Willy Wonka. The name just induces candy coma fantasies. So, when I was at the mall recently, I noticed this new Wonka machine and juts had to check it out. thought it was very cool. I’ve always been a big fan of Wonka candies since I was a little girl (the movie helped too).

The machine is all touch-screen operated and it takes a few steps to get your candy. The candy is dispensed from the tubes you see in the front left of the machine (yes it’s the actual candy you get not some plastic display). You first decide how many scoops you want and then which candy you want (you can get a different one for each scoop). The final step is feeding the machine your cash or you can use a credit card. The candy is then dispensed into a nice plastic container with a lid. Really cool and a very modern way of vending.

Now here’s the downside. It cost me three dollars for two scoops. I chose Everlasting Gobstoppers and Chewy Berry Spree. The two scoops I received for $3 was about the equivalent of a small handful. You can see by my photo that it really was not much. I could buy a full box of Gobstoppers at the store for less than a dollar. In order to fill up this nice little container it would have cost me $7. I think I actually just paid for the plastic tub and not much else. If you see one at your mall, I suggest you wait and watch someone else spend their money. It’s really neat to watch but not worth the cost for what you get.

• The Wonka Website
• Buy Wonka Candy Online

Craftgossip has a cool list of 9 different crafts you can make with conversation hearts. I never really cared for the taste of them, so maybe I should start making stuff with them instead!

• 9 Conversation Hearts Crafts

Great for the special person in your life, or just to add some sweet fun to any room, our new Jellio Seat Hearts are the perfect way to show your romantic side. Choose from “Love You”, “Be Mine” or “Hug Me”.

Colors:
Pink, Plum or Yellow

Size:
24” wide x 20” deep x 17” high.

Materials:
Vinyl over foam. wooden legs

Jellio makes the kind of cool furniture I just wish I had the money to buy. Be sure and check out all of their other cool furniture too.

• Jellio Seat Hearts

Brainy Harvard professor and inventor David Edwards has recently unveiled Le Whif, a breakthrough creation that allows chocoholics to inhale (through their mouths) chocolate particles (or, let’s call a spade a spade here, powder) so minuscule that they deliciously dust the sides of one’s mouth and tongue without so much as registering on the calorie scale. It’s an intriguing concept that’s kind of hard to imagine in practical form, so my interest was piqued when I was offered the chance to sample this fantasy product.

A few days later, I received a USPS envelope containing some Space Age-y packages and a basic PR product card. No note or instructions or suggestions as to how one might want to approach Le Whif. Fortunately, I was able to find a (surprisingly detailed) how-to guide buried in the FAQs of their website and, along with a carefully heeded (and much appreciated) warning not to inhale too vigorously for fear of coating the inner workings of my respiratory system with chocolate dust, I forayed into the world of no-cal candy.

Unsurprisingly, what this amounts to is chocolate air. In a cute but not especially Earth-friendly plastic tube. Le Whif comes in four flavors: plain chocolate, raspberry chocolate, mint chocolate, and mango chocolate, three of which I got to sample.

Plain Chocolate (or “American Whif”)
What can I say? It tastes like chocolate. I guess I expected it to be slightly bitter, like cocoa powder, but it wasn’t. It was good. I daresay it was the most delightful puff of chocolate air I’ve ever had.

Mint Chocolate (or “English Whif”)
Mmm, refreshing. A typical mint/chocolate experience. Felt like a little snow flurry in my mouth. I’m not sure if this combo is endemic to Britain but, truth be told, it conjured up stronger images of Switzerland for me.

Mango Chocolate (or “Caribbean Whif”)
Again, good flavor here. It wasn’t outright mango-licious but, sure, it felt a little Island-y.

Once I got the hang of it, the Le Whif contraption was relatively easy to master. They say that it contains approximately four chocolate puffs, but I found two emptied it pretty sufficiently. And while they suggest that, between puffs, you can close Le Whif and store it in your pocket, I think I’d likely want to slap anyone who felt the need to save their second puff “for later.”

Overall, I was underwhelmed by Le Whif. It’s an exemplary replacement for air, less so for candy. The approximately three seconds of excitement I got from it hardly seem worth the price (over $2 per canister and currently only available through their website), though it seems tailor-made for extreme dieters and those having trouble quitting smoking because they just miss the inhaling part too damn much. So that’s my expert opinion, which I will couple with this official Candy Addict plea: Someone please get that genie back in its bottle before it unceremoniously bastardizes other good things like cheesecake, Christmas, and sex.

• Le Whif’s Website

Making great looking letters and numbers with candy has been a problem in the past, but not so any more. Here is a product called Letter Ice (and the numbers are called, appropriately, Number Ice). They are silicone letter and number molds. They are great for ice, jello, butter, chocolate, shortbread cookies, muffins, lollipops, etc. I made some lemonade ice cubes with them and my daughter loved them and I made a “7″ cube to put in her drink on her 7th birthday.

I didn’t get to try making some candy with them – I’m more of a candy eater than a candy maker. The pictures on the website do make it look easy to do though. The only problem for me is that for me to spell CANDYADDICT I would have to do multiple batches (2 C’s, 2 A’s, 3 D’s) or buy multiple mold sets. The company is currently looking for a distributor so hopefully we will see these in stores soon.

• Letter Ice and Number Ice website

I’ve never eaten sardines – gummy or otherwise – but I have marveled at the cool tins that efficiently package the dead fish. The Squishy Fishies container mimics a real sardine tin, and even comes with a key to turn to open the lid. I have to admit, I love this idea. I’m a sucker for tins (even if they’re not actually tin), and the fake sardine gimmick just seems like a whole lot of fun. Plus, the gummy fish are fruit-flavored, not fish-flavored, which makes the product much more appealing.

