Just in time for Halloween, the Twilight film franchise has released New Moon themed Halloween candies. The folks at the National Confectioners’ Association sent me three flavors to try.

Do you remember Sky Bars? For those of you who have never had the pleasure, a Sky Bar is a chocolate bar made of different sections, each of which contain a different filling. So in one chocolate bar, you got caramel, vanilla, peanut butter, and fudge fillings. Awesome.

Well this classic candy is getting a modern makeover. Instead of putting all the fillings in one bar, now some of the segments have their own, individually-wrapped candy bar with different Twilight New Moon characters on different flavors. I tried the Edward caramel and the Bella creme. Edward’s chocolate is etched with a family crest and says “Cullen.” Bella’s is shaped like a heart and says “Bella.” Both are good-sized chocolates.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Sky Bar, so I can’t compare these to the originals. But I can say: yummy! The caramel flavor is loaded with a soft, sweet caramel that’s more liquid than chewy. The creme has almost the same consistency and the flavor reminds me of a Cadbury creme egg – really sweet but I somehow love it anyway.

Between the packaging, the cool shapes of the candies, the generous size of the chocolates, and the taste, I’d say these would be a huge hit with Twilight-loving Trick-or-Treaters.

I also tried the Twilight Sweethearts “Forbidden Fruits” conversation hearts. My box said “2 of 3″ and featured Edward. They are a bit glittery, and say things like “Soul Mate,” “With You,” “Live 4 Ever,” and my personal favorite, “Bite Me.”

For me, conversation hearts have always been more about having fun with what they say than how they taste, and this box was no exception. These still have the same chalky consistency I remember, but the flavors are much stronger. Flavors include orange obsession, tempting apple, passion fruit, and secret strawberry. They all tasted very sweet, very artificial, and, oddly enough, vaguely medicinal to me. I can’t say I enjoyed how these tasted. Fun to play with, yes. Fun to eat, not so much.

Since these come in a big box, they are not really suitable for handing out at the door on Halloween. But they’d be a lot of fun in a candy dish at work or at a party.

Given a choice, I definitely would choose the Sky Bars over the Sweethearts. Either way, enjoy your Twilight New Moon Halloween goodies!

Necco makes both the Sky Bar treats and the Sweethearts.

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

• Necco’s Website

It’s almost time for Halloween again and that means yummy treats for everyone.

The folks at the National Confectioners’ Association were kind enough to send me some treats to try, so I’m sharing them with you. I figured we’d start with the healthier treats, in case any of you want to add something healthy to your Halloween splurge.

First up,the bag of Florida Natural Au’Some Fruit Healthy Treats, which contain a mix of sour strings, nuggets, and stiks. I actually enjoy them all. All three styles come in orange, strawberry, and grape flavors and I like the strawberry the best. Since I love sour stuff, I particularly enjoy the sour strings, although I should warn you that they aren’t terribly sour. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the stiks – they are really tangy and nicely chewy without sticking to your teeth. The nuggets are fun, too, but I thought the orange flavor, in particular, could have a wee bit of vitamin taste to it.

Given that the nuggets and strings are only 50 calories a pack, and the sticks are only 35, these are a guilt-free treat, surprisingly tasty and satisfying. As a bonus, each candy has vitamin C and other vitamins and minerals, so these actually have a health benefit! Since these come in nifty little packets, you can hand them out to your Trick-or-Treaters, or take ‘em to work yourself.

While I was delving into the fruity, chewy goodness, I decided to try Welch’s Island Flavor Fruit Snacks. One serving boasts 100% of your vitamin C DV, and 25% of your A and E. And, at 130 calories per serving, this definitely qualifies for my “healthier Halloween” motif. I’m sorry to say I didn’t enjoy these nearly as much as the Au’some Fruit treats. The flavors were much more bland and had a weird, waxy taste to them. And the texture was odd: not very chewy and kind of powdery. Plus, my sample came in a bag that was too big to share with Trick-or-Treaters, although you could just eat ‘em yourself. If you’re into tropical punch flavors, maybe you’ll dig this, but it wasn’t really my thing.

