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.

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At the All Candy Expo, Mike and Ike shared some of their new flavors of 2009. For those of you who are Mike and Ike fans, you might be wondering why I’m reviewing the Berry Blast flavor as new when we already reviewed it in 2007. Well, Mike and Ike have updated the Berry Blast to include some new goodies. You get the same Mike and Ike consistency and texture, just a different mix of flavors.

Blueberry: This dark blue candy has an artificial blueberry flavor that lacks the mixed sweet-tartness of a more genuine blueberry experience. Instead, the emphasis here is on sweetness.

Blue Raspberry: Not to be confused with the darker blue Mike and Ikes, the light blue candies are a blue raspberry flavor. These were the strongest flavor in the bunch – as soon as I put one in my mouth I could taste the blue raspberry before I even started chewing. The flavor here wasn’t as sweet as the blueberry, offering a little more complexity.

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In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or so, the latest big food fad to hit grocery stores is… No, not bacon. Darn it all, why do you people always want to talk about bacon?

The OTHER big food trend of the past couple of years is the so-called “superfruit.” The theory behind superfruits is that certain fruits like pomegranates and goji berries contain high levels of nutrients such as antioxidants, which just might help to prevent cancer and other diseases.

Though there’s considerable debate about whether superfruits are really the disease-fighting powerhouses the companies marketing them claim they are, I guess any trend that encourages people to eat more fruit can’t be a completely bad thing. (That argument probably doesn’t hold water when applied to fruit-flavored candy, though.)

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Purdy’s Chocolates is one of the go-to chocolate companies in many parts of Canada. From their famous hazelnut chocolate hedgehogs to filled chocolates and chocolate bars, and even a selection of sugar-free items for the compromising Candy Addict, they’ve got something to please anyone.

I’ve written previously about Purdy’s Chocolate Chewie Bar and how I always associate the company with special occasions. Well, what should turn up in my Christmas stocking this year but – surprise! – a Purdy’s item. This year, it was the Purdy’s Blueberry Almond bar, a combination of 70% dark chocolate, almonds, and dried blueberries.

At first, I was a little skeptical of this combination. I love fresh blueberries, but often have trouble getting behind blueberry-flavored candies – it’s one of those fruit flavors that just doesn’t take the transition to artificial form very well. But real dried blueberries combined with two of my favorite candy ingredients – very dark chocolate and almonds – sounded like a completely different animal altogether. Would this combination change my feelings about blueberries and candy?

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Despite being raised in a Jewish family, the one holiday I anticipated most anxiously the whole year was Christmas. It might seem strange, but it’s the truth. No, it wasn’t that I liked the It’s a Wonderful Life marathons or the endless playing of carols on the radio. The truth is, I adored Christmas candy.

And no other candy represents Christmas to me as much as the candy cane. It’s the one time of the year when I specifically go for something peppermint flavored, even though they’re basically the same as those after-dinner mints, just in a different form.

As I have grown, so too have candy canes. They have branched from their traditional form into new flavors, colors, and fillings. Though I typically purchase the classic variety, this year I felt compelled to mix things up a little.

Staring me down at my local Walgreens was an entire display of candy canes – so many to choose from that it was intimidating. I went back and forth between what to buy, but ultimately, I decided it would be best to try something simple, just like the original. With that framework in mind, I grabbed a box of Bob’s Blueberry Candy Canes and headed to the checkout line.

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