If given the choice between eight perfectly blissful, uninterrupted hours of sleep or a Happy Goat Caramel graze-for-all, I think it’s pretty obvious which option I’d choose. Sure, I’m a sucker for sweets in their various incarnations, but in light of the sheer volume of confections currently in the marketplace, a product truly has to have that certain je ne sais quoi for me to become a repeat consumer.

Happy Goat fits the bill, but not because I’m easily swayed by hipster-approved ingredients. As nice as certified organic, ethically-produced edibles are, the proof is in the actual pudding, which in this case I’d be more than happy to slather directly on my tongue in copious amounts.

Each individual, cellophane-wrapped, pliable to the touch piece possesses an amber radiance punctuated with flecks of Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean. Homemade in appearance, the small-batch caramel treasure, upon being unwrapped, tastes just as good as it looks thanks to a hormone and antibiotic-free goat milk caramel base bolstered with goat milk butter, corn syrup, and organic sugar. The gingerbread-like warmth of this particular variety is achieved through the addition of a harmonious marriage of cloves, Ceylon cinnamon, ginger and allspice.

It’s worth noting that goat’s milk is naturally lower in fat than cow’s milk, so adding it to a caramel recipe will automatically yield a final product that, while still delicious, will seem far less “buttery” than other artisan-style caramels. This doesn’t render it any less enjoyable than bovine versions, however. It’s simply just a different type of adult caramel – one that both intrepid foodies and lactose-intolerant individuals with an appreciation for sophisticated spice blends will happily embrace.

If you make a conscious effort to consume foods that are free of genetically modified ingredients and agricultural chemicals, then you’ll be encouraged to learn that Happy Goat earns a natural foodie stamp of approval for their commitment to grazing their goat herd on 100% vegetarian, totally unadulterated, ruminant-friendly munchies such as alfalfa, clover and hay. Lazing about the rolling hills and dales of the countryside, the San Francisco based confectioner’s bearded brood is free to roam where they like – and that general contentment translates into a fresh, light, and yes – truly tasty – goat milk-based product.

Easily chewable, a Happy Goat caramel will quickly dissolve in your teeth without posing a threat to dental work. If it didn’t clearly state on the package that goat’s milk was a main ingredient, you really wouldn’t be able to tell the difference – it just tastes creamy-good, and with just 3.5 grams of fat per three piece 95 calorie serving, you’ll feel pretty cheerful about eating it, too.

Boy, what a mouthful. Right out of the gate, a flood of divinely rich and surprisingly unsweetened dark chocolate will envelop your taste buds. The cacao works particularly well, offering a sobering balance to the innate sweetness of the corn syrup and organic sugar-enriched caramel base described above. As with its winter spice-laden compadre, this flavor variety rapidly dissolves into nothing more than a fond memory, with random salt and sugar crystals desperately clinging onto tooth enamel, ultimately in vain.

Hmmmm… sea salt is listed as the final of seven total ingredients and while it continues to be the hip and trendy thing for candy companies to include in their sweets, there’s only the slightest suggestion of its presence. Frankly, this caramel is pretty darn delicious as-is, and even if it contained a heavier dash of salt (or, conversely, nothing more than a single grain of it), I’d still be more than enthusiastic about revisiting my package several times throughout the day. Sea salt junkies may experience a wee bit of a letdown, but that will soon pass once they realize that they’ve finally stumbled upon a worthwhile caramel that offers all of the pleasure with none of the hypertension pain.

Whether you lean toward the spicy side of things or you like your sweets chocolatey delicious, the ten dollar investment for Happy Goat’s four ounce package of caramels is money well spent. I know – that probably sounds kind of insane (helloooo, we’re in a recession!) but goats with a pep in their step clearly crank out some seriously sultry caramely goodness.

• Happy Goat Website

The 143 year old company has achieved the adoration of the masses, not for their gummy candies or candy corns, but for their ever-enduring collection of creatively flavored “gourmet” jelly beans.

