I had the distinct pleasure of sampling Amella’s Artisan Cocoa Butter Caramels and OMG they are decadent and scrumptious. These caramels have an incredible texture - just a bit chewy and so creamy and buttery that they just melt in your mouth.

Passion Fruit: Out of the three flavors I tried, the passion fruit was my least favorite and it was still excellent. The caramels include real passion fruit, cocoa butter, and Tahitian vanilla and are hand dipped in milk chocolate. The passion fruit flavor is really strong and tangy - if you’re into passion fruit these will make you do the happy dance. Since I think passion fruit is just ok, I’d have preferred more caramel flavor. But even so, yum!

Read More »

I’ve had some good peanut brittle in my time with Candy Addict, but I’ve never seen these nifty flavor twists: Coco Nutty and Yippee Cayenne. I wonder how they’ll work with the brittle.

Jer’s Handmade Chocolates is a relatively new company in San Diego. I was not happy with their Toffee Break Gourmet Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars, but I’m still ready to like these Brittle Bites - especially given the quality ingredients.

Let’s try the Coco Nutty bites first. These come in a small 1.6 oz box, with four individual, small bite-sized pieces. I pop one in my mouth. The coconut flavor hits first, and strongly. Then the crispy brittle, which is hard to discern because of the strong coconut flakes. Lastly I notice the dark chocolate, quite far in the flavor background. I can see how some people would like these, but to me the coconut flavor’s too strong, masking the brittle and chocolate elements. Oh, and these are peanut brittle, but I couldn’t even taste the peanuts. Let’s try the Yippee Cayenne.

Read More »

Hard butterscotch candies may be almost as ubiquitous as fruit-flavored hard candies, but there’s always been something different about Werther’s Originals. Perhaps it’s their delicate balance of sweet and salt, or perhaps it’s the fact that they’re made with real cream and butter, but in a candy market filled with generic butterscotch candies, there’s only one Werther’s.

Until recently, that is. Like many other classic candies, Werther’s are now available in an array of different forms – from caramel-coffee to sugar-free to caramel-mint, and now, these Werther’s Originals Caramel Chocolates.

Werther’s was making a big deal out of these at the All Candy Expo – when you went through the main entrance, the first thing you saw was a white-hatted “chef” armed with a tray of these glittering, foil-wrapped chocolate discs. Of course, I allowed him to provide me with a few samples, in both Milk and Dark. (I realized later that I’d been scooped - we’d already posted a review of the dark chocolate Werther’s Originals all the way back in November. D’oh!)

I was initially very curious about what “caramel chocolates” would involve – these seemed a little thin to have any kind of a liquid center, so my guess was that they contained crushed Werther’s hard candy bits. It turned out I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Read More »

Before attending the All Candy Expo, all the registered press people were sent dozens and dozens of press releases from various companies advertising their products and inviting us to drop by their booths. That is where I first heard about Landrin Waferatto USA.

The company’s roots date back to the nineteenth century when Georg Landrin began preparing confections for the Imperial Court of Russia. The reputation of his delicacies spread throughout the country and Europe, earning his products notoriety for their quality ingredients and taste.

Landrin USA was recently founded with the intent to market a line of truffles with designs and packaging inspired by couture fashion and art - i.e., appealing to women. I remember checking out some of the photos from their press release to discover all their boxes adorned with orchids, chiffon prints, the elegance of a perfume box, and they somehow unfolded into vases when you opened them.

Elaborate much? Maybe. But the principal and design is aesthetically sound, which is why it’s a current silver finalist for two of the 2009 Sofi Awards (Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation). But part of me didn’t want to like these. They were too pretty. They were too girly.

Read More »

I don’t know what it is with me this spring - first I reviewed Barbie chocolates, and now I’m chowing down with Disney. Courtesy of the All Candy Expo stash, I got to try these whimsical little chocolates before they hit the market.

As it turns out, you get a three-tiered Disney bonanza with these babies.

Read More »