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Oriental Trading Co

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Oriental Trading Company Candy Shot Glasses

DSC07203rThe final item that I hadn’t reviewed from my Oriental Trading Company order is the set of Candy Shot Glasses.

It wasn’t an impulse purchase, it was just one of those things that I’ve been looking at on their website for well over six months (along with the later disappointing gummi bracelets). The idea fascinated me, but I had trouble grasping the concept that you would put liquids in an effectively dissolvable container.

The little shot glasses are exactly the same size as a regular shot glass. They come in three flavors (two of each in the box of six). They were packaged nicely to prevent breakage. They were in a sealed plastic bag, then wrapped in some bubble wrap, then inside a box that had little cubbies for each of the candy glasses.

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Mine arrived in one piece, however, as you can tell from this photo the candy itself wasn’t as “candy-like” as I expected. The yellow one was the only transparent one, the rest were rather opaque and a bit chewy. I’ve seen this happen with ordinary hard candies. They get exposed to a little moisture which eventually penetrates and softens the outer layer of the candy. It doesn’t usually change the flavor, just the texture. Instead of shattering like glass, it bends a bit.

They also appear to have “melted” a bit. I ordered them in January, so it’s not as though I exposed them to any heat. Again, I figured this was because of the age of the product and/or the exposure to moisture. (Check the photo on the OTC site to understand what I was expecting.)

The shot glasses come in three flavors:

Lemon (Yellow) - not quite lemon drop flavored, it was a mild citrus flavor without much tartness.

Apple (Green) - fragrant and floral with a small burst of tartness when you chew it up.

Cherry (Red) - sharply medicinal with mild sour bite.

I invited over Amy (the neighbor who spits things out) and we tried a variety of liquors in the cups. I had Ouzo (an anise liquor from Greece) in a lemon cup, my husband had Limoncello in a cherry cup and Amy had vodka in the apple cup.

My first advice is to use it for drinks that are not chilled. Tequila shots are probably most appropriate. We keep our Ouzo, Limoncello and Vodka in the freezer, so the candy glass gets a layer of condensation on the outside, which then means that it gets sticky.

The flavor of the glasses does not seem to pass to the liquor easily, so the only way to combine flavors is to chew on the glass. I nibbled on the rim of mine and took little sips of Ouzo. I think lemon and licorice go well together, so it was rather nice. Ouzo isn’t a syrupy-sweet liquor like Limoncello, so the addition of the little sugar crunch was kind of nice. It’s a little much with Limoncello.

I left one of the glasses with some liquor in it on the counter (on a plate) overnight. It did not dissolve the glass as I thought, which is a plus. It did make the vodka rather syrupy.

Overall I don’t think I throw the right kind of parties for these to be a welcome addition to my hostessing (I’m just not a “shot” person). However, if you’re the type who does shots (especially tequila) and can get an assurance from OTC that they can send you some fresh unclouded ones, they might be fun. And hey, no dishes to do afterwards!

Name: Candy Shot Glasses
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Oriental Trading Company
Place Purchased: OTC Website
Price: $4.95 plus shipping
Size: unknown
Calories per ounce: unknown
Categories: Hard Candy, China, Oriental Trading Company

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:11 am    

Friday, January 26, 2007

Oriental Trading Company Candies

I’ve been eying the stuff on the Oriental Trading Company website for years, just wondering if it was any good. I really have very little need for four dozen candy rings, but I just wanted them so much.

So I put together what I thought was a modest order of items that I knew I couldn’t get anywhere else (they do carry a lot of items you can find in the grocery store like candy bar miniatures):
1 x Valentines Candy Rings (4 dozen) - $4.95
1 x Everyday Candy Rings (4 dozen) - $4.95
2 x Gummy Candy Band Bracelet (1 dozen) - $2.95
1 x Candy Shot Glasses (6 each) $4.95

(More on the Candy Shot Glasses next week!)

The Gummy Candy Band Bracelet came in four colors, each with a different inspirational word on them.

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All of them were less than stellar looking. They looked and felt a bit dry to the touch, kind of like old Play Doh. They were each individually sealed in little clear cellophane sleeves (and those were all inside another sealed bag) so I don’t think it was a storage issue on my side. However, I did buy them on sale (they were normally $5.95 a dozen and I got them for $2.95, so maybe you get what you pay for).

Purple :: Faith :: Grape - very dark and pretty purple, and I only think it was grape flavored, it was hard to tell. Faith has a strong bitter aftertaste to it for me.

Yellow :: Strength :: Pineapple - pretty good! A nice floral fruity flavor with a good tangy bite and no weird aftertaste. Strength is good!

Green :: Hope :: Apple - tangy and fruity and actually pretty tasty. Hope is edible!

Orange :: Dream :: Orange - also rather tasty. It had a good rounded orange flavor with both the zesty notes and the tangy bite. Dream had a slight aftertaste to it, not a bad one, but a little like chemicals or artificial flavors.

On the whole, I liked the novelty of the bracelets, but as you can imagine the reality of wearing a gummi on your wrist isn’t that appealing after about five minutes. You can gnaw it off your wrist, but if it’s all about the taste and texture, these leave a bit to be desired. I think I’d prefer a clear gummi like Haribo makes instead of this opaque stuff.

They make other varieties for different holidays, there’s a Halloween set and I thought they had an Easter one (but I can’t find it on the site now).

It’s not something I’d order again and I’m kind of sorry I got two dozen now. 4 out of 10

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The Everyday Candy Rings are just stunning to look at. Instead of the chunky ones that I used to buy when I was a kid that were impossibly thick and uncomfortable to wear. These are petite little compressed dextrose creations, rather similar to the Candy Blox I reviewed earlier this week.

The rings are small, or fit small fingers. I could only get them on the top of my smaller fingers or my pinkie (my ring finger size is an eight). The bands come in four differen colors:

Pink Band :: White Jewel - After eating this one, I’m not afraid of the pink ones. A light raspberry flavor, it has a little bitter aftertaste but overall I find it agreeable. This is the only one that made my fingers a little discolored.

Yellow Band :: Orange Flower - the candy is a soft lemon flavor, no sour tang to it.

Orange Band :: Pink Flower - this one was bad the first time I had it, a bit sour in an unpleasant “bad burp” way. Subsequent ones were just fine. They taste a little like Froot Loops.

White Band :: Yellow Star - I think this is pineapple. Again, soft with only a light flavor and no tartness.

I really liked these. They’re compact and even though they don’t really fit my fingers they’d be great for kids because they’re not too much candy and are less likely to make a big mess. They’re also darned attractive.

They’re individually wrapped and easy to stow in your pocket (so I plan on carrying them around to blogger events to hand out to my new friends). The flavors are okay - not quite as tasty as the Candy Blox, but they all arrived in great condition (only one out of the 4 dozen was broken). The price per item is only 10 cents each, so if you’re planning a theme party for a little girl (Princess!), this might make a nice addition to the favors.

I give these an 8 out of 10 ... definitely something I’m going to keep on hand as the Candy Blogger.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:33 am     CandyReviewOriental Trading CoCompressed DextroseGummi Candy4-Benign8-TastyChina

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