(Images from serrv.org)
I think it typically goes something like this: friends… good, enemies… bad. Sharing… good, hoarding… bad. Chocolate… good, Buttered Popcorn jelly beans… bad. If I’ve learned nothing else in my quarter-century, these things I know. (Except for maybe that sharing thing – I think that might be more of a case-by-case kind of situation.) So armed with these all-important nuggets, I recently dug into a thrillingly sizable box of samples I received, splayed its contents out on my coffee table, and summoned my three roommates, the visiting sister and brother-in-law of one of them, and the sweet-toothed Bengali friend of another, to join me in a chocolate sampling, sponsored by Divine Chocolate.

Founded in the U.K. in 1998, Divine Chocolate is the first ever farmer-owned Fair Trade chocolate company. With their mission of improving the livelihoods of small-holder cocoa farmers in West Africa, Divine Chocolate is co-owned by the farmers of Kuapa Kokoo Farmers’ Cooperative, who receive fair trade prices for all of their cocoa, share in the company’s profits, and benefit from numerous community development projects and initiatives funded by Divine. And all these things I just rattled off? All good things. Which gave me pause, I have to admit, as I unwrapped the first of my (very generous sampling of) chocolate bars. With all these positives stacked up pre-tasting, where, I worried, might the equal and opposite list of negatives reveal itself?

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Zoo Jellies in Vietnam. Minties in Australia. Marshmallows injected with green apple-flavored goo in Hong Kong. Kit Kats in Italy (some things you just can’t escape). Toblerone, Violet Crumble, Haribo Gummies, Ritter Sport Bars… I am a bit of a traveling fool and there are few thrills greater than walking into a supermercado – or tabbac, or roadside stand made of banana leaves – in a foreign land and alighting upon a rack of exotically enticing treats. So you can imagine my excitement, I’m sure, as well as my course of action, when I found myself in a Costa Rican airport earlier this summer, with a fistful of nonexchangeable colones just waiting to be spent.

It turns out that Costa Rica’s Café Britt, with its line of Chocolates Britt products, has pretty much cornered the San Jose International Airport candy market. And thanks to their very generous attitude towards free samples (much appreciated by the weary traveler), I was able to partake in a number of their delicious gourmet dark and white chocolate covered confections (namely coffee beans, passion fruit, macadamia nuts, pineapple, and cashews) before committing myself to a bag of dark chocolate covered guava jelly and one of dark chocolate covered cacao nibs.

Now, safely Stateside and a couple months removed from my latest adventure, I think it’s about time to relive all the Central American fun. Lucky for you, Candy Addict has a very lenient passport policy, so feel free to join me.

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If there’s one thing I’ve learned since joining the Candy Addict staff it’s… well… it’s that any man, regardless of age, build, or boxer short selection is sexy in a tub full of jelly beans. But also that candy, despite its sweet nature, can be a very divisive subject. Sure, it’s hard to quibble over a Milky Way or gummi bear, but there are definitely a subset of treats capable of launching many an impassioned… shall we say… discussion. A discussion I bravely had with our esteemed writing staff and also a few well-respected friends in order to bring you (that’s right - you) our Top 10 Love ‘em or Hate ‘em Candies.

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I’m not a huge art lover. I mean, I can ponder the meaning of Mona Lisa’s smile with the best of a Communications major. And who couldn’t just stare at Whistler’s Mother for the rest of eternity? But if you had to place me on the art appreciation continuum, I’d definitely fall closer to the-gift-shop-is-the-highlight-of-the-museum. Things changed for me a few months back, though, when I reported on a genre of art with which I wasn’t previously familiar: the Jelly Belly portrait. This, for me, was mesmerizing, and made me wonder what other decadent masterpieces might be out there, just waiting for a keen eye such as mine. And my ravenous search quickly led me to the online gallery of one Jason Mecier.

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I have many a fond memory of Baskin-Robbins from childhood: the free birthday cones, the baseball helmet sundaes, the hard, hard scoops that could be shot clear off your sugar cone and onto the lawn with one overzealous lick. Not to mention the choices – oh, the choices! All 31-plus of them! And I reveled in my flavor selection: Rocky Road, Rainbow Sherbet, Cookies ‘N Cream… the world was my hot fudge-covered oyster (notably not one of the aforementioned 31-plus). But I have to admit, in all my ice cream eating moments, never (ever) did I think to myself, “Mmmm, this ice cream is good, but it would be really good if only I could chew it.” So it is with a bit of skepticism that I opened up my box of Baskin-Robbins Soft Candy.

These candies come in two flavors: Mint Chocolate Chip and Very Berry Strawberry, and in both regular and sugar free varieties. They’re quite small – smaller than a Tootsie Roll – and rectangular. And they’re individually wrapped in foil reminiscent of my Viactiv Multi-Vitamin Chew (highly recommended as a vitamin supplement, less so as a sugary treat).

And soft they are. If nothing else, these things deliver in that department. Softer than both a Tootsie Roll and a Starburst chew, it took me a number of squeezes before I finally landed on Play-Doh. That’s about how soft these are, if you can imagine. (The sugar free ones actually were not quite as soft, falling somewhere between Play-Doh and Starburst on the hard/soft continuum.) But this is where the uniformity ends, so here’s how the individual flavors played out for me:

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The purist in me always tended to shy away from fruit-flavored gums, preferring the breath-freshening qualities of mint and cinnamon. But with my previously-held flavorism so completely obliterated by Orbit Citrusmint and then Stride Mandarin, I have found myself in a much more open place regarding gum selection. And it is with this spirit that I agreed to sample and review Trident’s new Passionberry Twist (with Xylitol).

