With undoubtedly the strangest name in the candy business, Hershey’s Whatchamacallit is a funny little candy bar. It has a base of peanut butter flavored “crispies” topped by a thin layer of soft caramel, and a coating of rich chocolate encapsulates the whole bar.

The Whatchamacallit and I have a very close relationship, as it was first created only a year before I was born. We practically grew up together. I can’t even remember my first taste of one. Right about the time I learned to ride a bike, the Whatchamacallit was given its tasty layer of caramel. I have a feeling poor Whatchamacallit felt a bit naked before that.

Read More »

Here’s some advice: don’t try to eat a Valomilk when you’re driving. One bite through that chocolate shell and you’ll have liquid marshmallow dripping down your chin and onto your clothes. I shudder to think how many accidents have been caused by drivers frantically wiping Valomilk filling from their shirts.

For candy fans, the Valomilk, created in 1931 by the Russell Sifers Candy Co., is one of the top treats on the market. If you’ve not experienced the joy of biting into one, I don’t know what to tell you. Well, I’ll tell you this: a Valomilk puts the mass-market Mallo Cup, which it resembles, to shame.

Read More »

The Clark Bar has been the Big Foot of my candy life. For years and years I have scoured gas station after convenience store in hopes of spotting this elusive bar. My obsession with it began several years ago when I read glowing reviews of it and its brother Zagnut, a product that was easier to track down.

But my search had always ended in frustration… until now. This past week at Walgreens, in a bag of Old-Fashioned candy packaged by Necco, amidst Banana Splits and Necco Wafers, these Lost Cities of Atlantis appeared as if they were weren’t one of the most difficult candies I’ve ever tried to find.

I had always intended to try the full-sized bar, but this package only sold the miniature version, a small concession for being able to finally sample this product.

Read More »

When I was a kid, my candy preferences consisted of the longest-lasting candies I could afford on my meager candy allowance. But when I felt like splurging, that splurge was often Bridge Mixture.

To my childhood self, there was something sophisticated about Bridge Mixture – the mixture of dark and milk chocolate coatings, the way that you never quite knew which filling you were going to get, just like in a “grown-up” box of chocolates, the fact that it was named after a complicated grown-up card game at a time when I only knew how to play Old Maid and Crazy Eights.

Bridge Mixture seems to evoke a love-it-or-hate-it response in people, so I vowed to track down the elusive candy and see if it lived up to my childhood memories. But first, a little background info. Bridge Mixture, for those of you who don’t know, is nothing more than an assortment of chocolate-coated centers – caramel, a selection of fondants, peanuts and raisins, and two flavors of what the Internet calls “Turkish Delight,” but has always seemed to me like a pretty standard jelly. (Note that they have no relation to the Licorice Bridge Mix we’ve previously reviewed.)

Read More »

I am a big believer in the idea that candy should, above all things, be fun. And there is perhaps no candy on earth as fun as the candy with Fun right in its name – the legendary Lik-M-Aid itself: Fun Dip.

If you’ve never had Fun Dip before, you are missing out on one of the greatest candy experiences of all time. There’s nothing particularly fancy or high class about Fun Dip; it’s the kind of candy you fall in love with when you’re in elementary school and never quite grow out of, the kind of candy that is both simple and wonderfully ridiculous, the kind of candy that makes dentists cringe and kids flip out with sugar-induced happiness. Fun Dip is candy at its best: sour, sweet sugar that tastes great and is super fun to eat.

The taste of Fun Dip is extremely similar in taste and texture to that of Pixy Stix. In fact, eating a packet of Fun Dip is a bit like eating a bowl of Pixy Stix sugar, which, I must say, is pretty awesome.

Fun Dip currently comes in three flavors: RazzApple Magic, Cherry-Yum-Diddly, and Grape-Yumptious:

Read More »