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I’m an easy target for the impulse buys at the grocery store checkout counters. I think it’s a good time to scan the candies and see if there’s anything new, and then of course if something catches my eye, I have to try it. Take, for example, these Ice Breakers in Iced Tea Lemon flavor. I have long been a fan of Ice Breakers candies, and I usually have a container of the Ice Breakers sours in my car. I am also a fan of black tea, so these Ice Breakers sure seemed like a winning combination!
“Yummy, yummy, yummy, I’ve got gummi in my tummy” is going to be my new mantra! I recently had the privilege of tasting the new liquid-filled gummies, Starburst GummiBursts. I’m a big fan of Starburst products, and it’s always nice to see new candies from them, since they are pretty consistently tasty.
The GummiBursts have a very satisfying texture - nice and chewy and gummi. The liquid center is just a teeny viscous dollop and not overpowering or even very noticeable, which could be considered a negative by some. The packaging claims that these GummiBursts contain real fruit juice, but the ingredients reveal the only real fruit juice is apple juice from concentrate. The GummiBursts come in four flavors: strawberry, cherry, orange, and lemon. Let’s examine those in more detail!
One of my favorite things besides candy is coffee, so I couldn’t believe my luck when I received a huge, beautifully packaged box of Starbucks Chocolate to review! Yes, folks, Starbucks Coffee Company is now in the chocolate business. Starbucks has partnered with Hershey’s, whose subsidiary Artisan Confections Company, itself comprised of Joseph Schmidt Confections, Scharffen Berger, and Dagoba Chocolate, manufactures the Starbucks Chocolate. Did you get all that? Basically, Starbucks Chocolate is being made by people who know their chocolate.
I have to confess that while I was wowed by the attractive packaging, I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the chocolate. Starbucks coffee is not quite full-bodied or flavorful enough for my taste, so I figured the chocolate would be geared toward a similar palate. I am happy to say that I was wrong. Starbucks chocolate, with just a few exceptions, is rich, full flavored, and thoroughly enjoyable.
There is a special place in my heart (and digestive system) for marshmallows. I have always loved marshmallows and was the one kid out of 100 who actually liked Marshmallow Peeps. I even like to make my own marshmallows on occasion. So, I was thrilled to receive some gourmet, handmade marshmallows from Plush Puffs to review. Even better, Plush Puffs was kind enough to send me their newest flavor: Simply S’mores.
Plush Puffs come beautifully packaged, as you can see, and the individual marshmallows are in perfect bite-sized cubes. The Simply S’mores marshmallows start with Plush Puffs’ basic vanilla bean marshmallow, then are coated in cocoa powder and topped with some little chocolate nibs. Oh, and there are little bits of graham cracker inside the marshmallows! I have to say that while these don’t really taste like actual s’mores, they are a delicious standalone puff.
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I was reading through my roster of food blogs the other day when I came upon a recipe for Cadbury Creme Egg Muffins at Baking Bites. These are muffins with mini Cadbury Creme Eggs baked in the centers! I have to say it is totally ingenious to use a muffin recipe. After all, Cadbury Creme Eggs are about as sweet and sugary as you can get, so the pairing of the sweet candy eggs with a nice vanilla muffin is ideal. If you want to make something extra special this Easter, I bet this would be an awesome treat!
I know, I know, more jellybeans (I just reviewed the Starburst Sour Jellybeans), but can you blame me? When you find the right jellybean, it’s the perfect combination of crunch and chew and sugary goodness! So, when Candy Addict’s very own Brian professed that Nerds Bumpy Jellybeans are his favorite Easter candy this year, I knew I had to try them. First, if Brian says they are good, then the probability that this is true is extremely high. Second, I am a fan of Nerds, especially of Nerds rope, because you get that crunchy and chewy dual bang with the rope. Do you see where I am headed?
I won’t keep you in suspense - these Nerds Bumpy Jellybeans are keepers. They are kooky and bizarre and incredibly tasty! There are five flavors. The flavors aren’t listed on the packaging, but you can guess that they are the usual suspects: red (strawberry), yellow (lemon), orange (you guessed it, orange), green (watermelon), and purple (grape). As indicated by the descriptive title, these beans sport bumpy exteriors, which makes them a little odd looking and even a tad ugly, but who cares! They rock! The hard candy shell is crunchy but won’t break your teeth. The interior is chewy but smooth, and there’s a perfect balance between crunch and chew.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there is a plethora of jellybean offerings on the Easter candy shelves this year. I say the more, the merrier, but not all jellybeans are created equal. I like sour candies, so I tried to determine which package of jellybeans might be the most sour. I decided upon the Starburst Sour Jellybeans because a) it clearly states SOUR on the package, and b) Starburst reliably delivers what I consider to be some tasty candies.
