Julie’s Corner Store in Lacon, Illinois isn’t your typical candy shop. In fact, it’s not a candy shop at all. In addition to fudge, the store sells everything from antiques to reproduction tin toys to tools (I saw sandpaper for sale!). You can bet the fudge is just as interesting as the store.

Julie’s uses fresh ingredients and real butter and cream. I got a nice review pack from them with a variety of flavors: chocolate peanut butter, chocolate, vanilla praline, orange creme, and chocolate mint. The box reminded me of something you’d get at a beachfront candy store, the kind of place that has hand-pulled taffy and seafoam candy.

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I first ran into Popsters at this year’s All Candy Expo. As I walked by I grabbed a sample and was blown away. Popsters are mini caramel popcorn balls coated with milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or a peanut butter. The mini popcorn balls range from roughly the size of a whopper to the size of a jellybean. They aren’t skimpy with the coating and the ratio of coating to popcorn is just right. The popcorn adds a nice flavor and crunch to the Popsters.

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One of the most exciting new candies that I came across at the All Candy Expo was the new Reese’s Select Cluster, a bite-sized piece of sweet, peanut buttery goodness consisting of Reese’s peanut butter, caramel, peanuts, and pecans, all held together by a creamy layer of smooth milk chocolate. It was as if all of the candy stars aligned to make the perfect sweet for me - all of my favorite ingredients, held together by my favorite peanut butter in the whole world! Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to try one.

The first thing I noticed about the clusters was that the dominating flavor is the familiar (and delicious) taste of Reese’s peanut butter. A generous dollop makes up the base of the cluster, which is exactly how it should be, for Reese’s instantly recognizable peanut butter, with its gritty and rich consistency, is the reason why people buy Reese’s products in the first place. I have to hand it to Reese’s - though they continue to spin off new and interesting Reese’s treats, they never forget or downplay the importance of Reese’s peanut butter as their star player.

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“They’re here, they’re finally here!” my tummy yelled when a box of Annabelle’s new Rocky Road Supreme bars found their way to my doorstep. I had luckily sampled these at last year’s All Candy Expo when they were still just prototypes. Regardless of the fact that they weren’t finished tweaking the formula, I knew what I was eating was extremely tasty, so I patiently waited until they would be ready to be consumed by the masses.

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Even though I ate this Butterfinger Crisp about a month ago, I kept the wrapper for article writing purposes. Now I find myself sitting here, sniffing the wrapper and desperately wishing it still had some candy inside. It’s a 180 turn around for me, because when I got it I wasn’t really all that excited about it. I’m just not a die-hard Butterfinger fan - while I like the texture and flavor, I find the whole thing just a bit too sweet.

This bar is a huge improvement on the original. It still has the delicate flakiness of a Butterfinger bar, but it’s sandwiched between several layers of plain wafers, and then the entire thing is covered with chocolate. It’s the love child of a giant Kit Kat and a classic Butterfinger, only way better.

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Seldom do I get as excited about candy as I did when the shipment of Zingerman’s Zzang! Bars arrived after a long workday. The hip, slick packaging, the simple mixed with fancy ingredients, and the interesting flavor combinations promised a unique treat. And, with three varieties, I felt sure my palate would be artfully stimulated.

I tore into the Original first, because I wanted to use it as a base to compare to the other flavors. Zingerman’s marketing team made me salivate with anticipation:

“Starting with a honey nougat made with natural peanut butter, we dip it in a sensual caramel made from muscovado brown sugar. The biggest and best butter roasted peanuts we can find come next, and the whole endeavor is finished off with a dip into a rich bath of dark chocolate.”

It looked great and smelled good, but the taste was disappointing. It was very peanutty and rich, but left an odd, almost smoky, aftertaste in my mouth. I expected the bar to be sweeter, and was left wishing I’d eaten a Snickers instead. Dang. Next…

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Today we have another guest review written by Tanna Reynolds who recently reviewed Mo’s Bacon Bar. (Remember, anyone can write a guest review for Candy Addict, just email us)

Abba-Zaba and I go way back… all the way back to my childhood when I would lord over my trick-or-treat hauls full of Abba-Zaba at Halloween. Recently, I decided it was time for us to be reacquainted. For me and my candy-greedy brother, Abba-Zaba’s chewy peanut taste and taxi cab yellow and black packaging was sweet perfection. Each year, when the final bell rang at the neighborhood-wide open market candy exchange in the days following Halloween, I was dozens of Abba-Zaba’s richer. My wealth could be measured in both sweet sticks and time because my brother was always willing to perform my chores in exchange for an Abba-Zaba. As long as they lasted, my brother was mine.

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Our good friends at Hershey’s are at it again - taking two favorite and much loved products and rolling them into one. In this case it’s the lovely malted balls of Whoppers and the peanut butter filling of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Original Whoppers are a small, crunchy malted milk ball covered with a thin layer of chocolate. These Reese’s versions are exactly the same thing, but the chocolate layer is replaced with peanut butter.

This product is another case of something with a lot of potential which just misses the mark. I busted this cute milk-carton inspired packaging open, threw a few of these in my mouth, chomped down and thought, “Oh.” That’s it. No declarations of my undying love for these, no desire to just pour the rest of them right down my throat (as convenient as the packaging would make that!).

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Recently, I’ve gotten the relatively rare opportunity to taste and review a number of American products (thanks Sera!) and I’ve realized a few things. For instance, eating pretzels as candy is a very US-based food phenomenon. Products like the Pretzel Pete Chocolate Peanut Butter Gems, large pretzel sticks dipped in chocolate and rolled in toppings, pretzels added to desserts and so on are really only something you find on American shores.

Needless to say I was super excited to try Hershey’s Take 5 bar and ripped it open immediately (as evidenced by photo above). The Take 5 bar is made with a long list of my favorite things: chocolate, pretzels, caramel, peanuts and peanut butter. Based on this list alone, what’s not to like? The bar itself is actually two bars - two vaguely oval-shaped lumps, each about 2.5 inches long.

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After reading the Awesomely Addictive raves about Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg, I was ecstatic to find Reese’s Peanut Butter White Egg and Reese’s Peanut Butter Fudge Egg at Walgreen’s for fifty cents each. I generally love all Reese’s candy, and couldn’t wait to get home and try the eggs. I wasn’t sure what to expect - would the peanut butter be mixed with different flavors, or would the coatings just be different from the usual milk chocolate?

I randomly chose to open the White Egg first, and took note of the flat-back egg shape similar to the Almond Joy and Mounds Eggs. The White Egg was solidly encased in an off-white substance that looked and felt a little oily. My excitement dwindled, and I cautiously bit into the candy.

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