As with the majority of their confectionery biz campadres, Jelly Belly wisely rolls out new products every now and again in an effort to successfully pique the interest of short attention spanned sugar junkies like myself.

Not surprisingly, I have gamely sampled everything from their super fruit-boosted, smoothie-inspired and citrusy, Sunkist-inspired assortments to their carbonated soda copycats and much maligned, taste bud taunting Bean Boozled jelly beans.

Compared to the pedestrian, sugar-coated jelly beans that I naively gobbled up in my youth – which were nothing more than glow-in-the-dark colored, highly refined cane globules – Jelly Belly makes consistently palate pleasing, flavorific beans that have become the reliable go-to fix for fans of chewy little nibbleys.

Chocolate Dips, are certainly a happy little addition to Jelly Belly’s candy empire. Unlike their hard-shelled brethren, these particular beans are liberated from their tough exterior and instead plunged into a very thin coating of glossy, dark, confectioners glaze-laden chocolate which makes for a pretty nifty chewing experience.

While the company apparently sells a five-flavor assortment packaged in a 4.15 ounce box (which includes chocolate-dipped coconut, orange, raspberry, strawberry, and cherry jelly beans), I’ve never seen it in person. Instead, I found an abbreviated selection of the chewy cocoa-covered wonders in 2.8 ounce peg bags (in coconut, orange, cherry, and mint) at a local candy haunt – so I snapped up one of each.

Are you now wondering if you should bother seeking these babies out?

First of all, do yourself a solid and avoid Jelly Belly’s Chocolate Dips in “Mint”… that is, if you’re not a fan of what comes off as being a medicine-like candy. You’d think that I was a card-carrying member of the mint-haters club but in addition to drinking several cups of peppermint tea after dinner, I make a habit of using a mint toothpaste and mouthwash combo twice a day, so what gives?

Quite simply, Jelly Belly’s beanologists were so heavy-handed with the breath-freshening flavor that in spite of its glossy dark chocolate robe, their eensie weensie brown bean is flat-out unpleasant and dare I say far too “earthy” for something masquerading as candy. Imagine ripping a 6 inch piece of mint straight out of your garden (with soil still clinging to the roots), shoving the whole piece in your mouth, and masticating for five minutes. Yup… that’s sort of what happened in my mouth. A chlorophyll-dirt explosion. Bleccchhh!

On the other hand, this sinus-clearing flavor would make a mighty fine post-meal freshening agent. Suck on one or two and you’d be good to go, but truth be told, I haven’t yet returned to my barely-touched bag, which methinks is a bad sign overall.

Things aren’t all doom and gloom in the world of Chocolate Dips however, especially with regard to Jelly Belly’s Very Cherry and Orange flavors. Consistency wise, they’re chewy in a fruity pate gel kind of way which made me a happy camper. The longer I allowed the cherry variety to sit on my tongue, the more apparent the stone fruit flavor became, whereas the orange version was consistently bright and full-bodied from beginning to end.

Does the chocolate exterior really enhance the overall experience? The package gives no indication of the actual cacao content, but it matters not. Once you emerge past the confectioners glaze, move through the perfectly palatable thin chocolate layer and into the heart of the juicy, jelly center, all is good in the candy neighborhood. Jelly Belly’s fruit flavored Dips were fun to munch and tasty through and through.

Let’s not neglect the coconut variety – despite my somewhat low expectations, I found it to be a surprising triumph. While some might feel that perhaps a milk chocolate exterior would be better suited to such a lovely little flavor escape, I found its dark coating to be especially well-suited to the oven toasted, macaroon-like interior.

Gourmet sugar junkies may require a bit more motivation before jumping on board the Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips train, but for those seeking a better than average flavor-boosted chew, their beans deliver the goods for a respectable $1.50 per bag.

• Jelly Belly Website

If we focus exclusively on all of bacon’s nitrates and nitrites, the cured darling of the foodie circuit surely wrecks havoc on one’s innards…but some risks are worth taking on occasion solely for the happiness factor alone. If you are committed to treating your taste buds to something a bit special that is clearly off the beaten path, this is certainly one way to do it.

