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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Short & Sweet: International Flavors

Meiji Rich Strawberry ChocolateFlavored white chocolate is kind of a strange thing, not something I cared much for as a kid, but as an adult I’m warming up to it. Perhaps because there are some really good options out there.

Meiji, one of Japan’s major candy & snack companies uses white and flavored white chocolates in many of their confections. The flavors range from berry and flower flavors (sakura) to green tea and caramel.

I found this Meiji Rich Strawberry Chocolate bar in Little Tokyo at Murukai Market, but every store seemed to carry them.

Meiji Rich Strawberry Chocolate

The bar is much deeper in color than the KitKats or even the limited edition Hershey’s flavored white chocolate bars that I’ve had. And the intensity of the color matches the flavor. It’s much more in the berry range than the “light touch of berries”. It’s both tangy and sweet, with that woodsy flavor of seeds in there as well.

I wasn’t as fond of it as a I’d hoped. Something about the tangy mixed with the sweetness and a bit of grain from the real berry in there made me miss the cocoa butter and milk base. But for $1.29, it was a great buy for a little more exotic taste than the ordinary.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Klene KrokantjesFor Licorice Fans, the Klene Krokantjes are all licorice, but three different “jelly bean” style varieties in one bag.

I wasn’t sure what these would be, I thought something like the Skoolkrijt that I’ve come to love. I assumed it was a licorice center with a candy coating. I found a description online that said, “Salty Salmiak & Mint Flavor with a crunchy outer shell” which didn’t really capture it all (except that it included that it was salted licorice, not the straight sweet kind).

There are three shapes, a dark and a light jelly bean style and a larger, um, rock. I didn’t even know there was a third shape at first, as there were only two in the bag so I didn’t photograph it.

Klene KrokantjesThe candies look like little granite pebbles. Black and white and gray, they’re speckled and natural looking. They don’t smell like much, just a bit sweet with a slight anise note.

The beans are two different flavors. The light one is a peppermint, menthol and licorice mix of flavors. There’s a lot of crunch outside, it’s a bit grainy. The inside isn’t a molasses/wheat chewy licorice. Instead it’s a gelatin gummi flavored with licorice (and salt). The combo isn’t bad, a little metallic but the mint helps kind of smooth it all together.

The gray ones were similar but more on the straight licorice side. (They might not have been minted, but the proximity made them so.)

The lumps were a piece of the wheat based chew, again a little salted and covered with the minty crunch. That was my favorite.

They’re a little confusing for me. Not enough of one thing or another and the lack of the molasses punch to go with the licorice (my favorite combo) just didn’t make me want more and I never finished the bag.

Rating: 4 out of 10.

Kosher JuicyFruit GumMy favorite gum is Chiclets. They’re not easy to find but are one of the few gums that is still made with sugar and not artificial sweeteners (and no coloring either, for whatever that’s worth).

I was saddened several years ago to see that Wrigley’s altered their time-tested favorites: Wrigley’s Spearmint, Doublemint, Juicyfruit and Big Red gums to include those sorts of things. But then at Munchies in Los Angeles I stumbled across this little treasure - Juicy Fruit Gum, not only is it Kosher (which I don’t really need) but it’s also made with sugar and on top of that, they’re candy coated chicklets!

The box was cute and held 20 pellets. I usually chew three pieces at a time, so at 50 cents it’s no different in price than the regular pack.

I liked the crunch of the sugar shell and the indeterminate mellow fruity flavor of the chew. The flavor doesn’t last very long, but I don’t usually chew gum for a long time, just long enough to get most of the sugar out then I rinse and repeat.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Related Candies

  1. Three Pink Bubble Gums
  2. Licorice Assortment
  3. KitKat Chocolatier (Strawberry & Green Tea)
  4. Short & Sweet: Japanese Goodies
  5. Hershey’s Raspberries ‘n’ Creme
  6. Salted Licorices: Djungelvral and Dubbel Zout

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:45 am     CandyReviewKleneMeijiWrigley'sGumKosherLicorice CandyWhite Chocolate4-Benign6-Tempting8-TastyFranceJapanNetherlands

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Mini Mentos: Orange, Apple, Lemon & Strawberry

Just yesterday at a newsstand I saw them selling Mini Mentos from a little tub. I love the tiny rolls, even if it means they have smaller pieces in them.

