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Monday, May 29, 2006

Pure Fun Candy Floss

In honor of the Memorial Day Holiday, I thought I’d do a candy that you usually find when you’re at a big summer event. Cotton Candy is one of those treats that I think most of us enjoy on the midway at the fair or other vacation spots. I’ve never bought cotton candy (or candy floss as the Brits and Canadians call it) for home consumption.

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Pure Fun’s candy floss has a unique twist - it’s organic and all natural. That’s right, it’s made from pure, organically farmed cane sugar and a touch of natural flavoring/colors. They also make note that it’s vegan, which is kind of funny because I’ve never had cotton candy made with animal products before (I know some vegans take exception to commercially processed sugar because it might be filtered through charcoal that might contain animal bones).

The packaging also bills that there are no trans fats and no cholesterol. Well, I’m sorry, but DUH! I’m not sure who doesn’t know that cotton candy is spun sugar and how could it have any fats - good, bad, trans or otherwise? It’s also low in sodium, why isn’t that on the label? But the important thing is that this 1.5 liter tub contains only 2.12 ounces of sugar. I was watching Unwrapped over the weekend and one segment mentioned that good cotton candy is 80% air. You can eat the whole tub and it’s only 240 calories (all carbs though).

One serving is said to be a quarter of the tub. Which was actually a satisfying amount for me. I’m not sure if you could put a tub like this in front of a kid and expect them to eat only a portion. Of course, I’m not sure how you’d “serve” it otherwise ... take out the scissors and cut off a quarter of it and put it on a plate?

Okay, enough of the snarking. They were nice enough to send me five tubs containing four flavors ... so let’s get to it!

Canadian Maple - this was pure genius! How could there not be a maple cotton candy before now? It’s a natural flavor combo and the taste is insanely good. Woodsy and sweet and of course the texture of the fluffed sugar is sublime. This one had the best texture of the four, ultra smooth and superfine. Since they gave me two tubs of this, I took one next door and everyone thought it was “expletive-deleted-good.” By far this was everyone’s favorite who tried them all (including me).

Root Beer - I was expecting something subtle here, as cotton candy isn’t really known for “flavor” but the root beer here was intense. A good, slight, wintergreen burn after it dissolved kept me eating more and more of it. It’s like a spun root beer barrel!

Licorice - I’m not sure how this is going to go over with other people, but I thought this was an excellent flavor. It smelled a little medicinal, but on the tongue it was great. It was like a black jelly bean, except my tongue didn’t change color and there are no sticky bits stuck in my teeth. It’s a lovely

Bubble Gum - I’d heard about this before and so I saved it for last. It doesn’t smell quite right and looks an awful lot like insulation. A little musty odor combines with the sweet sugar. Holy Moly it’s bad. I don’t know why it’s bad and I’m not sure I want to know, but the taste is off. Bubble gum flavor (as in Bazooka) has always had a little wintergreen hint in my mind and then there are bubble gum flavors that are a little fruity like JuicyFruit ... this was neither. This was just a jumble of bad associations wrapped up in sweet. Pure Fun needs to dump this flavor or seriously reformulate. If I hadn’t read other reviews of this flavor, I would have thought I had a bad batch.

They make one other flavor, Cinnamon, that wasn’t in my assortment, but if it’s as good as the Root Beer, I’m on board. Their website even has recipes for using candy floss as a pie topper, for sundaes and even in martinis.

I don’t think that pure sugar can ever be considered a health food, but without the addition of preservatives, artificial flavors or colors as well as their organic, vegan and Kosher certifications, Pure Fun has removed any trepidation anyone might have for buying a cool and sweet indulgence. The smallish tub also controls portions. I honestly didn’t think I would like this as much as I did, but I’ve found myself sneaking little bits of fluff over the past few days of all three of the good flavors.

