Before biting into this candy, I did a little background checking on it. Palmer Candy Company, the mastermind behind the Twin Bing, has been around for over 130 years and the Twin Bing was concocted in 1973. They must be doing something right.

When I tear it open the cute package, the strong, delicious smell of peanut butter wafts out. Pulling out the twins, it’s two mounds that connect to form one “bar.” I’m not gonna lie… it looks a little gross. Growing up, my mom made cookies with oatmeal, peanut butter, and cocoa powder officially called “No Bake Cookies” — lovingly nicknamed “Cow Piles.”

The Twin Bing definitely has the cow pile look. Don’t get me wrong, we loved Mom’s Cow Piles. Gross-looking does not equal gross-tasting and that is exactly the case with the Twin Bings. It’s a rich, scrumptious candy and not at all what I expected. I was expecting something like a cherry cordial, of which I’m not extraordinarily fond. A Twin Bing is not like a cordial at all. It’s a chocolate and peanut-filled shell covering a creamy cherry filling.

I definitely tasted chocolate and peanut butter right away. I didn’t taste the cherry in the first bite, but once I got to it in the middle of the first twin, it was distinctly, bitingly cherry. The packaging claims it is a “nutty chocolaty cherry treat” and without a doubt it is.

It’s curious that the ingredients don’t actually include cherries, cherry extract, imitation cherry, or anything cherry-related. There was “natural and artificial flavors.” I guess that’s the cherry part. Whatever is making the cherry flavor, it works.

Would I buy Twin Bing again? Without a doubt. It was tasty and different, and I enjoyed it. In addition to the taste, I’d like to have some on hand for the novelty. Imagine serving these the mounds of gross-looking deliciousness as dessert to dinner guests.

• Palmer Candy Company

• Buy Twin Bing

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.

Steve Casselman began brewing beer at home back in 1985. This past October, he started the Beercandy website in order to bring his beer candy to life. Steve uses 4 kinds of beer to make his candy: IPA, Stout, Lager and Lambic.

My husband is a huge beer fan and I’m actually on the site right now, ordering some Beercandy for his Father’s Day gift. Review to come!

• Beercandy Website

I grew up in a family where farts always came out on top in the laughter department. My brother was the King of it in our house. Very soon, I can buy him his own bag of edible Farts™. That’s right, Leaf Brands (the candy company that brought us Astro Pops®, Jolly Ranchers ®, Whoppers ®and Milk Duds®) are coming out with a new chewy fruity candy that they have named Farts™.

Have no fear, for they shall not be like normal farts! These new candy Farts™ will be fruity, chewy, colorful and will have a bumpy candy coating. Farts™ will come in over 126 flavors that according to Leaf Brand, LLC, they will “pick the flavors based on customers’ votes on Facebook and other social media platforms.”

It’s a great name, I mean who doesn’t laugh or at least crack a smile at a Fart™? I know I’ll be buying some and of course, sending a few bags to my brother.

• Leaf Brands Website

Tween sensations Justin Bieber and Brenda Song are set to endorse a new candy from Haribo called Vuvuzela Balls. Now that the news is out of the way… what?! What kind of a name is that? It instinctively makes me uncomfortable. Yes, I know the vuvuzela is the loud horn thing that buzzed throughout the World Cup games, but still. The name is apparently not necessarily “a keeper” (soccer pun, I kill me) and could be changed. From a marketing perspective, I can see how naming the candy after the now popularized horn can be beneficial to Haribo. I don’t even follow soccer, and I knew what it was. Vuvuzela Balls are bound to catch someone’s attention and cause a double-take. But, still. Eh, I’m just not sure I can handle “Would you care for a Vuvuzela ball?” Ok, I wouldn’t talk about it, but I’d eat it.

The candy is described as resembling an M&M but more chocolaty, without a shell, and noisier. Funny, I’d never thought M&Ms were terribly obtrusive in volume, unlike the vuvuzela. Nevertheless, the yet to be released candy has piqued my curiosity and I hope to be reviewing it soon. You can bet your sweet Gummy Bear I’ll be trying one.

• Haribo
• Brenda Song and Justin Bieber endorse Vuvuzela Balls

I grabbed this box without looking too closely when I saw it at my local Japanese market. As you might gather from my last Crunky review, I was hoping to use it as part of my continuing quest to convince English-speakers to love Crunky instead of just making fun of its name.

