My dad introduced me to the majority of candies I have ever tried. One of his favorites which still exists today is Dots. First established in 1890 by Mason, they were all black licorice-flavored as Crows. In 1945, the original fruit-flavored Dots - which boast the title of most popular gumdrop in the world - debuted in small yellow boxes found in Tootsie’s Fun Size mix. My dad had me sample both of these versions and I didn’t care for either, not being a fan of black licorice and finding the fruit-flavored too sticky and stale.

When I was a teenager, Tropical Dots debuted, which I bought not so much because I thought they would be any good, but rather because it was like seeing the first two installments of a bad horror film; you feel obligated to watch the next one so you’ll be able to claim to have seen them all. To my surprise, I actually loved the tropical version and it has since become a staple candy in my cabinets.

All these years later, I was shopping in a Walgreens in Los Angeles and a purple, movie-sized box of Yogurt Dots tempted me from the checkout line, and for only a dollar too. Having reasoned that Dots have progressively improved with each new version (black licorice = yuck, fruit = eh, tropical = yum), I was excited to taste the newest spinoff.

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If you knew me in real life, you would know that very little shocks me. I’m one of those people who finds things like comic strips and stand up comedians funny, but rarely laughs out loud. Every once in a while, though, something comes along which makes me not only laugh, but laugh long and loud enough to justify sharing it with my friends. In this case, as the cause of my endless laughing was a candy, I felt compelled to share it with the wider Candy Addicted world.

I am, of course, talking about gummi lighthouses.

The thing that perplexes me, of course, is that I have no idea why anybody would think about making a gummi lighthouse in the first place. The whole gummi animal thing makes sense to me - fish and bears and little tiny people are kinda cute. Gummi fruit is a total no-brainer - because it makes logical sense to make a candy look like the flavor of fruit it is. Random shapes like rings and squares and soda bottles also make sense. Lighthouses? Yeah. Not so much.

One wonders if this is some sort of subliminal message. (You’ll have to click on the link below to see what I mean.)

For the purposes of not harming small children in the making of this article, a photo of the actual product can be found at this link:

• Gummi Lighthouses at joeydevilla.com

(Thanks to Bob at http://pfdebate.com for the tip - no pun intended)

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My friends often wonder how I can consume so many sweets and not weigh a million pounds. Well, I run. But here’s something they might not know - I eat candy when I run! Back when I trained with some ultrarunners, I learned to eat while running. Typical endurance foods such as PowerBars just didn’t taste that great to a Candy Addict like me, so I started taking more appealing yet equally energy-boosting treats, such as Snickers bars, red licorice, M&Ms, gummi bears, and ooh, Jelly Belly jellybeans!

Well, manufacturers of energy foods have gotten smarter, and they’ve started producing endurance treats that actually taste good (that means they taste like candy). Clif, the makers of Clif Bar, have developed a carbohydrate and electrolyte replacement product called Shot Bloks that are rather like gummi candies. Offered in a number of flavors, including strawberry, cola, orange, lemon lime, and cran razz, these little cubes are designed to give the athlete a boost of energy. Some of them contain caffeine, but all boast organic brown rice syrup and are sweetened with organic evaporated cane juice.

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We recently reviewed Loud Truck Gummies and found them to be quite tasty and full of vitamins and energy. As a special treat for our Candy Addict readers, Loud Truck has given us some great Loud Truck items to give away. We have some Loud Truck Gummies, a green Loud Truck ballcap, and a green long-sleeve Loud truck t-shirt. (The hat and t-shirt are AWESOME and I wish I could win them.)

So here’s the deal - we’ll have two winners - one will win Loud Truck Gummies and the ballcap, one will win Loud Truck Gummies and the t-shirt. To enter, email us at DELETED with a subject of Loud Truck Gummies Giveaway (if you do not use the correct subject, your entry will not be counted). In the email, put your Candy Addict username (if you don’t have one, register to be a Candy Addict user), the email you used to register on Candy Addict, and the name of the country that the guarana used in Loud Truck Gummies comes from (you can find this on the Loud Truck Gummies website).

Send this email to us by midnight EST on Sunday, June 29th. Two winners will be chosen at random from all correct entries.

The fine print
Prizes can be sent to US addresses only. Entrants must be 18 years of age or older. One entry per person, per email address. Offer void where prohibited. Not responsible for lost, misdirected, or unread e-mail. If you don’t reply to the winning email in 2 days, your prize will be forfeit and we will choose another winner. Entries must be received no later than midnight EST on June 29, 2008. Two random entries will be chosen as winners from all correct entries.

• Loud Truck Gummies website
• Candy Addict review of Loud Truck Gummies

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In my Candy Addict staff profile, I joke that I adhere to a strict organic, vegan diet to balance my rabid candy consumption. Though that’s not entirely true, if it were I could find sweet organic, vegan refuge in Zootons. What are Zootons, you ask? Well Zootons are beings hailing from Zootopia, of course! And they are here to save Earthling children and adults alike from bad candy.

And how do they do that, you ask? Why, by generously sharing their homeland’s chemical-free, fertilizer-free, gelatin-free, organic, vegan candy with “out of this world taste” of the same name. Naturally! And in the spirit of promoting healthy habits and practicing what they preach, Zootons also donate a percentage of their profits to Healthy Child, Healthy World, a non-profit organization campaigning for healthy environments for children.

