A few years ago I picked up a Big Bite Gummy Bear. It’s not the biggest gummi bear available on the market, but they’re easy to find and pretty well priced for a novelty item.

This year the Big Bite family of gummis is expanding with holiday themed shapes. For Christmas they have three: a Tin Soldier (red cherry), a Christmas Tree (green apple) and a Rocking Horse (red cherry). I found the Big Bite Gummy Rocking Horse charming and well designed so I picked that one from the display at Cost Plus World Market. They’re not as big as the Big Bite Gummy Bear (which is 12 ounces), they’re about half that weight at 5.82 ounces.

First, as a Christmas tree ornament, this is a colossal failure. It’s weight makes it too heavy and big to put on a normal tree. But as a party favor, stocking stuffer or table decoration, it does pretty well.

The gummi is constructed of two molded halves that are bonded together. They’re packaged in a clear plastic form (which could actually be the mold) that works as an excellent storage container for the partially eaten candy and also as a more appropriate ornament when you’re done.

Even though it’s not as big as the original Big Bite Gummy Bear, it’s still pretty large for a single portion of candy. (Come on, this is at least three portions.) The texture is soft, the surface is smooth but a little greasy because of the carnauba wax coating.

Out of the package, the Rocking Horse stands well on its own, though she’s (yes, I checked) a little head-heavy and tips forward.

I was disappointed in the flavor selection, but I understand with novelty candies they have to go with what’s most popular. (I would have preferred raspberry or strawberry or maybe something truly holiday themed like cranberry or cinnamon.)

Once I cut off the head, the halves of the candy pulled apart quite easily. The texture is pliable with a smooth flavor. It’s cherry and though not the best cherry gummi I’ve ever had, it was passable. It was light, a little tart and had a nice overall balance. It wasn’t too dark, not black cherry or wild cherry but more of the stereotypical cherry of most candies. (I think Tootsie Pop Cherry is as close as I can think of.) However, the edges of the product were tough and leathery, while the center was a bit softer. I also got a bit of an aftertaste and slight burning in my mouth ... this could be my reaction to the red food dye or just simple paranoia.

The tag lists the ingredients (contains gelatin and not Kosher/Halal) as well as the nutritional information. It was printed so small I had to photograph it and blow it up. The serving size is the whole candy but the calorie count for the whole thing was a rather modest 592 calories. (That Venti Pumpkin Spice Latte with the whipped cream at Starbucks has 520 calories.) But the really surprising part is consuming the whole thing is 10.7 grams of protein.

The candies are imported by a company called Novelty Specialties and are manufactured in China. I’m not enthusiastic about candy (or any food product) made in China because of their lack of accountability when it comes to food safety, though the United States and United Kingdom have their share as well. If I weren’t writing this blog, I never would have purchased, let alone eaten this product (but that goes for a lot of the candies I’ve tried, and sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised).

The price was $3.99, which was the same price as the twice-as-big Big Bite Gummi Bear. $3.99 could buy some very nice, American or German gummis that you could put in a holiday themed package. Just saying. If you’re not planning on eating it and want to dispose of it in the garbage disposal, well, this is better than plastic.

Since writing the review of the Big Bite Gummy Bear, which seem to be widely available, the company’s website has disappeared. (Here’s the page I got when I went to NoveltySpecialties.com.)

Related Candies

1. Trolli Gummi Bear-Rings
2. Chewbies Liquid Taffy - Orange
3. Big Bite Gummy Bear
4. Cadbury Ornament Creme Egg
5. Gummy Fishies
6. Oriental Trading Company Candy Shot Glasses
7. Gummi Lightning Bugs

Just a little preview of a new Trader Joe’s holiday candy. I picked up a few of their new item last week and will do a review of all the returning items as well before Thanksgiving.

Merry Mingle is like a dark chocolate pecan turtle with a few dried cranberries thrown in.

Brach’s, now owned by Farley’s and Sathers has had its ups and downs. Lately I’d say they’re on the upswing. They have newly designed packaging and a new logo along with a return to their classic formulas.

One of Brach’s standard candies for many years has been their Brach’s Milk Chocolate Stars which are not only a favorite for candy dishes, they’re occasionally featured in cookie recipes. This explains why I spotted this bag not in the candy aisle at Target but with a special display of holiday baking items.

