My absolute favorite candy from this year’s All Candy Expo has to be the new Wonka Tinglerz, malted pieces of crisped rice covered in Nestle’s milk chocolate and pumped with a carbon dioxide blast to give them some serious popping power. Tinglerz won’t be hitting stores until September, but I was lucky enough to score a pack at the Expo - in prototype packaging, no less. The real packaging hasn’t been unveiled yet, but we’ll be sure to bring you a picture as soon as we can.

You could easily classify Wonka Tinglerz as a sort of wacky cousin to Nestle’s Buncha Crunch, as both candies are alike in taste and appearance, with one notable exception. While the Tinglerz retain the pellet-like shape and the crispy, milk chocolate taste of Buncha Crunch, the Tinglerz offer an experience that Buncha Crunch can’t match: a popping, fizzing sensation that hits the mouth as the chocolatey bits dissolve.

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What is this review really about, anyway? Is it even worth writing? Is it even about anything at all? I don’t believe so. For the Nihilist in your life, Archie McPhee offers their flavorless Nihilist mints, 60 pieces of nothing guaranteed to taste like emptiness and the void in your soul.

The packaging is really sweet, it reminds me of a coffin… it’s a sleek little black case that slides out to reveal the pellets of nada within. Do they taste good? Of course not. Do they taste bad? Of course not. They’re flavorless. You didn’t expect Nihilist mints to taste like sunshine and lollipops, did you? They taste like nothing with a side of sugar. Or like the lack of an answer to the question “Why?”, depending on your world view. As Archie McPhee claims: “Nihilists don’t believe in flavor!”

If none of this makes sense to you, here is the definition of Nihilist.

Buy Nihilist Mints online:

• at Stupid.com
• at Archie McPhee

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Do you have a Vampire problem? Well, Buffy has been off the air for a few years now, so your next best bet is to pick up some of Archie McPhee’s Vampire Repelling Garlic Mints, a tin of magically disgusting pellets designed to keep Count Dracula and his crew from vanting to suck your blood, bleh!

I’m not going to lie - I was terrified to try the Vampire mints. The garlic smell is ridiculously strong - you can smell it even before you take the plastic shrink wrap off of the very cool-looking metal case that the mints come in. Once the plastic wrap is off - the smell becomes even stronger - not only will it keep a vampire away, but most likely it will keep everyone in your office, your significant other, and the majority of the people in your neighborhood away as well.

The taste is very hard to describe - it’s not quite garlic, and it’s not quite mint. It is, however, quite gross. It’s almost like eating one of those scratch and sniff stickers from the 80’s, or mixing a Pizza Goldfish cracker with a Tic-Tac. Truly revolting.

The concept and the packaging, however, are awesome - the tin has a great design and the mints would make a great gift for Vampire lovers, Vampire-fearers, and anyone who likes a nice, disgusting pizza Goldfish/Tic-Tac combo.

• Garlic Mints at Archie McPhee
• More Archie McPhee products at Candy Addict

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One of the most exciting new candies that I came across at the All Candy Expo was the new Reese’s Select Cluster, a bite-sized piece of sweet, peanut buttery goodness consisting of Reese’s peanut butter, caramel, peanuts, and pecans, all held together by a creamy layer of smooth milk chocolate. It was as if all of the candy stars aligned to make the perfect sweet for me - all of my favorite ingredients, held together by my favorite peanut butter in the whole world! Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to try one.

The first thing I noticed about the clusters was that the dominating flavor is the familiar (and delicious) taste of Reese’s peanut butter. A generous dollop makes up the base of the cluster, which is exactly how it should be, for Reese’s instantly recognizable peanut butter, with its gritty and rich consistency, is the reason why people buy Reese’s products in the first place. I have to hand it to Reese’s - though they continue to spin off new and interesting Reese’s treats, they never forget or downplay the importance of Reese’s peanut butter as their star player.

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I am not going to lie to you: I am not a big gummi person. Unless gummi bears or their squirmy gummi worm cousins are coated in a thick layer of sour sugar, I’m usually not interested. So when I heard about Loud Truck Energy Gummies at the All Candy Expo, I was hesitant to try one, until someone on the floor said the magic words: “It’s like eating a bag of Red Bull.”

To some people, that statement would be terrifying. To me, it was a starter pistol that sent me racing over to the Loud Truck Energy booth to sample these mystical bears of energy and goodness. I love Red Bull, and most energy-fueled treats, so I was hoping that Loud Truck gummies would provide a new (and possibly cheaper) alternative to my beloved Red Bull fix. I instantly fell in love with them at the All Candy Expo, and couldn’t wait to review them once I returned home.

This morning at 8:00 am, I ripped open a new pack of Loud Truck Energy Gummies to start the day. Taste-wise, the gummies are quite good. The bears are firm but soft, with a nice chewy texture that doesn’t stick to the teeth. They have a subtle citrus flavor that gets stronger as the bear is chewed - a nice bite toward the end of the chewing process brings to mind a sip of Red Bull - a fizzy citrus taste that lingers after the bear is gone.

