Monthly Archives: June 2007

Retro Candy Review: Zagnut Bar

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Zagnut Package

The Zagnut bar has been around since 1930 when it was originally launched by the D.L. Clark Company, the same company that brought us other favorites like the Clark Bar. Zagnut is unusual because it uses no chocolate and therefore has a very small and loyal market. Zagnut became a member of the Hershey family in 1996 when D.L. Clark Company went bankrupt.

Zagnut Inside

It’s described as crunchy peanut butter covered with toasted coconut. Once opened, Zagnut is a really beautiful looking bar because of the wonderful light orange/beige color and the coconut flakes that are very small and uniform looking. The aroma is light and smells more of peanut butter than coconut. The taste is so good and does not disappoint! The peanut butter inside is very light and crunchy, lighter than Butterfinger’s peanut butter interior. I was pleasantly surprised by this, as I was partially expecting it to be nougat. The coconut coating feels soft, like peach fuzz, when you eat it and it adds the perfect sweet touch to the salty peanut butter.

I just love this bar. It’s a classic example of contrasting textures and flavors working beautifully together. It’s no wonder it’s survived so long and was adopted by Hershey. One thing is for sure, I’d rather have a Zagnut over a Butterfinger any day. Give it a shot and I’m sure you’ll agree.

Buy Zagnut online:

peanut butter, coconut

Candy Review: Colo Galita

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Coco Galita Package

I had a friend bring back this box of strange candy from a recent trip to Japan. I can certainly understand why, it’s such an attractive box! When I read the name “Colo Galita” I was very confused. What the heck does the name mean? I am aware that a lot of English names in Japan don’t make sense (take MeltyKiss and Crunky for example), but this seems to just cross into the “bizarre” category for me. The candy’s name doesn’t give me any clues as to what it could be, so it just might as well be jibberish. Something tells me Colo Galita would be good friends with Bubu Lubu.

Coco Galita candy

I opened the box and it was filled with the little candies – should I call them little “Colo Galitas”? The candies are hexagonal shaped with a cookie crust that is filled with chocolate. They look like cute little tarts! The image on the back of the box shows that inside the chocolate center sits a pocket of caramel. The packet itself smells of a nice bittersweet chocolate – robust, sweet, and chocolatey.

Coco Galita Inside

The taste is a disappointment – it’s just so bland! The cookie crust is very crunchy and doesn’t taste of anything. The chocolate is also flavorless and waxy. I wouldn’t have noticed the caramel at all if it wasn’t for the illustration on the box. You can’t really sense it at all and it’s so small that the texture of the caramel is overridden by the chocolate and crust. Biting the candy in half did prove there’s a caramel center in there, but again, it’s so small I’m surprised they bothered. Hardly seems worth all the work in manufacturing. It’s benign at best. Ah well, at least the box is cute.

Japanese, Lotte

Myth Busted: Stride Gum wrappers should NOT be chewed

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stride gum pack - do not eat the wrapper
(image from American Sweets)

Just a little over a year ago I wrote a quick article about the announcement of Stride Gum by Cadbury-Adams. On January 9. 2007 we had our 12th comment on that article and the first one that mentioned eating the wrapper:

Can you eat the Stride bubble gum wrapper? Someone is telling people that it is edible…Is it?

Chew the wrapper? Where did this come from? I know you can eat the inner rice paper wrapper of Botan Rice Candy, but chew the wrapper of a gum? I dismissed it as the ravings of a lunatic Candy Addict, but then we kept getting more and more comments sparking a debate on the chewableness of the wrappers. We currently have 64 comments on that article – most of them dealing with whether or not you can chew the wrapper.

I did some poking around and there are many instances online of people either saying you can chew the wrapper or people asking if it’s true. At the time of this writing, even the Stride Gum wikipedia page says the wrappers are made of rice paper and can be eaten.

So, I finally decided to do something about this. I contacted Cadbury-Adams, the makers of Stride, to get to the bottom of this. I posed one simple question: “Are Stride Gum wrappers intended to be chewed?” This is the official response I received:

While Stride(r) gum is designed to be chewed for a ridiculously long time, our gum wrappers are not. All of our gum wrappers are made with materials that comply with FDA regulations for food contact materials; however, none of our chewing gum wrappers are designed to be ingested. While there’s nothing toxic in them, gum wrappers aren’t intended for ingestion and gum wrappers should not be eaten. Should you have any questions or concerns about your children ingesting gum wrappers, please contact your doctor or other health care professional.

(note that the above official statement goes for all of Cadbury-Adams gums – not just Stride)

So, there you go. Myth debunked. Can you chew the Stride gum wrappers? Yes – just like you could eat/chew any piece of paper (though it’s not recommended). Should you chew the Stride Gum wrapper? The official word says no. The wrapper is not intended to be chewed or eaten and will not add anything good to the gum (though it won’t hurt you). Just enjoy the gum as they intended it – wrapper-free!

Candy Review: Fresh From the Factory Good & Plenty

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FFTF Good & Plenty
It won’t surprise anyone to hear how excited I was to find out I was going to receive some Fresh From the Factory (FFTF) Good & Plenty to review. Previously, we’ve sampled Fresh From The Factory Hershey’s Twizzlers and Fresh From The Factory Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. As you know from reading Brian’s reviews, he wasn’t terribly impressed with the Peanut Butter Cups, and he was very happy with the Twizzlers. How would the Good & Plenty fare?

I was, needless to say, giddy with excitement. I expected this Good & Plenty to be awesome. Finding edible Good & Plenty in stores is a bit hit and miss. I’d estimate my luck at finding edible (meaning, not so stale as to be impossible to chew) Good & Plenty to be about 50%. I assumed immediately that Fresh From the Factory would be the ultimate in soft, chewy goodness, superior to anything I’ve ever found in stores.

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Retro Candy Review: Mallo Cup

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Mallo Cup Package

I remember vividly my first taste of Mallo Cup because it was so good that the first thing that ran through my head was “Why haven’t I tried this sooner?”

Mallo Cup was first made in the 1930′s by Bill and Bob Boyer who had started a very profitable business making candy. The Mallo Cup was originally a bar, but they were having trouble with the runny marshmallow due to the shape. Their mother, Mrs. Emily Boyer, who had been working alongside her sons in the business, suggested using cupcake liners to contain the marshmallow, and Mallo Cup was born. The cup form was so popular that it spawned the Smoothie Cup (peanut butter center with butterscotch coating) and Peanut Butter Cup (peanut butter filling covered by milk chocolate).

Mallo Cup Inside

I was surprised when I took my first bite of a Mallo Cup because I wasn’t expecting coconut to be mixed inside with the marshmallow. Nowhere on the wrapper (except on the ingredients list) is coconut mentioned, which I found rather strange. I’m so happy it is there though, since it adds a wonderful toasted and warm flavor that rounds out the chocolate and the marshmallow tastes. It’s a candy I’ll eat again and again and never get tired of it.

Mallo Cup Package Points Money

Also, tucked inside each wrapper, is a cardboard play money stub with the numerical value of 5, 10, 25 or 50 stamped on it. These are part of a rebate program that lets you get free candy or merchandise with the “money”. Pretty sweet!

Buy Mallo Cup online: