I’m not much of a hard-liquor drinker, so I haven’t tried this recipe, but apparently the key to a tasty drink is keeping the green (lime) Skittles out of the mix. Another key is patience. If you’re in the mood for a quick party drink, the Vodka Skittles recipe is not for you. However, if you’d like to sit down on a Thursday night and get your Saturday buzz ready, here’s your chance:

1. Get a bottle of vodka (size not specified, but I’d go with less than a gallon).
2. Sort the lime Skittles out of two regular bags, then pour the remaining candy into the vodka (evidently, lime makes it taste bad)
3. Let the concoction sit for two days, and voila! you should have a bottle of vodka fit for an adults-only candy party.

My question is, how in the world did someone come up with this idea, and how did they figure out the lime Skittles had to be removed? It must have been one die hard Candy Addict who would take the time to figure this out!

• Vodka Skittles at Extra Tasty

Skittles, fruit, alcohol, recipe, drink

I chose seven types of hot chocolate for this tasting. They are, in the order I tasted them, Hershey’s Special Dark Hot Cocoa, Cacao Reserve by Hershey’s Mayan Blend Drinking Cocoa Premium Mix, Land O’Lakes Butterscotch Hot Cocoa, Land of Lakes Mint Hot Cocoa, Swiss Miss French Vanilla Hot Cocoa, Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate Sensation Hot Cocoa, and Godiva Hot Cocoa.

The first obstacle in tasting all these cocoas was the water vs. milk debate. Some of the hot cocoas direct you to use water specifically, others say to use milk instead, and still others have water in the directions but say, “for a richer creamier treat, replace water with heated milk.” At first, I decided to follow their strict instructions, but ended up winging it a little. I always choose milk over water, but for the purposes of the review, I used water when it was called for, in most instances. On to the reviews. . .

They suggested water in their directions but optionally suggested milk for a richer, creamier treat. I’m all for richer and creamier so I used 6 ounces of 2% milk. I heated it in the microwave in a measuring cup and poured it over the cocoa in a mug. I had trouble getting all the cocoa to dissolve. I wish I had a small whisk for such a time. It was a bitter cup of hot cocoa with a sweet aftertaste that lingered. Personally, I love dark chocolate, but this was too bitter, even for me. I guess I like my hot chocolate sweeter than I like my candy bar chocolate. It did have a nice creamy foam that enhanced the experience. Afterwards, I felt like I needed to brush my teeth.

They suggested 6 ounces of hot water to make this hot cocoa and didn’t mention milk anywhere. In fact, there was some comment about the original cocoa drinkers mixing it with water, so I think they wanted you to use water, so I did. It was a very dark cocoa, maybe even darker than the “Special Dark” I had just tried. It had a weird flavor that I couldn’t really place. At first I thought it was a little nutty, although the ingredients do not mention any nuts. Then I thought it tasted kind of burnt. I did notice that tiny granules of the cocoa were visible when splashed against the side of the cup, like it didn’t dissolve or something. It really wasn’t chocolatey; that, or it just didn’t taste like any chocolate I was used to. It was smooth though, and I think it was better than the Special Dark.

As soon as I opened the package, this wonderful Butterscotch aroma came wafting towards me. It really made me eager to try it. It called for 6 ounces of water and, again, no mention of milk as an option, so I used water (against my better judgment). The powder was a pretty caramel color. When I mixed in the hot water, it was a pretty light chocolate color and had a good froth to it. It definitely had a buttery flavor. I wish I had bought two so that I could try one with milk. I think it would have been much better with milk. The froth was very tasty; it reminds me of a specialty coffee for some reason. It’s got a lingering sweetness about it. I liked it more than the others so far.

Breaktime
At this point in the tasting process, I was starting to feel a little sick. Granted, I wasn’t drinking the full cup of each type of cocoa, but still, all the sweetness was getting to me. I decided to eat a few grapes (I’ve heard they cleanse the palette), drink some water, and push on. Oh, the sacrifices we make as Candy Addicts.

