My awesome friend Greg from Houston and his friends are total foodies. What does this mean? That they are willing to drive 3.5 hours from Houston to attend the Austin Hill County Food and Wine Festival, even if it means driving through a hurricane to get there.

I am not a big fan of wine – with the exception of amazing New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs – but if there is gourmet food, then count me in! So we arrived at the festival Sunday afternoon, and as I was swishing my glass of overly sweet champagne in desperate need of a little O.J., I spot a chocolate booth.

Wiseman House Chocolates, a local Texas chocolatier, stood at the front of the main tent and just dared you not to stop by with their elegant display of product and fully uniformed workers. I sauntered as quickly as one can in 90ºF with a glass of champagne in hand, eager to pick at the lovely samples they were doling out.

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I am fairly certain that marshmallow is the greatest substance in the entire universe. Why marshmallow hasn’t been given a Nobel Awesome Prize is beyond me, but perhaps the best way to celebrate the greatness that is marshmallow is to revel in the explosion of marshmallow goodness that normally takes place around Easter time, when eggs, chicks, bunnies, and other delightfully adorable things all take marshmallow form to bring joy to millions.

I am always on the lookout for random marshmallow candies (preferably chocolate-marshmallow candies, as they are the best) so I was intrigued when I came across an Elmer’s Heavenly Hash Egg, a delightfully old-school confection that I had somehow managed to miss over the past 28 years of my life. But after having one, I can tell you this: I shall never go without an Elmer’s Heavenly Hash Egg again. EVER.

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From the folks at Ricolino, who brought you the fun-to-say Bubu Lubu candy bar, comes Chutazo! Chocolate soccer balls filled with “eggnog” flavored goo.

Chutazos are the sporty cousins of Cadbury Eggs with less of the immediate cavity-inducing filling. The Chutazo goo is paltry compared to the Cadbury version, and closer to the color of an egg yolk rather than the contents of a child’s snot-filled Kleenex. If you close your eyes tightly enough the Chutazo filling does taste vaguely of eggnog, with a sustained almond note. Not bad, actually, once you get past the cheap-o chocolate.

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Hershey’s probably manufactures the most types of chocolate distributed under a ubiquitous name within one product line. And though I have tried most of them, I can’t say I have a favorite. If I were forced to choose, probably the Hershey’s with Almonds bar, but that says a lot more about my affinity for almonds than it does about Hershey.

Scanning the candy aisles as always, my attention landed on a bag of Hershey’s Nuggets. The bag advertised “Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate with Toffee and Almonds.” Hmm… I thought. These sounded like the nugget form of the Hershey Symphony Bar, but I hadn’t had one of those in ages, so I was willing to experiment. Plus, almonds and toffee are redeeming in their own right.

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Purdy’s Chocolates is one of the go-to chocolate companies in many parts of Canada. From their famous hazelnut chocolate hedgehogs to filled chocolates and chocolate bars, and even a selection of sugar-free items for the compromising Candy Addict, they’ve got something to please anyone.

I’ve written previously about Purdy’s Chocolate Chewie Bar and how I always associate the company with special occasions. Well, what should turn up in my Christmas stocking this year but – surprise! – a Purdy’s item. This year, it was the Purdy’s Blueberry Almond bar, a combination of 70% dark chocolate, almonds, and dried blueberries.

At first, I was a little skeptical of this combination. I love fresh blueberries, but often have trouble getting behind blueberry-flavored candies – it’s one of those fruit flavors that just doesn’t take the transition to artificial form very well. But real dried blueberries combined with two of my favorite candy ingredients – very dark chocolate and almonds – sounded like a completely different animal altogether. Would this combination change my feelings about blueberries and candy?

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