Last on the list, Candy Coated Sunny Seed Drops by the Sunflower Food & Spice Co, Ltd. Back in June, Nico reviewed the regular Sunny Seed Drops Chocolate Sunflower Seeds, but mine came in Halloween colors with a Halloween-themed tube. Same flavor, but seasonal packaging. How do these stand up to other Halloween treats? Well, I love chocolate and I love sunflower seeds so these made me do the happy dance. The only bad thing I can say about these is that I had a hard time not eating the entire tube. The brightly colored candy shells are incredibly inviting, just begging you to have another handful. These are a little like sunflower M&Ms. I will say the chocolate is quite sweet, but somehow it works with the sunflower seeds. Oh yum! How did I go my whole life so far without having these?

According to the package, sunflower seeds are an excellent source of a number of vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber – healthy! There are 130 calories per serving – if you can manage to stop at the serving size, which is 2 tablespoons. Since this came in a good-sized tube, I’m not sure if you’d want to get enough tubes to share with Trick-or-Treaters or not. But I sure do recommend treating yourself because these rocked.

Overall, if you’re looking for a healthier Halloween but don’t want to make your Trick-or-Treaters or yourself feel deprived, I recommend you try either the Au’some Fruits or the Sunny Seed Drops. Yum!

• Au’some Treats Website
• Welch’s Website
• Sunflower Food & Spice Company’s Website

Remember when Godzilla first stomps his way into Tokyo? Picking up buses, throwing them down, weaving through the buildings toward the center of town? Well, that’s what we have today: the giant monster of the gummy bear forest. Your average gummy bear would be stunned in wide wonder to behold this thing, then run far, far away. The Big Bite Gummy Bear is 12 oz (most entire bags with dozens of gummy bears don’t weigh that much), and stands a mammoth three inches high.

And doesn’t this huge gummy bear kinda look monstrous? Glowing orange from some molten undersea origin, perhaps? Well… time to bite its face off.

After removing a band of plastic wrap, you need to pry away the two halves of a form-fitting, hard plastic mold that encase the beast. (Oddly, the mold has a lanyard loop; you could actually wear this thing as a necklace, I guess. Wow, that would hurt.)

Gnawing away at Big Bite’s head, I can report that this candy tastes like… an orange gummy bear. It’s your standard artificial orange flavor, not bad, not good. The texture is maybe a little stiffer than your average Lilliputian gummi bears.

Two things I don’t like about this huge gummy bear: 1) it has a film-like residue on its surface (maybe to assure it won’t stick in the mold) and 2) it’s too big! Unless you lost a bet, there’s no way you’d put this whole thing in your mouth at once (even if you could), so after each bite, you have to put the slightly slimy bear back in the mold. Then you have to handle the gelatinous mass some more the next time you want a bite. It’s just really not a pleasant eating process, and the taste isn’t good enough to make me want to continue.

After eating most of the Big Bite Gummy Bear’s orange face, I’m tossing this thing away. Let’s just hope he doesn’t come back to terrorize the citizenry. The Bear in the Iron Mask would not be a happy encounter in gummy bear forest.

So, if you want a novelty joke gummy bear or a strange and unique necklace, the Big Bite Gummy is perfect. For eating, not so much.

• Novelty Specialties Website

Perhaps unusually for a sour-head like myself, I’ve never actually tried Nuclear Warheads. If the name is anything to go by, they should be about the sourest candy you can get in North America, but somehow I’ve just never tried them.

I guess that makes me pretty unsuited to review Warheads’ spin-off candy, Sour QBZ, described unenlighteningly on the package as “chewy fruity cubes.” Still, sour is sour, and I know what I like, so let’s get tasting!

My sample-sized bag of QBZ contained six soft, opaque cubes, each about the size of a dice and with a coating of sour sugar. They didn’t look like gummies, more like the soft pectin jelly of lunchbox fruit snacks. (They have both pectin and gelatin in the ingredients.) I received three red QBZ, and one each of pink, blue and green.