The only issue at the moment is where to buy this fluff. They’re not in stores yet (or at least not according to their website) and everyone who has tasted it has found it via a show of some sort (Candy Expo Toronto or Fancy Food Expo). They don’t even sell it directly through their website. I’ll try to post an update when I hear that it’s for sale. I don’t even know what the expected price is for one of the tubs. I’d be willing to pay as much as $4 for it.

Read more about Cotton Candy on Wikipedia.

UPDATE: I almost forgot, check out the Candy Critic - he’s also gotten a hold of some, and you can see how he does his reviews (which really isn’t that different from how I do mine).

Name: Candy Floss - Root Beer, Candian Maple, Licorice & Bubble Gum
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Pure Fun
Place Purchased: samples from Pure Fun
Price: unknown
Size: 2.12 ounces
Calories per ounce: 113
Categories: Hard Candy, Canada, Organic, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:18 am    

Friday, May 26, 2006

Airheads

I know this sounds really weird, but I’ve never had Airheads before. It’s not that I shunned them, but they really never entered into my field of view at all. Sure, they’re on the racks at the 7-11 and in assorted bags at Target, but I didn’t quite know what they were, and they never really peaked

piqued my curiosity. But I’m probably alone in that and I probably should remedy it.

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So imagine my delight when I came home from work and found a box of candy from Perfetti Van Melle (the company that makes both Airheads and Mentos). I’ve been corresponding with Pete in Marketing, but we’d never talked about sending me anything. I can only guess that I’m on a list because of my registration for the All Candy Expo. That is the BEST MAILING LIST EVER!

What was even more fun is the timing of one of their co-marketing pushes - a tie in with the new Pixar/Disney animated film, Cars. (The movie premieres today at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway and gets its full release on June 9, 2006.)

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This packet of 6 Airheads bars has the regular flavors: Watermelon, Cherry, Blue Raspberry, Mystery White and also includes two new flavors - Mater Punch and Burnt Rubber. Okay, that last one doesn’t sound that good to me.

So, Airheads are planks of a chewy, taffy like substance. I’d always thought they were like LaffyTaffy or TangyTaffy, but they’re really not. Airheads are about 5” long and about 1” across and pretty thin.

Airheads are soft and pliable and have an easy chew that has a slight, sugary grain to it. They’re very flavorful and not unlike Mentos in their texture (also made by the same company). What’s nice is that it’s not sticky like I expected. There’s no worry about pulling out fillings.

Watermelon: juicy and tart. A little bit on the chemical side of the flavor, but it aroma is nice and sweet.

White Mystery: it tastes rather like green apple to me. Tart and fruity with a little floral note to it.

Cherry: sweet and tart with a strong dark cherry/woodsy flavor to it. Of course it’s not my favorite flavor, but I ate the whole thing. Imagine what cherry fans would think.

Blue Raspberry: surprisingly more complex than I thought. It’s got a nice tart and sweet thing going, but also a really good floral balance for the fruity berry flavors.

Mater Punch: Mater is one of the characters in Cars, he’s a rusted out tow truck, and I think Mater is short for ToMater ... maybe he used to be red. I was hoping he’d be tomato flavored. No such luck. He’s fruit punch flavored. Heavy on the citrus and whatever that “fruit punch” flavor is, it’s tangy and sweet but the smell is definitely chemical in origin.

Burnt Rubber: Yeah, I had no idea what to expect for this flavor - I was kind of hoping they went Bertie Bott’s and actually made a burnt rubber taffy. The bar was dark purple, almost black, but it was quite obvious that it was grape. It was like a sweet & chewy grape SweeTart.

Overall, the Airheads that I tried were pretty cool. Summer is tricky for candy, especially in SoCal where chocolate starts to get dodgy even in May. Taffies and other sugar candies are a good way to make it through summer with tasty treats that can stand the heat.  The one flavor in their repertoire that I’m more interested in that wasn’t in the mixed bag is orange, so I’ll pick that up at some point. I don’t see myself buying these very often, but I wouldn’t turn one down.

Mentos has come out with some Sours that I suspect are rather similar to Airheads fruity flavors, so I’ll report back on that soon.