I didn’t pick any up then, instead I pulled out the Mini Mentos collection Santos brought me from the Pacific. These are by no means exotic, just your standard Mentos fruit fare. I had an assortment of Grape, Apple & Watermelon before as well.

Mentos Minis - OrangeOrange Mini Mentos

The package design is simple and has no fruits on it, just a field of orange dragees.

Unlike some of the other specialty flavored Mentos like Pink Grapefruit or Fuji Apple, this one is rather bland. It’s a pleasant enough orange, but not terribly punchy. It’s like an orange-ade flavor instead of taking advantage of the sweet, tangy and zesty flavors of real oranges.

Orange can be found in the regular Fruits Mix Mentos rolls.

Mentos Minis- AppleApple Mini Mentos

I was expecting the typical American green apple flavor.

Instead the flavor was very grassy at first. It tasted like green! Then they typical artificial apple kicked in, a little tangy and a little like apple juice.

It doesn’t hold a candle to the Japanese Fuji Apple Mentos, so it’s hard to find these exceptional.

Apple is also availble in single flavor large rolls, but not in the Fruit Mix Mentos.

Mentos Minis - LemonLemon Mini Mentos

These were delicately colored, almost peach. This was the first one of the set that actually had a scent, and it reminded me of lemon merignue pie (you know, that toasted smell of the meringue mixed with lemon zest).

The shell was sweet and fragrant, the chewy innards were slightly tangy and had a little wiff of zest that develops during the chew.

My favorite of the set.

Lemon are part of the Fruit Mix Mentos rolls.

Mentos Minis - StrawberryStrawberry Mini Mentos

It didn’t smell like much but one crunch of the shell and the perfumey strawberry was quite evident. Like summer, yellow jackets and cotton candy.

The chewy itself is quite tart, more than any of the others. It was the most flavorful and after the lemon one, another favorite. It also left a pleasant aftertaste and freshened my mouth (which is good for a candy called The Freshmaker.)

I’ll probably always prefer the larger format rolls, but the minis are certainly fun for a bit of variety and if you find them in the “changemaker” tubs, it’s a quick little cheap treat. I’d be all over these if I got them in my Trick-or-Treat bag.

Mentos have converted from using gelatin to gellan gum, so they are now considered vegan-safe (but keep an eye on the colors on other varieties, I’ve seen carmine crop up in the Strawberry Yoghurt).

Related Candies

  1. Strawberry Yoghurt Mentos
  2. Mentos - Pine Fresh (Pineapple)
  3. Mentos Plus Citrus Mix
  4. Mentos Fuji Apple
  5. Mentos Berry Mix
  6. Dalandan & Juicy Ponkan Mentos
Name: Mini Mentos: Orange, Apple, Lemon & Strawberry
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Perfetti Van Melle
Place Purchased: gift from Santos (thanks!)
Price: unknown
Size: .35 ounces
Calories per ounce: unknown
Categories: Chew, Netherlands, Perfetti Van Melle

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:36 pm    

Monday, June 16, 2008

Strawberry Yoghurt Mentos

After the recent Bananas n Cream Mentos, I figured the next on my list of dairy-inspired Mentos should be some of the yoghurt ones.

There are a few yoghurt flavored Mentos out there, including Lemon Yoghurt, but Santos was kind of to bring me a huge tube of 6 rolls of Strawberry Yoghurt Mentos last week.

Mentos Strawberry Yoghurt

The package is easily distinguished from the regular Strawberry (photo here) but could be mistaken for Pink Grapefruit Mentos (photo here) except for the blue dairy product wrapped around a strawberry at one end.

The dragees look like any other Mentos - a nice medium pink. They simply smell sweet.

The taste is, well, like Strawberry Yogurt. There’s the berry flavor, which is that mix of sweet and sour, slightly floral and then there’s the yogurt kick, which is a bit of a dark tangy bite. It reminds me a bit of the Berries & Cream Starburst.

They’re not particularly creamy (and have no dairy in the ingredients) but do feature 3% strawberry juice.

The new kinds of Mentos no longer use gelatin in them, so they’re safe for vegetarians ... in this case though this version uses the coloring Carmine, so it all depends on where you draw your lines.