As expected from the ingredients, they have a texture that’s somewhere between a fruit snack and a gummy, with a little crunch from the sour sugar coating – but unfortunately, next to no sourness at all. Red is strawberry, quite mild and not all that sweet or sour. Green is green apple, a flavor that always tastes better in very sour form. Unfortunately, it’s not that sour either. Blue raspberry is the standard blue raspberry flavor, and it’s the least sour so far. Pink is watermelon, and it’s also not sour, though its tanginess is pleasant.

With the jelly texture and the crunch of sour sugar, these are actually a whole lot like cube-shaped Sour Patch Kids. They’re tasty in the way Sour Patch Kids are tasty – chewy, tangy, addicting even, just not sour, darn it!

Once again, my hopes of finding a truly sour candy have been dashed. All the sour candies that are actually sour are either hard or gum, and it seems like that’s not about to change any time soon.

• Nuclear Warheads Website

Buy Warheads Candies Online:

• at Blair Candy
• at Candy Favorites

I love gummi candies so I said “yes please!” when I was asked to try a gummi snake. You should have heard the whoop I let out when this thing arrived: it’s almost THREE FEET long. To put it in perspective, for anyone under 6 feet (like me) that’s, like, half our height in gummi goodness. Now, I love me my gummies, but even I couldn’t eat this thing in one sitting – not that you’re supposed to, the serving size says there’s 4 servings per container. Still, my inner child was giggling with glee at the thought of downing this monster.

The candy offers quite the visual beyond its length. The blue raspberry flavor that I tried was composed of opaque white and yellow patches, and transparent blue patches. You even get green bits where the blue drips onto the yellow. And get this: when you bite into the snake you find out that blue part also runs all the way through the middle of the snake from tip to tail. Since it’s a gummi candy, it wiggles and jiggles, giving it an “ooh” factor… or an “eww” factor, if you’re feeling particularly squeamish. Personally, I loved it and I can see sassy little kids going mental over this.

Ah, but how does it taste? In a word: good. My snake had a good, consistent blue raspberry flavor. It leaned toward the sweet side, but in a good way that didn’t annoy me or overwhelm the blue raspberry flavor. The texture reminded me a bit of a really firm marshmallow – spongier than some gummies I’ve tried, yet still with enough firm chewiness to make it fun.

Since I’m a big kid, I like to play with my food, so I gotta tell you I had a ball pulling and twisting my snake – it’s a bit like taffy in that it’s malleable and the more you play with it, the stickier it gets. Also, I found it extra fun to bite the head off the snake!

Bonus: it turned my tongue blue!

All in all, this is a yummy, fun gummi candy that pays off in taste, texture, and sheer size.

• Taste of Nature Website

With the popularity of yoga and its associated clothing, mats and other accessories, I guess it was only a matter of time until the popular fitness/relaxation stretching regime got its own signature candy – Classy Karma Candy Healthy Yoga Treats. Not that it isn’t a bit illogical – what makes less sense than having a post-workout candy treat to gain back all those lost calories?

Ah, but this is a healthy treat – or so the promotional material I received at the All Candy Expo claims. It’s “12 TIMES MORE POTENT than synthetic vitamin C,” contains “ALL NUTURAL (sic) ANTI AGING properties from powerful antioxidants,” and is made with “all-natural berries and spices with no processed sugar.” (The ingredients, however, say otherwise – the first two ingredients are sugar and glucose, which don’t just pop out of the sugarcane without SOME level of processing.)

These are made by the Classy Candy Company, a new company – as far as I could tell, the candies are only available for sale on Classy Candy’s website (which was clearly written by a non-native English speaker – I found its enthusiastic, if slightly fractured, copy kind of charming).

The star ingredient of these treats is the Indian gooseberry, a fruit used in Ayurvedic medicine. Some research has shown that the Indian gooseberry may have medical benefits for those with rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes and even cancer. In its raw state, the fruit is very sour and astringent, and it’s usually pickled to make it more palatable. (I guess that’s what all the sugar is for.)

The candies themselves are wax paper-wrapped logs, like elongated pieces of saltwater taffy. They’re a light brown, speckled color. My samples came in a plastic sleeve containing three pinky-length pieces.