This cocoa suggested water as well, but since I regretted not using milk with the Butterscotch Land O’Lakes, I went ahead and used 6 ounces of milk with the mint flavor. When I opened the package, there wasn’t a very strong mint smell to it. I had to stick my nose right up to the cup to smell any mint at all. As the milk heated in the microwave, I kept sniffing it to place the kind of mint that I smelled. In the end, I decided it smelled kind of medicinal, maybe even like that stuff you rub on your chest when you’re sick (Vap-O-Rub?), but much less strong. I poured it in the cup and poured the hot water over it and stirred well. It wasn’t very dark and the cocoa dissolved quickly and fully, no globs of cocoa. The mint flavor was very light, just kind of a light aftertaste. It was sweet though. It was rich and creamy, probably due mostly to the milk I used. It wasn’t as good as the butterscotch, that’s for sure, and I sure couldn’t drink a whole cup of it because it was so sweet. It was too sweet and not nearly minty enough.

This cocoa called for hot water, not milk, so I used water as it suggested. It created a very frothy hot cocoa and the cocoa mixed well with the hot water, no lumps. It smelled very vaguely of vanilla. When I tasted it, I was very pleased. It was delicious! It was sweet, but not too sweet. I imagine it would be very good with mini marshmallows. I didn’t use any marshmallows in my reviews, thinking that it would cover up the true cocoa flavor I was reviewing. I do love mini marshmallows though. I used to drink French Vanilla Cappuccino in college to stay awake late at night, but I never really liked coffee. This is exactly like those French Vanilla Cappuccino drinks but without the coffee. It’s perfect! This was so good that I didn’t want to pour out the rest of the mug to go on to my next cocoa tasting. The only consolation I had was that there were seven more packets in the Swiss Miss box to look forward to drinking another evening. This cocoa was cheap, lower in calories and delicious!

This cocoa called for hot water as well, so I went ahead and used it. The Swiss Miss packages say that the cocoa mix contains milk; perhaps that’s why they still taste good when you use water instead of milk. The powder was very dark. It didn’t have a very good smell to it but you could see the sugar crystals mixed in with the cocoa. It looked like it would make a very dark cocoa. When I mixed the water and cocoa, there wasn’t any froth at all. It had a rich, chocolatey taste, but not too bitter like the Hershey’s Dark I had tried earlier. It wasn’t too sweet so I could definitely drink the whole cup. It is a very indulgent cocoa, but also very good. It was like eating a candy bar. I would definitely recommend the Swiss Miss Dark. I initially rated this a 5 star hot cocoa, but after tasting the next and last cocoa, I bumped it down to 4 stars.

These directions called for 8 ounces of milk. I used 2% milk and was happy to see a hot cocoa made for milk. I love creamy hot chocolate. The cocoa melted quickly in the hot milk and smelled delicious, and oh so chocolatey. There was no white froth, just some bubbles. It was rich and creamy, like you’re drinking melted chocolate. It was the best, by far. I was glad I tasted this one last, so that I could drink the entire cup. If you can get some Godiva Hot Cocoa, please do. I found it on sale for $3.00 but it’s normally $5.00. I should have stocked up!

The Godiva is definitely better than the Swiss Miss Chocolate Sensation (even though the Swiss Miss is very good) and the Godiva has fewer calories too! If you can’t afford the $1.25 for a cup of Godiva hot cocoa, Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate Sensation is a great choice. Swiss Miss really makes some good, inexpensive cocoas – both of the Swiss Miss flavors I tried were really great. Swiss Miss makes lots of flavors and I look forward to trying them all. I think I’ll save the Godiva Hot Chocolate for special occasions.

• Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa
• Godiva Hot Cocoa
• Land O’Lakes Hot Cocoa
• Hershey’s Hot Cocoa

Buy Hot Cocoa mixes online:

• at Amazon

chocolate, cocoa, beverages, Hershey, Godiva

Maybe the whole Mentos + Diet Coke craze is well-worn. Candy Addict’s first post about this phenomenon dates back to October of 2005. In Internet historical reckoning, that’s around the same time as the extinction of the dinosaurs. Even the Mythbusters got into the act, exploring the scientific principles that govern the geyser.