However, I wasn’t sure this plan would work, because I assumed that what I had was white chocolate. Now, I love almost everything Japanese and I love white chocolate. But with the exception of Crunky, I usually find Japanese chocolate to be not of the highest quality. And white chocolate, with such a mild flavor, has nothing to hide behind – if it’s not of the best quality, it’s horrid.

But when I got home and looked more closely, the plot began to thicken. I wondered why the box had an illustration of a bowl of ice cream on it. The text next to the picture was something that I could only interpret as “Kanji Kanji Kanji Vanilla” (kanji being the Japanese version of Chinese characters, of which I can only read a couple dozen, none of which were included here).

On the back, the pasted-on English label only deepened the mystery at first: “Okinawa Shiovanil.” And this time the problem was not one of language, exactly. I know that “shio” means “salt.” But salt-vanilla? Salt-vanilla ice cream?

Well, some persistent Googling – don’t ever say that I don’t go all out for you, Candy Addict readers – eventually revealed that sea salt ice cream is some kind of local specialty of Okinawa. If you don’t want to go all the way to Okinawa, reportedly you may be able to get it at Tokyo Disneyland, or at an Okinawan ice cream chain that has opened a store in Shibuya. Also, apparently you should be thankful if this is the flavor that your Okinawan friends press you to try, because another alternative is bitter melon.

After this absurd amount of background research I was finally prepared to actually eat the stuff, and well, if I hadn’t done all that research, I’m not sure I would have thought this was anything other than very mild white chocolate. That is what it basically is, after all – since white chocolate commonly has vanilla flavoring in it, the difference between a white chocolate Crunky and a vanilla sea salt white chocolate Crunky can only be a subtle one.

But I think there is a difference: this does not have a strong cocoa butter taste, but, unlike most white chocolate that doesn’t have a strong cocoa butter taste, it is NOT nasty. It tastes like a good creamy vanilla thing, not a bad cheap white chocolate.

I do think I detect a subtle aftertaste of salt as well, but really, basically this is quite good and not particularly exotic. The crunch is less strongly flavored than in the regular milk chocolate Crunky, no doubt to avoid overpowering the more subtle vanilla flavor. The result is a candy that is not going to slap you upside the head with vivid flavors, but if you can appreciate a creamy vanilla sweet – something you get less often in candy than in cake or pastry – you should try it.

The packaging is also great if you want help minimizing your candy consumption – the box contains ten very tiny individually wrapped pieces. I know this isn’t very planet-friendly, but I love it that the Japanese do this. I appreciate that this packaging allows me to leave some for later without it getting stale – and also keeps me from eating the whole thing at once, which would have been a little too easy with this one.

Once again the verdict is the same: English speakers: Don’t laugh at Crunky – eat it!

Editor’s Note: You can buy Crunky at Jlist during cooler months – no chocolate is shipped during the summer. Sorry!

When I think of lollipops, I think of, well… lollipops. I try not to read too much into the whole adult humor and related connotations that can be associated with such a candy. Apparently, the folks at Das Foods think differently than I do.

I was supposed to receive a shipment from them, but for some reason it never arrived at my doorstep, but as luck would have it, they were attending the All Candy Expo, which provided me an opportunity to pick up some samples on site.

It was hard to miss to the Das Foods booth; they hired four dancers from UIUC to perform a Das Lolli dance routine and socialize with the attending clientele. Since most of the people attending the convention were males, I suppose their ploy worked, as there was always a crowd at their booth.

Even the packaging (think something circular within a square, plastic wrapper that isn’t candy) or the taglines of “What’s your flava?” and “Shamefully delicious lollipops” are begging for an adult audience, which is odd given the premise that these are all natural lollipops made without preservatives, HFC, and chemical additives. Seems like a good thing to give your kids, but I’m not sure how you explain what exactly “Man Bait” is supposed to mean…

The Das Lolli assortment is comprised of four flavors:

Fab-O-Pom: This translucent pink lollipop has no fragrance to it, but the taste is strong right off the bat. It isn’t too sweet, with a slight zest factor that gives it a nice rounded quality on the palate. Neither orange nor pomegranate is present flavor-wise, and for some reason I taste hibiscus in mine. On the plus side, they’re not sticky, but there’s an odd herbal quality instead of fruit.