Related Candies

  1. Topps Blue Razz Wazoo
  2. Now & Later
  3. Twizzlers (Strawberry)
  4. Topps Baby Bottle
  5. Dubble Bubble Fluff
  6. Airheads Xtreme Sour Belts
Name: Airheads: Cherry, Blue Raspberry, Watermelon, White Mystery, Mater Punch & Burnt Rubber
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Airheads (Perfetti van Melle)
Place Purchased: samples from Perfetti van Melle
Price: $.99 (msrp)
Size: 3.3 ounces
Calories per ounce: 110
Categories: Chew, United States, Perfetti van Melle

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:31 am    

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Get Yer Own Candy!

I’ve been compiling the Frequently Asked Questions, and one of them deserves a post of its own.

How Can I Get Cool Foreign Candy?

Besides the many webstores devoted to difficult to find or foreign candy, you can easily get your own assortment of tasty treats. If you’re willing to play by the golden rule, that is.

Candy Swaps!

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The newest candy swap site is called Gimme Your Stuff:

What’s it all about?

Welcome to Gimme Your Stuff, the cultural exchange blog where you can swap items of significance to your area with items from others around the world. A conduit for many an international cuisine to change hands. A place where you can trade a newspaper from South Africa, or a CD from Finland. A place where we take no responsibility for anything anyone else does. A place where we are Changing the world with other people?s stuff.

Of course it’s not just about candy, but I’m a firm believer in the universal language of sugar.

Don’t have a blog? There’s also a Yahoo!Group called CandySwappers that has a devoted group of candy traders with over 250 members.

If anyone is involved in either groups, report back, I’m curious to know how it’s going!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:36 pm     Fun Stuff

All Smiles

imageInstead of just the normal fundraising candy bars, Smiles by Joanie’s Smiles are are chocolate bars infused with tea and other natural flavors that stand on their own as tasty treats. The hook here with the fundraising aspect is that money from the sale of each bar goes to Operation Smile which sends volunteer medical teams all over the globe to repair facial deformities in kids and adults. I was approached to taste the bars a couple of months ago, so I’ve had a lot of time with them (I was waiting for their website to be up and for them to be more widely available).

The bars were very simply produced - two ounces each, wrapped in foil and then a paper overwrap. The bar is pre-scored into 12 little pieces with each embossed with the smiles script logo. No gimmicky packaging, just tried and true presentation. It’s the flavors that count here ... so let me count off the flavors to you:

White Chocolate

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Rosemary Hibiscus Tea - I was certain I wouldn’t like this one before I even tried it. I’m not a big fan of hibiscus, so how could combining it with rosemary (a rather savory and strong herb) and white chocolate be a good idea? Frankly, after the first bite I didn’t like it. The hibiscus gave the white chocolate a yogurt tang but without any satisfying fruit flavor to go with it. Then I took a few more bites and the rosemary flavor really grew on me and took center stage. It’s not terribly sweet and doesn’t give me a sore throat like bad white chocolate does ... it was smooth and creamy and had a little sass to it.

Pistachio-Green Tea - this tastes an awful lot like green tea ice cream. Soothing and leafy with a definite dairy and vanilla quality. It says pistachio, but I only got the slightest nutty feel to the bar. It’s a tad bit on the sweet side, but also a really nice combination of flavors.

Milk Chocolate

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Cranberry-Ginger Tea - mellow milk chocolate with a smooth and creamy consistency with a spicy, lowgrade burn of ginger. Later the tannin and cranberry notes come out in a lingering berry bite. The bar has the woodsy, rooty smell of ginger. There are the occasionally grainy bits from the tea, but this is a pretty smooth and zesty bar.

Wild Raspberry Tea - it smells like raspberry and has the floral flavor to it. The milk chocolate, which can often have a tart bite also helps to bring out the fruitiness and berry notes here. There are also the occasional fruit bits in there, giving it a chewy tart burst. The chocolate has not dairy milkiness that I usually associate with milk chocolate, instead it’s smooth and a little fudgy.

