don’t like candy corn you have to at least appreciate it. It’s festive and as a candy it actually looks like corn kernels. (I know fewer and fewer people have actually seen whole silos filled with feed corn, but trust me - that’s pretty much what it looks like.)

Maybe you’ve even wondered how they make it. Candy corn is made by creating a mold in corn starch. A “positive” image of the finished candy corn is pressed into a tray of firmly packed corn starch to create the “negative” image of the corn shape with the tip a the very bottom. Then the tray has a layer of molten candy squirted into it. Then it goes to the next color layer until it has three layers built up. You can see that they kind of blend a little bit at the margins, which is good, because it helps the candy bond together as a whole. The recipes for each layer are slightly different (colors and sometimes flavors) but work as a whole.

After they’re layered properly they’re demolded, which usually means they’re dumped out of the tray and tumbled or shaken on a mesh screen to get the corn starch off. Then they’re tumbled again (usually) with a little glaze to give them their matte coats. Every once in a while you’ll get one that seems to be missing a layer, which I find kind of fun, because real corn is like that.

This process can be applied to any kind of shape but the layering thing is most often seen with the candy corn. Other “mallocremes” are made the same way but with different mold shapes (so the pumpkin ones would have the little green stem squirted in first and then the orange cream for the pumpkin gourd). What’s pretty cool about this process is that sometimes people think outside the box. This time they’ve created “Gourmet Goodie” which is flavored candy corn. I’ve seen them at Target, but didn’t quite want to pick up a whole jar because of my pre-existing candy corn consumption commitments.

The flavor that interested me most was Tangerine. The colors are funky, the bottom is orange, the middle yellow and the top is lavender. Not the most intuitive combo for something in the citrus family, but you know you can’t tell after it’s in your mouth.

The first thing I noticed about these was how beautiful they are. The color combos really are nice. In the mouth they’re ultrasmooth without a hint of graininess, yet there’s a pleasant soft crumbly texture to them. The next thing I noticed was a tartness. Being tangerine they’re not about the “essence” of the fruit, but more about the juice of the fruit.

The tangerine reminded me of a creamsicle. Sweet, mellow, a little creamy feeling and a sort of neutral tartness.

Next was the one that I dreaded, Cherry. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a stunning looking piece of candy. red on the bottom, pink in the middle and a yellow cap. It also had the same smoothness and not nearly the tangy-ness as the tangerine. But it also had the cherry flavor. It was strong cherry and had a bitter, medicinal note to it. (But of course I don’t like cherry, so you can completely disregard my dislike for this.)

Finally was the one my husband was looking forward to Apple. I kind of like the idea of apple as a candy corn flavor, as I consider apple a fall fruit as much as corn is a fall harvest.

Green on the bottom, yellow in the middle and orange on top, this one could easily be mistaken for the tangerine. Also tart and with a kind of artificial flavor, the apple grew on me. The mellow candy corn notes that we usually associate with the honey flavor kind of work here. I would be curious to taste one that was more in the apple pie family of flavors, with cinnamon notes and less of the green apple flavors.

They’re undoubtedly high quality, but I’m just not keen on the taste. The tangerine was passable, but the apple and cherry just repulsed me.

For another opinion check out CandyAddict’s review.

I am actually curious about Galerie au Chocolat, the manufacturer who sent me the samples. While I didn’t care for this product, I’d be willing to try some other stuff (especially if there’s some of that ‘chocolat’ involved). If you live in the Hebron, KY area (near Cincinnati, OH), you might be interested to hear that Galerie has an annual candy corn sale, the last day is Sunday, October 29th. (visit their site, click on “visit us”) ... they said 50 cents a pound!

Related Candies

1. Brach’s Chocolate Candy Corn & Halloween Mix
2. Milk Maid Caramel Apple Candy Corn
3. Zachary Candy Corn & Jelly Pumpkins
4. Candy Corn Kisses
5. Jelly Belly Deluxe Easter Mix