Naughty Ginger: This dark yellow sucker has a nice ginger flavor that intensifies into a slight burn. The ginger quality and taste borders on the crystallized variety. Unlike the last one, I can easily detect the lemon zest overtones in this piece. These reminded me of cinnamon in the way cinnamon can create that spicy quality on your tongue. I enjoyed the duality of the tart and spicy, but found myself wanting more of a savory presence like rosemary or thyme to fully balance out the different flavors. This was still my favorite.

Caramel Me Happy: This piece is dark brown. I was looking forward to this piece in particular because Das Foods already carved a niche for itself in caramels, and felt this would be an obvious transition in flavor for them. Unfortunately, the flavor in these takes a long time to develop, and isn’t ever fully realized. I enjoyed the salty quality, but I found that minimal too.

I don’t eat bacon, something I found put me in the minority at ACE considering the other non-Candy Addict bloggers spent a good ten minutes professing their love of bacon to each other during a luncheon; however, Cadence, who isn’t a fan of bacon per se, will eat it, and she thankfully gave me her response to this one.

Man Bait: As soon as I opened the package, I could smell the smoky, slightly acrid aroma of bacon. The first taste was very sweet, with a nice maple flavor that surprised me because it wasn’t that artificial maple taste. Then the flavor changes to a salty, sweet mix and the smoky bacon kicks in. The bacon flavor reminded me of the bacon bits you add to salad – artificial and strong. The bacon flavor sort of hijacks the maple, so what you end up with is a salty, sweet, slightly maple-y, bacon-flavored lollipop. The texture is a bit odd: it gets progressively bumpier as you uncover the bacon bits embedded in the sugar. I have to say that the mixture of the salt and the sweet was surprisingly good. A very interesting, unusual lolli.

Personally, I wouldn’t crave any of these aside from the ginger ones, but none are bad by any means. Try them if you get a chance to. You might like them more than I did, and I doubt you’ll hate them. If nothing else, it’s nice to see folks approaching candy with a sense of humor, albeit an adult-rated one, and crafting a series of adult flavors as opposed to the traditional.

• Das Lolli Website

The Earth’s environment is crumbling around us. Actually, it has been for some time. Most of us would like to protect our planet. After all, as wonderful and convenient as the digital world is, most of us would like to introduce our kids to a non-virtual reality.

But without being a scientist, or being independently wealthy, what’s a person to do? Well, you can recycle, but Candy Dynamics has cooked up an alternative that’s far more fun. Now, you can help the Earth by eating toxic waste!

Yes, you read right! Toxic Waste candies are whacked-out novelties with a mission. With each purchase of a Toxic Waste product, a share of the profits are donated to an environmental protection group. The theme is cute, if slightly creepy.

Aside from a heaping helping of sour, I didn’t really know what to expect when a large box from Candy Dynamics arrived at my door last week. I like jelly belly sours, sour gummi belts, and IceBreakers Sours, but I’m not much of a Crybaby fan. Aside from Trident “Sour Strawberry” gum, I didn’t really have any experience with gums in the sour canon. The packing list described the gum as “Hi-Voltage”. I wondered what I was in for.

The box contained miniature drums of sour candy and a pack with 30 sticks of “Hi-Voltage Bubble Gum”. As we had already reviewed Toxic Waste Candy, I was only obligated to taste the gum. Still, with so much candy, and a limited number of sour Candy Addicts in my acquaintance, I could only hope that I’d like everything. I really dislike wasting food, especially candy!

I was immediately impressed with the candy’s theme. The box designs include yellow-and-black caution tape, a mad scientist by the name of “Dr. Sauernoggin,” and a very harried-looking anthropomorphized mushroom cloud. As the bulk packaging is stripped away, the candy’s theme continues.

The Hi-Voltage Bubble Gum, which touts itself as “Nuclear Gum with a Hazardously Sour Center!”, resembles sticks of uranium. Extracting the Blue Raspberry gum from a three-stick package, I lifted it to my mouth. It didn’t appear to be coated with powder. Thank goodness. I gingerly licked the top of the stick. It’s sweet, vaguely fruity taste and rigid texture reminded me of Bazooka Joe. So far, so good.

Throwing caution to the wind, I bit. I let out a yelp. This was like the the coating on Toxic Waste’s hard candies, multiplied by ten. Rather than a dusting of sour powder, this gum had a center of the stuff, a quarter-inch or so in diameter. The acidity was such that I couldn’t tell if the center was sour or salty. This stuff is oral torture… I’m surprised they aren’t using these in Guantanamo Bay. I endured a minute or so of chewing. By the time I dispensed with the blue wad, my teeth hurt.

