Candy Review: Dove Easter Eggs

Dove Milk Chocolate Eggs

Whenever I want to eat eggs for breakfast, I usually have to leave the house to do so, as the smell of eggs cooking makes my poor fiance sick. However! My fiance’s aversion to eggs does not extend to chocolate eggs, thank goodness, which means our house becomes an egg-filled wonderland of chocolaty goodness each Easter season. For the egg-shaped candy is the staple of Easter sweets; bypassing even the chocolate bunny over the past few years as the go-to shape for deliciousness. The trick is separating the truly delicious chocolate eggs from the eggs that deserve to go down Willy Wonka’s Eggdicator shoot. Lucky for you, I’m here to help.

I have eaten nearly every type of chocolate in the universe, and I have to say, often the loveliest chocolates are the ones you can buy right in the drug store. It seems a bit wacky to say, but the higher-end chocolate eggs I’ve eaten usually come off as a bit waxy or bitter. Throughout the year, when I need a simple chocolate fix, I keep two staples in my dish: Hershey’s Bliss Milk Chocolate Meltaways, and Dove Dark Chocolate Promises. Both candies are delicious, readily available, and perfectly milky and sweet. So my hopes were high when I received a box of Dove Milk and Dark Chocolate Easter eggs.

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Japanese Candy Review: Kit Kat Roundup

Japanese Kit Kat selection

I will never again look at some dish made from a weird combination of international cuisines and say “Only in America.” Because now I’ve had Green Tea Tiramisu Kit-Kat from Japan.

I have been watching the Japanese Kit-phenomenon from afar with great interest, since the flavors are often somewhat, well, unexpected, like the pumpkin version reviewed here. Finally through the good graces of our friends at J-List, I’ve had a chance to sample some for myself, in several different sizes and shapes: Tiramisu and Green Tea Tiramisu in delicate little individually wrapped sticks, Azuki bean in a two-stick size bar, and Sakura nuggets.

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Candy Review: Butterfinger Buzz

Butterfinger Buzz package

Package disclaimer: “Not recommended for pregnant women, children, or persons sensitive to caffeine.” (This includes YOU, weird pregnant guy expecting your second kid in June!)

Huh? This is just wrong: A candy bar aimed straight at the shaved heads of wacky, Jack-Ass-style twenty-somethings. In this fast-paced and hectic age, do we really need more buzz? I guess someone thinks so.

The Nestle advertising blitz and buzz (can you sense the trend here?) features online videos of highly energized male and female actors playing the part of young adults shaving one another’s heads and spray painting stencils of the Butterfinger Buzz logo onto their freshly revealed scalps. The ads seem to shout: THESE COOL YOUNG PEOPLE ARE CRAZY AND YOU NEED TO HANG OUT WITH THEM RIGHT NOW!! A paintball gun is even used – that was crazy sick YO! No, just stupid. All this for a candy bar? And not a very good one? Come on.

At the very least, the campaign seems forced. Certain candy icons should never be messed with.

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This Valentine’s Day, Think Green

green_mms.pngOh, Valentine’s Day. The one day a year when, for some reason, it becomes socially acceptable for respectable adults to stand on the subway carrying giant teddy bears and “I Wuv U” balloons. The world becomes a mass of pink and red, with flowers and hearts and, happily for us, tons of candy boxes lining store shelves. For some people, Valentine’s Day is a big old mushfest, and they wouldn’t have it any other way. For the rest of us, Valentine’s Day is simply the day before February 15, the real holiday, when all of those delicious heart-shaped candy boxes get marked 75% off.

However, there are some options for the anti-pink and red brigade this Valentine’s season, as the folks at M&M’s/Mars are once again promoting their all-green M&M’s packages, an homage to the urban legend that celebrates the, uh, romance-enhancing properties of the green candy shells. On each package of Green M&M’s is Ms. Green herself, sassy as ever, reminding us that green is, in fact, the “New Color of Love.”

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Candy Review: Nestle Coffee Crisp Chocolatey Crunch

Nestle Coffee Crisp Chocolatey Crunch

Of all the Nestle chocolate bars that aren’t available in the United States, the most popular has got to be Coffee Crisp. With legions of fans around the world, it was about time for Canada’s favorite chocolate-coated-wafer-bar-with-coffee-in-its-name-that-doesn’t-really-taste-like-coffee to get a special edition of its own. Hence, the Coffee Crisp Chocolatey Crunch Bar.

Now, for a bar that was already known for being crunchy and chocolatey, this seems like an odd concept for a special edition. At first glance, the main difference between this and the original is the shape – while the original is a thick rectangle with every side the same width, the new bar seems to have been flattened into a thinner, wider, more “traditional” chocolate-bar shape.

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