Related Candies

  1. Mentos - Pine Fresh (Pineapple)
  2. Mentos Xtrm: Mint & Spearmint
  3. Skittles (Fruits, Wild Berry, Tropical, Smoothies & Sour)
  4. Starburst Berries & Creme and Fruit & Creme
  5. Mentos Ice Pomelo
  6. Dalandan & Juicy Ponkan Mentos
  7. Pink Grapefruit Mentos
Name: Strawberry Yoghurt Mentos
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Mentos (Perfetti Van Melle)
Place Purchased: gift from Santos (thanks!)
Price: unknown
Size: 1.35 ounces
Calories per ounce: unknown
Categories: Chew, Netherlands, Perfetti Van Melle

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:17 am    

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Van Slooten - Autodrop Total Loss

Autodrop Total LossSometimes I buy candy just because of what it’s called.

In this case, it’s an assortment of little car shaped candies called Autodrop Total Loss. It includes 11 different flavors in one bag (Elf Heerlijke Smaken in een Zak).

I thought that the “total loss” thing meant something different in Dutch, but honestly I can’t figure out if it’s a cognate or not. I thought maybe it was something like “massive pile up” but internet translators are only good with verbatim things, not interpretive use of language.

The purple bag has whimsical drawings of cars motoring down the street, making little “toet, toet” sounds, which I’m guessing is like “putt, putt”. The style of the drawings reminds me of Quentin Blake (whom many of us were introduced to via Charlie & the Chocolate Factory).

Total Loss (no really, that's what it's called)

  • Klein Zacht Fiatje (little black car) - this is sweet and a little woodsy tasting. Not quite licorice, it’s a little like brown sugar but maybe a little hint of menthol in there. It’s chewy and soft, reminds me a bit of those old Pine Brothers cough drops (before they got really stale).
  •  

  • Zacht Kadettje is the larger car driving to the left, it has two layers, a light layer on the bottom and a black layer on the top. It’s much like the Klein Zacht Fiatje, the base layer is a little more like a mello-creme, kind of soft and grainy and less chewy. Still a very mellow woodsy flavor.
  •  

  • Dubbele Dubbeldekker (red & black bus) is a firm, berry flavored “fruit gum” candy with a little hint of licorice to it, a little dash of mild salt. It’s kind of odd, the berry isn’t that strong, but neither is the licorice.
  •  

  • Aardbei Rode Cadillac (red gummi Caddy) is a strawberry fruit gum. It’s soft and has a pretty intense flavor. Not quite as floral or aromatic as the German strawberry candies I’ve had, this one is more like a strawberry jam flavor. 
  •  

  • Bovsrucht Paarse Chevy is pretty much the same as the Caddy, a mild cassis or cherry, depending on the color. Again, it tastes more like the preseves of the fruits than the fresh ones. (Not a bad thing, just different.) 
  •  

  • Dubbel Frisse Fruit Limo came in a couple of color combos: green and red or red and yellow. The green & red tasted a bit like lime & strawberry.  Red and yellow was a similar mild lemon and berry (but possibly cassis, I can’t be sure).
  •  

  • Romige Rolls (beige Rolls Royce) was a dreamy caramelized mellow cream. Kind of like the crust of a toasted marshmallow. I ate them several different ways. I sucked on them like a lozenge (though they do get a little grainy towards the center) and others I just chewed up. They’re much harder than candy corn, probably because they have some sort of thickener/binder like gelatin in them. I believe the translation of the word toffeeschium is “toffee foam” which is pretty much what this was. Tasty simplicity.
  •  

  • Colaflesje Op Wieland (Cola bottle on wheels) - this one was easy. It was a mild and tangy cola gummi. A little too much on the tangy side and not enough cola, but still, a tasty and comforting piece.
  • If I were able to translate all the descriptions in the shop I would have known that none of the black ones were actually licorice, so with my expectations now set aside, these were tasty and fun. The variety is huge and the molding of all the items is fun and different. I don’t see myself buying this particular mix again, but there are other Autodrops that are actually licorice (called Drop Donders that includes sweet, salt, honey and salmiak licorice) that I might give a try based on the quality of this product.

    Autodrops contain gelatin so are unsuitable for vegetarians (and don’t appear to be Kosher either).

    Many thanks to Babelfish for helping me at least translate some of the words from the package.

