For a long time my official “car candy” was Altoids. I liked the regular flavor, but my husband preferred wintergreen, so we kept two tins on hand (but his disappeared first, since his habit was to crunch through several Altoids at a time!). Oh, but I digress. My current car candy is the tart and lovely Life Savers Fruit Tarts. These come in two varieties: the purple tin contains Grape Berry, Green Apple, and Strawberry Watermelon; the gold tin has Watermelon, Cherry Lemonade, and Mandarin Orange. I usually alternate between the two tins.

The little fruit tarts are sugar-free but not, according to the tin, a “low-calorie food”. Whatever. The tin is very clever and cute. You press down in the center of the lid, and the sides release and pop open. The close, you replace the lid and just pinch the sides, and they snap back into place. Should I confess that I could not for the life of me figure out how to get these tins open? My husband had to show me. In my defense, though, these are car candies, which means I was too busy driving to read the instructions.

Read More »

Share This

One of the few things I have a terrible time resisting is a new experience, especially when it comes to candy. I came across the Holiday Creme Savers at the grocery store this week and saw that “Pumpkin Pie” was listed as a flavor (a vice of mine)! Well before I knew it, the package found its way into my cart.

The packaging is very festive and beautiful, it caught my eye right away. A beautiful red shimmery base with green and gold accents. The three holiday flavors are clearly displayed on the front: Gingerbread, Eggnog and Pumpkin Pie. Considering I’m a huge fan of pumpkin flavors and gingerbread (I could give or take Eggnog) I knew I was in for something yummy.

Upon opening the package I immediately noticed an uneven ratio of the three flavors. The inside contained roughly 60% gingerbread, 30% eggnog and 10% pumpkin pie. I understand how distribution is never completely even, but I was hoping for more of the pumpkin pie flavor. A shame!

Here’s how the flavors rate:

Gingerbread: comes in a red wrapper with a gold gingerbread man on it. The candy itself is the standard smooth semi-circle shape, with a creamy white base with brown swirls. It really tastes of a gingerbread cookie! It’s pleasantly sweet without overdoing it. It has a nice slow melt and creamy texture just like all its relatives in the Creme Saver family. I’m now very glad that a majority of the bag is this flavor, yum!

Eggnog: Comes in a golden wrapper with red mug design on it. The appeareance is similar to the gingerbread, except the swirls are a nice golden yellow. It’s sweet with a very strong buttery rum flavor. Actually, let me rephrase that, it’s a very strong rum flavor with a sweet, sort of chemical aftertaste. There’s also a hint of nutmeg in the aftertaste as well, but it’s very subtle. You’ll really enjoy this one if you’re an eggnog lover, but I could take it or leave it.

Pumpkin Pie: The one I was looking forward to! The wrapper is green with a golden slice of pie on it. The candy has a beige base with dark orange swirls. The flavor is……strange. It didn’t taste of pumpkin pie at all when I popped it into my mouth, nor by the time I finished it. It tastes sweet, with some odd hint of a floral essence, then finally a peppery/clove/nutmeg aftertaste. I felt like I was sucking on a holiday potpourri. Most disappointing.

Overall, I think the Holiday flavors are worth buying. The Gingerbread and Eggnog flavors are pretty tasty, it’s just the pumpkin pie that really lacks. These would look beautiful in the candy bowl at work or a party. Just don’t wonder why only the green ones (yet again, right?) are leftover.

• Creme Savers Website

Buy Holiday Creme Savers Online:

• at Candy Direct
• Buy other flavors of Creme Savers at Amazon

More candy articles about: candy, sweets, holiday, festive, lifesavers, pumpkin, egg nog, gingerbread

Share This

While browsing the ice cream freezer in my local grocery store today I spied Life Savers Real Fruit Sherbet. Combining the two foods I love most, ice cream and candy, they are probably the brightest edible products I have ever seen in the freezer section. The sherbet is made by a dairy company called Kemps and according to the website and press release, each comes with five flavors and they come in four different varieties:

• 5 Flavor: cherry, pineapple, watermelon, raspberry, and orange
• Rainbow Sherbet: lemon, lime, orange, raspberry, and strawberry-kiwi
• Wild Berries: blackberry, strawberry, cherry berry, red raspberry, and black raspberry
• Tropical Fruits: banana, tangerine, fruit punch, pina colada, and mango melon

They sound like they might be good for making punches for parties, and I bet kids will love them, but I’m not huge on sherbets in general (except orange) and I wanted to make sundaes, so I went with a Cookies N Cream ice cream instead, thus no review.

• Life Savers Sherbet
• Life Savers Sherbet press release

More candy articles about: candy, sweets, icecream, ice cream, sherbet, lifesavers, life savers, lifesaver, life saver

Share This

You know, I had always heard that Wintergreen LifeSavers would “spark” when chewed, but I don’t think I ever actually tried it. Evidently, it is true (and my wife says she has verified it). So, why does it do this? According to exploratorium.edu,

When you crunch on wintergreen candies, you are making light with friction. The scientific name for this process is triboluminescence, from the Greek word tribein, which means “to rub,” and the Latin word lumin, which means “light.”
[read more]

Here is another interesting site where someone crushed Wintergreeen LifeSavers with needle-nosed pliers and took some pictures of it. Pretty cool.

I’m going to have to figure out a way to work triboluminescence into a conversation. “I witnessed triboluminescence while eating my Wint-O-Green LifeSavers in the dark.”

Explanation from exploratorium.edu
Explanation from howstuffworks.com
Pictures of Wintergreen flashes

More candy articles about: candy, wintergreen, science, mint, mints, lifesavers, lightning

Share This

I thought I’d start a new regular feature here on Candy Addict - every Friday I will post a link to a free web-based (Flash/Java) game whose theme is candy. It’ll give you something to do on Friday while you’re waiting for 5PM to arrive. Most candy sites have webgames on them, so I should be able to do this indefinitely. I will only post games that I have played and like. No duds.

So, what better site to start off with than a game from Candy Stand - one of the oldest candy sites with games. Today’s game is Life Savers Skee Ball (they call it Boardwalk Bowling, but they aren’t fooling anyone). is it just me or does it look like it could double as Froot Loops Skee ball too? Anyway, it’s a fun little game - and it has some really good sound effects. Post your high score in the comments! My high score is 520.

Play Life Savers Skee Ball

More candy articles about: candy, games, webgames, skee+ball, flash, fun

Share This