Russell Stover Marshmallow and Caramel Egg

Posted on March 9, 2012 by the candy fan

I picked up several different varieties of Cadbury and Russell Stover eggs at Walgreens the other day. They stocked truly a dizzying array of Easter-themed eggs, and I picked several that I have not had previously. Though I considered reviewing a few at once, at this moment and before I am utterly sick to death of chocolate eggs, I believe that each one deserves its own day in the sun (not too hot or we’ll get melty). With that said, LET THE EGGS BEGIN!

The first egg comes to us from Russell Stover, a fine purveyor of chocolate products. This is a Marshmallow and Caramel egg, which sounded delicious to me, actually. I couldn’t wait to break it open and see… oh. That. That looks horrifying, doesn’t it? The caramel inside this egg was yellow, very runny, and yolk-like. Almost too yolk-like to be appetizing. I have a feeling that this will be the most visually-like an actual egg and while I appreciate the realism, it was a little gross. The marshmallow was similar in consistency to marshmallow fluff, which held up well enough against the caramel liquid onslaught.

I have always been a person who hollows out the inside of chocolate eggs and then eats the shell, so when I dipped my index finger into the marshmallow and caramel goo, I was happy to find that it gave up its position easily and without a drippy mess.

The combination of marshmallow and caramel inside the egg is actually quote pleasing. Though they are markedly different in texture, they can be temporarily mixed like oil and water, or the suspension cough syrup my mother used to force down my throat. Bad association. Back to marshmallow and caramel. I found the mixture to be sweet, but not too cloying, which was probably due in part to the caramel element being lesser than marshmallow. The chocolate egg itself was good, but quite sweet. I think a dark chocolate egg would have suited its filling more appropriately in this situation, and I hope to see that next year.

Overall, I enjoyed my first egg. I’m looking forward to the ellipsoidal parade to come, after which I assume I will be completely nauseous at the thought of them and so ready to move onto… wait, what’s the next candy holiday? I think its Halloween, (so far away!) but there’s always Sweets and Snacks Expo 2012 to look forward to in May. Chicago may have lost G8, but as long as SSE still calls the Windy City home, I’m a happy camper.

Peeps Crispy Marshmallow Treat (with Candy)

Posted on March 7, 2012 by the candy fan

After leaving work this evening, I decided to take a leisurely stroll through CVS to check out their Easter candy lineup. Upon entering, I knew I’d made a mistake and promptly went to Walgreens. Now, I don’t know how the line of CVS establishments near your place of residence (if you have CVS establishments) goes, but for some reason, the CVS Pharmacy locations in downtown Chicago are just… the worst places on Earth. The CVS located at State and Adams is a particularly foul beast that should be avoided at all costs, but I always give into its siren song even though there’s a wonderful, perfectly good Walgreens only a half-block further.

That aside, there are few things I enjoy more than a crisped rice treat made with marshmallows. I just can’t say no to them, whether they are traditional, M&M-filled, chocolate-coated – there’s nothing that can make me turn them down. But Candy Fan, you might say, what if we made it into a vaguely bunny-shaped lump, covered it in bunny sprinkles, and dyed it a hideous shade of teal? NO, I’d say in reply, I’ll still eat it! I don’t care if Blue 1 (Brilliant Blue FCF) “has previously been banned in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland among others”, but is now deemed safe in the EU! No big deal if Yellow 5 is kicking around in these, because I’m not allergic to aspirin, nor am I a hyperactive child. I need my Easter magic.

I went for the bunny shape because the duck shape wasn’t so distinctly Easter, and because I’ve just eaten a duck recently. I believe the duck-shaped treat was a less unsightly pink color, but the research (read: I googled it for a hot minute) I just attempted to do on the internet yielded nothing regarding these treats. Very odd, indeed. I didn’t regret going with big blue, although it did remind me of a very memorable scene from Heathers (shown here via puppets).

It kind of looks like a two-headed snowman.

