Mockolate products have an awful reputation, but it isn’t as if it’s not deserved. Despite what the candy companies are spouting in an attempt to appease/brainwash their constituents, there is a noticeable difference between a real piece of chocolate and mockolate.

But to immediately write off all mockolate products would be a disservice to a handful of candies out there. You see, mockolate can work well under certain circumstances. The most successful mockolate products I have encountered were always candies that weren’t considered chocolate, but wanted a chocolate flavor.

To me, no product accomplishes this as well as Tootsie’s namesake product, the Tootsie Roll. Having been doled out since the late nineteenth century, these babies hold a niche in the candy universe.

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Tootsie Rolls can do more than just fill your belly with delicious chocolate-y goodness. Thanks to the good people at Fred Flare, they can now keep your neck warm too.

If it weren’t for the fact that 1) I don’t wear scarves and 2) my coworkers would mock me relentlessly for wearing a giant Tootsie Roll wrapper, I’d consider getting one. Perhaps I’ll get one as a gift for a candy-loving friend of mine this holiday season. The scarf is 5″ wide, by 74″ long. Imagine the size of the Tootsie Roll that would fit in there!

• Tootsie Roll Scarf at FredFlare.com

I’m dreaming of a white…Tootsie Roll? Whether your head hit the pillow and filled with thoughts of albino candy or not, 14oz bags of Vanilla Flavored Midgees are here for the holidays.

I’m a huge fan of Tootsie Roll products (love the Tootsie Roll Mini Chews) and I was worried that the Vanilla Midgees would disappoint me like the Inside Out Junior Mints did. This time, a variation on the original is a good thing. The candy has a very strong vanilla scent, almost like sniffing a bottle of pure vanilla extract, and the flavor matches the strong aroma. No vanilla is listed in the ingredients, so the taste is artificial, but it’s novel artificial, like a fiberoptic Christmas tree.

The vanilla Midgees are slightly larger than original Midgees, and left a little bit of a sticky, waxy, greasy feel on my fingers. The pleasant aftertaste was welcome, but the slightly waxy feeling in my mouth was not. Complaints noted, the candy really is tasty, and the vanilla Midgees are a nice complement to any holiday candy bowl. Plus, the package is festive but not holiday specific—it’s blue and white with snowflakes, and the individual candies are wrapped in blue and white and say Limited Edition.

I didn’t find any information about the holiday vanilla Midgees on the Tootsie website, but I did learn of Tootsie Fruit Rolls, which include the vanilla candy in their mix. The Tootsie site says the Tootsie Fruit Rolls come in 5 flavors: cherry, lemon, orange, vanilla, and lime. If you decide you really like the Vanilla Tootsie Rolls, check out this Vanilla Tootsie Roll Candy Wreath. Talk about festive!

Buy Tootsie Roll Holiday Edition Vanilla Flavored Midgees online:

• at Candy Crate
• at Candy Direct

I wish I could stop saying “this is my new favorite candy,” but near-perfect products just keep finding their way from stores to my mouth. That said, Tootsie Roll Mini Chews just might really be my new favorite candy. It took me two or three bites to get used to the taste and texture of chocolate-covered Tootsie Rolls, because the candy was unlike anything else I’ve ever tried. By the fourth bite, I was hooked.

Each piece is about half the size of a regular Tootsie Roll and generously covered in milk chocolate. It’s the sort of candy that can easily be tossed into the mouth over and over again. In fact, I most enjoyed eating three or four at a time. The Tootsie Roll is wonderfully soft, and the chocolate gives the candy a unique identity without stripping it of authentic Tootsie Roll flavor.

The Mini Chews are available in 2.5 oz and 4.5 oz boxes, and in bags of snack-size boxes. You might want to issue a warning to friends and family who try these—eat at your own risk of addiction. This is the first candy to get our brand new “Awesomely Addictive Candy Award”!

• Mini Chews info at tootsie.com
• Buy Tootsie Roll Mini Chews at GroovyCandies.com
• Cybele’s review (she found them just “pleasant”)

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I don’t know why I think this is so funny. Maybe it’s because I have three cats and I’m intimately familiar with litterboxes. Maybe it’s because I have the maturity of a 12-year-old in my 30-something-year-old body. This is a cake but it looks just like a litterbox. It’s made with either a spice or a German chocolate cake mix, white cake mix, white sandwich cookies, instant vanilla pudding mix, green food coloring, and 12 Tootsie Rolls. I love the description:

Litterbox Cake is a moist, tasty medley of cake and instant pudding accented with green cookie crumbs and chocolate candy “turds”. It’s especially appropriate for a cat-lover’s wedding or birthday, but really it’s hard to think of an occasion when a Litterbox Cake wouldn’t hit the spot.

Some more great quotes from the recipe:

• “Place a new liner in the new cat box. (This is not a time to cheap out on used goods!) “
• “Put three unwrapped Tootsie Rolls in a microwave-safe dish. Heat them until soft and pliable, about ten to twenty seconds. Using your fingers, shape the ends so that they are tapered and slightly curved at the ends. (Analysis of the contents of an actual cat box may be useful for research purposes.)”
• “You may also wish to artistically drape one or more Tootsie Rolls over the side of the box”
• “Serves one teenager, 5-6 inebriated adults, or zero sober adults.”

My sister’s birthday is next month – I am sooooooo tempted to make this for her. While checking out the Tacky Living site for the Litterbox Cake recipe, be sure and check out the recipe for Tic Tac Pie also – it’s a pie that requires 4 boxes of orange Tic Tacs!

UPDATE: Lonnie sent in a picture (seen below) of the litterbox cake he made! YUCK! Thanks, Lonnie!

• Litterbox Cake recipe [via Information Nation]
• Litter box cake at Daily Gluttony
• ANOTHER at BlogAlice.com
• Another at CatCollectors.com
• One more at maferrets.org
• Litterbox cakes on Flickr
• Tic Tac Pie recipe

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