Categories: Candy,Candy Recipes,Holiday Candy

Despite being siblings, my brother and I had differing opinions on everything. He was a Los Angeles Dodgers fan while I preferred the Angels. He liked sci-fi stuff, and I… well, I just didn’t like/understand it.
And even on Thanksgiving, the day of the year where all families sit down together, he and I were contentious. You see, my mom had this tradition where she would let one of her kids pick the dessert to create. He always wanted pumpkin pie while I craved blueberry cheesecake. It was always a tempestuous dinner if your dessert wasn’t picked.
All these years later, I still like my preference over his, but in honor of the spirit of Thanksgiving, here is a candy recipe that combines both loves: A blueberry pumpkin cheesecake fudge bar that I call the Harmony Bar.
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Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Classic and Retro Candy,Hard Candy

Yes, it’s a classic American institution. But you have to admit: the New England Confectionery Company, better known to you and I as the folks behind Necco wafers, produces some of the driest, dustiest candy on the planet. Necco Wafers are the candy left at the bottom of your Halloween trick-or-treat bag after all the good stuff is gone. On Valentine’s Day, there’s one guaranteed way to make sure your sweetheart gets the wrong message: Give her a box of chalky, stale Conversation Hearts. LUV U? I don’t think so!
So, with low expectations I cracked open a package of Necco’s Smoothies. They’ve been around for a few years, but I can’t say that I’ve noticed them before now. Similar in size and shape to regular Necco Wafers, the Smoothies are supposed to remind one of smoothie drinks, those ever-popular concoctions of health clubs and veggie bars. I find this claim on the Necco company’s part to be the overstatement of the century. Let’s just say, if Smoothies are reminiscent of anything, it’s heartburn medication, in sorta fruity flavors.
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Categories: Candy,Candy For Kids,Candy Reviews,Foreign (non-US) Candy,Gummi/Gummy Candy,Soft Candy

Back-to-school season is here once more. Yes, it’s the season for pencils, books, teachers’ dirty looks… and school lunches. Whether homemade or bought, lunch is the highlight of every student’s (and working adult’s) day, and keeping those lunches fresh, interesting and tasty can be a real challenge.
Fortunately, there’s an easy shortcut that many parents (and Candy Addicts) are already aware of: even the most boring of bologna sandwiches and pallid of PBJs can be made more exciting by adding a side of candy.
Not just any candy though, but a special lunchbox-sanctioned candy, packed into tiny single-serving pouches and transformed with a token amount of fruit juice into something viewed as a nutritionally acceptable complement to your carrot sticks and ham-and-cheese-on-white. A small source of candy joy in an otherwise boring day, for kids and adults alike. I’m talking, of course, about the fruit snack.
But not all fruit snacks are created equal, and that’s where we come in. Aided by my Assistant Taster (otherwise known as my sister Angela), I taste-tested four popular options to determine which brand will give you the most bang for your buck, considering such factors as nutrition, taste and fun. Will a store-brand snack stand up to pricier treats licensed with cartoon characters or jazzed up with gimmicks like liquid centers? And just how much fruit is actually in these things, anyway? Read on to find out.
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Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Chocolate Candy,New Candy

Hello, Dove chocolate. Where have you been all my life? Apparently Dove first hit the streets with the Dovebar ice cream treat in the 1950s. Since then Dove offerings have trickled onto supermarket shelves, and now there are cookies, chocolates, and ice cream (and speaking of Dove ice cream, you should really try it if you haven’t. The pints have a top layer of chocolate, so you break through the chocolate barrier to get to the ice cream. I cannot emphasize enough how incredible this is).
But, I digress. The matter at hand is some new chocolate from Dove, namely three flavors of the Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate line. The flavors are Roasted Hazelnut, Blueberry Almond, and Peanut Toffee Crunch. Each 3.53-ounce box holds three individually wrapped bars, which psychologically might be a good thing, since you can avoid feeling guilty if you eat just one of the wrapped packages.
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Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,New Candy,Sour Candy

Chewy Sprees can do no wrong in my book, but I am a little suspicious of this new Mix’d Berry flavor. None of the flavors are identified on the package, so who knows what could be, you know, mix’d (yeah, the cutesy spelling kind of gets me). The package says, “It’s a kick in the mouth!†What does that mean? Are they going to be sour? Overpowering? What? I guess there is only one way to find out.
I open up the package, and I must say the colors are stunning. Bright and cheerful, these little candies are calling out to me, and it’s all I can do to keep myself from shoving them all into my mouth. There are four flavors in the Mix’d Berry Chewy Spree package: purple, pink, red, and turquoise. Wikipedia claims that the turquoise (okay, so they call it aqua) is blueberry. I am still confused as to whether Mix’d Berry means there is more than one berry flavor per color (you know, like cranberry-raspberry flavor) or if it just means there are four berry flavors in a package. I am not confident I will be able to determine this by tasting them, but I’ll give it a try!
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