Author Archives: Mariko

Candy Review: Candy from Sugar Sugar

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Sugar Sugar information

Florida-based Sugar Sugar is a candy shop straight out of Willy Wonka’s imagination! They specialize in small hard candies in a crazy assortment of flavors. Sugar Sugar sent a little sampler pack to review, and I was really excited to try all the goodies–the Rock Mix of hard candies (they call them lollies), which includes 21 different flavors, Peanut Brittle, and a strawberry lollipop.

Sugar Sugar Rock Mix

See how pretty the little lollies are? Sugar Sugar was kind enough to send along a flavor list, but you don’t really need it, since it’s pretty clear what flavor you’re eating by looking at the design on the candy. The candies were pleasant enough, but I tend to favor strong, sour flavors in hard candies, and the only flavor that came close was cherry. It had a nice, tart cherry flavor. I thought maybe the citrus flavors would be potent, but they were rather mild. The same goes for blueberry, green apple, raspberry, and watermelon.

Sugar Sugar Peanut Brittle

The first thing that struck me about the peanut brittle is how buttery the flavor was. I was enjoying this buttery sensation, and then I bit down on it, and, well, my teeth got stuck in it. My friends, this peanut brittle is not for the weak teethed or the filling enhanced! It’s really, really sticky. I seriously thought it was going to pull out my fillings, and they don’t come cheap, so I had to stop eating it. If you like buttery, sticky peanut brittle, then this is for you!

Sugar Sugar Strawberry Lollypop

The strawberry lollipop reminded me of those oversized, swirly ones I always pined for in my childhood. Like the little lollies, the lollipop had a subtle strawberry flavor. It was kind of hard to eat, too–it was just a hair too big for my mouth, so if I stuck the whole thing in there and just sucked on it, it would make me kind of drool, which isn’t too attractive. I also didn’t have the patience or the time (I was multitasking) to just hold it in one hand and lick it. I ended up cramming it into my mouth and trying to suck it down quickly so that it would shrink enough to fit comfortably in my mouth. By then, though, I was kind of tired of eating it.

Sugar Sugar also makes personalized lollies. You can get your company logo on there, your name, whatever you want. They also have lollies to celebrate births, and hey, wouldn’t you rather have a little sack of “It’s a Boy” candies than a nasty old cigar? I think Sugar Sugar is a fun company with fun candies, but if I were to purchase any candies from them, it would be for the novelty factor rather than taste.

candy, sweets, lollies, peanut brittle, lollipop, lollipops

Conversation Hearts Go Wild for Animals

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NECCO Sweethearts Conversation Hearts

It’s impossible to imagine a Valentine’s Day without the ubiquitous Necco Sweethearts conversation hearts. They’ve been around for over a century, and I’ve got to say, they taste like it, too! I guess it’s kind of like those holiday fruitcakes–hardly anyone actually likes them, but nevertheless they feel obligated to buy or consume them.

Necco tries to keep up with the times by adding new slogans for Sweethearts every year. For 2007 the company is tapping into America’s love for animals by including several pet-oriented sayings, including “Top Dog,” “Go Fish,” “My Pet,” and “Love Bird.” These new phrases join the more than 100 existing ones. Interested in the sayings that graced the earliest batches of conversation hearts in the 1860s? “Be Mine,” “Be Good,” “Be True,” “Kiss Me,” and “Sweet Talk.”

The recipe for Sweethearts conversation hearts has remained unchanged, but they do offer some other choices. There are Sweethearts Sugarfree Boxes, chocolate-flavored Sweethearts, Sweethearts Valentine Gum, conversation hearts with sayings in Spanish, cinnamon jelly hearts, and Sweetheart Tarts.

NECCO Sweethearts Conversation Tarts

For “research purposes” I picked up some of the Sweetheart Tarts, which, according to the box, are “tart” and “tangy.” I have to confess that I was a little apprehensive. I’ve had plenty of candies that claimed to be sour and tart but fell flat. I was also imagining the taste of the regular Sweethearts with a teeny bit of citric acid or something added to it, and, well, it just wasn’t very appetizing.

I was pleasantly surprised when I finally gathered up the nerve to try these hearts. They aren’t extraordinarily tart, but they are actually tart! And they actually have some flavor! They do have that same hard, slightly chalky texture, but they are definitely edible. There is one color that tasted medicinal (I think it was the white one, but I had several in my mouth so I could not pinpoint the culprit), but that was the only one. If you must have conversation hearts for Valentine’s but don’t care for the original flavor, give the tart ones a try!

candy, sweets, Necco, Sweethearts, hearts, Valentine’s Day, valentines

Candy Review:Meiji Best 3 Chocolate Bars

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Meiji Best 3

Chocolate is well loved and heartily consumed in Japan, and Meiji is probably the top-selling chocolate brand. According to Mari on the Japanese lifestyle blog Watashi to Tokyo, Meiji manufactures six of the top ten best-selling chocolate bars in Japan (data from Nikkei). The number one spot went to Meiji Milk Chocolate, and Meiji’s Black Chocolate and Hi Milk Chocolate came in fourth and eighth, respectively. These are the three flavors included in the Meiji Best 3 variety pack I picked up at a local Asian market.