Now ThinkGeek, the Web’s premier destination for all things nerdy, is selling a special kit which will let backyard Mythbusters conduct experiments of their own. For $19.99, the Great Geysers Kit includes a specially-designed quick-release tube, allowing folks to add Mentos down the neck of the bottle without having to flee for their lives afterwards. It even comes with two tubes of Mentos, so the only thing you need to provide is the two liter bottle of soda. Result: Fun and sticky science!

• ThinkGeek Great Geysers Kit
• Mentos plus Diet Coke

mentos, soda, science

We’ve all heard of how chocolate and wine pairs for those among us who have richer tastes. But Chocolate Wine? Yes, you can rejoice, it exists!

Shallon Winery in Oregon specializes in unique wines using whey and fruit to produce many tempting flavors, one of which is a Chocolate Orange wine. According to owner/wine maker Paul van der Veldt, the mixture, which sports a 10% alcohol content, is more of an intense alcoholic chocolaty syrup. The wine is very thick, syrupy and intensely chocolaty and your imagination is the limit for serving suggestions.

Shallon Winery is located in Astoria, Oregon, and welcomes visitors. If you’re in the area, it’s worth a stop in for a tour and tasting. The Chocolate Wine sells for $32 per 12 1/2 fl oz bottle, so you’ll have to splurge a little for this unique treat. If anyone has the pleasure of tasting this, please let us know how it is! Shallon Winery also makes other exotic wines such as Lemon Meringue Pie wine and Blueberry wine!

• Chocolate Wine article at Wine Press Northwest
• Chocolate Wine at Shallon Winery

chocolate, wine, alcohol, Oregon

Candy and beer—a winning combination for some, and thanks to Brew Your Own magazine, we can all enjoy home-brewed Jolly Rancher Beer.

I’ve never brewed beer before. In fact, despite living in the south for the greater part of my life, I’ve never even made moonshine. If I ever do make a foray into home brewing, I might give this recipe a try. Anything that calls for four pounds of Jolly Rancher candy sounds fun.

Here’s the ingredient list:

• 5 lbs 2-row pale malt
• 3 lbs wheat malt
• 4.0 lbs Jolly Rancher Apple hard candies
• 3 AAU Saaz hops (aged) (60 mins)
• (3.0 oz./85 g of 1% alpha acids)
• 1/4 tsp yeast nutrients
• Wyeast 3278 (Lambic Blend) yeast and bacteria
• 1.25 cups corn sugar (for priming)

Details and step-by-step directions can be found at the Brew Your Own site. The process sounds a little too complicated for me, but if you’re a home brewer who loves candy, this recipe might be just what you need. If anyone makes it or has made this before, let us know what it tastes like!

• Jolly Rancher Beer Recipe
• Jolly Rancher site

Buy Jolly Rancher candy online:

• at Candy Direct
• at Amazon.com
• at Candy Crate

Let me start off by saying that milk and I do not get along … I’m lactose intolerant. When we were recently contacted by the makers of Slammers Milk, and they offered to send some products for review, I shouted, “HECK, YES!” It wasn’t until afterward that I remembered that I’m lactose intolerant. I quickly went to the supermarket and got some Lactaid so I could consume these the Slammers without any adverse effects.

Starburst Fruit & Crème Strawberry Smoothie (Slammers Ultimate Smoothie): This smells just like a a great strawberry shake, but it tastes like watered down strawberry milk. It’s not bad and it’s sweeter then I expected it. It does have the mellow official Strawberry Starburst flavor in there which is almost an afterthought of a taste. It actually has 2% juice added to it too (apple juice in this flavor). Other Starburst flavors are also available: Mixed Berry, Orange, and Peach.

Pro Slammers Hard Chocolate: This one is just a protein drink whose taste isn’t modeled after a famous candy bar. They labeled the bottle as being “Milk with Attitude,” and there is a picture of Australian extreme rollerblader Shane Yost on the front. It’s 1% low fat milk, and a 14 oz. bottle has 24g of protein (8 more grams than regular milk). Usually, protein drinks are very powdery or chalky tasting and that is almost at a minimum in this drink’s case. The chocolate is cocoa processed with alkali (like an Oreo), but the added milk mutes that down to almost a regular milk chocolate with a hint of Oreo.