Passion fruit is not one of those flavors I’m all that familiar with: kids didn’t just whip passion fruits out of their lunch boxes when I was growing up (at least not at my grade school) and, if memory serves, it’s one of those heavily seeded, hard-skinned beasts in the produce section that doesn’t exactly seduce neophytes. I have, however, sampled it on a few occasions (in the rain forests of Brazil, or Costa Rica, or Vietnam - I can’t quite remember) and in none of those places have I vomited, so I figured it must have been benign enough. Plus, I love berries, so it seemed like a winning - if mysterious - combo worthy of nothing less than a minute-by-minute review.

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(Image Courtesy of Its Candy Bouquet)
Back in June, in my Top 10 NEW Candy Holidays list, I proposed bringing some additional sweetness to National Candy Month with the introduction of Candy Ramadan – a high holy month for Candy Addicts. Little did I expect that my words would become Gospel (how’s that for further religious bastardization?) for one reader (and self-described “depraved candy slut”), who embarked on a 30-day “religious candy pilgrimage” towards her 30th birthday, making “daily candy offerings” (read: eating candy every day) and humorously detailing it in her blog.

Her amusing posts are basically mini reviews covering candies that span 5 continents (from the regional American Big Cherry to a Japanese candy lacking an English translation) and more than a handful of decades (the classic Cow Tales to the brand spankin’ new Premium M&M’s). Her just-finished month-long journey, marked with delightfully keen descriptions and patented phrases like “violent pink,” “fruit-abetically,” and “like a kid in a porn store,” is a big FU to the dental industry and food pyramid alike and a definite must-read for Candy Addicts. So go check it out, wish her a “Happy Birthday,” make a donation to the Reese’s Piece Corps’ Operation: Af-Candy-Stan (for real!), then click below to read my interview with this disciple.

• Candy Ramadan: Days 1 - 11
• Candy Ramadan: Days 12 - 30

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All right, just finished lunch – a little Mexican (food, not person) - and I could use a little oral refreshing, if you know what I mean. I’m salivating for my all-time favorite and everyday afternoon go-to, Orbit Citrusmint gum. I’ll admit, I was skeptical of this flavor combo at first, fearing it might go the way of post-teeth-brushing orange juice, but how unfounded those fears were. Oh how I love its delicate balance, its burst of refreshing powers sans dental cleaning aftertaste. (I’m also a fan of orange-flavored toothpaste and Listerine, it should be noted, as means for washing away my sugary sins.) Yes, salsa be damned, I need some immediately! But wait… oh, that’s right, I have a box of Stride Always Mandarin waiting to be chewed and reviewed. Orbit will have to take a backseat for now… it’s Stride time. (And, as their somewhat perplexing name indicates, it’s always mandarin time.)

Okay, off the bat, the box flips down rather stealthily to expose two rows of gum and what appears to be some sort of word game, presumably to give you something to “do while you chew,” which could be a long time, apparently, as their tagline is “Ridiculously long lasting gum” and their website promises flavor that lasts “…for like… ever.” Really goin’ for that teen demo there, huh? Well time will tell, Stride, time will tell.

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I’m about to reveal a little-known Candy Addict secret about myself, something that only my three non-judgmental roommates have become privy to over the course of our mulit-year cohabitation. Late at night, to quell a raging chocolate craving, I have been known to whip up a little chocolate concoction of equal parts cocoa powder, sweetener, and soy milk or yogurt. The resulting creation falls somewhere between a glob and a paste that is not in any way intended for your casual chocolate fan. I then add things to this chocolate crack and eat it with a spoon. (Yeah, that’s right.) One of my favorite add-ins is frozen raspberries, and it is because of this that I so eagerly dove in to the latest and greatest from Hershey’s Extra Dark Collection, Hershey’s Extra Dark infused with Raspberry Flavor.

The tasting samples deviate from the traditional Hershey’s Miniatures rectangular block, instead mimicking the thinner squares of the gourmet pre-packaged chocolate sect. A good choice, in my opinion, as it presents a more pleasing oral experience. The squares, stamped with the Hershey’s logo, have a pretty strong, natural, raspberry aroma and while the chocolate didn’t boast a great “snap,” nor did it bite as hard as I’d have liked, I am willing to overlook it as that may be attributable to the fact that I enjoyed it on a sunny July afternoon in Southern California.

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Whilst on a run-of-the-mill Target trip today, I came across an exciting assortment of Endangered Species Chocolates: dark chocolate with delicious, antioxidant packed flavors and a generous spirit (10% of their net profits are donated to “support species, habitat and humanity”). What’s not to like, right? Plus, they were all natural, ethically traded, on sale, and had pictures of cute animals all over the packaging. How could I not grab every variety available and be inspired in a third grade, let’s-describe-ourselves-using-words-that-begin-with-each-letter-in-our-name kind of way? (Hey, chocolate does that to me sometimes.)

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