The compressed dextrose candy has long been a staple item of childhood candy diets. Never heard of it? You probably know it better as SweeTarts, Runts, and dozens more – that hard, yet powdery, melt-in-your mouth candy with the tangy flavor and slight cooling effect.

With Pucker Pieces Gourmet Candy Tarts, Creative Concepts Inc. (best known for its Pucker Powder powdered candy dispensers) seems to be trying to do for the compressed dextrose candy what Jelly Belly did for the jelly bean: use unique flavors and creative marketing to “gourmet-ify” it, transforming it into something that will appeal to adults as well as kids. Like Jelly Bellies, Pucker Pieces are displayed in bulk dispensers, allowing for the creation of custom flavor mixes.

If you know how compressed dextrose candies are made, it seems like a total no-brainer for a company that specializes in a powdered dextrose candy like Pucker Powder to move to hard tabs: just like the name implies, a powder made from dextrose (a type of sugar) and other ingredients is pressed into molds at super-high pressure, forming it into hard, yet still powdery, candy treats. (Pills are made the same way.) It seems like it would be a very simple matter to press straight-up Pucker Powder (or something very similar) into a more portable, less messy version of Creative Concepts’ flagship product.

Read More »

I think if you were to look at the latest generational candy trends, you’d see that the combining of flavors is in. Think of the recent additions to product lines like Skittles Crazy Cores and others.

As such, there was certainly no shortage of candy mixing at the All Candy Expo. Gum, mints, gummies… it’s all the rage. One completely sneaked by under my radar. The new Tropical Chewy Lemonhead & Friends by Ferrara Pan.

When I glanced at the box, I assumed that there were just going to be tropical counterparts to the Chewy Lemonhead and Friends variety I adore. It wasn’t until I popped one in my mouth and then examined the packaging closer that discovered these are in fact another candy with two flavors per piece.

Read More »

Since joining the Candy Addict staff, I have found my usual proclivities for candy changing. One such change has been an added addiction to lollipops. I typically find myself inundated with so many candies that it’s nice to retreat to a lollipop, a candy that is small, filling, and pleasant if only for the fact that your hands can’t get sticky or gooey from consuming it.

At the All Candy Expo, there was an assortment of lollipops to sample, but one piqued my interest more than any other: the new Banana Tootsie Pop. I have long been a fan of Tootsie Pops, and banana seemed like a great flavor. I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate/mockolate and banana together?

So I grabbed a handful of the suckers each of the three days knowing that not only I, but also many of my friends would be delighted to see what the folks at Tootsie had whipped up for us.

Read More »

I’ve been jonesing for something gummi for a while now. But I found myself unwilling to satisfy my cravings with something I had already consumed. I wanted something familiar, but new.

Such a specific guideline for candy purchase can be difficult, but it didn’t take me long to spot a promising candidate in the candy aisle of my local H.E.B: Trolli Tropic-Os. I am familiar with all the various flavors of these ring-shaped candies, i.e., peach, apple, watermelon, etc… but I hadn’t ever tried this tropical variety.

The bag didn’t reveal which flavor the rings were, but there was an image of a toucan perching on some pineapple, strawberries, coconut, and bananas, so I assumed that the flavors in the bag were going to be matches for those fruits.

Read More »

When it comes to candy packaging, I am a shallow, shallow person – particularly around mint-type candies. If it comes in an awesome tin, I am all over it, to the point where I have a pretty impressive collection of mint tins accumulating in my desk drawer at work. I am never in my entire life going to have enough tiny widgets and gewgaws to fill all those tins – and yet, again and again I find myself buying candy of questionable quality because it came in awesome and potentially reusable packaging.

Like the other day, when I was skimming the shelves at London Drugs looking for discounted Easter candy… and something else caught my eye: a rack of Yogen Früz Smoothies tins. The clean, modern design of the tin, its colors just evoking the blue and pink of the Yogen Früz logo… its use of the ü, which doubles as a happy face, as a design element… its paltry price of $1.79. Half-price chocolate bunnies aside, I knew I had to have one… quite possibly in every flavor they came in. I managed to settle for just Strawberry Banana.

Once I got home, the doubts started to set in. I enjoy a good frozen yogurt, but yogurt-flavored hard candy? It’s not like there isn’t decent yogurt-flavored candy in the world, but in my experience, all of it is soft. This product appears to be YF’s attempt to join Baskin Robbins and Cold Stone Creamery in the frozen-treats-with-spin-off-candies department. (Can I call them YF? Those umlauts are a bear to insert.) But while those other candies mimic the decadence of a full-fat ice cream cone, YF is going for the same market as its healthy, yet indulgent frozen treats with fruit and yogurt flavors, and even a healthy-sounding title of “Smoothies.”

Read More »