Despite containing aromatic spices like cloves, ginger, pepper and cinnamon, they have no smell whatsoever. At first bite, they aren’t terribly sweet and don’t taste like much of anything at all. But after a few chews, I started to get the flavor of the aromatic spices, mainly the cinnamon, and, oddly enough, a tangy taste of raisins. I’m not sure what I was expecting these to taste like, but that definitely wasn’t it. After a few bites, however, they started to grow on me. It’s like eating a cinnamon roll or a good bowl of porridge, only in candy form.

The Karma Candies initially have a firm, taffy-like texture, but if you chew them down to nothing, you get a lot of little gritty bits with a hint of a tea-like tannic flavor – from the gooseberries, I guess. Textural issues aside, I found myself enjoying these more than I thought I would, and if I was (still) in yoga, I would definitely enjoy having one of these tasty and (relatively) guilt-free chews awaiting me at the end of a strenuous session.

• Classy Yoga Candy Website

I don’t like gummies. I don’t even remember why, it’s been so long since I tasted any. So why did I buy these? Because I can’t resist anything animal-shaped. And I couldn’t resist the peculiar appeal of an animal-shaped candy with a gut full of liquid.

To be honest, I didn’t really expect these to be good to eat. I expected that I would order an Avenging Narwhal Playset from Archie McPhee and then instead of having the narwhal spear the little plastic penguin through the belly, I’d use these. And they’d OOZE GUTS. And I’d take pictures. What could be better?

But I never got to do that, for a surprising reason: They all got eaten!

My vague recollection of why I hate gummies has a lot to do with the texture – endless chewing – which gets you nothing more than an artificial chemical taste. These are nothing like what I remember. They’re a bit chewy, yes, but really fairly soft. And the fruit flavors, which are supposed to be cherry, lime, and strawberry, are nice. I’m not a big fan of the lime, which I find unappealing in most candies. But all three are decent, not too sweet with just a little bit of tartness to keep them perky.

They are made in France, which is well known as a home of high quality confections, but gummies? Maybe gummies in general have improved since I gave up on them, uncounted candy-eating years ago. Whatever the explanation, they didn’t last long enough for me to get around to buying a plastic marine predator to stab them with.

My only objection to these is that they don’t look as much like penguins as I’d hoped. You can see in the picture that they have odd little smiles on their faces where they ought to have beaks. But while you’re playing with the juicy bellies – and eating them up – you probably won’t even notice.

• Trader Joe’s Website

Chews Better has the following motto appearing on its packages and website: “The candy healthy people chews!” What? Aside from the hopeful claim about which candy healthy people chew, it sure looks like a grammatical boner. But have I misread the motto? Perhaps the motto’s last word isn’t a mis-conjugated verb, but a plural noun? If that’s so, then we’d have to read “candy healthy people” as an adjectival phrase to modify those “chews.” Does that work? What kind of chews would “candy healthy people” chews be? Beats the hell out of me. Thus I return to grammar police hypothesis number one: Chews Better has a screwed up motto. If they can’t edit, can they make candy?

Chews Better sent me two flavors: Pomegranate Blueberry Acai, and Strawberry Lemonade. And as the motto tried to communicate, these candies are meant to be healthy for you. They’re described as “All-Natural Chewy Candies with Vitamins and Fiber.” Surely this is making you nervous about the taste, right? Well, keep your beanie on straight.

Chews Better Pomegranate Blueberry Acai is a small, 26g (.9 oz) package. Each has five individually wrapped candies, and this flavor has 100% Vitamin C, 50% Vitamins B3, B5, B6, and B12, 3g of Fiber, and only 100 calories. Each chew is wrapped in silver and looks from the outside like a beef bullion cube. But it smells like a strong fruit medley upon unwrapping, and my nose finds this promising. Time for a bite.

