Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Mandy’s Old Fashioned Confections: Butterscotch & Caramel

Mandy's Butterscotch Hard CandyAh, Mandy’s Old Fashioned Confections. Just look at that charming packaging, how it speaks of artisans stirring a copper kettle of gooey butterscotch with a wooden paddle. Why, I can just picture Mandy herself swooping in to affirm that the mixture was cooked to perfection before it’s dumped onto a generations-old marble slab to cool.

In reality Mandy’s is distributed by ASA Foods, a 16 year old Southern California importer. They also make candy under the brand Fusion Gourmet, their best known candies are the Bali’s Best Coffee and Tea candies. All of their candy (as far as I know) is made in Indonesia ... a place that certainly knows about coffee.

While I may make fun it, the packaging is nice. The Butterscotch Flavored Hard Candy was nicely priced; I picked up this package for a dollar at the 99 Cent Only Store. It says it has 40 individually wrapped pieces and weighs 5 ounces. The ingredients are decent too:

Glucose syrup, sugar, unsalted butter, milk powder, whey powder, salt, artificial butterscotch flavor, soy lecithin.

Mandy's Old Fashioned Butterscotch

Each piece is individually wrapped. Sealed tight. Yup, no moisture getting in there. They’re a little tricky to get open, but having spent some time in high humidity areas recently I can appreciate how that would make these even more appealing.

The candies are cute little disks, they’re just shy of one inch around (about the size of a quarter). They’re smooth and have a satisfying clink when dropped on a hard surface (and an unsatisfying tendency to split into a bajillion pieces when dropped on a hard surface). The package calls them Rich, Creamy and Buttery and I’m inclined to agree. They are wonderfully smooth. The melt is slow and silky, though not sticky. The butter flavor is good, though artificially flavored it doesn’t taste like microwave popcorn. There’s a light note of salt and a milky background to it. They’re like little toffee pieces, easy to crunch. Far to easy to crunch. That’s the way I was eating them, just crunching them up. Sometimes they’d get stuck in my teeth a little bit.

Mandy's Caramel Hard CandyThe second flavor I found for Mandy’s Old Fashioned Confections was the Caramel Flavored Hard Candy. This package is largely identical to the Butterscotch. This one describes the candy as Rich, Smooth and Creamy and uses browns as the predominant background color.

The description on the back of the package also says that Mandy’s makes an Orange Soda variety.

The package depicts the candies as dark brown in color, like coffee and cream. But the reality is not quite that way (though really not disappointing either). I put the caramel and butterscotch ones next to each other. See if you can tell the difference:

Mandy's Old Fashioned Butterscotch & Caramel

I don’t remember which is which. The ingredients are pretty much the same, too:

Glucose syrup, sugar, unsalted butter, milk powder,  artificial caramel flavor, whey powder, salt, soy lecithin, caramel color.

Mandy's Old Fashioned Caramel

Again, it’s ultra smooth. The lightly salty hard caramel is very satisfying, especially when I crunched them up.

Though the flavorings are supposed to be different, they really don’t taste much different. Buttery smooth, salty, slick and satisfying.

I enjoyed both quite a bit, especially as it’s extraordinary hot this week, I get to enjoy a creamy treat that can take the heat. They’re a good deal, a really nicely sized piece and don’t have artificial colors in them.

There’s no statement about gluten or nuts on the package. They’re not Kosher (nor Halal). The freshness date was “best by May 2012.” They’re pretty diet friendly - even though they have 125 calories per ounce (about the same as toffee or caramel) the little pieces are only 4 grams each and 16 calories each.

Related Candies

  1. Astor Chocolate Lobsters
  2. See’s Lollypops
  3. Hammond’s Pantry Candies
  4. Werther’s Caramel Coffee Hard Candies
  5. Goodbye Reed’s
  6. Bali’s Best Coffee & United Coffee Candy

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:35 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyHard Candy & Lollipops7-Worth ItIndonesia99 Cent Only Store

Comments
  1. Werther’s…no? Do they taste alike? I loves me some Werther’s.

    Comment by Matty on 8/24/10 at 4:36 pm #
  2. Cybele's avatar

    Matty - they’re similar to Werther’s, a little bit different shape. But they don’t have that authentic caramelized sugar flavor. They’re far more fun to crunch though.

    Comment by Cybele on 8/25/10 at 4:47 pm #
  3. Cannot find Mandy’s caramel hard candy in the market. would like to buy it here. Thank you

    Comment by Wilma Hern on 12/21/10 at 3:52 pm #
  4. Looking for Peppermint drops filled with chocolate.
    Thanks,
    Diana

    Comment by Diana Strohmeyer on 1/31/11 at 6:41 pm #
  5. WHERE CAN I BUY YOUR BUTTERSCTOCH CANDY IN THE SANFERANDO VALLEY ?

    Comment by Thomas Savage on 10/26/11 at 8:33 am #
  6. where can i buy in the n. dade county area.  used to buy at lorenzo’s in n. miami beach but they seem to not carry anymore

    Comment by rik appleman on 3/22/12 at 7:53 am #
  7. Where can the caramel ones be purchased?

    Comment by Amelia on 5/31/12 at 10:35 am #
  8. Does anyone know where I can get Bali’s Best Fusion Gormet Coffee Candies in Canada?

    Comment by Bianca on 10/15/12 at 3:12 pm #
  9. PLEASE TELL ME WHERE (what stores) to purchase your delicious butterscotch candys in our area.

    We use to purchase several bags at a time at the Christmas Tree Shop on rt 9 in Shrewsbury MA.
    Unfortunate for us they dont carry them any more.

    Comment by jae on 5/28/13 at 1:02 pm #
  10. We live in Connecticut. Where can we buy these candies?....Thanks

    Comment by Casey Cassidy on 8/27/13 at 9:48 am #
  11. Where can I find your awesome “Caramel” Mandy’s hard candy?

    Comment by me on 10/06/14 at 7:04 pm #
  12. I love your candy; but I can’t remember where I got it.

    Comment by terry on 10/29/14 at 7:14 pm #
  13. Do you have the manufacturer coordinates in Indonesia for the Mandy`s caramel candy?

    Comment by philip hirst on 3/12/15 at 10:24 am #
  14. I have a tin, it had ‘chocolate filled peppermint drops’ in a red and pink striped tin. where can I get more?

    Comment by Elizabeth McCaffrey on 8/26/15 at 10:38 am #
  15. Dear Sir,

    Where can I buy Mandy’s old fashioned Butterscotch candies….also the carmel flavor?
    Thank you.
    Arlene

    Comment by Arlene KoaKODD on 10/28/16 at 10:39 am #
  16. my friend had some Mandys candy and it was great.
    pleases tell me where we can get it local here
    Watertown new York
    He had a bag and the soldiers at Fort Drum Ny
    had some and they been asking where to get it.
    please tell me so we can get some for Christmas
    thanks Don Fell

    Comment by Don Fell on 11/14/16 at 2:09 pm #
  17. group53

    I used to buy Mandy’s Butterscotch and Caramel hard candies from Rosauers Grocery Store in Bozeman, MT but as of this year they quit selling them.  I recently purchased 4 bags on Amazon.com.  However, I’m trying to avoid the shipping amount so please tell me if there is a store in Bozeman, MT that sells these products?
    Terri

    Comment by Terri McKenna on 2/25/17 at 6:23 am #
  18. Why can’t I find the Mandy’s chocolate filled peppermint drops???

    Comment by Susan Gillette on 6/12/17 at 8:10 am #
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