I have to admit, this thing was good. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a pre-made crisped rice treat, but my rice rabbit was pretty great. I couldn’t stay away from it, especially while watching that bizarre puppet video. Spoiler: there’s no glass breakage and it’s a little… odd. The Crispy Rice Marshmallow Treat, while not quite a convincing bunny shape, was moist and delicious. I was concerned that this would be a total sugar bomb due to its Peeps namesake, but it was just the right level of sweet. As I’ve mentioned many times, I have a particular affinity for sprinkles, so these were a special addition for me.

As you’d expect, this also turned my mouth a pleasing shade of blue that would be awesome for a kid (Tongue Splashers gum, anyone?), but I found a bit unsettling as an adult.

Truth: After I finished my blue bunny, I also polished off the rest of my Flix Mix. Like the version of Native Americans I learned about in my Midwestern elementary school history class, nothing is wasted here at TCF HQ.

Flix Mix

Posted on March 5, 2012 by the candy fan

When I came across Flix Mix during my trip to Big Lots, my sister and I looked at eachother and both said something to the extent of, “It’s like Puppy Chow!” I don’t know a person on this planet Earth who doesn’t love Puppy Chow, so I snapped it up faster than you could say “Maybe you should reconsider.”

The inside of the Flix Mix bag smelled very sweet and chocolate-y, but had another odd element – something chemical-y and not found in the homemade variety. But it was no matter. This is a packaged product, and one that cost me $1 to boot. I’ve eaten scarier things and paid more for the pleasure of doing it,

There is a decent layer of the chocolate/peanut butter mix on each piece, but not so much that you lose the crunchiness of the “rice biscuit” below. Allowing it to melt on my tongue revealed a smooth melt that wasn’t grainy at all and much higher quality than I was actually expecting. This next point may be something not everyone agrees with, but I liked the fact that the chocolate coating didn’t seep into the Chex knockoff cereal, leaving them in pristine, crunchy condition.

There’s a decent amount of peanut butter taste in these little nuggets, but if you’re someone who goes super heavy on the nut pastes in your own version of Puppy Chow, you might be a little disappointed. I did wish there was a bit more powdered sugar sprinkled atop the Flix Mix, but that’s my own personal preference talking and would probably make for a rather messy movie snack in a theatre.

Like the Spretzels, the whole box comes out to about 300 calories, which won’t make you hate yourself in the morning. The saturated fat count is pretty high though (about 10g for the whole box), so try not to get lost in flavor country. Flix Mix won’t replace Puppy Chow in my heart or palate, but it’s not the worst substitution in a pinch. I definitely wouldn’t pay upwards of $3.00 for a box at my local cineplex, but for one single dollar, it was worth a try.

Candy Quax

Posted on March 2, 2012 by the candy fan

Ah, March in Chicago. As we peer out from under our winter hats and enjoy the up-to-thirty minutes of light after work hours, we begin to remember that we once had lives – busy lives! – that involved being outside. A life that involved flowers, and grass, and city bunnies, and enjoyable long walks. We were free once! And for me, part of that spring homecoming is my 2^nd favorite candy holiday: Easter.

While at Big Lots the other day, I spied this little gem from across the aisle and knew I must have it. It’s a little yellow candy duck. Oh Palmer, you’ve done it again! How adorable. How precious! And while I would have liked to admire it rather than actually eat it for various reasons, unfortunately, this blog isn’t just about looking at candy.

My photo studio is looking a bit rustic lately.

The Candy Quax is also known as “The Yummy Ducky”, which I find a little unsettling as I don’t condone eating duck (or other cute animals… actually all animals). Others will disagree. This candy duck is “hallow milk flavored”, which also a little unsettling. I don’t really know what ‘milk flavored’ is. The ingredients list is fairly short, my duck being made up mostly of sugar and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. That gives this duck 270 calories an 15g of fat (14g of which are saturated. That’s 70% of your “Daily Value”). Mmm… that’s good eatin’ for the kids. Mostly, what had me concerned was the smell. This thing smells like sugar and wax.

