What excited me most at the All Candy Expo this year? No, it wasn’t anything from Mars or Hershey’s. Nope, not the weird new inhaled chocolate. As a matter of fact, what I liked most was this new candy from the folks who make that ice cream that’s a bunch of little balls. They’ve taken that product and dehydrated it, making freeze dried ice cream that tastes even yummier than the astronaut variety!

The creaminess is what immediately hits you with this candy. Unlike the regular freeze dried variety, there isn’t any chalky aftertaste. You won’t need to suck down water or milk while you’re eating it, but you still get a delicious ice cream-like feeling (minus the brain freeze, of course). I got to try Neapolitan, mint chip, and banana flavors, and all were good. I liked the Neapolitan the most, since it reminded me of my beloved astronaut ice cream, but the others were equally tasty.

Unfortunately, you can’t get this product yet. (sob) It’s brand new and they were at the Expo looking for manufacturers, distributors, etc., so until that happens you won’t get to try it and I’ll be forced to sit here longingly staring at the empty packets trying to force myself not to lick the interiors for one last crumb….

• Silly Ice Cream Website

Candy: good. Ice cream: good. Combining the two: freaking awesome! For the third year, Baskin-Robbins has created a line of limited edition candy bar-inspired flavors and creations to add to their already substantial lineup.

Through May 3, 2009 you can enjoy two of your favorite candies, Snickers and M&M’s, combined with ice cream at Baskin-Robbins. From sundaes to shakes and cakes, you’re bound to find a combo that tickles your sweet tooth. Check out the website for some of their creations, and be sure to pop down to your local Baskin-Robbins to enjoy the sweet treats!

• Candy Bar Madness at Baskin-Robbins

Now that I’ve worked through my backlog of Christmas chocolate reviews, I thought I’d do something I haven’t done for awhile – review some Japanese candy from T&T. (Though Christmas chocolate is great too – don’t get me wrong.) I picked up a couple of items, the first of which is this Senjaku Four Seas Ice Cream Candy.

But to start with, let’s get something out of the way. Yup, I’m reviewing Asian candy. Asian candy that contains milk and was, in all likelihood, made before the whole melamine scare. Would I chug melamine-contaminated milk by the glass? No. But the tiny amount of milk in one or two hard candies isn’t going to contain any more than a truly infinitesimal amount of melamine – if it contains any at all. I’d call that an acceptable risk, but if it bothers you, no one’s making you eat them.

If you’re not phobic about that sort of thing, there are a lot of really tasty milk-flavored Japanese candies around. There’s even a type that’s actually called “milk candy,” a condensed milk-based chew that comes plain and in various flavors, from caramel to corn (for serious!). These Ice Cream Candies aren’t milk candy, though really, it doesn’t get much milkier than ice cream. However, Senjuku one-ups American offerings like the Baskin-Robbins candies by making these not just ice-cream flavored, but also ice-cream shaped.

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I have many a fond memory of Baskin-Robbins from childhood: the free birthday cones, the baseball helmet sundaes, the hard, hard scoops that could be shot clear off your sugar cone and onto the lawn with one overzealous lick. Not to mention the choices – oh, the choices! All 31-plus of them! And I reveled in my flavor selection: Rocky Road, Rainbow Sherbet, Cookies ‘N Cream… the world was my hot fudge-covered oyster (notably not one of the aforementioned 31-plus). But I have to admit, in all my ice cream eating moments, never (ever) did I think to myself, “Mmmm, this ice cream is good, but it would be really good if only I could chew it.” So it is with a bit of skepticism that I opened up my box of Baskin-Robbins Soft Candy.

These candies come in two flavors: Mint Chocolate Chip and Very Berry Strawberry, and in both regular and sugar free varieties. They’re quite small – smaller than a Tootsie Roll – and rectangular. And they’re individually wrapped in foil reminiscent of my Viactiv Multi-Vitamin Chew (highly recommended as a vitamin supplement, less so as a sugary treat).

And soft they are. If nothing else, these things deliver in that department. Softer than both a Tootsie Roll and a Starburst chew, it took me a number of squeezes before I finally landed on Play-Doh. That’s about how soft these are, if you can imagine. (The sugar free ones actually were not quite as soft, falling somewhere between Play-Doh and Starburst on the hard/soft continuum.) But this is where the uniformity ends, so here’s how the individual flavors played out for me:

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I’ve long contemplated how, exactly, Freeze Dried Astronaut Ice Cream should be categorized. Is it candy? Or perhaps it’s simply a general-purpose dessert? Is it dairy or not?

Well, I still don’t have an answer to these age-old questions, but my investigations have certainly been tasty. Turns out, I’m one of the few people in the world who likes the stuff. Just as with my licorice adoration, my Freeze Dried Ice Cream addiction is often maligned and only rarely shared with any other member of the human race.

So, what about it? Anyone else like the stuff? Is it candy or not? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!

Buy Freeze Dried Ice Cream online:

• at Amazon.com