And while these are all excellent reasons for both vegan and omnivorous Addicts to give Zootons a try, we all know that when it comes to candy it really just comes down to taste (I mean, if it tastes like organic dirt it still tastes like dirt, right?), so let’s get to the important stuff. Zootons come in four varieties: Gummies, Colas, Jellies, and Sours. And here’s my breakdown:

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I am not going to lie to you: I am not a big gummi person. Unless gummi bears or their squirmy gummi worm cousins are coated in a thick layer of sour sugar, I’m usually not interested. So when I heard about Loud Truck Energy Gummies at the All Candy Expo, I was hesitant to try one, until someone on the floor said the magic words: “It’s like eating a bag of Red Bull.”

To some people, that statement would be terrifying. To me, it was a starter pistol that sent me racing over to the Loud Truck Energy booth to sample these mystical bears of energy and goodness. I love Red Bull, and most energy-fueled treats, so I was hoping that Loud Truck gummies would provide a new (and possibly cheaper) alternative to my beloved Red Bull fix. I instantly fell in love with them at the All Candy Expo, and couldn’t wait to review them once I returned home.

This morning at 8:00 am, I ripped open a new pack of Loud Truck Energy Gummies to start the day. Taste-wise, the gummies are quite good. The bears are firm but soft, with a nice chewy texture that doesn’t stick to the teeth. They have a subtle citrus flavor that gets stronger as the bear is chewed - a nice bite toward the end of the chewing process brings to mind a sip of Red Bull - a fizzy citrus taste that lingers after the bear is gone.

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As part of my job I have to travel to Florida several times a year. For someone who hates sun, sand, and heat, it isn’t exactly a dream come true. One of the few things that make the trips bearable are my mandatory excursions to Fresh Market and their gourmet candy section. On my last trip, I picked up a bag of Albanese Gummi Bunnies, intending to review them when I got back home to New York. They didn’t make it home; in fact, they didn’t even make it to the airport. They were that good.

So, to make up for it, I bought some Albanese Beeps on Amazon. They have served to reinforce my belief that Albanese makes some of the best gummies I’ve ever had.

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Occasionally when I’m skulking around the candy section of a convenience store, a particular package will catch my eye. Often, what draws me is the flash of a brightly colored wrapper. Sometimes, it is because the candy is brand new to the familiar landscape of the aisle (like my newest obsession - the Indiana Jones’ Mint Chocolate Crisp M&Ms). But occasionally, I attribute my attraction to what can only be referred to as The Profound Gravitational Pull of Candy. This is how I discovered the Rip Roll.

Here’s the thing about The Profound Gravitational Pull of Candy. It doesn’t always mean true love. Am I pledging myself eternally to the Rip Roll? Certainly not. Do I understand why whatever higher power (or sugar craving) created and marketed this candy? Absolutely.

Rip Rolls come individually wrapped and are available in four flavors: strawberry, green apple, watermelon and blue raspberry. When I pulled off the exterior wrapper of my first Rip Roll, which was strawberry flavored, I was greeted with a single Rip Roll resting in a small plastic tray. I assume the purpose of this piece of plastic is to uphold the shape and integrity of the roll. It works. I placed the Rip Roll in the palm of my hand and I felt as though I had been presented with the most exquisite piece of candy on the planet. It looked magical. Were I five years old and opening this candy, you would be hard-pressed to convince me that it wasn’t invented by a unicorn, dragon, or Rapunzel. The pink whorl positively sparkles with sugar coating and this sugar is not just on the outside of the roll. Instead, it meticulously covers every inch of the advertised “forty inches of fun.”

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I am a creature of habit. There are certain things I have to have when I go certain places. At baseball games, I have to get a giant pretzel. At family parties, I have to have my sister’s chocolate chip cookies. At the shore, I have to grab a box of salt water taffy. And at the movies, it is absolutely imperative that I get my hands on a bag of Sour Patch Kids.

As weird as this sounds, I am not a gummy person. I hate gummi bears. Gummy worms give me the creeps. Gumdrops are on my (very short) DO. NOT. WANT. candy list. Yet despite all this, I love Sour Patch Kids with the fire of a thousand Atomic Fireballs.

Sour Patch Kids are small gummy treats that come in various fruit flavors, including cherry, orange, lemon, and lime. Each Sour Patch Kid is about the size of a regular gummy bear. Tiny granules of sour sugar coat each gummy Kid, giving them a grainy texture and a knockout sour punch.

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I like to think that I’m not the only person who has a long list of embarrassing moments. We’re all human, after all, and I know at least some of you have accidentally walked into a wall or two or ripped the seat of your pants at an inopportune moment. These things happen–possibly to me more than most. As a result of my undeniable knack of humiliating myself and my likewise undeniable love of all things candy, I’d like to share with you my Top Five Most Embarrassing Candy Moments.

5. The Chocolate in my Pocket. After an intense conversation about my future with The Boss at work one day, I made an emphatic gesture with my hand and then shoved it into the pocket of my pants. I immediately felt the undeniable squelch of a forgotten and completely melted piece of a formerly wrapped Dove milk chocolate. Apparently, I made a face. The Boss asked what was wrong and I was forced to admit what had happened.

4. The Sweatshirt of Shame. On my sixteenth birthday, my mother had the bright idea to take an oversized teal sweatshirt and safety pin wrapped pieces of candy all over it. My mother claimed this was the thing to do for a “sweet sixteen” and insisted that I wear the atrocity to school.

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