It’s been two days since my experience with this gum, and I’m still having difficulty chewing my food. Forget caramels or marshmallows – Toxic Waste candy has got to be a dentist’s worst nightmare. I suppose if you’re a super-sour fanatic, or big on pain in general, you might enjoy what Candy Dynamics and “Dr. Sauernoggin” have cooked up. Besides, by stocking up you’ll be providing a valuable service to the environment. It’s a shame that I find these so awful – I really like the idea behind this product line, and love the theme. However, I have no desire to eat Toxic Waste again.

• Toxic Waste Candy Website

Buy Toxic Waste Candy Online:

• at Candy Direct
• at Amazon.com

For those of us who can’t function in the morning without at least two cups of coffee, (or, in my case, a giant Red Bull), the idea of a product that promises the awesomeness of candy plus the benefits of caffeine is hard to beat. And for hardcore caffeinated Candy Addicts, Jitterbeans (or Crackheads Squared) are a dream come true.

I first came across the original Crackheads at last year’s All Candy Expo. The name alone had caused quite a stir, as you can imagine, but as Brian noted in his review of the original Crackheads, it was the addition of white chocolate that really set Crackheads apart from other chocolate covered espresso beans. What I like about the original Crackheads is the sweetness of the chocolate; both the dark and white chocolate used provide a soft, sugary shell for the bitter, crunchy bean within, creating a nice balance of tastes and textures.

Crackheads Squared, or Jitterbeans, as they are alternately known, amp up the taste, texture, and caffeine levels of the original Crackheads. One box of Jitterbeans has 600mg of caffeine – that’s more than 11 colas, 7.5 Red Bulls, or 6 cups of coffee. In other words, you might not want to eat an entire box at once, lest you end up like Jessie Spano on Saved by the Bell.

The difference between Crackheads and Jitterbeans is noticeable as soon as you open the box: whereas the original Crackheads had a softer appearance, with the white chocolate pieces taking on a slightly vanilla color, Jitterbeans are shiny and bright, and have more of a crunch to them than their predecessor. The coffee taste is more pronounced in Jitterbeans; here, the espresso is definitely the star, and the chocolate to coffee bean ration is tipped in its favor, which is a plus or minus, depending on which flavor you really prefer.

Personally, I enjoy the original Crackheads a bit more, but only because I’m the type of person who loads her coffee with sugar and milk to drown out the strong coffee taste, and the originals tend to allow more of the sweet, chocolaty flavor to come through. However, I will say this: both Crackheads and Jitterbeans get the job done, kids. I followed the recommended serving of 7 pieces and felt as if I’d had my morning Red Bull (without which, I usually get grumpy, sluggish, and pretty bad headaches). I was alert, awake, and ready to go. And to be quite honest with you, I’ll take any excuse I can get to be able to say, “I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve had my morning candy.” Because what Candy Addict doesn’t want to start the day like that?

BONUS: We’re giving away a Crackheads gift pack too! One lucky winner will win a Crackheads T-shirt, 3 boxes of original Crackheads, and one box of new Crackheads Squared. All you have to do is answer one simple question. “What city did Crackheads originate in?” (hint – look on the Crackheads Candy website). Email your answer to jitterbeans@candyaddict.com. One lucky winner will be randomly chosen from all correct entries. FINE PRINT: Entries must be received by midnight EST, Friday, Feb 20. Contest open to US residents 18 years or older only. One entry per email address. Not responsible for misdirected/unanswered emails. If winner doesn’t respond to the winning email in 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen.

• Jitterbeans Candy Website

Buy Jitterbeans/Crackheads Online:

• at Think Geek
• at Amazon.com

On my last trip to my favorite Asian grocery store, T&T, I was surprised to find what looked like a lot of takeout coffee cups on the shelf in the candy section. Had a crowd of coffee drinkers decided to abandon their beverages in the candy aisle en masse? But upon closer inspection, it was merely the latest candy offering from Glico, Walky Walky – a pellet-shaped candy packaged in a container that resembles a fast-food coffee cup.

The coffee-cup-shaped container is a cute gimmick, even if it did lead me to believe that they might be coffee-flavored. (Coffee and strawberries? Surely not.) Since they’re made by Glico, otherwise known as “the Pocky people,” my first thought upon looking at the package was to wonder if these were just a bunch of Pocky sticks that had been sliced up into little Tart ‘N’ Tiny-sized pellets, and this first impression turned out to be pretty much correct.