    Related Candies

    1. Licorice Assortment
    2. Brach’s Autumn Mix
    3. Haribo Fizzy Cola
    4. Bassett’s Licorice Allsorts
    5. Frugal Swedish Sweets
    Name: Autodrop Total Loss
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Van Slooten
    Place Purchased: Holland's Best (San Jose)
    Price: $3.15
    Size: 6.17 ounces
    Calories per ounce: unknown
    Categories: Gummi, Netherlands

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:46 am    

    Monday, April 28, 2008

    Banana n Cream & Red Orange Mentos

    I’ve had my eye out as I’ve been traveling for other versions of Mentos. Once I ran across the pink grapefruit at a gas station outside of Stockton, so you never know. The cool thing was that I knew that I had a package from Japan waiting for me when I returned from my Bay Area Confectionery Escapade (tm).

    Banana n Cream Mentos (Japan)

    Japan has great Mentos. Fuji Apple & Pine Fresh have to be some of the best. But their Grape has some devoted followers. I wasn’t sure what Banana ‘n Cream would be like, but I enjoyed my Banana HiCHEW recently (sorry, I never wrote about them).

    The packages doesn’t even say banana on it, it just has pictures of the fruit on it. Upon tasting it, there’s no mistaking it. The chews are at first a soft banana flavor, then after chewing for a bit a tangy, kind of yogurt flavor emerges. Not quite green banana, but maybe a little lemony (like yogurt can often taste).

    I never got the ‘n Cream part, just the banana. A nice taste and an interesting change of pace from the tangier fruits. It doesn’t have that freaky artificial taste like Circus Peanuts (that may be a plus or a minus depending on where you fall on the whole Circus Peanuts as valid confectionery debate).

    Rating: 6 out of 10

    Red Orange Mentos (Netherlands)

    I found these Red Orange Mentos at Holland’s Best in San Jose. I’m unsure of their age. The code at the end of the wrapper says 2007 E50264C, which is either a manufacture day, or a pull date (I suspect the latter since the banana ones said 2009 on them). Either way, they were still fresh enough for me to eat.

    The color is more of a pink than an orange. The flavor is more of a tangerine than a blood orange (which is what I think red orange means in North America), but it’s still very tasty. It’s zesty and tangy. It’s not quite the dreamy dalandan & ponkan ones I’ve had, but at least these seem to be a regular product. I’m glad I bought two packages. There’s vitamin C in there, if I can do math properly in Dutch, it’s about 50 mg per roll.

    Rating: 7 out of 10

    I talked to Caitlin, who runs Miette Confiserie about the now-discontinued Pink Grapefruit Mentos. She spoke with Perfetti Van Melle about it, who said they were happy to make them again, if she could guarantee that she’d buy the minimum order directly from them. (Which is literally in the tons.) So it doesn’t look like they’re going to be coming back soon in the single flavor pack. (The Citrus Mix still exists in Asia/Australia though.)

    Related Candies

    1. HiCHEW Yuzu & Valencia
    2. Mentos Berry Mix
    3. Mini Mentos
    4. Licorice Mentos
    5. Pink Grapefruit Mentos
    Name: Banana 'n Cream & Red Orange Mentos
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Perfetti van Melle
    Place Purchased: JList.com & Holland's Best
    Price: $1.50 & $1.29
    Size: 1.3 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 109
    Categories: Chew, Japan, Netherlands, Perfetti Van Melle

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:14 am    

    Wednesday, December 12, 2007

    Trader Joe’s English Soft Peppermints

    Trader Joe's English Soft PeppermintsSometimes I want a little more information on the package. I saw these at Trader Joe’s last Friday and I was intrigued. Trader Joe’s English Soft Peppermints. I liked everything I saw. Peppermint, good! English, yes, they know good candy. Soft, why yes, I like soft things. Even the blue tin was compelling. But what were they?

    The back of the package didn’t tell me much more except that they were actually a product of The Netherlands (and not English as the name may have led me to believe). The ingredients were pretty simple: Sugar, Cream of Tartar and Natural Peppermint Oil.

    What what manner of soft mint were they?

    Open the package and it’s clear. They’re pillow mints. Lovely, king sized pillow mints (not those domestic throw pillow mints you get at the drug store!).

    They smell of sweet peppermint and at first as light and cool on the tongue. Then the blistering peppermint kicks in. It’s like the word “English” is code for"Altoid” or something.