Of course I removed the head, because that’s where you get the best Candy Quax meat. As I bit into the neck, it crumbled beneath my mighty jaw and I tasted the sweet flesh of my Hollow Milk Flavored Candy Duck. And it was… sweet. Incredibly sweet. Sickeningly sweet, in fact. It was like an entire confection made of the “yogurt” drizzle on top of Special K bars. It made my stomach turn just a bit.

I could only handle about 5 small bites of my Candy Quax before I caved under the sugary pressure. Like real a real duck, this magnificent creature is better seen than eaten. It’s a darling little thing, but should be reserved for decorative purposes only.

Spretzels

Posted on February 28, 2012 by the candy fan

My posting here has been rather erratic as of late, and that’s partially because I haven’t had time to go hunt down some new candy excitement. (And partly because I’ve been spending too much time at bars after work). So I finally did it. I went to the store and picked up some new stuff. And since that store was Big Lots, it was new amazing stuff. You may be familiar with my previous foray into the Flix Candy line, the Box of Boogers. In opposition to my expectations, they turned out to be fruity and chewy and delicious. I can only hope to say the same about today’s candy: Spretzels. Well, not that they were fruity, but… you know what I mean.

Spretzels, which sounds like a name I would have made up myself because I love combining words to describe products, people, and experiences, is a product combining white chocolate “flavor”, pretzel balls, and sprinkles. I love a good sprinkle, and pretzel M&Ms are my jam, so that’s all good. The white chocolate flavor isn’t actual white chocolate, but I don’t expect that from my $1 confection, so we’re okay on that front, too. These Spretzels seem to come mostly in little singles and dyads, though there were a few larger clumps in my box. The white chocolate flavored coating is yellowy and a little dry, but a decent blanket to the pretzels. The sprinkles added a little bit of crunch, but since we’re talking pretzels, they were mostly just for decoration.

These aren’t anything terribly exciting, but I did find myself continually going back to the bag. The white chocolate flavoring, which is often overpowering in this sort of candy, was actually pretty low key. The pretzel balls had a decent amount of salt on them, which gave them that salty/sweet combo that some people just adore. These candies come in a movie theatre style box, and I could see them being a great option for mindlessly munching for a couple of hours (make sure you have a beverage, these are salty). The whole box will only set you back about 280 calories, which isn’t so much in the grand scheme of candy, and will probably last you longer than a Snickers bar. And Spretzels is more fun to say than Snickers. Try it. It’s a win/win.

Harry London – London Mint Bar

Posted on February 22, 2012 by the candy fan

Harry London shares a factory in North Canton, Ohio with my good friend, Fannie May, and is also part of the 1-800-Flowers.com family of brands. So I assume that when you are lucky enough to receive candy along with flowers, this is the candy you’re getting. When I came upon this Harry London Mint Bar at my local Big Lots in a rather unassuming shiny green package, I thought: I like chocolate. I like mint. Everyone knows this. I’ll try this and see what happens. But for some reason, it just stayed in my candy collection. Nothing drew my attention to it, and nothing stood out as particularly special about it. Real talk: my candy supply is rapidly dwindling and I haven’t ventured out lately to replenish. So today is a very special day for the London Mint Bar.

When I peeled back the package, my immediate though was, oh my, I have waited too long. But we are still a few months prior to the bar’s expiration date, so I was fairly confident this wouldn’t kill me. It may actually make me stronger. Plus, one shouldn’t judge candy by its appearance. Good things come in gross packages. Okay, so the chocolate has bloomed a little and lost what might have once been a shiny exterior. That doesn’t mean it won’t still be delicious. It smelled delicious and that was most of what counted.

There is an outer coating of softer chocolate on the bar that melts rather quickly and deposited itself onto my fingers just handling the bar. Below that is the mint chocolate core that is a bit more dense and less malleable. The ingredients list dark chocolate and ‘milk confection’, but this tastes pretty milk chocolate-y to me. The melt was fairly smooth, aside from the issue of the two different textures, and I thought it was decently enjoyable. The mint flavor was not overpowering, but provided a slightly-more-than-subtle hue to the bar.

