What is Candy Addict?
Candy Addict is simply a site about candy. Every weekday (and some weekends) we try to post 2-3 candy-related articles so that every day you visit the site you see something new. We only post candy-related articles that I think are interesting, funny, weird, or otherwise worth reading. If I don’t enjoy reading it, it doesn’t appear on the site.
We will not post anything sad or depressing even if it does involve candy - Candy Addict should make you smile, not frown. There is too much fun and interesting in the candy world for me to post anything sad, depressing, or boring. There is enough of that in the nightly news. We try to make most posts as fun/funny as possible and we have varying degrees of success.
Besides the fun candy articles, we also write candy reviews. We do NOT get paid to review the candy. Sometimes we get free candy from the manufacturer, but the reviews are always honest. Candy companies aren’t paying us to say good things about their products. If we say it was good, then we thought it was good. If the candy we review is bad, we’ll say so - whether we bought the candy at a store or it was given to us for free by the president of the company. If the reviews aren’t honest, they are worthless. Our reviews are honest.
To reiterate: all reviews are unbiased and we do not accept payment for reviews - never have, never will.
When was Candy Addict started?
I started Candy Addict in October of 2005. Please don’t go back that far and read the articles. I really didn’t know what I was doing back then. Seriously. Don’t read them.
Why does Candy Addict exist?
I’ve always loved candy since before I can remember. I had some free time in my schedule and really wanted to start a fun site that maybe more than just my friends would read. Geek stuff came to mind since I’m an uber-geek, but that space was already too crowded. I need a niche that wasn’t crowded but that I really enjoyed and could write about. Candy came to mind. I looked to see if there were any other candy blogs around and there were a few, but none of them took the approach that I wanted to take, so I figured I’d go for it. After about three years of running this site and eating and writing about countless different candies, I’m now considered to be somewhat of a candy industry expert. Go figure.
Who is behind Candy Addict?
My name is Brian Pipa and I own/run/write this site. I’m 30-something and therefore I was a kid during the 70s and 80s (man, that makes me sound OLD). Candy actually isn’t my whole life though. I actually get paid to write software in Java - that’s what keeps me busy M-F 9-5. I am a software developer and I work for a well-known and respected company in the RTP area of NC.
My first paid “writing gig” was writing PC game reviews for a few different fairly big name game sites. More recently, I wrote for a site called Tipmonkies for a while, writing general computing tips, but once Candy Addict really started taking off, I had to give that up. I also write in my personal blog called My Vogon Poetry where I cover mostly geek and personal stuff. My next big project is Teenormous (coming soon) which isn’t a blog and isn’t about candy (or food)!
I am married to a beautiful, wonderful woman who (sorta) puts up with the candy all over the house and we have one beautiful daughter who is now seven years old. They are the real loves of my life.
Because Candy Addict has exploded, I’ve hired a bunch of other Candy Addicts to help me cover the world of candy. You can find out more about them on the Staff page.
Where?
I was born in Frankfurt, West Germany (my dad was in the U.S. Army) and I have lived all over the place including (but not limited to): Texas, Virginia, Missouri, North Carolina, and Arizona. I currently live near Raleigh, NC. You can see where all the writers are located by checking out the Candy Addict staff map.
How does it all come together?
I wonder that myself sometimes. I work a 9-5 job so I write articles after work and on weekends. I try to have two new posts each weekday and most weeks I hit that. Now that we have more writers than just myself, it’s much easier to hit that goal. If only I didn’t have to sleep.
Candy Addict is powered by Wordpress, which is excellent (and free). The forums are done with Vanilla. The photo gallery is done with Gallery. The site itself is hosted with Bluehost.