Dark Chocolate

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Coconut-Green Tea - this bar smells like summer. Profuse wafts of coconut emanate from this bar, just sitting next to it reminds me of those girls who would come to the pool but never swim. They’d sit together with their sunkissed hair and lanky bodies slathered with tanning oil ... something I could never use. (If there were a freckle oil, well, then we might have something.) That toasted, glossy association translates well to this dark bar. Smooth and buttery, the tea takes a backstage to the coconut, which brings only flavor here, there are no chewy bits.

Herbal Chai Tea - this bar smells like I’ve stepped into a spice shop. It’s all warm and woodsy: cinnamon, fennel, orange and a little rooty waft of ginger. A little bit grainy because of the real spices in there, it’s still quite smooth and bursting with different flavors. The cinnamon dominates, but the fennel and black pepper are still discernible. The tea here is the Amber Roobios, which brings its own floral/fruity notes. It’s quite a riot of flavors in there.

My favorites in order (as determined by which I finished first) were the Pistachio-Green Tea White Chocolate, Herbal Chai Dark Chocolate, Coconut-Green Tea Dark Chocolate, Rosemary Hibiscus White Chocolate and last the Wild Raspberry Milk Chocolate.

I have to congratulate Joanie for coming up with such interesting flavor combinations but I think if there’s one thing that I find a drawback to them, it’s the price ... however, unlike many high-end bars, there is nowhere else to get a Hibiscus Rosemary White Chocolate or Coconut Green Tea Dark Chocolate bar, so they’ve cornered that end of the market.

The bars are now on sale at Whole Foods and soon at Bristol Farms and Gelson’s (SoCal) markets as well as through Amazon (click through on their website). Amazon doesn’t seem to offer an assortment pack or sales by the box, which is too bad because I really didn’t know which I was going to like by the description. They were just introduced last week, so they may be adding more purchase variations.

Name: Joane's Smiles: White, Milk & Dark Chocolate Tea Infused Bars
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Joanie's Smiles
Place Purchased: samples from manufacturer
Price: $2.49 each
Size: 2 ounces
Calories per ounce: 154 (white)/147 (milk)/133 (dark)
Categories: Chocolate, Ginger, Nuts, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:35 am    

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Mel & Rose Wine & Spirits

imageI found a new candy store and they have everything! (I can’t remember who suggested this, but I thank you most wholeheartedly!) Mel & Rose, which is on Melrose Blvd near La Cienega (just north of the Beverly Center).

Well, maybe they don’t have everything, but a lot of the things I’ve been looking for and a good assortment of things I didn’t even know existed. They didn’t have KitKat bars from around the world, but they had Kinder Eggs.

Mel & Rose is a liquor store, wine store (in a separate space) and deli with a large selection of fine chocolate bars. They also have a huge selection of imported consumer candies, such UK imports like Flake, Cadbury, Aeros and Bassett’s. There are German candies like Ritter and a whole line of Haribo bagged treats. Australian brands like Cherry Mash, Life Savers and Aussie licorice.

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If you’re into high-end chocolate bars, I think that’s probably what they do best.  Vosges, New Tree, Michael Cluizel, Dolfin, Cafe-Tasse, MarieBelle, Cote d’Or, Hachez, Dagoba, Green & Black’s, Americi, Santander, Divine, Galler, Chocovic, Chocolat Bonnat, El Rey and Guittard. (The only chocolate I thought was missing was Scharffen Berger.)

The prices aren’t rock bottom, but they’re on par with places on the web like Chocosphere when you factor shipping and you get to read the labels and sniff them before you buy.

Check out this Flickr set of photos that I took in the store ... until the fellow behind the counter told me there were no cameras allowed in the store.

Mel & Rose
8344 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Telephone: 323-655-5557

I picked up a couple of other exciting things that I’ll be posting about soon.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:01 pm     Los AngelesReviewShopping

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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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