Now, while I love Japanese chocolate bars, I also don’t think it is of very high quality. It has a distinct flavor, and it seems to have a lot of fillers. Japanese chocolate is just not, well, very chocolatey. The flavor generally is much more subtle. I found this to be the case with the Meiji Best 3. All three of the bars were on the hard, snappy side (as opposed to, say, Hershey’s Chocolate Bars, which I believe is the U.S. equivalent to the Meiji bars and which are a rather soft chocolate). One thing that struck me was how different the three bars tasted. Here’s the individual breakdown:

Hi Milk Chocolate: This is the milkiest of the bunch (hence the name Hi Milk, I suppose!). It is a little bit creamier than the other bars but has a bit of a powdered milk flavoring. There is a slight fruit undertone, but it isn’t overwhelming or annoying (I am not a huge fan of fruity chocolates).

Milk Chocolate: The number one chocolate slab in Japan, according to Nikkei. Personally, I prefer the Hi Milk Chocolate. I think it has a little more chocolate flavor than the Milk Chocolate. The Milk Chocolate has a very slight tang to it. It’s an unassuming bar.

Black Chocolate: Let’s just say this is dark chocolate for wimps (and I count myself among the wimps. I really prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate). The undercurrent of cocoa makes the bar a little earthier than the Hi Milk or the Milk, but the flavor is still not particularly strong or overwhelming. The Black certainly doesn’t taste like a serious dark chocolate bar.

Meiji Best 3 mini bars

All in all, I think these bars are just okay. I don’t think I would buy these again, but I would probably buy a large, regular-sized bar of these just to compare them with the mini slabs I purchased.

Buy Meiji candy online:

candy, sweets, chocolate, Japanese, Japan

Candy Review: Hershey’s Special Dark Coffee Kisses

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Hershey Special Dark Coffee Kisses

What’s not to love about a Hershey’s Kiss? It’s such a perfect little morsel of chocolatey goodness. I’d have to say the only problem I have with them is having enough patience to methodically unwrap each of the little guys when I am just anxious to shove a whole handful into my mouth. Well, I guess I’m burning half a calorie unwrapping, right?

Hershey’s has been coming out with a lot of limited edition flavors of Kisses lately like the Candy Addict favorite Cherry Cordial Kisses, Special Dark Strawberry Kisses, and even Candy Cane Kisses. Recently, I was lucky enough to find Hershey’s Special Dark Coffee Kisses. I love coffee, and I love coffee-flavored chocolate, so I had high hopes for these nuggets!

Hershey Special Dark Coffee Kisses individual kisses

I think my hopes were a little too high. These Kisses aren’t bad, but they aren’t all that great, either. I’ve had the same bag for several weeks now, which is telling–if I really liked them, they would have been gone in a couple of days! The coffee flavor is sort of a sweet, syrupy coffee flavor, reminiscent of an artificial coffee flavoring. The coffee flavor, coupled with the dark chocolate, leaves a slight, somewhat sickly sweet aftertaste. I think I’ll stick with the regular Kisses and maybe try the peanut butter ones and, yes, I really need to try the Cherry Cordial Kisses to be a true Candy Addict, don’t I?

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Candy Review: Vosges Chocolate Bars

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Vosges Barcelona Bar

I don’t know who started this whole “combine salt with chocolate or other candy” craze, but I wholeheartedly support it! I am not a salt freak by any means, but the judicious sprinkling of salt on caramels, in chocolate, or other candies is really yummy. That’s why I pounced on the Vosges Barcelona Bar when I saw it at Cost Plus World Market. (Cost Plus has a really great selection of sweets, in case you didn’t know).

Chicago-based Vosges makes chocolates flavored with an assortment of spices and exotic ingredients. Their Barcelona Bar is a dark milk chocolate (41 percent cacao) with hickory-smoked almonds and grey sea salt. Yowza! The salt is not overpowering–it tickles the roof of your mouth and alerts your taste buds to pay attention. The chocolate is smooth, but the main flavoring in this bar is the almonds. They don’t skimp on the almonds in this bar at all. Every bite is filled with the crunch of almonds.

I really enjoyed the bar, but since I am not completely in love with almonds in chocolate (I mean, I’ll eat it if it’s there, but if I had my druthers I’d have plain chocolate or chocolate with peanuts), I probably wouldn’t buy it again. The Vosges chocolate bars run about $7 each, so they are definitely a gourmet treat.

Vosges Bobbi Brown Beauty Bar

Another Vosges bar I tried recently is the Bobbi Brown Beauty Bar. Yes, that Bobbi Brown. I was scanning a wall of chocolates when I spotted the cosmetic maven’s logo on what appeared to be a chocolate bar. I looked more carefully at it, and the description indicated it was a dark milk chocolate bar with matcha green tea powder in it. Two of my favorite ingredients! This purchase was a no-brainer. I tell you, I could buy a case of this chocolate bar. The matcha flavor is actually quite subtle, but what it does is enhance the flavor of the chocolate. It’s milky but very flavorful, and I swear the addition of matcha helps the chocolate flavor linger. Good stuff, that! I would definitely buy this bar again. And again. And yet again.

Buy Vosges bars online:

candy, sweets, chocolate, matcha, salt, Bobbi Brown