The pieces are large what I’d consider a big bite or two small bites. They’re a full inch across and weigh a little less than 4 grams each. (For comparison, a Hershey’s Kiss is about 4.5 grams.)

The front and back of the package make multiple mentions of the fact that the stars are made from 100% milk chocolate. Some Brach’s items stopped using real chocolate over the years (oddly enough some of that cheapening occurred while the company was run by Barry Callebaut, a Swiss company and one of the largest makers of chocolate in the world. (But they also make mockolate.)

The ingredients do actually qualify this product as milk chocolate, though the list is very long for what is usually a six ingredient product:

Milk Chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, whole and skim milk powder, lactose, butter fat, cocoa powder, milk fat, salt, soy lecithin, PGPR, vanillin

The stars a bit scuffed up but I was still pleased at how attractive they are. They vary a little bit, as they’re not molded but squirted out onto a line. The have a sweet scent, a bit on the caramel side of milk chocolate. The melt is pretty quick and very sweet but with a very mellow salty note to it.

Though the melt is passably smooth, it is quite sticky. I did a quick analysis of the chocolate compared to Hershey’s Kisses. There’s just a smidge more sugar in it and a little less fat. (Basically, my calculations put Hershey’s Kisses at 29.3% fat by weight and Brach’s Milk Chocolate Stars at 26.3%. So if there’s less fat there’s either going to be more sugar or more protein, in this case it’s the sugar with Hershey’s at 56.1% and Brach’s at 57.9%.)

The flavor is not complex or difficult. There’s a slight dairy twang to it, but nothing like the sour belch of a Hershey’s Kiss nor the powdered dairy taste of Cadbury. I suspect that they stand up well in the oven and probably get an even better toasted taste to the sugars that bring out the fudge notes. It’s a little too sweet and sticky for me to eat alone, but with some nuts or pretzels or really anything else like a tall glass of water or strong coffee to cut it, I’d find them passable.

If I were baking the only reason to use them would be for aesthetics. If I were going for taste, I’d pick up Ghirardelli or Guittard which are only slightly more expensive ... or if I needed something really stunning Valrhona.

They’re made in a facility with nuts, peanuts and wheat plus they contain soy and dairy. Not Kosher.

Related Candies

1. Brach’s Maple Nut Goodies
2. Hershey’s Kisses Air Delight
3. Brach’s Peanut Butter Poppins
4. Brach’s Christmas Nougats
5. Brach’s Peanut Butter and Caramel Pumpkins
6. Limited Edition Hot Cocoa Kisses
7. Dove Chocolate
8. My Favorite Chocolate

In a candy tease last year I mentioned the existence of new flavors of the iconic flavored Tootsie Rolls. The line is called Frooties. They were introduced in the 1970s when actual penny candy still existed. Last year a few new and perhaps trendy flavors were introduced including CranBlueberry as well as Frooties Root Beer.

I finally found some while on vacation back in September at a little candy shop in Cayucos. I bought a handful of them at 10 cents each and ate them without a review. (I was on vacation.)

I kept looking for more, but no one seemed to carry them. Over the weekend I was shopping at Smart & Final and ran into the bag pictured - it contains 360 pieces and almost two and a half pounds. It’s the size of an airplane pillow. Yeah, it was silly, it was $5.99 but I’d already tasted them and knew I wanted to review them. I had no rationale to get rid of the excess after review, no Halloween Trick or Treaters coming to my door. I fully planned to eat them myself.

The candies are small, they’re the smallest size of the Tootsie Roll, a little more than 3 grams each and only one inch long. They were very fresh, soft and easy to upwrap. The wax paper is simple, just twisted at the ends and classic.

They look kind of like Tootsies, they’re brown and don’t smell like much. But biting into one, it’s satisfying. The Root Beer flavors are well balanced, a mix of cinnamon and wintergreen with only the lightest acidic bite like a soda. The chew is smooth and slightly creamy. It’s not sticky and not too sweet. If I eat a lot of them, I get a bit of a warm mouth buzzing sensation, similar to something I experience with wintergreen flavors.

They come in other flavors, but I’m not terribly interested in them. Root Beer candy is hard to find and this strikes the right balance of warm spice and smooth chew. Sure, it’s probably like chewing hardened Ben Gay, but I actually like that. I’m sure I’ll manage to eat all 360 pieces eventually.