3 Musketeers low fat chocolate milk (Slammers Ultimate Milk): This also has the same alkali chocolate and tastes almost the same as the Pro Slammers Hard Chocolate, but it doesn’t have the same chalky thickness. Since 3 Musketeers is fluffy chocolate dipped in chocolate it’s a hard taste to imitate. Overall it just tastes like chocolate milk… a good chocolate milk. It also has a lot less calories and carbs than most of the chocolate milks out there. It has 1% milk fat and no sugar added (they used Splenda brand sucralose and acesulfame potassium).

Milky Way Reduced Fat Chocolate Milk (Slammers Ultimate Milk). Yum, I was saving this one for last. It has 2% milk fat and lots of real sugar. The chocolate is once again the alkali kind. It’s thicker than the 3 Musketeers Slammer, but not chalky at all. I was hoping for a strong caramel taste mixed with the chocolate, but it just wasn’t there as strong as I wanted. It’s darn good though. The best chocolate milk I have ever had. Good stuff.

• Slammers website
• slammers at Amazon.com

candy, sweets, drink, drinks, beverage, beverages, milk, Milky Way, Starburst, Moon Pie, 3 Musketeers, chocolate

Talk about disappointing. When I first wrote about deep-fried coke, it sounded wonderful! It was being offered at the Texas State fair and I could only hope it would make its way to the NC State Fair! Sure enough, it did – I was going to get to try it for myself. I love cola flavored candy and was imagining that deep fried coke would be even better than the deep fried snickers I had at last year’s state fair. I was sadly mistaken.

The only thing I can think of is that the NC vendors didn’t get the “real/official” recipe from the recipe creator and were just winging it – poorly. The concoction consisted of small funnel cake crumbles in a Coke cup with some whipped cream and a cherry on top. Cinnamon was in a shaker for you to put on yourself. The coke-flavored funnel cake just barely tasted of Coke and there was no additional Coke syrup on top as the original news article says there should be.

I tried it first without cinnamon then I added some to it and both ways it just wasn’t any good and I actually ended up throwing away half of it. If I can ever verify that they are making it correctly (and with the extra Coke syrup on top), I might try this again, but until then, I’m steering clear. I’m surprised they didn’t make deep fried Pepsi though since Pepsi was invented in New Bern, NC, not too far from Raleigh.

• Deep fried coke photo album
• Our original post about deep fried Coke

candy, sweets, Coke, cola, cocacola, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, fair, state fair, fry, fried

Jelly Belly has teamed up with several soda brands to create a new line of soda pop flavored Jelly Beans. These are fairly new, and I picked some of them up at the Philly Candy Show I went to a while back, but they should be available in stores now. I’ve always been a huge fan of soda, not necessarily the ones in this mix, but as a lover pretty much anything carbonated and flavored, I present to you my review.

The soda brands represented here are: Orange Crush, A&W Root Beer, Dr. Pepper, 7Up, A&W Cream Soda, and Grape Crush. They come in both a 3.5 mixed variety bag, or by the individual flavor in miniature bottle-shaped containers (seen above), as well as some other sizes too.

How do they taste? Pretty spot on, with the exception of the A&W Cream Soda:

• Grape Crush: My favorite out of the whole batch is the Grape Crush, which is weird because I don’t really like Grape Soda. It always feels like it is rotting my teeth as soon as I take a sip, a feeling I oddly don’t get when shoving Jelly Beans in my mouth. It also reminds me of Grape Bubblicious.
• Orange Crush: tastes like a super-sweet tangerine… really good.
• Dr. Pepper: tastes slightly fruitier than the drink. I can’t nail it down, but it’s something like cherry or strawberry.Still good though.
• 7UP: tastes much sweeter and more lime than the drink, but still very close to the drink. My package seems to be predominately 7UP for some reason.
• A&W Cream Soda: tastes like… practically nothing. Well, maybe nothing mixed with a tiny bit of vanilla mixed in. Maybe they forgot to add the flavor to my pack, but they really just taste like nothing.

Overall, these are pretty good, and fairly accurate, except for the Cream Soda. If you’re a fan of soft drinks, pick some of these up and give chewing some soda a try.