Sadly, for gummy candy fans, not even a full ounce of Squishy Fishies are inside each can, but I’m okay with that because I like the package so much. Plus, as the folks at Stupid.com point out, you can reuse the tin after the candy’s gone. For $2.29, I think the Squishy Fishies are a bargain. I’ve seen a lot less funny stuff for a lot more money, and the fake sardine tin would look great in my collection of random candy paraphernalia.

Buy Squishy Fishies Online:

• at Stupid.com

gummy, fish, gross, tins, collectible

The candy dork in me totally loves the things these guys come up with. All their furniture is based on images or items from childhood pursuits – from the Cupcake Seat to the Lite Table. They’ve also got a Candy Table – which unfortunately isn’t filled with candy (break glass for emergencies?) but instead with loads of plastic squirt guns.

Given that they make custom furniture, maybe we’ll have to convince them to fill those tables with some real candy – imagine it filled with Jelly Belly jellybeans! Better yet would be filling it with a whole selection of candy and then inserting a trap door whereby one could take out pieces to eat… uh-oh. Me thinks the IKEA el cheapo coffee table might be better for my waistline and my pocketbook (although certainly not as fun!)

• Jellio.com

Gone are the days when a t-shirt or other non-edible item with a candy logo was a rare find. I can walk through almost any major store now and find something with a candy theme – scarves, pillows, even dog treats. Is it licensing overkill, or just good fun? I’m still on the fence, but I have to admit, I was thrilled to find the new over-sized PEZ dog treat dispensers (made by Pet-Riffic) at Walgreens.

I wasn’t happy just because one of the varieties is a Smiling Beagle, and I have a beagle. I was thrilled because the product actually mimics a real PEZ dispenser. So, I guess for me, when the non-candy item is reasonably representative of the original, I’m fine with it. The price on the Walgreens display as well as the price on the box said $9.99, but when it was rung up at the register, the total before tax was only $5.99, and the receipt said “SALE” next to “PEZ for Pets.”

I was pleasantly surprised, and briefly entertained by the idea of buying another dispenser as a collector’s item, until I realized I’d spent a good portion of my weekend building an outdoor shed because my living quarters are too full of stuff already. For you collectors out there though, each dispenser goes for $20 at the PEZ Collector’s Store.

The dog treat PEZ dispenser works just like the candy version, and in addition to the Smiling Beagle, comes in the Toothy St. Bernard style. You load the stem with the included dog treats, slide the contraption back together, and pull up on the dog’s head to dispense the goodies.

As for the quality of the included snacks, I didn’t taste them, but canine taste-testers Jessie and Otis seemed to love them. The snacks smelled rancid and are made of yucky ingredients (corn starch, rice starch, sorbitol, maltose, and artificial flavors), but the dogs devoured them. The treats did have to be removed from the dispenser and fed by hand, but the dogs didn’t seem to mind.

There are only six bone-shaped dog treats in each package. I found some refills for the dispenser on eBay, but, I’d rather not give my pups more of those nasty-smelling snacks. Novelty is fun, but I think I’d prefer to give the guys something that at least has real meat in the ingredients. I don’t need any more Candy Addicts competing with me in the house!

PEZ, dogs, pets, collectible

When I figured out that my love for all things chocolate and candy was a little more intense that your average Joe, I did what most any person would do. I looked for ways to incorporate my love of sugar into my personal style! I sought out clothing, scarves, pillows, and anything I could get my hands on.

The problem was that once I graduated college and started living in the adult world, I began to crave ways to still show my love of candy in a more sophisticated way. I wanted my apartment to read “young professional” rather than “pig tailed preteen” with bright pink pillows all over my IKEA couch. I did find that candy coffee table books work nicely, but then the problem of too many nice books and not enough surface space arose. What’s a candy lover to do?

Buy some chocolate coasters, of course! These beautifully designed coasters look exactly like chocolate bars and are perfect for keeping your surface clean from whatever drinks you currently have on hand. They even come in two kinds, brown and off white, depending on your chocolate preference! The coasters are sold by Animi Causa, an Israeli design company with an impressive portfolio of work. Considering how beautiful the chocolate coasters are, it makes me want to commission them to outfit my apartment in candy furniture! Sadly, that isn’t possible.

A set of the chocolate coasters will cost you $12.95, which is a good deal considering how beautiful and well made they are. My only remaining problem is: which set do I order? The milk chocolate or the white chocolate? I love them both! Which one would you choose?

• Chocolate Coasters by Animi Causa

decor, design, house, home, Israel

At the All Candy Expo earlier this year, I happened upon this Wii Candy Dispenser protected behind a glass case and I had to stop. It was at the Au’some Candies booth along with a bunch of their other Nintendo-themed candy. The company showed it to me behind the glass so I never actually got to touch it but I did take the picture you see above. It looks like it dispenses blue disc candy from the top… maybe using one of the controller buttons? Perhaps these will be easier to find than a real Wii (curse you Nintendo)!

Au’some Candies has a few other new Nintendo candies coming out soon too. One of them is the Mario Kart DS Candy Container seen at left. It’s a stack of black tires about 6 inches high and it’s filled with candy. On top is a removable kick-ass Mario Kart on top about the size of a Matchbox car. Freakin sweet! (I have one and it’s great!), These are in stores now.

• Comprehensive list of Nintendo Candy
• Au’some Candies

Buy Nintendo candy online:

• at Amazon.com
• at Knuckle Sandwich Toys

Nintendo, video game