What a good texture! It’s a little softer than a Starburst, and a bit more granular than Mamba. And it doesn’t stick to your teeth at all. As for the taste, it’s rather unusual. I guess it’s what a chew candy would taste like if it were made up of pomegranate (a tinge of tartness), blueberry (a “deep” flavor), and acai (an intense dark berry) – with some cane sugar thrown in. I happen to like it. You might not, but it won’t be from the lack of excellent, all-natural ingredients.

Let’s turn now to the Strawberry Lemonade flavor. These candies don’t have all the vitamins of the previous chews, but again have 3g of fiber and – a surprise – 250mg of Omega-3 (DHA & EPA). Now, you probably know that neither strawberries nor lemons have Omega-3. So can you guess what’s been added to these candies? Yup. Fish oil. Mmm, can’t wait to taste lemonade and strawberries with the anchovy and sardine oil listed on the package.

And yet, I like this flavor even more. Chews Better Strawberry Lemonade chewy candies have the same great texture as the Pomegranate Blueberry Acai, and make a lighter touch on the palate. I also like how I can clearly distinguish the strawberry and lemon flavor. And if you’ve ever had strawberry lemonade made with actual lemons and strawberries, you know that it’s a very tasty combination. Although there’s a little ineffable flavor halo around these two fruits, I’d never know there were fish oils in there if you didn’t tell me.

For me, the success of Chews Better candy rests on flavor, not health benefits, and that flavor stands squarely upon the natural ingredients of these high-quality chews. There’s not a fake plastic flavor or color to be found. I count the minuscule health benefits to be a bonus. Overall, bravo! Very much recommended.

Now all they need to do is fix that motto, and we healthy candy people will chew these chews contentedly.

• Chews Better Website

Yogurt-covered dried fruits have been around forever, and with the recent interest in probiotics, it looks like yogurt-flavored candies are making a comeback. Unfortunately, the dirty little secret is that modern science can’t yet convert pure, wholesome yogurt into a form that can be used to coat things. What you’re really getting with 99% of yogurt-flavored candies is white mockolate with a touch of yogurt powder for flavor – and no matter how many live bacteria you cram in there, there’s no getting around the fact that the stuff is more likely to kill you than make you live longer.

(Anyone else out there remember the days when people actually AVOIDED food that might contain live bacteria instead of considering it a selling feature? Crazy, weren’t we? *bites into undercooked chicken breast*)

Anyway, here’s a new product from a company known for making healthy things like grape juice – Welch’s Fruit and Yogurt Snacks. (This All Candy Expo sample is cherry, but I believe they had other flavors on offer as well.) Welch’s original fruit snacks had a steady presence in my school lunch bags in days gone by – they had a relatively high concentration of fruit and were tasty enough, if I recall correctly.

Despite the dubious nature of the yogurt portion of the product, these are pretty good, nutrition-wise. The 90-calorie pack has 10% of your daily recommended dose of calcium, 25% of vitamins A and D, and 100% of vitamin C, though it does also contain 8% of your daily allowance of saturated fat. The bag also contains “Live & Active Bacterial Cultures.” I was glad to hear that the bacteria are both live AND active, because I have no room for lazy bacteria in my large intestine – they gotta be hard-working, motivated, eager to get out there and do… um… whatever all this probiotic stuff is supposed to accomplish.

Like so many other things, these look a LOT nicer on the package than they do in real life. Rather than being neat little white balls with bits of gummy showing through, they’re kind of lumpy and misshapen, and a rather unattractive, uneven pinkish color from the gummy portion showing through the “yogurt” coating. They look like wads of chewed gum that some patient person has managed to roll into vaguely spherical shapes. The coating also seems rather dry and crumbly, in some cases flaking right off the gummy at the center.

The coating has a vague creamy white chocolate flavor over a surprisingly sour cherry center – kind of like a sour cherry Twizzler. The coating doesn’t melt in your mouth like chocolate – it has a very dry, almost flaky, doughy texture, with the coating on a few pieces crumbling away into grainy, gritty bits in your mouth. Eaten by themselves, the gummies have a weird doughy texture too, closer to cookie dough than licorice.

In fact, that’s a pretty good overall description of these – like lumps of slightly chewy, very sour cookie dough. If that’s your thing, more power to you I guess – but when it comes to healthy yet tasty snacking, I’d choose a bag of regular fruit snacks and a bowl of real yogurt any day.

