“Mega mystery” implies some serious mystery is about to happen. Considering a 10.0 on the Richter Scale is epic, I’d say “mega” would logically fall somewhere between a 7.0, known as “major”, and a 9.0, known as “great”, on the Mystery Richter Scale. Since Stride is known for it’s ridiculously long lasting gum, one can also assume that Mega Mystery gum has some seriously sustained mystery in store for us. All of these hypotheses hold true with this gum.

I don’t know what the heck is in it! The ingredients are of no help, either. I guess that would really ruin the surprise to have the mystery ingredient spelled out in plain sight, though, huh? “Natural and Artificial flavors” is the only clue we get. And, that’s no clue at all because, well, doesn’t that encompass every flavor that exists? The tie-died packaging also has every example of the color spectrum on it, so another dead-end.

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Spearmint leaves image from katrinket at Flickr
Some time ago, I bought a package of Wrigley’s Spearmint gum only to discover that the flavor had been changed dramatically. To put it mildly, the spearmint flavor I knew and loved had careened downhill and crashed into a muddy, mucky river. I wrote a review of it and a review of Wrigley’s other “improved” flavors. Since then I’ve been on a search to find a spearmint gum that matches my expectations of a good, mellow, sweet spearmint.

I’ve been slightly overwhelmed by the number of brands and varieties of spearmint-flavored gum. Without even looking very hard, I’ve found nine different varieties. Who knew spearmint could taste so many different ways? Trident alone makes three kinds of spearmint gum. It’s mind boggling.

It has been quite an adventure tasting all the varieties and thinking about the nuances in their differences and similarities. I’m feeling like quite the gum expert lately. And I have the freshest breath in the county.

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photos in this post courtesy of Anthemic Tangle
For me, one of the best things about Easter candy is the plethora of interesting chocolate Easter egg flavors. For some reason, this year I kept seeing caramel eggs everywhere. It’s like the Easter Bunny was laying them in my path in every store I visited. Being a Candy Addict, I couldn’t just ignore that kind of taunting and finally bought a bunch of different kinds to try.

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As we discovered in our recent review of Popping Mini Eggs, Cadbury seems willing to go to some pretty darn strange places in order to “improve” a candy that many would argue is already the pinnacle of Easter candy perfection. I like to imagine the conversation went kind of like this:

Cadbury Executive 1: Yeah, Mini Eggs are pretty darn popular.

Cadbury Executive 2: No kidding – they’re our top-selling Easter candy. But you know what’s wrong with them?

Cadbury Executive 1: No, Bob – what’s wrong with them?

Cadbury Executive 2: They’re just not MINI enough!

Cadbury Executive 1: By George… I think you’re on to something!

And thus, Micro Mini Eggs were born.

Unsurprisingly, they look just like mini versions of the regular ones, with their pale pastel colors speckled with brown. (In the picture below, the bigger eggs are regular-sized Popping Eggs.) However, they do only come in four colors – purple, yellow, blue and white. If you want to believe the bag, Purple is the chick, Blue’s the cool dude, and Yellow’s a dead ringer for my Aunt Marge. Maybe White’s the pasty nerd who never leaves his basement, thus explaining why he didn’t show up for the photo shoot.

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candy images in this post courtesy of Anthemic Tangle
Every Easter I get kind of dazed by the sheer multitude of chocolate Easter bunnies beckoning to me from the store shelves. They’re all pretty and shiny, and I can hear them calling, “Pick me! Pick me!” But which one to choose?

Well, this year I embarked on the Bite A Bunny experiment. I did a taste test to decide, once and for all, what the best bunny choices are. So I didn’t get totally overwhelmed by the bountiful bunnies, I had some simple rules: stick to milk chocolate, go for hollow bunnies where possible, and only choose bunnies that are readily available to the average shopper. I came up with seven contestants. All bunnies were hollow, except where noted.

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