This bar is definitely rich, and that is evident in the fact that half the bar (35g per serving) contains 200 calories and 14g of fat (9g saturated). I was done after eating about a quarter of the bar, though I’m sure I’ll be going back for more eventually. I don’t know that I’d pick this up again, even at the bargain price of $.80 that I paid at Big Lots, as it didn’t knock my socks off. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from chocolate that comes with your flowers. For my money, I’d rather keep eating Andes mints.

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate filled with Chocolate Buttercream

Posted on February 17, 2012 by the candy fan

I wouldn’t say I was completely disappointed by the other Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bar I purchased last weekend. It was good, but… it just wasn’t the flavor sensation I’d been hoping for. This dark chocolate bar filled with chocolate buttercream was my next, greatest hope.

My knife had sliced neatly through the speculoos bar, so I’d been expecting similar behavior from this one, especially since the room I keep candy in (mine) runs about 58 degrees. So imagine my surprise when I tried to cut a rectangle in half to find it give way beneath my mighty hand. Hulk smash.

The dark chocolate, again, is very good. It has a smooth melt and the filling is light enough to keep things on the up and up. I was worried about this being heavy, almost fudgy, but my concerns were unfounded. The filling is a bit more sticky and gelatinous that I was expecting, but it smells fabulous. I often take photos in the morning before I head off to work, and this was an occasion to remind myself that 7:34 am is not the proper time to be sampling my wares. The buttercream is lighter, and not nearly as rich as I’d been anticipating. The texture reminded me more than a little bit of the little Jell-O individual mousse cups that I love dearly.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the density difference between the chocolate and filling, because it risks me appearing a hot mess. Every bite I took crumbled, significantly increasing my odds of someone else finding melted chocolate on my clothing later in the day. My own personal problems aside, this bar was good and though I probably wouldn’t put it into regular rotation, I’d accept it graciously as a gift, then eat it when no one was around to see the mess I made. Candy planning.

NewTree Roasted Almonds bar – 31% Cocoa Milk Chocolate with Golden Flax Seeds

Posted on February 13, 2012 by the candy fan

After my first experience with NewTree’s dark chocolate variety, I was a little hesitant to try the other bar I’d picked up. Part of my hesitation was knowing I’d have to go back to their silly website and wait 30 seconds for it to load. In this case, the website invites me to “enjoy the smoothness of fine milk chocolate combined with crunchy almonds and delicately roasted flax seeds”, and promises it will make my senses come alive. And here I’ve been, with my dead senses, this whole time.

The 31% cocoa milk chocolate has a very sweet smell, but it’s sort of shallow. It doesn’t invite me in and serve me tea while I eagerly await our meeting. It’s sort of the candy equivalent of honking the car horn and waiting. The almond pieces are small – chopped into tiny, crispy specks inside the chocolate. Normally, I like my almonds to be big and chunky, their tips breaking the bar’s glassy surface like icebergs in the night sea. These, however, are fitting in this bar. Since it contains flax seeds, there would have been an obvious textural difference between the almonds and seeds. Being of similar size in this bar allows them to mix together in harmony.

This bar is identical in structure to the other, thin with a crisp break, and weighing in at 80g. It also has 30% less sugar than “similar chocolate”. The melt of this bar was infinitely better than its dark chocolate brother. I did not detect the same grainy grittiness, which was a huge relief. It did have the same woodsy flavor of the flax seeds, but for some reason it was less striking, or better masked, in this formulation.

I don’t know that this bar made any of my senses return from their zombie grave, but I actually enjoyed this bar and would definitely recommend it over the dark chocolate variety. I was, however, picking seeds out of my teeth for 10 minutes afterward, so don’t eat this on a first date or prior to a job interview. Thank me later.