    I enjoy pillow mints and their Butter Mint brethren, but the intensity of these doesn’t make for popping them one after the other very pleasant. Perhaps that’s a good thing, I could learn a little self control through negative feedback behavior modification. With fresh breath as a side effect whether I’ve learned anything or not.

    As a breath mint, these are fine and dandy. As a candy, they’re not quite munchable.

    Related Candies

    1. York Mints
    2. Russell Stover Organic Pecan Delight
    3. Chocolate Dipped Altoids
    4. Necco Mint Julep
    5. Choward’s Violet
    Name: English Soft Peppermints
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Trader Joe's
    Place Purchased: Trader Joe's (Silverlake)
    Price: $1.99
    Size: 5.3 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 71
    Categories: Mint, netherlands, Trader Joe's, Christmas

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:14 am    

    Thursday, November 22, 2007

    Licorice Assortment

    On my recent trip to San Francisco I was excited to check out the licorice assortments at both Miette Patissiere and The Candy Store, as both were known for their large variety for sale. I wasn’t disappointed at all! (The only sad part was that they were $12 a pound.)

    Fruit Filled RockiesFruit Filled Rockies - these are gorgeous little nibbles. The dark licorice tube is filled with a firm fondant-style fruit creme. Not quite sweet, they do have a salty bite through and through. There are two different pinks there, one raspberry and the lighter one is, as far as I can tell, orange. The brown one is more smoky, with a strong salty component. 6 out of 10

    SkoolkritSchoolkrijt by Venco (Netherlands) is a very common licorice in Europe, kind of like our Good & Plenty but much milder. It’s much like the Rockies, in that it’s a tube of licorice filled with a creme. Then the whole thing is panned with a crunchy mint shell.

    The flavor combo is kind of medicinal, like a cough drop, but I rather like that. Peppermint, licorice and some molasses. I’ve had these a couple of times before, but this particular sampling was very fresh. The outside was crisp and the inside was soft and chewy.

    7 out of 10

    UPDATE: Seems I couldn’t get these out of my mind and have bought at least two pounds (not at once) since this review for personal consumption. So the rating gets updated to a 9 out of 10

    GriottenGriotten by Venco (Netherlands) were completely new to me. If I’ve seen these before I’ve completely blocked them out. They look like little raw sugar cubes, but pick one up and it’s too light for that. Why, it’s a little spongy too!

    It’s like a cross between a marshmallow and a gummi. Soft and chewy, but not too dense or tacky.

    The flavor is mild, with only a delicate hit of licorice and anise and not terribly sweet either with a mix of the grainy sugar coating and a little salt. 7 out of 10

    Heksehyl ZoeteHeksehyl Zoete are also something that I’ve never tried before. Kind of a baby step in the licorice world, they’re more of a molasses candy than a licorice one.

    The smoky molasses is a good background for the light licorice flavor. No salt here, just a light coating of sugar to pull it all together. Very soft, very chewy. Kind of chocolatey. 7 out of 10

    KokindjesKokindjes (Netherlands) were one of the few salty licorices I picked up.

    The cute little buttons are nice and soft. While I like a hard glycerine-style licorice sometimes (Katjes), I really enjoy the chew of licorice as a feature. As a lightly salted licorice, it was very mild, but I was disappointed that it didn’t have a huge licorice kick.

    There was a slight metallic tinge for me and a fleeting glimpse of damp cat-inhabited basements. 5 out of 10

    Honey TopsHoney Tops (Netherlands) were the one piece that I thought was one that I’d had before, it didn’t look quite the same, not quite as amber and there is no bee on this hive. The flavor is a round with only the slightest honey tint, some mild licorice (no anise). They’re pretty firm. These and the Kokindjes were the last ones I finished. 5 out of 10

    (I was guessing at the brands here based on who sells what. There could be other companies that make these same varieties.)

    Name: Assorted Dutch Licorice
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: unknown
    Place Purchased: The Candy Store & Miette Patissiere
    Price: $12.00 pound
    Size: unknown
    Calories per ounce: unknown
    Categories: Licorice, Netherlands

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:09 pm    

    Friday, July 6, 2007

    Welcome to the Candy Dump

    This is just a bunch of candy that I photographed but never got around to reviewing. I ate it and everything, but I couldn’t come up with more than 50 words about it and that seemed like a slight for regular readers. (Okay, now that I’ve finished writing this very long post, it seems that I am able to come up with more than 50 words.)

    image

    Chocovic is one of my favorite brands of Single Origin chocolate. They’re not even that expensive when you find them at Trader Joes and the Ocumare is smooth and buttery. I was excited that they were adding milk chocolate to their line with the Jade 40% Cocoa Solids Milk Chocolate Bar. The bar was nice, a little acidic and maybe tasted a bit like raisins. It was not as smooth and creamy as I’d hoped but really rich. I loved the package.