The name “Walky Walky” even sounds a bit like “Pocky” – whether this is intentional or not I don’t know (it’s not like Engrish snack names are known for being logical). I suppose the idea behind the name is that these are easier to eat “on the go” than regular Pocky, though it’s not like Pocky are an awkward shape to eat while walking or anything.

It seems like you’re supposed to tip them right into your mouth, as the coffee cup shape would suggest, since shaking a bunch of pellets into your hand from a coffee-cup-lid-style opening is actually kind of a tricky thing to do while walking. The idea seems to be that this is a snack for the Starbucks generation – a quick little pick-me-up that’s as convenient as your neighborhood java joint.

Shaking a bunch into your mouth at a time is actually not a bad way to eat them, since you really have to eat a decent-sized handful at a time in order to get the full effect – a single one has very little crunch and nearly no strawberry flavor. But when you eat a bunch at once, it’s definitely like having a mouthful of strawberry Pocky. The strawberry coating is pretty dead-on with the flavor of strawberry Pocky too – a milky strawberry flavor, like strawberry ice cream.

Actually, it’s kind of a “more Pocky than Pocky” experience because you’re putting a whole bunch in your mouth instead of one thin stick, and while regular Pocky can sometimes be a little skimpy on the coating, these definitely weren’t.

As a Pocky fan, I quite enjoyed the Walky Walky, though they were a lot more expensive than a regular-sized box of strawberry Pocky. I think they’re a very interesting experiment, and I’m hoping Glico decides to branch out into some of the other flavors from Pocky’s extensive lineup.

• Glico’s Website

Buy Walky Walky online:

• at Jbox.com
• at Amazon.com

I recently took a week off from my regular job to visit the beautiful city of Montreal, Quebec. But that doesn’t mean I also neglected my duties as staff writer for Candy Addict. No, I made sure to keep my eyes peeled for a truly Quebec-specific sweet. But at first, I found only the same overpriced gift-shop candy you can find anywhere in Canada: cheap chocolate-covered almonds packaged as “moose droppings” and hard candies “made with real maple syrup” (read: 90% regular sugar and 10% of the good stuff). But then, while exploring Montreal’s Chinatown, in a hole-in-the-wall storefront, I discovered something truly unique at last.

(Later, once I’d had time to do more shopping in areas that weren’t 90% tacky tourist gift shops, I also found some great candy stores and artisan chocolatiers. But that’s a subject for another review.)

The white, wispy objects in the photo above, believe it or not, are candy. They’re called Dragon’s Beard Candy, and they were apparently a favorite sweet in China’s Imperial Court, making them over 2000 years old. Dragon’s Beard Candy consists of fine, hairlike filaments of sugar surrounding a center of (according to the stall’s owner) peanuts, coconut, sesame, brown sugar and chocolate.

We’ve actually reviewed them once already. But those were expensive and had to be shipped all the way from China, and these were cheap and freshly hand-made – the stall prominently featured a bin of nutty filling and a big lump of brown rock sugar. How could I resist?

Up close, they resemble balls of fine thread or fresh rice vermicelli noodles more closely than they do cotton candy, which I guess would be the nearest North American equivalent. Pulling one free felt like pulling a cotton ball in half, and it felt like putting a cotton ball in my mouth as well. It was pretty apparent that they weren’t made of spun sugar like the ones we reviewed before, but rather a soft, very finely spun dough that wasn’t actually all that sweet. (Whether that means I’m not getting the authentic article, I couldn’t say.)

Once in my mouth, the cottony exterior quickly softened into a sort of very delicate dough. The dough didn’t have much flavor, and it quickly gave way to the crunchy, brown sugar-crisp filling. Despite the stall’s long list of filling ingredients, I was only able to detect peanuts and crunchy bits of brown sugar. Once you really got chewing, the brown sugar and dough mingled into something very like a peanut-studded caramel – it actually tasted disconcertingly like the inside of a Snickers bar. Despite being called a candy, they reminded me more of those baklava pastries made with shredded phyllo dough and filled with honeyed nuts, only less crisp.

As an experience, they were interesting. Would I go out of my way to buy them again? Well, probably not. But that being said, I recommend giving them a try if you’re ever in the Montreal area. After all, how often do you get to taste a candy fit for an emperor?

Buy Dragon’s Beard Candy Online:

• at Amazon.com