Trader Joe’s 70% Dark Chocolate bar with Caramel and Black Sea Salt

Posted on February 10, 2012 by the candy fan

Two reviews from Trader Joe’s in a single week? What are they, paying me? Well, no, they’re not. I just really like going to TJ’s, even when I don’t need anything, and their candy is just so reasonably priced. (They are still not paying me). This bar is 70% dark chocolate with innards of caramel and black sea salt. When I was a kid I consistently spurned dark chocolate in favor of the milk variety, but as I’ve aged, I’ve really come to love the little plant phenols. Other reviews have been good (if also noting the bar to be a bit messy), and I was looking forward to this review particularly.

I actually purchased this bar a while ago, and it has been cooling its heels in my candy stash, waiting for the perfect opportunity to unleash itself. Well, as you can see from the photo, it unleashed itself all over my white background. Goodness, me. The bar is rather large at 85g, and can be broken into 8 squares. The dark chocolate is super shiny, revealing any imperfection or fingerprint, which made for a less-tasty photo, but such is life. My bar refused to break along its squared dividing lines, instead cleaving off into drippy chunks. It was surprising, yes, but all was forgiven upon eating. This thing is seriously good.

Usually 70% dark is a little too much for my taste. In this case, the bitterness is balanced by the sweetness of the caramel inside and the slight salty flavor. I didn’t pick up a whole lot of salt in this bar, but other reviews have mentioned differing levels. Perhaps TJ’s is a little off on the quality control, but made an awesome decision here in creating a bar with an exceedingly thin chocolate layer. Too thick a shell and the chocolate and nearly-liquid caramel wouldn’t melt at precisely the same moment, mixing together in sweet, sweet harmony.

I gobbled up two squares of this thing in a hot minute, and I’m confident I could have had a regrettable evening had it gone unabated. I’m pretty sure that this bar is still available at Trader Joe’s, and it’s only $1.99, so I’d pick it up if dark chocolate is your thing. Or even if it’s not. It’s just good, y’all.

Doscher’s Famous Chocolate Flavored French Chew Taffy

Posted on February 8, 2012 by the candy fan

According to their official website, Doscher’s Candies was founded in 1871 by Claus Doscher, a German immigrant to Cincinnati. Though he originally started out in the popcorn business, he soon graduated to other candy products. Around 1900, he learned of a fancy new candy craze sweeping France: taffy. After a few years of development, his taffy was perfected and ready to become a legend. The company is still located in Cincinnati, and continues to live on after the 1939 death of Claus himself.

Somehow, I have managed to live my many (not too many) years without trying this “famous chocolate flavored French chew taffy.” Well, that ends today. Today is the day I become acquainted with this French delight, which I purchased at Big Lots for the bargain price of $.50.

As I started to unsheathe my taffy, I noticed that the packaging invited me to “strike against hard surface and break into bite size pieces”. I was happy to oblige, but as the shards shot past my head and scattered onto the top of my dresser, I finished the sentence, “… before unwrapping.” In the grand tradition of my candy reviewing life, I’ve made a mess again.

I have to say, the appearance (both texture, shape, and color) reminded me of an exposed tongue and weirded me out ever so slightly. Getting past that, I found the actual texture of the taffy to be quite pleasant. There is a good chew, but it doesn’t stick to your teeth and pull out expensive dental work. You chew, you swallow, and it’s gone. No gummy reminders in your molars. I appreciate that.

The flavor, however, wasn’t terribly exciting. The chocolate flavor is very light, almost just a whiff of chocolate in an otherwise fairly flavorless taffy bar. I found this to be very disappointing in conjunction with the texture, which I really enjoyed. As much as I liked the feel of the bar, I just can’t recommend it in this particular flavor. As a big artificial banana flavoring fan, I’d love to try to banana flavored chew if I ever happen to run across it.

As a side note, I was a little confused by the historical account on their website. They claim that only vanilla was offered until 1939, after which Claus began offering chocolate and strawberry. In the last paragraph, as I wrote earlier, they mention that Claus died in 1939. A dying wish for flavor divergence, or candy-making ghost?

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