Author Archives: MichelleG

Candy Review: Trio of Mexican Treats

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Pulparindo
One of the advantages to being the only Candy Addict writer outside of North America is that people send me cool stuff to try – stuff which I would never find here in Australia. In this case an Arizona-based Candy Addict sent me a bunch of weird and wonderful Mexican candy to taste test. Having grown up in Southern California, I’m no stranger to the common flavors of Mexico – tamarind, chili, mango and so on – but this is my first experience with those flavors from a confectionery perspective.

Made by de la Rosa, Pulparindo is described as a “hot and salted tamarind pulp candy” and, to my palette, it was only mildly hot and not really salty. It’s basically a pressed rectangle of tamarind, mixed with some sugar and chili. The first listed ingredient is sugar, which is pretty obvious from a textural point of view. It’s a pretty sandy thing to eat – you can hear it grinding against your teeth as you chew. Flavor-wise it’s pretty nice – but you would definitely need to be a tamarind fan in the first place! Appearance wise it’s not all that appealing, but if you’ve eaten raw tamarind before then you’re no stranger to brown patties!

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Candy Review: Tic Tac Summer Edition Flavors: Mango and Tropical Acerola

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Tic Tac Summer Edition
“Oohh, cool! New Tic Tac flavors! I think I might grab one of these mango ones… and one of these… wait! What? What the heck is a Tropical Acerola? How do you even pronounce acerola? Ahh, who cares, best buy one anyway.” That was pretty much the conversation I had in my head as I found myself looking at these “summer edition” Tic Tacs.

Eventually a bit of search engine action solved the mystery – acerola is actually a wild tropical cherry native to the West Indies. One has to wonder the thought process of a Tic Tac flavor guy sitting around and thinking, “Hmmm! I know! Let’s introduce a totally obscure fruit flavor! What about the acerola?” I, for one, am glad he didn’t choose to go with durian (hint: the ripe fruit is meant to smell like rotting human flesh). (And I bet you didn’t think you would ever see the expression “rotting human flesh” on a candy website! Hey, I like to keep it interesting.)

Having never tried an actual acerola, I can only say that the Tic Tac version is quite nice. It actually tastes like a cross between raspberry and mint, with a decidedly “hot” feeling on your tongue. It works really well as a more gentle type of mint with an added dash of the tropical, and it really did have a summery taste to it.

Mango is one of those flavors which I think is very hard to reproduce in candy – a bit like banana, you never really get a true fruit flavor coming through. This one, like the acerola, is slightly spicy in nature. The first taste is actually pretty mango-ish and the flavor stays around for quite a while.

While neither of these set my world on fire, they were nice additions to the Tic Tac flavors already out there. Given that it’s currently winter Down Under, they served as a nice reminder of days by the beach and drinks by the pool. Now if only I could somehow convince Candy Addict to sponsor an acerola tasting trip to the West Indies….

Buy Tic Tacs online:

Candy Design Anomalies: Gummi Lighthouses

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Gummy Bears

If you knew me in real life, you would know that very little shocks me. I’m one of those people who finds things like comic strips and stand up comedians funny, but rarely laughs out loud. Every once in a while, though, something comes along which makes me not only laugh, but laugh long and loud enough to justify sharing it with my friends. In this case, as the cause of my endless laughing was a candy, I felt compelled to share it with the wider Candy Addicted world.

I am, of course, talking about gummi lighthouses.

The thing that perplexes me, of course, is that I have no idea why anybody would think about making a gummi lighthouse in the first place. The whole gummi animal thing makes sense to me – fish and bears and little tiny people are kinda cute. Gummi fruit is a total no-brainer – because it makes logical sense to make a candy look like the flavor of fruit it is. Random shapes like rings and squares and soda bottles also make sense. Lighthouses? Yeah. Not so much.

One wonders if this is some sort of subliminal message. (You’ll have to click on the link below to see what I mean.)

For the purposes of not harming small children in the making of this article, a photo of the actual product can be found at this link:

(Thanks to Bob at http://pfdebate.com for the tip – no pun intended)

Candy Review: X-Treme Sour Candy

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X-Treme Sour Candy

Here at Candy Addict, we’ve already determined that when it comes to sour candy, there is sour, and then there is sour. I had pretty much given up my search for anything which would satisfy my sour-deprived taste buds, until I came across X-Treme Sour Candy. It had the picture of someone’s head being blown up, the “Caution: X-Tremely Sour” warning and it even came in a cute little rocket-shaped container.

The thing which made me buy it was actually the health warning, in small print, on the label: “CAUTION: Eating multiple pieces at the same time or within a short time of each other may cause an irritation to sensitive tongues and mouth. This may vary from a slight irritation to a severe reaction depending on the individual.” Yippee! Candy eating as an extreme sport? I’m in! As you can imagine, I wasted no time on these, especially as the flavor mix included cola, strawberry, apple, and blue raspberry.

The candies are individually wrapped, with the color of wrapper relevant to the flavor inside. Each candy is about the size of a nickel – so fairly substantial, really. The first sensation you get is of extreme sourness (similar to a WarHead) – the kind which makes your tongue curl and your hair straighten.

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Candy Review: Butterfinger Crisp

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Butterfinger Crisp

Even though I ate this Butterfinger Crisp about a month ago, I kept the wrapper for article writing purposes. Now I find myself sitting here, sniffing the wrapper and desperately wishing it still had some candy inside. It’s a 180 turn around for me, because when I got it I wasn’t really all that excited about it. I’m just not a die-hard Butterfinger fan – while I like the texture and flavor, I find the whole thing just a bit too sweet.

This bar is a huge improvement on the original. It still has the delicate flakiness of a Butterfinger bar, but it’s sandwiched between several layers of plain wafers, and then the entire thing is covered with chocolate. It’s the love child of a giant Kit Kat and a classic Butterfinger, only way better.

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