Monthly Archives: February 2007

Review: Sanders Dessert Toppings

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Sanders Cinnamon Pear Caramel

I tried out Sanders Milk Chocolate Caramels and loved them, so I had really high hopes for their dessert toppings. Sanders sent over two jars for sampling: Cinnamon Pear Caramel and Milk Chocolate Hot Fudge. I finally picked up some vanilla ice cream, and to keep the tasting simple, I didn’t add any other toppings. No nuts, no cherries, no sprinkles.

Ice Cream & Caramel

I tried out the Cinnamon Pear Caramel first, dipping a small spoon into the jar and drizzling the topping over my ice cream. Not being a professional, my attempt at drizzling wasn’t very neat, but it did show off how pourable the topping is. I was expecting a harder battle to get the stuff out of the jar. My first spoonful of ice cream and caramel tasted almost like pumpkin pie. I could definitely make out the cinnamon, but the pear flavor isn’t strong at all, just something subtly fruity and sweet underlying everything else. I really loved this on ice cream, and I’m glad I tried it out “plain” first.

Then I sampled the Milk Chocolate Hot Fudge topping on ice cream for dessert the next night. This time I made a hot fudge sundae, with crushed mixed nuts and cherries. Wow! I thought the Cinnamon Pear Caramel was good, but the hot fudge was fantastic. It’s easily the best hot fudge I’ve ever tasted, very chocolatey and smooth. Plus, the hot fudge is very versatile. I drizzled it over my blueberry muffin one morning for a new kind of treat. Sanders is apparently really famous in Michigan for their sundaes (as well as their candies), and now I know why. These dessert toppings are amazing, and at $3.59 per jar, they’re affordable too.

It might be a bit too cold for ice cream now, but spring is just around the corner, and if you’re looking for the perfect topping for your sundae, look no further than Sanders.

Editor’s note: I just tried the Sander’s Milk Chocolate Hot Fudge and it truly is delicious. It tastes like a melted candy bar – so rich and smooth. Highly recommended!

Buy Sanders Dessert Toppings online:

candy, sweets, chocolate, sanders, hot fudge, fudge, caramel, sundaes, ice cream, sundae

Candy for Diabetics

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Sugar Free Candy

Whether you’re diagnosed with Type I or Type II diabetes, finding candy that fits your lifestyle and doesn’t blow your blood sugar level out of whack can be hard. Fortunately, there are good resources for diabetics, and the list of sugar-free candy choices is ever growing and improving. In fact, most major retailers carry sugar-free candy alongside the sugary stuff, and the internet is full of options for Candy Addicts with diabetes.

I found diabeticcandy.com to be particularly helpful. You can order almost any imaginable sugar-free treat from the site, including cordial cherries, pecan caramel nut clusters, licorice bites, jelly beans, and bridge mix. There’s even a “Kid’s Favorite” section to help parents with shopping for diabetic youngsters.

Amazon.com, Candy Direct, Old Time Candy, also have diverse selections of sugar-free candy. Clearly, a diabetic with a sweet tooth has more options today than just a few years ago. Even Hershey’s has a webpage dedicated to explaining insulin resistance.

I’m thankful not to have diabetes, but I’m also thankful that people who do can share my love of candy. After seeing all the sugar-free products out there, I might jump in with both feet next time and pick the sugarless variety of one of my usual treats. It can’t hurt to try!

Buy sugar-free candy online:

candy, sweets, chocolate, sugar, sugar-free, health, diabetes, diabetic, insulin

Candy Review: Bacon Mints (yes, Bacon Mints)

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Bacon Mints

I am amazed at how often bacon and candy cross paths. Candy Addict has done articles on chocolate-covered bacon, gummi bacon, and bacon jellybeans. Now we can add Bacon Mints to the list. When I was offered some Bacon Mints to review, I immediately said “hell, yes!” but wondered what they would taste like.

When the package arrived, it contained two tins of Bacon Mints and two tins of Bacon Flavored Toothpicks (more on those later). Opening the shipping package brought a scent to my nose that I wasn’t prepared for. It was bacony, minty, and had a smell of a hospital. The smell was odd and didn’t hit me as being an appetizing smell.

I opened a tin and took a big sniff and it nearly knocked me over and I don’t mean that in a good way. It was an absolutely awful smell. It’s really hard to describe, but it’s not a smell you want to get a whiff of. At this point I wasn’t really looking forward to trying them, but reviewing candy isn’t all about tasty chocolate – sometimes you must eat some questionable candy.

The mints taste as bad as I thought they would. It was maybe 30 seconds in my mouth and I had to spit it out. It was awful. It’s one of the worst tasting candies/mints I have ever had. Just thinking about it makes me nauseous. I took a tin to work to share with my co-workers too (with fair warning). I set the tin on my cabinet shelf behind me at about 8:00 AM and I could only last til 11:00AM and I had to move them to my car – the smell (even through the closed tin) was overwhelming. Nobody at work dared try them – even the guys that ate crickets with me wouldn’t try them.

My sisters tried them with me one day and we all spit ours out in less than ten seconds. I just tried one more while writing this to make sure the taste was fresh in my mind and palette. Good lord they’re hideous. I’m not sure who came up with the idea of mixing mint and bacon, or who gave the final OK to start making these, but I have to question that person’s sanity. The only good use I can think of for these is hiding ten or so of these in your enemy’s workspace and watching them go crazy trying to find the source of the smell. If I haven’t convinced you not to buy these yet, two tins of 100 mints will run you $4.95. Oh – and for the record – one of my dogs ate one, the other refused.

And the Bacon Flavored Toothpicks? Almost made me gag. Seriously.

I have an unopened tin of the Bacon Mints and an unopened tin of the Bacon Flavored Toothpicks that I must get rid of so leave a comment on this post before Thursday, March 1, 2007 and I’ll randomly draw one of the commenters to get them – be sure and leave a real email address so we can contact you (your email won’t appear on the site). Don’t say I didn’t warn you though.
UPDATE: Congratulations to Austin – he is the winner of the bacony badness!

Bacon Flavored Toothpicks

candy, sweets, bacon, mint, mints, toothpicks, meat, gross

Chocolate, Good for your Memory?

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Chocolate Truffles

Good news for everyone studying for upcoming midterm exams: chocolate might be good for your memory. The flavanols in chocolate are supposedly good for your heart, and now scientists claim those same flavanols increase blood flow to the brain, especially in the areas of the brain that control alertness. Mice given a drink rich in flavanols had better memories than those who didn’t ingest the drink. This study was backed by the Mars Candy company, so maybe this news should be taken with a grain of salt.

Still, it could be food for thought the next time you require sustenance for all-night cram sessions. Need a better excuse for that candy bar? How about: “it will help me study”?

candy, sweets, chocolate, memory

Candy Review: Crackheads – white and dark chocolate covered espresso beans

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crackheads candy

Crackheads. Chocolate-covered espresso beans are not the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the name, but that’s what these are. Some of the beans are covered in dark chocolate and some are covered in white chocolate. They’re made by a small startup candy company called Osmanium out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and this is their first and only product.

I’ve had a number of other brands of chocolate-covered espresso/coffee beans, so how do these compare? Quite well, actually. The dark chocolate doesn’t seem to have the bitterness that some dark chocolate has and is pretty good on its own (discovered by sucking the chocolate off of a bean). While not a huge fan of white chocolate in general, the white chocolate paired with the espresso bean was surprisingly good. Putting the white chocolate in the same box as the dark chocolate was a brilliant idea and really sets it apart from other chocolate-covered coffee beans. A 1.3oz box runs about $2.

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