They’re made in the USA, certified Kosher in a peanut free, gluten free and tree nut free facility. It does contain dairy though, so it’s not for vegans.

Related Candies

1. Trolli Soda Poppers
2. See’s Lollypops
3. See’s Pumpkin Spice & Root Beer Lollypops
4. Canada Wintergreen
5. Brach’s Soda Poppers
6. Kenny’s Licorice Pastels & Root Beer Twists
7. Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe
8. Bottlecaps

Wrigley’s which now runs the Starburst franchise of products just came out with a new variety, called Starburst Flavor Morph. They come in both the long single serving pack, a king size and the 13 ounce bag I picked up at Target over the weekend.

The package says that they have Flavor Changing Beads, which sounds kind of high tech and kind of like a feature of cosmetics/hygiene products.

The newest Starburst offers more than just a variety of flavors in each pack - now, consumers will get to experience a variety of flavors in every square. The candy, which features flavor changing beads, morphs from orange to orange strawberry or cherry to cherry lime.

So, basically, instead of four flavors in the package, there are just two.

Cherry -> Cherry-Lime is wrapped in red with white waves on the little waxed paper wrapper. They’re dark pink and at first do taste just like the traditional Cherry Starburst. The Cherry Lime notes come in rather late, and the advertised flavor beads aren’t evident as pops or crunches. The lime notes were actually a welcome transition in the flavor of the chew, the citrus goes well with the very traditional artificial cherry flavor.

Orange -> Orange-Strawberry looks just like an Orange Starburst, but with a few little flecks. However, it smells like a Strawberry Starburst. So the flavor morph in this instance was not really transitional ... the flavor was absolutely orange and strawberry the whole time. I liked the combination, it’s different from the usual citrus or strawberry combinations.

I haven’t been excited or converted from the classic Fruits package by any of the new Starburst introduction in the past 10 years. This version is no different, it’s a novelty. It’s missing the usual variety and the flavor combinations while appealing aren’t radical enough. While it doesn’t say Limited Edition on the package, I don’t expect them to stick around very long.

Starburst are marked as a gluten-free product. They do contain gelatin, so are not appropriate for vegetarians/vegans and are not Kosher. There are no statements about nuts or other allergens on the package though other sources say they’re nut free. A serving of 8 pieces contains 20% of your daily RDA of Vitamin C. I found them expensive as well, $3.14 for a 13 ounce bag of sugar candy is a bit steep.

Related Candies

1. Haribo Maoam Fruit Chews
2. HiCHEW World Fruit: Dragonfruit, CamuCamu, Durian & White Peach
3. Starburst Sours (New)
4. Starburst Retro
5. Starburst Baja California & Tropical
6. Starburst Berries & Creme and Fruit & Creme
7. Starburst
8. HiCHEW Assortment
9. Starburst Icy Bursts
10. Storck Mamba Chews

Last year Ritter Sport sent me a one of their Europe-only bars, Ritter Sport Espresso. I even bought one when I was in Germany in February. Now they’re selling them in the United States, which only makes sense since we’re the largest coffee consuming country in the world (source).

The bar is Fine Quality European Chocolate made with Natural Ingredients. The bar isn’t explained or teased much on the front, just with robust Arabica coffee and the back just gives the description as Milk chocolate with a coffee cream filling. It also has snowflakes on it, which leads me to believe that it’s a limited edition winter bar and might not be available year round.

The ingredients list is short, but not as pure as I’d like it to be when it’s advertised as being made with natural ingredients. (Just because it’s natural, doesn’t mean I want it in my chocolate bar.)

Ingredients: sugar, palm kernel oil, cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, lactose, milk, skim milk, espresso powder, cream, butterfat, soy lecithin, natural flavor.

There’s a caution about shared equipment for peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, other nuts and wheat. (Plus it contains soy and dairy ingredients.)

It’s real milk chocolate for the bar part, but the filling is primarily a sugar and oil paste. Palm kernel oil doesn’t have quite the same political reputation that palm oil does, nor the trans fatty content that partially hydrogenated oils. Still, I do not consider that to be a cream, even if cream is added to it. But let me set aside my ingredient rantings for a little tasting. Because I was really looking forward to this bar.

