To all who know me, it’s no secret that I can eat my weight in Junior Mints, so when I first heard about Junior Mints Deluxe, I checked the mail impatiently every day until my samples arrived. When they did, I was a little sad to see that the Florida sun had taken a toll on the confections, but they were still mostly intact, and I got ready to chow down on some minty, chocolaty goodness.

The Deluxe candies are shaped a lot like cherry cordials, but otherwise the concept is the same as regular Junior Mints - dark chocolate on the outside, soft, minty filling on the inside. Here’s what Tootsie Roll Industries has to say about their latest Junior Mints product:

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My dad introduced me to the majority of candies I have ever tried. One of his favorites which still exists today is Dots. First established in 1890 by Mason, they were all black licorice-flavored as Crows. In 1945, the original fruit-flavored Dots - which boast the title of most popular gumdrop in the world - debuted in small yellow boxes found in Tootsie’s Fun Size mix. My dad had me sample both of these versions and I didn’t care for either, not being a fan of black licorice and finding the fruit-flavored too sticky and stale.

When I was a teenager, Tropical Dots debuted, which I bought not so much because I thought they would be any good, but rather because it was like seeing the first two installments of a bad horror film; you feel obligated to watch the next one so you’ll be able to claim to have seen them all. To my surprise, I actually loved the tropical version and it has since become a staple candy in my cabinets.

All these years later, I was shopping in a Walgreens in Los Angeles and a purple, movie-sized box of Yogurt Dots tempted me from the checkout line, and for only a dollar too. Having reasoned that Dots have progressively improved with each new version (black licorice = yuck, fruit = eh, tropical = yum), I was excited to taste the newest spinoff.

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I’m fairly certain that I have a condition known as Tootsie Pop Amnesia, where I can go for years forgetting how much I love the chocolaty chew of a Tootsie Pop before someone hands me one at random and all of my happy Tootsie memories come flooding on back.

In college, I ate about 9,009,209 Tootsie Pops. I kept the wrappers tacked to my wall. Whatever it is I thought I’d see, became a Tootsie Roll to me. But alas, after college I moved on to other treats, and left the Tootsie Pop behind. As always, I forgot all about the sweet, sticky, “what flavor is this in the center, I mean, it says chocolaty chew, but really?” delight of eating a Tootsie Pop. So when we hit the Tootsie booth at this year’s All Candy Expo, and I saw an unfamiliar color in the Tootsie Pop dish, I almost had to sit down, as my Tootsie Pop amnesia once again gave way to Tootsie Pop fever, and I was overcome with excitement trying to find out what flavor lay below the new, peach-colored Tootsie Pop wrapper.

On my way to the dish to fish out a pop, I imagined various flavor scenarios: dark chocolate? Cranberry? Tropical? Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the new Tootsie Pop flavor was the oh-so-trendy star of the All Candy Expo: Pomegranate.

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(image from Candy Crate)
Charms Blow Pops recently caused me a “well, DUH!” sort of moment. (I may have even dramatically smacked my forehead!) A recently acquired bag of traditional-flavored Blow Pops had me thinking how similar they were to Tootsie Pops. Hard outside, chewy inside, and a debate between those who chomp their way to the center and those who lick their way there.

So imagine my amusement when I started researching this article and discovered that Blow Pops are produced by… Tootsie Roll Industries. Bruised forehead aside, I was thrilled to eat my way through a bag of these. They taste precisely how I remember them from my childhood. Nothing about them has changed - which is great, given how much I hate it when candy companies mess with perfection.

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I love it when I go shopping for one thing and end up finding something else instead. That’s what happened when I went holiday shopping the other day. I went in looking for a certain gift and ended up walking out with a box of the new Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch. Isn’t the box pretty? I love how festive it is!

Junior Mints and I have a sordid history. As a kid I’d only really have them at Halloween since they weren’t something I’d ask for. Each year when I’d give them a try, I knew why. I was never a big fan of mint and chocolate (although I’m warming up to it now) and they’d always end up in the trash.