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I’ve only been home for a few days, but I already miss the All Candy Expo. It was strange to wake up on Friday morning and not take a train to a magical place where Willy Wonka danced around the aisles, where giant caramel creams hung suspended from the ceiling, where bins of Atomic Fireballs were waiting to be scooped up by the handful, and where candy was the number one priority for the thousands of people roaming about the room.

Thankfully, I have about 30 pounds of Expo candy at my house right now to help me replicate the All Candy Expo experience! I have seriously never seen so much candy in all my life, and I was a champion trick-or-treater as a kid. My haul from the Expo blows away even my greatest Halloween pillowcase fillers by leaps and bounds.

I had so much candy in my suitcase that I actually had to take some out and carry it in a tote bag so that my suitcase didn’t go over the 50 pound limit. I got some pretty strange (and amused) looks from my fellow passengers, who I’m sure were quite curious as to why I had about 10 pounds of candy on my arm.

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Hey Candy Addicts!

You would not believe how awesome the All Candy Expo is so far. Seriously. There is SO. MUCH. CANDY.

I am completely overwhelmed, in the best possible way. I spent all day yesterday just staring at the Expo floor with my mouth wide open, trying to figure out how to describe it to all of you. It is tremendous. Everywhere you turn, there are giant candy displays, with lovely sugar-filled shelves of new and exciting products. It’s a bit like Willy Wonka’s Imagination Room (and yes - Mr. Willy Wonka himself is here!), with giant lollipops and enormous jelly beans around every corner. Going from booth to booth and sampling new candies is fantastic, and I keep having to bite my lip to stop myself from saying “Trick or Treat” every time I come to a new booth, as the whole thing has a definite Halloween feel to it.

In the day and a half since we arrived, I’ve learned a lot about the candy business. It’s great to meet company representatives who are just as excited and in love with candy as we are, and who know the importance of keeping candy fun. The atmosphere here is very positive, and the colorful, wacky displays just go to show that even though candy is a serious business, the element of fun is still a top priority, which is GREAT to see.

I’ve noticed a few trends emerging during the Expo: fruit/chocolate fusion candies are very hot right now, with unique fruit flavors such as blueberry, cranberry, and banana leading the way. Dark chocolate continues to be massively popular, and it looks like companies are pushing even darker, more intense chocolates to meet consumer demand.

I am particularly psyched to see the amount of chocolate/nut based candies hitting the market. Milk and dark chocolate with peanuts, pecans, peanut butter, almonds, and hazelnuts are all over the place, which is really exciting for me, as those are my favorite combos.

It’s always fun to see new twists on old favorites: one product in particular that I’m really excited to try (and will be reviewing soon) is the chocolate Abba-Zaba bar. Sweet!

I will be writing more soon, but the floor beckons, and there are many more things to see and many more sweets to eat!

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Forrest Gump’s mother once told him that life was like a box of chocolates. That’s all well and good, unless that box of chocolates happens to be opened by someone else in your family who eats all of the caramels before you get a chance.

There is nothing better than a candy box piece of chocolate-covered caramel. Or at least I thought so, until I stumbled upon a magnificent candy known as Storck Chocolate Riesen. In essence, having a bag of Riesen (pronounced “reason”) is like having an endless supply of the best part of the candy box- the thick, chewy chocolate caramel squares covered in a thin layer of rich, creamy chocolate.

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Making your own prom dress can go one of two ways: you can end up with a Pepto-Bismol trapezoid with sleeves and a lace doily collar, ala Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink, or you might end up with a rainbow-inspired prom dress like the one designed by Theperilouspopsicle, a poster on Craftster.org - a killer candy frock made entirely out of Skittles wrappers.

She claims that it took 15 hours and 101 Skittles wrappers to complete her creation. Apparently, she only likes red Skittles, but luckily her friends were around to help her polish off the other colors in the Skittles rainbow. She also received wrappers from strangers after posting an ad on Craigslist. Candy Addict teamwork!

Have any of you ever seen any prom dresses made out of candy wrappers? If you could design your own, what would it look like? I’d love to try making one, but my prom days are long gone, and I don’t think Atomic Fireball wrappers are really appropriate evening wear material.

Thankfully, there are creative Candy Addicts like Theperilouspopsicle out there to design these candy couture wonders for us. In her post, she says that the Skittles prom dress “looks rather epic on”, and I have no doubt that it does. Anything made with this much love (and this much candy!) has got to be beautiful.

• Theperilouspopsicle’s Skittle Wrapper Prom Dress on craftster.org

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I am a creature of habit. There are certain things I have to have when I go certain places. At baseball games, I have to get a giant pretzel. At family parties, I have to have my sister’s chocolate chip cookies. At the shore, I have to grab a box of salt water taffy. And at the movies, it is absolutely imperative that I get my hands on a bag of Sour Patch Kids.

As weird as this sounds, I am not a gummy person. I hate gummi bears. Gummy worms give me the creeps. Gumdrops are on my (very short) DO. NOT. WANT. candy list. Yet despite all this, I love Sour Patch Kids with the fire of a thousand Atomic Fireballs.

Sour Patch Kids are small gummy treats that come in various fruit flavors, including cherry, orange, lemon, and lime. Each Sour Patch Kid is about the size of a regular gummy bear. Tiny granules of sour sugar coat each gummy Kid, giving them a grainy texture and a knockout sour punch.

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