I was not disappointed! There are six fruity flavors in Starburst Sour Jellybeans: green apple, lemon, watermelon, tangerine, cherry, and blue raspberry (why is this flavor everywhere? I for one have never seen a blue raspberry, but maybe I am sheltered). The beans are a nice, compact size, and each is bursting with ample flavor. The exterior has a satisfying crunch, and the inner jellybean is dense and chewy. You also get a lot of jellybeans in a package, so they are a good value.
When I first saw this box of mini cream puffs, I was a little frightened. On one hand I thought, yum, Ceylon tea-flavored mini cream puffs! On the other hand, I figured these would be crammed so full of preservatives that they’d taste like plastic. After all, what kind of shelf life can be expected of mini cream puffs in a box? Well, I needn’t have been scared, because these are actually a delightful surprise.
Each mini cream puff is about an inch in diameter. The shell is rather crunchy, so I guess you could say it’s more like a cookie than a cream puff (i.e., it’s not doughy). They are also a tad scorched in appearance. The innards are supposed to be like cream puff filling, I guess, but as you can imagine, it’s not like custard or whipped cream at all. It’s more like Oreo sandwich filling with a light tea flavor. The aftertaste is surprisingly reminiscent of the aftertaste of hot black tea, and it lingers for quite some time. The candy that keeps on giving!
I don’t think I’d run to the market to stockpile these Chocolat Poche, but I wouldn’t throw them away, either, and if they had other flavors, I’d be all over them.
Buy Meiji products online:
- at Jbox
More candy articles about: chocolate, tea, Japan, Japanese
Leave it to the Japanese to invent candies that enhance your brain power! It may sound too good to be true, but don’t you think it’s worth having a little faith about them? After all, what Candy Addict wouldn’t love candies that make him smarter? These Shigekix hard gummi sour candies contain DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid), which is supposed to give your brain a little kick.
Our pals at Jbox were generous enough to send me a box of the Shigekix Aha! Brain Fruits Lemon to review. I must say I believe I like these Shigekix candies a lot more than Brian liked the three Shigekix flavors he reviewed two years ago.
The gummis are quite small individually, with each gummi not exceeding an inch in height. The outer coating is a crunchy, sugary one that provides a nice, crisp bite. Inside is a rather hard gummi. It won’t break your teeth, but you really have to put your jaw to work and chew with determination to soften it up. There is a definite sour sensation once you bite into candy, but it is not face-scrunchingly sour. The gummis leave a nice, citrusy aftertaste. I can’t say that my brain power felt enhanced in any way, but I do think my life is better now that I have experienced these tasty little candies!
Shigekix come in a number of flavors and incarnations, including grape, ume (Japanese plum), cola, ramune, and seaweed. Here at Candy Addict we’re all dying to know how the seaweed ones measure up… but not enough to risk it ourselves!
Buy Shigekix online:
- at Jbox.com
More candy articles about: Shigekix, gummi, sour, lemon, Japan, Japanese, ramune
Okay, so I am hopelessly addicted to anything that is matcha flavored. Matcha is Japanese powdered green tea. It’s not like the green tea they serve you in Japanese restaurants, mind you, but more like restaurant green tea on steroids. Matcha is used in the Japanese tea ceremony and is also what you find in green tea ice cream. Lately there has been a proliferation of green tea-flavored items in the United States (matcha frappuccino, anyone?), but in Japan? Matcha is king, and holy cow, practically every edible item there comes in a matcha flavor! Woohoo!
You can imagine my glee when I opened up this box of Morinaga Matcha Caramels from Jbox. I have long been a fan of Morinaga caramels, but it was like I won the lottery when they started making them in matcha flavor. I love the look of the box - it looks very authentic and kind of retro.
Now, I have tried many a matcha-flavored candy, and not all of them are delicious. Many of them do not taste like true matcha. These Morinaga Matcha Caramels, however, do not disappoint. These little nuggets of yumminess have a strong but smooth matcha flavor, and though they are a bit on the firm side in terms of texture, a couple of good chews will soften them up enough that you won’t dislodge any dental fillings. Real matcha is loaded with caffeine, but I don’t really know how the caffeine affects candies. Perhaps I should eat an entire box and see what happens? Maybe next time…
Buy Morinaga Caramels online:
- at JBox
More candy articles about: Morinaga, matcha, green tea, caramel
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