I don’t know what it is about the way that Ritter Sport bars are packaged or handled, but they’re always pristine when I open the package. (Sometimes the bars are broken, but not scuffed.)

The scent is dreamy. There’s a milky dairy note (a little caramel and butter) but the perfect level of coffee to it - rich and woodsy.

The chocolate is a little soft, and the center is even softer. The chocolate melt is cool and smooth, the center is a little grittier because of the coffee powder. The milk chocolate is quite sweet and the filling is less so, with a light salty note to it though there’s not actually any salt in it.

The espresso flavors are not quite ... because of all of the milk notes. It’s more like a dry cappuccino than an espresso, which would be made with a dark chocolate (dairy free would have been great for vegans). I expect there’s a bit of caffeine in here, since there’s real espresso powder, I made sure to eat mine early in the day.

It’s not the perfect coffee chocolate bar, but for about $2.00 or so, it’s achingly close I had to give it a 9 out of 10. The coffee flavors are pure, not flavored, and it’s not junked up with other caramel or hazelnut flavors. I wish it was really a ganache cream made with butterfat in there, but then it wouldn’t be $2 and probably wouldn’t be a shelf stable. Next step would be fair trade (but they do have a pretty good track record for ethical sourcing).

Related Candies

1. Ovation Cappuccino Sticks
2. Ritter Sport Olympia
3. Javaz - Milk & Dark Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans
4. Ritter Sport Peppermint
5. Ritter Sport White Chocolate with Hazelnuts
6. Ritter Darks
7. Pocket Coffee
8. Ritter Sport Capuccino and Rum Trauben Nuss

Name: Hershey’s Rolo Minis
Brand: Hershey’s
Description: Rolo Minis are bite-sized and unwrapped versions of Hershey’s chocolate-covered caramels. They are available in 2.5-ounce king size packs and in eight-ounce reclosable bags.
Introduction Date: March 2012
Notes: These look like a great idea for movie theater snacking or baking projects. I wonder if they’ll be sold in large bags or theater boxes as well. (A king size bag is actually ideal for a movie.)

Name:
Brand: Hershey’s
Description: Milk Chocolate With Almonds Pieces are whole almonds covered in milk chocolate and coated in a candy shell. They pack in eight-ounce pouches that ship in 12- and 20-ct cases.
Introduction Date: March 2012
Notes: These look suspiciously like Almond M&Ms, but I’m not going to complain if I can actually find these reliably. I’m curious what the quality of the chocolate will be. I was fond of the Almond Joy Pieces (which had coconut bits and crushed almonds in milk chocolate). The brown and cream colors feel like they’re more natural, but it’s not like it doesn’t take just as much artificial coloring to make brown as red or blue.

Name: Hershey’s Bliss Dark Chocolate with Caramel
Brand: Hershey’s
Description: Individually wrapped Hershey’s Bliss Dark Chocolate With Caramel is also new, packing in 8.6-ounce bags.
Introduction Date: March 2012
Notes: The Bliss line just keeps looking more and more like Dove Promises. I’m not saying that it’s bad to have a little competition, but I’d like to see some differentiation, Hershey’s should do the kinds of flavor combinations that Dove isn’t doing.

Name: Lindt Holiday Friends
Brand: Lindt Chocolate
Description: Escape to Lindt’s winter wonderland with the help of our lovely enchanting characters: Bear, Snowman & Santa.  Lindt Swiss Maitres Chocolatiers have passionately created the most traditional characters in the finest Lindt chocolate.
Introduction Date: currently available
Notes: Lindt also offers miniature foil wrapped versions of these characters, plus some reindeer for Santa. The bears are on par with the reindeer and iconic bunny they do for Easter. It stands to reason that the bear could be a year round item now.

Name: Warheads Sour Twists
Brand: Impact Confections
Description: The latest Warheads product is pretty twisted. Sour Twists feature a twisted extruded chewy candy with a fruity center and just-right sour coating. Three delicious flavors of lemon, green apple, and watermelon are twirled in every twist, which can be eaten as one, or pulled apart and enjoyed one flavor at a time.
Introduction Date: available now
Notes: Super sour fruity licorice. I like that the twists can be untwisted. It looks like they have a good corner on this part of the market with a truly sour product.