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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

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I love Sugar Babies. I love their cute, conveniently “poppable” small size. I love their rich, sweet caramel taste and the long chew they provide your mouth. I love how they won’t melt in the summer heat. So to say I was excited, when I saw the new Caramel Apple Sugar Babies in their bright cheery green box at my local store, is quite an understatement.

Once I was home I immediately opened the box to see what these new Sugar Babies looked like. I was surprised when I rolled the first few into my hand. Whoa, these were so strange! The coating is a matte bright green and they seriously looked like plastic peas! The felt a little greasy to the touch, yet they didn’t leave any residue on my fingers. Again, strange.

The coating comes off immediately once it’s in your mouth. It’s the standard sour green apple Jolly Rancher flavor. It really hits your taste buds, as the flavor comes rushing in like a tsunami and then disappears just as quickly. Then the Sugar Baby comes in with its familiar sweet caramel flavor and stick-to-your-teeth texture. It’s like encountering your best friend in a Halloween costume: at first you’re confused, and then the familiar face appears from beneath the mask.

These are good, but they really feel like two separate candies to me. The two flavors interact so separately in your mouth that it’s hard to try and “taste” a caramel apple in there. They’re worth a try if you’re a big Sugar Baby fan, just to say you did!

• Sugar Baby Website

Buy Caramel Apple Sugar Babies Online:

• at Candy Crate

More candy articles about: caramel, apple, sugar babies, tootsie

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“Take it back inside and give it back to the man at the counter.”

My mom looked at me pointedly. Tears welled in my eyes. I clutched a box of Junior Mints, a box my mother knew the cashier hadn’t seen and she hadn’t paid for. I was four.

“That’s called stealing,” Mom said. “Take it back in and say you’re sorry.”

I did. To this day, I pay for every box of Junior Mints I consume. Looking back, I’m not sure what made me choose Junior Mints that fateful day. Maybe it has something to do with the glossy chocolate coating and how it encapsulated a perfect, creamy mint center. A retro candy staple first released in 1949, Junior Mints were my first mint love. Now that I’m older, I love garden mint body spray, mojitos, and any combinations of mint and chocolate I can find. Junior Mints were my candy gateway to all things mint.

They certainly don’t seem to compare to the other candies I preferred when I was a child. I loved bright, colorful, fruity candies, sweets so chewy they tugged at fillings. I fell for gimmicks, like special candy I could squeeze from a tube or wear around my wrist. But Junior Mints didn’t have to look cool. They tasted cool.

I’ll never forget them, because they taught me a pretty valuable lesson. Just because you can easily swipe a box of Junior Mints without paying doesn’t mean you should do it. Thanks, Ma (and delicious Junior Mints).

• Junior Mints website

Buy Junior Mints online:

• at Old Time Candy
• at Candy Crate
• at Candy Direct
• at Amazon

More candy articles about: junior mints, mint, chocolate

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I don’t know how many times I’ve imitated Mr. Owl when I eat a Tootsie Pop. Something about his eager “One. Two-hoo! A-three.” piqued my interest from a very young age, which meant that the original animated commercial was extremely effective.

Cartoon Brew, an animation blog, recently discovered that this classic commercial received a 3D makeover. Instead of plain ink drawings on a stark background, everything in the new commercial is extremely detailed, from the ground underneath Mr. Turtle’s feet to the leaves on the trees behind Mr. Owl. Unfortunately, the little boy now looks like a mutated Hobbit.

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I’ll admit, I have never actually tasted Crows candy since they are licorice-flavored (and I hate licorice), but I thought this bit of trivia was interesting about them: “Originally, Crows were to be called “Black Rose”, but the printer misheard the name as “Black Crows” and printed wrappers with the wrong name on them.”

Seems like they would have put the name on paper rather than just saying it aloud, but I guess things worked differently back in the 1890’s when they were invented.

• Crows (and Dots) history

Buy Crows online:

• at Candy Crate
• at Candy Direct

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