Buy Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe Online:

• at Candy Direct
• at Candy Crate

Once again, Target has cute four-packs of Limited Edition Halloween soda available. I had seen the Candy Corn Soda last year but missed out on getting some. This year, I managed to snag a 4-pack for a measly $1.49 at Target. They are made by the Jones Soda Company and since they make some great “regular” soda, I had high hopes for the Candy Corn Soda.

At first taste, it tastes just like a cream soda (which I love), but after a second there is another taste….a taste of…..YUCK. It does taste a lot like liquid candy corn and is super sweet, but it’s not good. If you pour it into a glass, it is the brightest yellow/orange drink I think I have ever seen. It looks radioactive. I thought it might glow in the dark, but alas, it doesn’t.

Target and Jones Soda also have three other flavors of Halloween soda in the same 8 oz. cans: Gruesome Grape, Spider Cider, and Berried Alive, but since those aren’t candy-related, I won’t be reviewing them (and after trying the Candy Corn Soda, I’m not sure I want to anyway).

• Limited Edition Jones Sodas
• Jones Soda Halloween cans

candy, sweets, candy corn, soda, pop, jones soda

I first found out about Fizzies a few months ago when I saw that Old Time Candy was announcing that “Fizzies are back!” I’d never heard of Fizzies – should I be happy that they are back? What are they? Why did they leave? They sound fun!

With a little investigation, I found out that Fizzies are tablets that you drop into water to create flavored, bubbly water – think of it as flavored Alka-Seltzer. They were very popular in the 50s and 60s. In fact, in 1968 they generated approximately $90 million in sales!

Unfortunately, Fizzies were sweetened with saccharin and after government studies in the late 60s concluded that saccharin was connected to some forms of cancer, Fizzies were pulled from the market when they could not get the fizzing to work with other sweeteners of the time.

The new Fizzies are now sweetened with sorbitol and sucralose (i.e. Splenda) instead and have 0 calories, 0 caffeine, 0 sugar, and 100% daily Vitamin C in just one tablet. They are round disks similar to Alka-Seltzer and they just barely fit inside the tops of most water bottles. One tablet is used in 4-6 ounces of water.

So, now I knew what Fizzies are/were, time to get some. A few emails and a week later and I had some samples for review. New Fizzies are available in seven different flavors. Unfortunately, almost every one of them is nasty tasting. The problem is, the drink is very salty from the sodium bicarbonate used to make it fizz. Here is a quick rundown of each flavor:

• Blue Razz: A tad salty, and artificially sweet. Not a great taste, but my five-year-old daughter LOVED it. Not for adults.
• Root Beer: Weird brownish color – it tastes like root beer – vaguely. I love root beer and didn’t like it and my five-year-old daughter didn’t even finish it.
• Fruit Punch: This has a really fruit punchy flavor. Kinda like watermelony lemonade.
• Orange: Tastes like a diet orange soda. Not bad, but not great.
• Cherry: Tastes a lot like cherry Kool-Aid. Pretty good actually if you can get by the saltiness.
• Lemon-Lime: Has a decent taste – sort of like a lemonade soda.
• Sour Apple: Nice and green, but it didn’t really have much flavor at all – apple or otherwise.

Honestly, these are horrible. The saltiness of them just overwhelms any good flavor you might get out of them. Having said that, they are fun to drop into the water and watch them fizz and color your water and my five year old liked the Fizzies drinks a whole lot more than I did. We even tried them straight (with no water) and that was fun – they foam like crazy in your mouth (but are still really salty).

Realistically though, I really can’t recommend these unless you remember them from your youth and want to relive those memories and/or share them with your kids – otherwise, steer clear. They say the drink is crisp and refreshing but I found it to be neither.

If you really want to try some (and don’t say I didn’t warn you), I haven’t seen them at places like Wal-mart, but some brick and mortar candy stores carry them and the online stores below carry them. The only one I have seen that sells them by individual box (and not a case) is Old Time Candy. They re $2.99 for a box of 8 tablets.

• Fizzies.com

Buy Fizzies online:

• at Old Time Candy
• at Candy Crate
• at Amazon
• at Candy Direct

candy, sweets, retro, nostalgia, fizzies, soda, 50s, 60s