You may remember that we mentioned Star Trek Gummies a while back. Well, I finally had my chance to try them at the All Candy Expo and found them delightful.

After introducing myself, a very pleasant gentleman offered to give me a box so I could write a review when I got home. Of course, it turned out that another guy at the booth was completely against the idea – they didn’t have enough, they were sold out, blah blah blah. Nice Guy overrode Mean Guy, though, and slipped me a box so I could revel in the gummy yumminess. (Then he had to tell another lady who wasn’t a preeminent candy reviewer that she couldn’t have any – hah!)

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I meant to have a box of this for Valentine’s and write a review of it. It didn’t happen, and this box didn’t mean to happen either. I was actually buying them for Mother’s Day. I clicked on the wrong address in my account, and some stranger at my mom’s old address got a box of chocolate. They’re too fragile to be resold after they’ve been shipped back and forth, so all I could do was reorder another box.

That was when things took a turn for the better. When I reordered, they somehow managed to send the order to me instead. Since it was their mistake, they sent another to my mom, and I got this one for myself. Obviously, we were meant to be together.

There are two main things to know about this brand: First of all, this is very much a dark chocolate experience. There are a few milk chocolate pieces, but if that’s what you prefer, go elsewhere.

On the other hand, if you’re a dark chocolate fiend, like I am, read on.

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My favorite part of going to Ikea is not the miles and miles of love seats, desks, beds and kitchen stuff, but their little food store. In addition to spreading Swedish culture through furniture items, Ikea’s food store is also sharing Swedish delicacies with the world – from those ubiquitous meatballs to crispbreads and more kinds of preserved fish than you can shake a stick at.

Just like there’s more to Swedish cuisine than meatballs, there’s also more to Swedish candy than the famous Swedish Fish, and Ikea’s food store has a fine selection to choose from. We’ve previously reviewed raspberry boats and daim from the big blue giant, but since Ikea has a rotating candy section, I figured it was time to give them another shot. I picked up two items: Godis Nuts and Bolts Mix and Aroma Konfektyrer Raspberry Drops.

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As a very early riser, I do most of my writing, candy reviewing included, at the crack of dawn. While I’m not averse to a little candy first thing in the morning, it’s sometimes a nice change to be reviewing a candy that actually tastes like breakfast.

These Fruits & Yogourt gummies are a new addition to Dare’s popular Realfruit Gummies brand – gummies with natural fruit flavors and colors. We’ve previously reviewed them in fruit-snack form as part of our Back-to-School Fruit-Snack Roundup. As far as candy goes, they’re about as guilt-free of a choice as you can get – and pretty darn tasty too, since they actually contain juice and puree from the fruits they’re flavored like, not just a lot of nutrition-light “filler” juices like apple and pear.

So the originals are pretty tasty, but I’m usually wary of candies with “yogurt” in their name. Usually, it’s nothing more than an attempt to make a product look healthier than something coated in chocolate, when said “yogurt coating” is actually just an unholy amalgamation of hydrogenated oil and yogurt flavor – so it’s not only nutritionally equivalent to chocolate, it’s nutritionally equivalent to very BAD chocolate, without even the scant health benefits of the real thing.

That’s not the case here, though – the ingredients list “yogurt powder,” which is made up of modified milk ingredients and bacterial culture – nothing wrong with that, especially since they’re also fat-free. From the moment you open the bag, they really do smell like fruit-flavored yogurt.

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If you’ve ever shopped for a new car or had to hang around a dealership while your mom or dad or granny or Uncle Ned argued with a car salesman with hair as slick as motor oil about the supposed need for rust proofing, then you’ve probably thumbed through a glossy automobile brochure or two. Maybe you wanted to check on your model’s options, or just pass the time. But I don’t care if it’s a Bentley or a Yugo, the brochure’s text and pictures always make it sound like this car will revolutionize the way you slice through the wind! Yeah, sure.

Recently I received a well-insulated box of 10 gourmet “Garden Ganache” chocolates from Kohler Original Recipe Chocolates for review. Aside from the bubble wrap, a press release about a nice mention in Oprah’s magazine, a CD ROM full of photos and a flavor guide, Kohler included a twenty-two page, 8 x 11 ultra-glossy candy brochure that made me think I was back in a new car showroom. I mean, the blurbs and full page photos had me wondering which delectable-looking candies came with leather upholstery. And of course, these treats were “acknowledged unparalleled” by early tasters, while Kohler “seeks to explore the limitless opportunity in taste and texture with natural raw materials.” Do they mean they try different ingredients… ?

So, yeah, these things look good in the brochure. But are they Bentleys, Yugos, or something in between?

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