The bacon trend has admittedly jumped the shark 100 times over – bacon toothpaste and bacon-infused vodka, oh pul-eeeze! – but there are select, venerable companies that have managed to incorporate the perennial breakfast table favorite into their confections with particular success, as has been the case with Vosges Haute-Chocolate’s Mo’s Bacon Bar and Lollyphile’s Maple Bacon Lollipops.

Well, Brooklyn, New York-based Nunu Chocolate also deserves a rousing round of jubilant snorts for their take on this goofy yet enduring pop culture obsession in light of the glossy sophistication of their Bacon Toffee Bar. No, really…they’ve created an utterly refined Audrey Hepburn-like delight that secretly smacks of all of the guilty pop culture pleasure that only Fonzie and his infamous thumbs-up ‘Ayyyy!’ gesture could illicit. This bar is perfectly designed to hoard late at night when no one is looking, and you’ll secretly feel like a royalty while doing it.

Now, close your eyes and envision an ample slab of amber-tinted bacon toffee liberally dipped in a nice thick coating of sustainably produced dark chocolate – this is anything but a Skor bar experience. Upon carefully hacking a mouth-sized chunk off with a knife, allow the morsel to melt as slowly as possible (rather than caving into Tootsie Roll Pop chomping syndrome) and you’ll be privy to two toothsome sensations in one shot.

The initial mouth feel will be what you might expect of a firm artisan-style toffee, promptly giving way to a caramel-like, not too sweet-not too savory chewing experience studded with chewy piggy nuggets that happily linger in the molars for at least a few minutes before you move onto the next bite. With each additional piece you indulge in, you’ll become increasingly hot and bothered until you realize that you’ve polished off the entire bar, forcing you to lick the inside of the wrapper just in case any residual niblets remain.

As sweet treats go, this is one costly affair – a single portion retails for $7.00! – but some of the very best handcrafted edibles in life are well-worth selling one’s dusty old books for. With each bite of Nunu Chocolates’ Bacon Toffee Bar, it becomes apparent that they aren’t messing around. They take their confectionery art incredibly seriously and are obviously committed to selling not only a superior product but a transcendent culinary journey. Consequently, it is with understandable pomp and circumstance that this sublime Bacon Toffee Bar has officially entered the annals of sugar rush history courtesy of our highly coveted CandyAddict.com Awesomely Addictive Candy Award.

• Nunu Chocolates’ Website

It seems like your basic caramel has become a thing of the past. Everywhere I look there are all kinds of fancy caramels topped with special salt from Hawaii or the Himalayas. I’ve also seen flavored caramels like pumpkin or even varieties made with tea. I’ve actually never really wanted to try any of these new fangled caramels but after trying these sea salt caramels from Sweet Pete’s, I’ve developed a new point of view.

Sweet Pete’s candies are also handmade and I’m a HUGE fan handmade products. I’ve been buying all kinds of handmade products for years and you can never beat the quality. This is especially true with any handmade candy I’ve purchased. That being said, I am officially addicted to Sweet Pete’s Sea Salt Caramels. Even though the samples I had did not last long, I can tell you that these Sea Salt Caramels from Sweet Pete’s are of high quality and have a fantastic taste. Trust me when I say that you will not be disappointed.

They are not goopy or chewy in texture like what you would normally expect in a caramel. They are a bit more “solid” but they are very smooth, milky and they just melt in your mouth. Instead of putting the sea salt on top of the finished product as I have seen everywhere else, the sea salt is in the caramel. The combination of that sea salt and the buttery, milky caramel is just sooooo good. Neither flavor overwhelms the other, but they work in such a great harmony together to give you a wonderful candy eating experience.

Sweet Pete’s makes small batches every day since they use no preservatives. That’s good because then you know when you place an order you’re going to get a fresh product. That’s the kind of quality I want in anything I eat. These are simply the best caramels I’ve ever eaten.