    This one got a little broken when I brought it back from Chicago, so I thought I’d wait around until I saw another one before I gave it a full review. It’s been a full year and I havne’t seen them anywhere.

    imageThese are just a wee little treat from Fauchon that Santos at Scent of Green Bananas gave me last year. They’re so cute!

    I was going to review them, and then Sugar Savvy did, so I thought I’d wait and well, here it is, July.

    They’re little guanduias, just hazelnut chocolates. They’re rather like the Caffarel ones I reviewed, and I’ve since found that this little “hat” shaped chocolate is pretty common in Europe.

    There were two little candies in each pink “purse”. While I thought these were adorable, they’re also fantastically expensive. This is something that’s confused me for a while. Guanduia was invented as a way to “extend” chocolate supplies, so while hazelnuts themselves aren’t cheap, they aren’t that expensive either. But these are. ($6.50 for two pieces of chocolate?)

    imageIt’s all in the packaging. The price and branding led me to believe that these would be top notch. Sadly they weren’t. I found them a little chalky. Now, I’ve had plenty of bloomed chocolate, but this wasn’t like a bloom, it was just like it was a little dry.

    But the nuts were fresh and crunchy. If you’re really in the mood for some guanduia, just pick some plain old stuff up. Or get one of these and a big bag of Caffarel and keep refilling the pretty pink purse for portion control and fashion.

    ShowfloorLast year at All Candy Expo I came across a company that was showing off some really nice candies. They had several lines, they included all natural gummies and some little fruit chews called Gazillions that I really loved. Their booth was pretty cool too, spacious and inviting and pretty sassy with the candy displayed in giganto martini glasses.

    The company is called Value Quest Foods ... no website, really, no info out there.

    It’s a shame, because I could see a lot of their products going places if they were packaged for the North American market a little better. Candy is really a tough business.

    imageGazillions are little chewy candy morsels that look like itty bitty pieces of popcorn. They’re about the size of a lentil. They’ve got a slight crackly shell and inside it’s a chew. They came in a bunch of different flavors but I liked Pineapple best. Kind of like an itty bitty Starburst or fruit Mentos. I didn’t care much for the box, which was about the size of a box of matches. I think they’d do better in a little tin or a more appealing box.

    They come in Green Apple, Pineapple, Orange, Lemon, Fruity Punch, Raspberry and Strawberry. But that doesn’t matter because I’ve never seen them for sale. Great name though.

    image

    The other cool item that they later sent me as a sample was something called Fruities, which I have to say are stunning to look at. They’re also like the Gazillions in that they’re a fruit chew, a little latexy, kind of like HiCHEW with a hard, crunchy shell. And of course the selling point is that they look like real fruit, down to the variations in the colored candy shell. The scale is a little weird, that the limes are bigger than pears ... but hey, they were lovely.

    Tasty? Not quite as flavorful as I would have hoped and not really in the flavors I would like.

    FruitipsLast year in Chinatown in New York City I found these things called Fruitips. They’re a long tube, almost as long as a paper towel core and filled with sugar sanded jellies and weighs about 5 ounces. That’s it. They’re fruit jellies. They’re nice and come a few different varieties, I chose the mixed fruits. I like all of them except for purple, which is blackcurrant.

    I mention this one because I actually saw these for sale at Big Lots. I can attest that even stale as they are now, these were pretty good, so if you can get a tube for less than $1.50 (what I paid) then I say give them a whirl.

    Everything here gets a solid 6 out of 10 for whatever reason. If you’re ever curious what I have sitting around that I might be preparing to review, check out my Flickr set of photos called “Unreviewed”.

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:24 am     CandyReviewChewsChocolateJelly CandyNuts6-TemptingItalyJapanNetherlands

    Page 4 of 5 pages ‹ First  < 2 3 4 5 > 

    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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