Name: Jelly Belly Snapple Mix
Brand: Jelly Belly
Description: Jelly Belly Candy Co. has teamed up with Snapple to create a new line of Jelly Belly beans with Snapple Juice Drinks. The candymakers began at the source, Snapple Juice Drink concentrates in five tangy and sweet Snapple flavors: Fruit Punch, Mango Madness, Cranberry Raspberry, Pink Lemonade and Kiwi Strawberry. The gourmet jelly beans burst with Snapple goodness. Jelly Belly Snapple Mix flavors are made from real fruit juice and purees. These jelly beans have no artificial coloring; the colors come from natural fruit and vegetables.
Introduction Date: available now
Notes: I like that Jelly Belly is expanding their all natural line of jelly beans. I’ll be on the lookout for these in stores.

Name: Tropical Cotton Candy Swirlz
Brand: Taste Of Nature
Description: Watermelon, banana and pineapple/coconut cotton candy comes in 3.1-ounce bags and join the company’s five existing flavors.
Introduction Date: unknown
Notes: I’ve never been fond of pre-packaged cotton candy, it’s completely lost its fluff by the time it gets to the stores. But I can say, from personal experience, that pineapple and pina colada cotton candy is a great combination.

Images courtesy of the respective manufacturer.

Related Candies

1. Candy Tease: October 2011
2. Candy Tease: Mars 2011 Announcements
3. Candy Tease: Sweets & Snacks Expo 2011 Part 2
4. Candy Tease: Sweets & Snacks Expo 2011 Part 1
5. Hershey’s Almond Joy Pieces
6. Hershey’s Bliss
7. Lindt Chocolate Bunnies (Dark & Milk)

When I saw a tweet from The Impulsive Buy that there was a new kind of M&Ms, I was on the case. Marvo tracked them down, they’re called Cinnamon M&Ms and they’re an exclusive to Target stores right now (though some folks have them on eBay as well).

The bags are slight, with only 9.9 ounces compared to the standard 12 ounce bag of Milk Chocolate M&MS for the same price.

The package features the Green M&M in a white knit cap & scarf holding some cinnamon sticks. The illustration shows that the candies come in three deep red colors.

The pieces vary in size and slightly in color. The deep red and maroon are almost indistinguishable in lower light situations.

Ciinnamon on the left, Milk Chocolate on the right

The pieces are larger than the regular Milk Chocolate M&Ms. The color is not quite as dense or shiny as the regular M&Ms. They’re a little dusty colored, like the color coating isn’t as thick or they aren’t as polished. It appears that the shade of brown and red are identical to the standard Milk Chocolate red and brown, but the maroon is new.

The flavor, as Marvo pointed out in his review, tastes like it’s concentrated in the shell of the candy, not in the milk chocolate. Some shells taste more cinnamony than others, but the red tastes the most like cinnamon. It’s not a “red hot” sort of flavor, it’s more of the ground spice flavor. It’s woodsy and rich with a slight heat to it, but nothing that’s too warm. 

The largest pieces feel like they’re layered; as if they start out as a regular sized M&M, then get another layer of chocolate to supersize them. (They used to make Mega M&Ms, maybe this is just the same equipment being put to use.)

The flavor is different but not radical. It’s subtle and pleasant, but masks the also mild chocolate flavors from Mars very sweet milk chocolate. The candy shell is fun to crack and the textures work exceptionally well in this instance because of the ratios with the larger chocolate pieces.

I can’t say that I’ve been longing for these all of my life; and I can’t say, especially at this price, that I’d buy them again. Like the Coconut M&Ms, they’re only vaguely different but the cinnamon, like coconut, is a polarizing flavor. Either you like it or you don’t. So there will be folks out there that won’t.

I can say that these go very nicely with coffee, the cinnamon adds that fall, harvest essence to the whole event. So settle down with the morning paper and toss a few Cinnamon M&Ms onto your saucer for a little extra bump.

For traditionalist, the Milk Chocolate Mint M&Ms are also returning for Christmas.

Related Candies

1. Crispy M&Ms
2. Pretzel M&Ms
3. Wonka Exceptionals Domed Dark Chocolate
4. Limited Edition M&Ms Coconut
5. Limited Edition Strawberried Peanut Butter M&Ms
6. Mint Chocolate M&Ms
7. SweetRiot: flavor 70 cinn
8. M&Ms Line