• Sweet Pete’s Website
• Buy Caramel Candy Online

Parisian chocolate truffles. Need I say more? These treasures come from Paris’ La Cure Gourmande shop. With shops scattered through Europe, La Cure Gourmande confections can’t be purchased in the States, so you’ll have to pick them up in person or hope that you’re the lucky recipient of a gift.

From the instant you see the old-fashioned truffle box you’ll get excited. As you pull off the decorative golden ribbon and lift the box lid, you’ll be greeted by the sweetest, delicate scent of French chocolate. And you’ll notice a little flavor booklet provided in the box so you can take delight in identifying the marriage of flavors you’re about to consume.

Once you’ve come this far, you’re ready to dive into the sampling. I sampled an assortment box of 16, all different flavors. The box included rich milk and dark chocolates, flavored with subtle traces of almond, hazelnut, cherry, raspberry, coffee and sesame, to name a few. From the pleasant aroma as you remove each truffle to the creaminess of the first bite as your mouth gets coated in chocolate, your taste buds absorb every flavor.

Though the sugary taste isn’t overly powerful, the explosion of flavors is rich. So it’s best to eat just one or a couple at a time. These aren’t the type of candies you will want to mindlessly just pop in your mouth at the movies. Like most truffles, to truly enjoy them, you must appreciate each one and each flavor that makes it up.

• La Cure Gourmande
• Buy chocolate truffles online

I’m just a HUGE chocolate and mint addict. I’m always on the lookout for something new that deals with chocolate mint and I will always try any candy that has that yummy combination no matter what. This time I found these Dark Chocolate (63% cocoa) Thin Mints from Haviland which is a sub-brand of Necco I found at my local CVS.

The first thing I noticed is that these are really thin mints. The photos on the box show something more along the lines of miniature York Peppermint patties with a thick mint center. That is not the case. The mint center is very thin and so is its dark chocolate coating. Luckily you get a lot of mints in the package which makes this a great deal for the money I paid.

These chocolate mints are actually very good. The flavors work in harmony together so that neither one overpowers the other. I’ve had some chocolate mints where there was way too much mint compared to the chocolate. Thin as these layers are, they work together extremely well. It’s a refreshing mint that’s complemented by the dark chocolate.

Another nice thing about these mints is that they are labeled “all natural” which can be misleading from time to time. Looking at the package the ingredient list is small and contains all the things I would hope to find in a product like this. These Haviland Mints were a pleasant surprise tucked away in the candy aisle at CVS. I love when I just pick something up for the heck of it and it ends up being really good.

• Necco Haviland Brand Website
• Buy Chocolate Mints Online

Right before Father’s Day, I had posted about Beercandy and how it would make a great gift for Dads everywhere. I mentioned in that post that I was planning to order some of their products for my beer loving husband for Father’s Day. After all, what could be better for a beer-loving guy? Well, I spoke true and now I can tell you all about their Beer Taffy. I would have also reviewed the Beer Caramels, but sadly, since it was a Father’s Day gift after all, they were consumed before I could taste the. I had asked him for some details that I could include in the review but all he could tell me was that they were the best caramels he ever had.

If you are expecting that the Beer Taffy is going to be a sweet piece of chewy taffy with just a hint of beer flavor, like I did, then you’ll be in for a surprise. It’s nothing at all like I expected. If you like your taffy thick and chewy, then you’ll be very pleased. It literally took me 5 minutes to chew one of these. Your mouth will definitely get some exercise.

If you like the taste beer, then you’re going to love this candy. There are only two beers used to make the taffies, IPA and Stout. Both the IPA and the Stout taffy were equally strong in flavor, even though Stout is a normally a much stronger beer. There’s not much sweetness to this taffy, just enough to qualify them as candy, but the main flavor is beer. The best way I can describe this candy is “chewable beer”.

So, if you’re a beer lover and a taffy lover, you’ll really enjoy this candy. It’s a great combination of both handcrafted beers and candy. I like a good beer myself every now or then but to me it was strange to chew some beer rather than drinking it down. Then again, there’s no cans or bottles to worry about, you won’t need a beer cozy to keep it cool, and you sure don’t need a bottle opener!

