Tag Archives: charms

Candy Review: Charms Black Cherry Blow Pops

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Black Cherry Blow Pops Box

My love for all things black cherry-flavored originated from living in Los Angeles, haven of Rite-Aids. Now, for those of you who don’t have these drugstores in the states you live in, they are pretty much your CVS or Walgreens – with one exception.

You see, Rite-Aid was originally named Thrifty, a name I actually still use, and they were known for their own brand of ice cream. You might be thinking “Yuck! Drugstore ice cream?” But I assure you that it’s some of the best you’ve ever eaten, with my favorite flavor always being Black Cherry.

As far as flavors go, black cherry is just a specific type of cherry, characterized by its darker and juicier flesh, which tastes more woodsy than the tart of your average cherry. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to consume any since I moved away from Los Angeles.

Passing through a gas station, I spotted Charms Black Cherry Blow Pops. I reviewed the mango-tangerine variety not too long and failed to be impressed, preferring the classic Blow Pops flavors, but I was curious to see how this flavor compared to the original cherry variety.

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Candy Review: Charms Fluffy Stuff Cotton Candy Pops

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Charms Fluffy Stuff Cotton Candy Pops

Cotton candy, candy floss, fairy floss – whatever you want to call it, the universal translation for this confection is Yum! But what is one to do when the carnival/fair is not in season?

I suppose you could always buy a bag of the prepackaged stuff they sell in stores, but it just isn’t the same as having the freshly made variety melting betwixt your fingers and dissolving as soon as it hits your tongue.

While popping in to the convenience store to buy a cup of tea on a particularly chilly morning, I spotted Charms Fluffy Sutff Cotton Candy Pops. Cotton candy in a lollipop? I was skeptical, but the payoff was too great to not try. I mean, if these could accurately mimic the taste of cotton candy, my dilemma would be forever remedied. So I bought my cup of lemongrass tea and the lollipop.

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Candy Review: Charms Tangerine Mango Madness Blow Pops

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Charms Tangerine Mango Madness Blow Pops

Candy is always good, but when you can successfully combine two different types of candy into one, then you’re in business. And though it’s a seemingly difficult feat, I have always thought the most successful attempt to be lollipops with filled centers.

My personal preference is for Tootsie Pops, the combination of a delicious hard candy shell with chewy Tootsie mockolate in the center. Despite my own proclivities, I recognize the even more popular version is the cousin of the Tootsie Pop, Charms Blow Pops.

Blow Pops were the epitome of candy for me as a child. You had the artificial (in the best possible way) fruit-flavored candy shells, coating a middle of bubble gum. Had I been a fan of gum, I think I would have consumed a lot more of these as a kid instead of just eating the outer shell and throwing away the gum. Grape and cherry were my personal favorites, which was fine since my siblings didn’t care for either and fought amongst themselves for the strawberry, watermelon, and sour apple varieties.

Over the years, new flavors have been introduced, but I never enjoyed blue raspberry or the sour versions as much as the original flavors, so I rarely purchased them. However, on one of my meandering candy scouting sessions through local gas stations, I came across a bin of these: Tangerine Mango Madness Blow Pops. Sounds interesting, right?

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Candy Review: Maxxed Energy Pop

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Maxxed Energy Pop

The whole energy food and drink phenomenon is a total anomaly to me. On the one hand we’ve got jillions of kids out there being diagnosed with ADHD, and we do everything we can to calm them down. Then once all these hyperactive kids grow up, we dose them up with No-Doze, cans of Red Bull, and candy like the Maxxed Energy Pop. Is it only me who sees the problem with this? I seem to recall getting high enough on the amount of sugar in candy like Blow Pops, without the lovely people from Charms feeling like they needed to add more stuff.

These enormous lollipops are packed with loads of somewhat questionable stuff – taurine, ginseng, guarana, b-vitamins, caffeine. Sadly, they forgot one essential thing on that list – flavor! These lollipops taste hideous! I actually kept it in my mouth for quite a while, hoping that somehow the taste would improve. It didn’t, and I have no problem with saying that this lollipop is so nasty, it verges on the inedible. The texture is incredibly like sandpaper and the size is so huge as to appear almost obscene.

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Retro Candy Flashback: Charms Blow Pops

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Charms Blowpops

(image from Candy Crate)

Charms Blow Pops recently caused me a “well, DUH!” sort of moment. (I may have even dramatically smacked my forehead!) A recently acquired bag of traditional-flavored Blow Pops had me thinking how similar they were to Tootsie Pops. Hard outside, chewy inside, and a debate between those who chomp their way to the center and those who lick their way there.

So imagine my amusement when I started researching this article and discovered that Blow Pops are produced by… Tootsie Roll Industries. Bruised forehead aside, I was thrilled to eat my way through a bag of these. They taste precisely how I remember them from my childhood. Nothing about them has changed – which is great, given how much I hate it when candy companies mess with perfection.

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