It’s not easy to find innovation in mints nowadays. How many different round mints in rectangular tins can the market sustain, really? That’s why I was so pleased to stumble on the “Great Bite” product line. They have some of the coolest packaging and product shapes I’ve come across in a while. The tins, the round sour packs, the Tic-Tac-like packs - all have a “bite” taken out of them and so do the candies themselves.

The mint tins are your typical Altoids tin shape and size, but the top left portion of the tin is bitten off. Each mint inside is about the size of a Life Saver (with no hole) and a portion of the mint is bitten off too. This theme continues across the whole product line. The mints (and tins) come in peppermint, spearmint, and orange and all taste great except the peppermint - it has a strong licorice taste to it that even my seven year old daughter picked up on (which isn’t good if you dislike the flavor of licorice). The orange was especially tasty and hits you immediately with a strong orange kick.

Read More »

Share This

Superman. Superglue. Supersize. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. When you throw the word “super” onto the front end of an otherwise unassuming word you’re really setting a high standard for whatever follows. It goes without saying that had better be an exceptional male, unparalleled adhesive, mammoth girth, and phenomenal califragilisticexpiali – well, you get my drift. So, understandably, I had some pretty high expectations for the descriptively named Emily’s Super Sour No Belly Sugar Free Jelly Beans.

Now, I’m not an insanely crazy sour fanatic. I’m more of a middle-of-the-road sour fan. I like red and orange Sour Patch Kids, for example, but not really green, and definitely not yellow. So when my sour-dusted shipment of No Belly Jelly Beans arrived directly from Can You Imagine That! Confections/The Sandy Candy Factory I was fearful that these self-proclaimed Super Sours might even be too much for my tender palate. I was mightily surprised then, when I opened the bag and was not greeted by an overwhelming sour aroma. Not even a hint of that citric Sour Patch scent that induces uncontrollable face-puckering and Pavlovian salivating.

Read More »

Share This

Since I adore them so much, the flavors of Jolly Rancher candies often act as a benchmark for when I taste other fruit flavored candy. As a group they make no excuses for not tasting at all like the actual fruits they represent. Jolly Ranchers are fabulous in that they are so fantastically, gorgeously artificial and yummy. The advertising tag line is “bursting with BOLD fruit flavor” and when it comes to hard candies, no truer words were spoken. Here’s a quick review of the five classic flavors:

Apple: This is far and away my favorite Jolly Rancher flavor. Sweet and tart, green apple is a classic for which there is no substitute. It sits on the knife edge of being too sweet, but balances nicely with the amount of tartness in it. Added bonuses are the bright green it turns your tongue and the fact that you can use it to make Jolly Rancher beer.

Read More »

Share This

I know, I know, more jellybeans (I just reviewed the Starburst Sour Jellybeans), but can you blame me? When you find the right jellybean, it’s the perfect combination of crunch and chew and sugary goodness! So, when Candy Addict’s very own Brian professed that Nerds Bumpy Jellybeans are his favorite Easter candy this year, I knew I had to try them. First, if Brian says they are good, then the probability that this is true is extremely high. Second, I am a fan of Nerds, especially of Nerds rope, because you get that crunchy and chewy dual bang with the rope. Do you see where I am headed?

I won’t keep you in suspense - these Nerds Bumpy Jellybeans are keepers. They are kooky and bizarre and incredibly tasty! There are five flavors. The flavors aren’t listed on the packaging, but you can guess that they are the usual suspects: red (strawberry), yellow (lemon), orange (you guessed it, orange), green (watermelon), and purple (grape). As indicated by the descriptive title, these beans sport bumpy exteriors, which makes them a little odd looking and even a tad ugly, but who cares! They rock! The hard candy shell is crunchy but won’t break your teeth. The interior is chewy but smooth, and there’s a perfect balance between crunch and chew.

Read More »

Share This

Given that they were “born” in 1962, Lemonheads have aged pretty well. However, the iconic candy from Ferrara Pan has had a bit of a make-over. Along with his friends Orangehead, Applehead, Grapehead and Cherryhead, they’ve all gone chewy! I had high hopes for this candy re-invention, as I’ve always loved Lemonheads and I figured this could only be an improvement. It brings me great joy to report that the chewy version is just as nice as the classic version.

Read More »

Share This

Pocky, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is one of the most popular candies in Japan. It’s basically a long thin biscuit stick that has a flavored frosting coating covering one end. In the past decade it has been increasing in popularity in the US. Many varieties and flavors exist with chocolate being the standard. The name “Pocky” references the the “poc” sound the candy makes when you bite it. Pretty neat huh?