• Beercandy Website

With a name like “Firecracker,” you would assume the marketing team just chose a word that sounded exciting to make you think their chocolate bar was also exciting. Turns out, Firecracker is the perfect way to describe this chocolate! No, there aren’t literal fireworks, but the closest thing you can get and still ingest it: popping candy. The bar also boasts dark chocolate, chipotle, and salt.

So imagine if you will: a smooth bar of dark chocolate. You bite into it and taste an above average chocolate flavor, and then you’re hit with the warming sensation of chipotle pepper (it’s not overwhelmingly spicy in this bar, but rather subtle). Your tongue next detects that this candy is slightly salty, and then *POP* goes the popping candy. The popping distracts you for several seconds, and then you remember there are other things for you to taste here. You will yourself to ignore the popping and focus on the salty chocolate flavor.

Mmm, it’s pretty good!

Verdict: This candy bar is definitely worth a try. It’s tasty, and highly entertaining. Definitely a good one to share with friends.

Pros: Lots going on, something for everyone, good amount of spiciness and salt, the entertainment of popping candy in your chocolate. Non-GMO ingredients.

Cons: These cost a bit less than $4, so they are high on the spendy scale. Depending on your personality type, there might be too much going on in one bar of chocolate.

• Buy Chuao Chocolatier’s Firecracker bar at Wal-Mart stores

I’m a huge fan of Lindt chocolates. I could eat Lindt chocolate all day long if I could. There used to be a Lindt outlet store near my home when I lived in Virginia and I used to stock up there once a month. So, I gladly “volunteered” to review these three Lindt chocolate bars that Candy Addict was sent. All three of these bars are made with 70% cocoa, which basically means that they are 70% dark chocolate and 30% other delectable ingredients.

70% Cocoa

This bar is the “plain” version in the bunch. In my opinion, this is probably one of Lindt’s best chocolate bars. I’m a dark chocolate fan, something I inherited from my Mother and luckily did not pass on to my kids (no sharing!). This bar has a nice smooth texture and just melts in your mouth. It’s not bitter like some dark chocolate bars. The 70% Cocoa chocolate bar is sweet and easy going. Even if you’re not a dark chocolate fan, I think you’ll enjoy this bar and appreciate its flavor.

70% Cocoa with Almond Brittle

I’ve had the Lindt Toffee bar before, the one with the Milk Chocolate and full of toffee bits so I figured this might be the dark chocolate version. The Almond Brittle is scattered throughout the bar and is not as prevalent as the toffee bits are in the other bar. The texture is smooth and you get the crunch of the almond brittle every now and then. The only downside (if there is a downside to any Lindt chocolate) is that the dark chocolate overwhelms this chocolate bar. The dark chocolate and the almond brittle almost work against each other rather than together. I would love there to be a lot more of the almond brittle mixed in with the chocolate so that there’s the joining of the flavors, each complementing the other. Instead you get the great flavor of the 70%, but with a little crunch.

70% Cocoa Nut Crunch

I really have the same opinion about this Nut Crunch bar as I do for the Almond Brittle bar. There are really not enough of the nuts (caramelized walnuts and hazelnuts) to even out the flavor. The nuts give a slight crunchiness to the bar but the dark chocolate flavor just takes control taste wise. As with the Almond Brittle bar, when I bite into this chocolate bar, all I taste it the dark chocolate with a little crunchiness. There needs to be more of the caramelized nuts added to tone down the 70% cocoa and so that the flavors complement each other.

As much as I love dark chocolate, I will just stick to the plain 70% Cocoa bar. The Almond Brittle and the Nut Crunch bars are honestly lacking in any other flavor other than the chocolate. The additions just add a small amount of crunch and truly no flavor. I was slightly disappointed, but still consider Lindt one of my favorite chocolate makers.

• Lindt’s Website
• Buy Lindt Chocolates Online

Candy Addict received this product as a sample from the manufacturer. No payment was received for this review and all opinions represent an unbiased view of the product.