• Welch’s Website

Buy Welch’s Fruit Snacks Online:

• at Blair Candy
• at Candy Favorites

Perhaps it’s the attitude of people; relaxed, fun-loving and carefree. It could also be the weather; warm sun, long days, blooming flora, etc. More than likely it’s a combination of both. Whatever the cause, something about summer really gets me in the mood for fruity candy. Soft, hard, sticky, ooey, gooey, gummi – fruit flavored sweets tend to be a personal favorite during the long warm days.

This summer, I’ve been particularly interested in gummi fruit candy. Living in Munich, Germany fruit is always on my mind as I walk by the open-air fruit stands scattered abundantly throughout the city. Of course, I pass on the natural fruit – equally great in flavor and nutrition – and I head straight (bee line, really) for sugar… processed.

One candy I’ve become quite fond of is Storck’s Nimm2 Lach Gummi, a fruit flavored gummi treat with various gummi flavors to choose from – all nice for a warm summer sugar rush. Available for consumption are Joghurt (Yogurt), Frucht & Joghurt (Fruit & Yogurt), Frucht (Fruit), and Sauer (Sour).

Nimm2 Lach Gummi is a well known candy producer headquartered in Berlin. A product of August Storck KG, Nimm2 has been producing fruit flavored candy since 1962.

All Nimm2 gummies are enjoyable. However, my first encounter with the gummies I wasn’t sure. The candies seemed different… good different, perhaps, but I really couldn’t tell. So, I bought more… and ate more – an entire bag. The voracious behavior yielded an affirmative conclusion. These gummies are terrific, with my personal favorite being the Nimm2 Lach Gummi Joghurt and Nimm2 Lach Gummi Frucht & Joghurt coming in a close second.

To be sure, these are not your kid brother’s candies. On the sweetness Richter scale these register as a three (10 being the highest). The first plop in the mouth and my palette recounted scary memories as a child of the fake low-sugar candies my babysitter used to hawk so we wouldn’t trash the house in a crazed candy-induced sugar high. However, after the third or fourth piece and a little self-reflection, the flavor in these candies came out remarkably well. The moderate sugar sensation lent itself to massive quantity consumption as it behaved like a light gentle massage to my starved sugar receptors. These treats are the John Wayne of the candy world – cool and steady and in no rush to make a grand appearance.

The Lach Gummi Joghurt gummies have an extremely soft texture – each one nearly melts in your mouth. They have a pastel yogurt-like color and delightful fruit shape with corresponding flavors: cherry, orange, lemon, lime and strawberry. And, as one might believe when eating something with yogurt, these candies provide a nutritional benefit. Each 100 grams of Lach Gummi Joghurt candy contain needed daily vitamins” 30% of a person’s daily vitamin C, 87% Niacin, 103% vitamin E, 123% Pantothenic Acid, 75% vitamin B6, 100% Biotin and 110% vitamin B12. (For those of you who read my last article on Haribo Saft Goldbaeren, this seems to be a pattern…. Another potentially healthy candy?)

The Lach Gummi Frucht & Joghurt have an interesting combination. One half of each piece is gummi and the other half yogurt. They have a darker gummi color and the yogurt side is white opaque. The yogurt is firm yet soft, almost of marshmallow consistency. It isn’t overly chewy; the yogurt side nearly dissolves in your mouth while the gummi side lasts longer. All flavors available in the Joghurt are also available in the Frucht & Joghurt, and the nutritional benefit is similar; all vitamins and daily amounts are the same per 100 grams except the Frucht & Joghurt do not contain vitamin C – a strange coincidence because I would think the ones with fruit would have the Vitamin C, but this is what the package tells me.

So, for all the fellow Candy Addicts and sugar junkies looking for a swell summertime candy, Nimm2 Lach Gummi treats are a terrific fix. Each treat is sweet, flavorful, unique and – once more – healthy? Perhaps we can have our cake – or should I say lollipop – and get to eat it too.

• Nimm2 Website