“Just like a decoration cake on a stick!” chirps the label on the packet. The Decorer Pocky is the biggest and thickest of all the Pocky, mainly due to two layers of frosted coating on the biscuit stick. The top layer is very artfully applied and it does look like cake frosting in a very removed way. Each packet inside the box contains 4 packets of only 3 sticks (unlike the other types of Pocky which give you 4 or more per packet) and is a little deceiving in terms of satisfaction. They’re more satisfying than they seem! I like the Decorer Pocky line simply because there’s “more” of an already good thing and it takes a long time to eat.

The Decorer I tried was the new fall 2006 flavors:

Mild Grape: The bottom layer is a mild chocolate while the “decor” layer is grape flavored. The stick itself is pretty, with the light lavender of the grape against the creamy brown chocolate. The taste is very good, which says a lot of since I’ve never especially been a fan of grape flavored candy. The closest thing I can relate it to is a grape flavored Tootsie Pop, just as you manage to get both the flavors of the coating with the chocolate chew. There’s also a very tangy aftertaste which I can’t quite put my finger on.

Apple: The bottom layer is a white-yellow colored white chocolate with a faint buttery apple flavor while the “decor” layer is light brown and flecked with cinnamon. The texture is creamy while the overall flavor is light and delicate. I was expecting more of a straight apple flavor and instead I got apple pie a la mode. The cinnamon is beautifully worked in. Lovely surprise!

Overall, these are very delicious and refreshing fruity flavors. I’d recommend the Decorer line to any Pocky fans out there, as well as those of us who love frosting and eat cake just for the icing.

• Pocky website
• Decorer Pocky index
• List of currently available Pocky

Buy Decorer Pocky online:

• at Asian Food Grocer
• at JBox
• at Amazon.com

More candy articles about: candy, sweets, Pocky, Japan, Japanese, fruit, grape, apple, chocolate

Share This

Jelly Belly has teamed up with several soda brands to create a new line of soda pop flavored Jelly Beans. These are fairly new, and I picked some of them up at the Philly Candy Show I went to a while back, but they should be available in stores now. I’ve always been a huge fan of soda, not necessarily the ones in this mix, but as a lover pretty much anything carbonated and flavored, I present to you my review.

The soda brands represented here are: Orange Crush, A&W Root Beer, Dr. Pepper, 7Up, A&W Cream Soda, and Grape Crush. They come in both a 3.5 mixed variety bag, or by the individual flavor in miniature bottle-shaped containers (seen above), as well as some other sizes too.

How do they taste? Pretty spot on, with the exception of the A&W Cream Soda:

• Grape Crush: My favorite out of the whole batch is the Grape Crush, which is weird because I don’t really like Grape Soda. It always feels like it is rotting my teeth as soon as I take a sip, a feeling I oddly don’t get when shoving Jelly Beans in my mouth. It also reminds me of Grape Bubblicious.
• Orange Crush: tastes like a super-sweet tangerine… really good.
• Dr. Pepper: tastes slightly fruitier than the drink. I can’t nail it down, but it’s something like cherry or strawberry.Still good though.
• 7UP: tastes much sweeter and more lime than the drink, but still very close to the drink. My package seems to be predominately 7UP for some reason.
• A&W Cream Soda: tastes like… practically nothing. Well, maybe nothing mixed with a tiny bit of vanilla mixed in. Maybe they forgot to add the flavor to my pack, but they really just taste like nothing.

Overall, these are pretty good, and fairly accurate, except for the Cream Soda. If you’re a fan of soft drinks, pick some of these up and give chewing some soda a try.

Buy Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe Online:

• at Candy Direct
• at Candy Crate

Share This

I was recently browsing 80stees.com when I came across the Grape Scratch and Sniff PEZ T-Shirt. A scratch and sniff shirt? How cool is that! It’s candy, it’s grape-y, it’s retro, it’s everything you could ever want! I was seriously tempted to buy until I read the description and realized that after about five washings the scratch and sniff goodness wears out. Bummer. I mean, I can rewear with the best of them, but after so many run-ins with baby puke and toddler mucus it’s going to have to go in the wash.

Plus, it occurred to me that the exact location of the logo might present problems - “Hey, my shirt is scratch and sniff! Sniff me right there!” Not good. I’m just thankful the thought came to me before I bought it and tested it out. Still, a guy secure in his masculinity might enjoy it… and probably won’t have to worry about that whole washing conundrum either!

80stees.com actually has quite a few cool candy-themed tees (mostly for the ladies) like Tootsie Roll, Fun Dip, Bubblicious, more PEZ shirts, Chupa Chups, Dubble Bubble, and Blow Pop.

• 80stees.com

More candy articles about: candy, sweets, grape, pez, tshirt, t-shirt, tee, tees, tshirts, t-shirts, clothing, shirt, shirts

Share This