I’m not a stranger to “healthy” candy, nor are my views on it anything but direct: there really isn’t such a thing. So if you’re looking for a candy that’s going to be something I recommend you add to your diet, you can stop reading now.

That said, I do believe there is a difference between candy and candy that is better for you. And with childhood obesity on the rise, more and more parents are looking for these sorts of confectionery avenues. Kids are always going to want to eat sweets, so you might as well buy them the ones that are not as hard on their bodies.

Recently, I have reviewed products from companies that share this vision for candy, namely from Surf Sweets and BrightSpot, so it’s not all that surprising to hear of more and more companies adopting this mantra. The latest comes from Yummy Earth, who proudly boast a tagline that their candy is “The best stuff on earth.” Hmm… Snapple anyone?

The idea for this company is steeped in genuine love of both candy and children; the founders are two fathers who teamed up develop a candy for their children that didn’t rely on all the additives, preservatives, etc. that are common in most American candy.

Read More »

I’ve been on hiatus from the candy world ever since I relocated to Montana for graduate school. My days seem to be riddled with homework and the correcting of grammatical mistakes made by the students in the freshmen composition course that I teach. Have you ever tried reading 24 essays for split infinitives, misuse of appositives, and the lack of proper semicolon use? Let’s just say it makes for a very draining experience.

Luckily, the kind folks over at Bubble Chocolate knew just how to perk up my day by mailing me a sample of their chocolate. In what world is free chocolate not a good thing?

I had never heard of this company, which makes sense considering they are new and based on the East Coast. But I have heard of and consumed similar products. Aerated chocolate, the candy term for such a confection, is something I first discovered in New Zealand with Nestle’s Aero, but have seen in many forms since.

For those of you not familiar with aerated chocolate, my best equivalent is to compare crème fraiche to meringue: they are both similar in consistency and appearance, but the latter is much lighter. Bubble Chocolate comes in two varieties: milk and dark chocolate.

Read More »

I have a ton of candy left to review from the All Candy Expo, but I decided I needed a small break from upcoming candy to review some of the candy I already had that happens to have a short lifespan.

My good friend Greg was kind enough to pick up some candy for me from his recent expedition to Europe, which resulted in me receiving a box of Pierre Marcolini truffles. For those of you not familiar with Mr. Marcolini’s work, he is a Parisian chocolatier who travels the world in order to find the best ingredients and flavors for his chocolate.

The round, 15-piece box containing small, spherical truffles dusted in cocoa and set in what looks like a couture hatbox is valued at almost $50, so these are most likely out of your typical Candy Addict’s price range. I was super excited to try them knowing I would otherwise probably never taste such a thing.

Read More »

Rasinets are a candy that is completely lost to me. That’s not to say I don’t love chocolate-covered raisins, because I do, but rather that I don’t like to spend my money on them. I get plenty as gifts, and for some reason my Jewish family always has them in bowls for the plucking when we gather for the holidays. I consume enough of them without having to pay for them.

So when I was a kid and all my friends bought Rasinets at the movies, I went for the Sour Patch Kids and never really ventured past that comfort candy. I can easily claim I have more fingers than the number of Rasinets I have eaten in my lifetime.

Flash-forward to this year’s All Candy Expo, and lo and behold Nestle is debuting a new product – Cranberry Raisinets. Well, my first thought is it would be far catchier and there’d be fewer syllables if they were called “Craisinets.” My second thought is that these might actually be worth trying.

Read More »

Healthy candy is an oxymoron to me. It’s not that healthy food tastes bad, but rather that there’s little in candy that can be deemed nutritious. But after dark chocolate was discovered to contain some of the highest concentration of antioxidants, candy began to be repackaged with a healthier spin.

These days, it’s not unusual to see a bag of gummies touting they’re filled with “antioxidants;” that’s a brilliant marketing ploy that really means there’s vitamin C, most likely in the form of ascorbic acid, in there. And though something that has vitamin C in it seems healthy, you ingest more than enough in your everyday diet, as evidenced by the few cases of scurvy we hear about.

At the All Candy Expo, it was impossible to saunter by a booth trying to sell snake oil with claims of why their product was so healthy. It has pomegranate! Made with real fruit juice! No artificial flavors! Only 100 calories! I like candy, but I’m very skeptical about eating it when I’m being fooled into eating it for the wrong reasons.

There was one seemingly odd exception to this rule. When I approached the BrightSpot booth, a small candy company based in Chicago, they began trying to extol the virtues of their candy. I seemed pretty blase about their speech until I heard words like “probiotics.” I was definitely intrigued and curious when I was given a bag of each of their Gimmie Chocolate Candies.

Read More »