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.)

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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.

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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 Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyReviewChewsChocolateJelly CandyNuts6-TemptingItalyJapanNetherlands

Comments
  1. Hi Cybele -
    Where might one, who lives in LA, find Caffarel?
    Thanks,
    Jaimi

    Comment by jaimi on 7/06/07 at 8:27 am #
  2. I can’t believe you don’t like Black Currant Fruitips!  I buy a nice big tube of all black currant and pop a couple anytime I need a nice hit of sweet-tart-yumminess.

    Send me yours!  :D

    Comment by Steph on 7/06/07 at 11:30 am #
  3. I also like the Black Current Fruitips.  You can even purchase a tube of just the Black Current flavor.  Thought I’d mention that you can purchase the Fruitips at(Cost Plus)World Market.

    Comment by cindy on 7/07/07 at 5:26 am #
  4. I lerve me some Frutips. The lychee flavor is my favorite. The only problem with them is that I can’t get them at my local megamart, I need to go to the Chinese grocery store an hour away for my fix.

    Comment by John on 7/07/07 at 7:09 am #
  5. I had pistachio and hazelnut Fauchon’s when I was in Italy last summer they are sooo good but they always melted so I’d have them all over my fingers. I miss them!

    Comment by Kayla on 7/09/07 at 6:17 pm #
  6. You can find Chocovic chocolates at Fresh Market if you have one.

    I *highly* recommend the pink packaged one by Chocovic called “Maragda”.  It’s the dark chocolate and is BY FAR my favorite chocolate and I’ve tried MANY different brands.

    Comment by Melisa on 7/13/07 at 3:22 am #
  7. those ‘gazillions’ look a lot like ‘millions’ which are found quite easily here in the uk. have you tried them? They’re pretty good!
    http://www.millionssweets.co.uk/

    Comment by becky on 9/02/07 at 8:33 am #
  8. do u know how many calories in one packet of blackcurrant frutips?i’m trying to look at the back of the package but there is no info bout it…thx

    Comment by ll on 9/09/07 at 9:35 pm #
  9. I’ve got to say that Fruitips are a hit or miss with me.  Honestly, I buy them by the case whenever I had the chance because they had the perfect amount of chew, sanding, and was just BURSTING with fruit flavor.  I’d stock up whenever I was at the Gardena or Irvine Ranch 99.  They were always FRESH—my favorites are the black currant and the sweet apple.

    However, I don’t know if something went on in its factory or whatnot, but the Fruitips that I purchased in NY’s Chinatown really… SUCK.  What can I say?  They were stale, flavorless—really nothing at all like the Fruitips I’ve bought in California—and they were in different shapes, too, like they either melted or were unsuccessfully emulating fruit shapes.  (These were the ones in the tube as opposed to the rolls.)

    I’m just saying—Fruitips are AWESOME when they are fresh.  I dunno what the story is with the ones at NYC’s Chinatown.

    Comment by Alice on 11/09/07 at 1:46 pm #
  10. The last comment, I can tell you exactly why. I was first exposed to Frutips in Malaysia. The reason why the two tasted differently is because the original kind was made in the UK and the knockoffs that you tasted in Chinatown, is made from China.

    Comment by Julya on 5/31/08 at 4:42 pm #
  11. I just got Frutips yesterday and I definitely agree about the black currant flavor.  It’s like raisin flavored candy. :( While raisins in candy isn’t bad…raisin flavored candy definitely is!

    Comment by Rita on 9/05/09 at 2:36 am #
  12. Where can I buy the blackcurrant frutips? I’ve looked everywhere! all the asian stores don’t stock it anymore.

    Comment by Ellie on 10/14/09 at 12:07 am #
  13. I love jujyfruits!

    Comment by Taylor on 4/10/11 at 3:59 pm #
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