Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Chocolate Candy,Gourmet Candy
Another box of filled chocolates to sample! You guys have no idea how hard I work for you. Derry Church Artisan Chocolates have a schtick which is kind of cute, where each one is named after a city and is flavored with stuff that at least sort of has something to do with the place they are named after. They also have some flavors that I can pretty much guarantee you have never encountered, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes very much not so good at all.
San Fran – black mission figs. Good dark chocolate. Just a hint of figs really but it’s enough. It’s a good combination.
London – butter toffee and crushed almonds. I picked this up and said to my assistant “I don’t like toffee, you can have this one,” and took a little bite. And then finished the whole piece. (Don’t worry, there were two, he got the other.) Nice and buttery and not the kind that sticks in your teeth. They need to make a whole big bar of this.
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Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Lollipops,New Candy,Novelty Candy,Oddly-Named Candy
When I think of lollipops, I think of, well… lollipops. I try not to read too much into the whole adult humor and related connotations that can be associated with such a candy. Apparently, the folks at Das Foods think differently than I do.
I was supposed to receive a shipment from them, but for some reason it never arrived at my doorstep, but as luck would have it, they were attending the All Candy Expo, which provided me an opportunity to pick up some samples on site.
It was hard to miss to the Das Foods booth; they hired four dancers from UIUC to perform a Das Lolli dance routine and socialize with the attending clientele. Since most of the people attending the convention were males, I suppose their ploy worked, as there was always a crowd at their booth.
Even the packaging (think something circular within a square, plastic wrapper that isn’t candy) or the taglines of “What’s your flava?” and “Shamefully delicious lollipops” are begging for an adult audience, which is odd given the premise that these are all natural lollipops made without preservatives, HFC, and chemical additives. Seems like a good thing to give your kids, but I’m not sure how you explain what exactly “Man Bait†is supposed to mean…
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Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Gummi/Gummy Candy,Soft Candy
Continuing from where I left off, here is my next tasting of Brach’s penny candy products. This review focuses on the the fruit-flavored items they manufacture.
Brach’s Fruit Chews
Made with real juice for a fun, fruity flavor.
These are similar to a Tootsie Roll Midgee, in terms of size and shape.
Orange is reminiscent of sherbet. It has an incredibly soft chew, like biting into a marshmallow. The piece isn’t sticky, but the flavor is muted, missing the zest a true orange flavor packs.
Strawberry aims for the smell of ripe strawberries – it hits the mark spot on. The piece is chewier than the orange, but sill soft. Unfortunately, the strawberry flavor is not as evocative as the smell, further exacerbated by a waxy aftertaste.
Grape makes my nose think of grape Bubble Tape when I unwrap it. The piece is the chewiest of them all, but still soft comparatively to other chews, like a really soft Starburst. The grape flavor is artificial, tasting exactly like the grape Bubble Tape. In fact, I completely forgot these were fruit chews and not gum until I noticed the pieces had dissolved in my mouth.
My overall impression of these is that they are harmless, but avoiding providing any real substance; if there were a dish of these at a waiting room, people would only take a few.
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Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Soft Candy
Brach’s is probably most well known for their caramels and candy corn, but they make a vast array of other products. Like Russell Stover and Palmer, Brach’s is a candy company that exists outside of the big three, but with a pretty ubiquitous presence in the market.
Because most Brach’s candy is sold as bulk mix-and-match penny candy or in discount packs, I never really bought them as a kid, thinking they were inherently inferior (I always bought the candy with the prettiest and/or shiniest wrappers). But after falling in love with their caramel apple candy corn, I viewed this facet of the candy industry with a refreshed perception and was ready to sample a variety of their products.
Their website lists 109 different types of candy they manufacture, so it was difficult choosing what to review. Because I was limited in my selections, I chose to forgo eating some of their better known products, such as their bridge mix, so that I could review a variety of products that differentiated themselves from the staple chocolate-covered raisin. All these were purchased at my local H.E.B.
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Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Chocolate Candy,Gourmet Candy
As a resident of the state of Vermont, I can tell you one thing: people up here love their maple candies. If you walk down Main Street in my town, you’ll see maple sugar candies in several shop windows, a small piece of Vermont for locals and tourists alike to celebrate and enjoy. I felt like a bit of a traitor when I moved up here and saw the amount of pride Vermonters take in their maple sugar goodness; I’ve never been a maple candy fan, often finding it a bit too sweet and chalky for my tastes. However, I’ve finally found a maple candy that makes me proud to be a Vermonter: delicious Maple Creme chocolates from the Vermont Nut Free company.
They came to me via my boyfriend, who was given a box by a friend as a thank-you gift. Like any extreme Candy Addict, the small box of chocolates was the first thing I noticed when my boyfriend walked through the door. “What’s in the box?” I asked, trying to use my non-existent X-Ray vision to determine what lovely sweets he was carrying, “What’s in it!? What is it?? Is it chocolate!? Can I have one?!”
My boyfriend then opened the box to display a row of maple leaf shaped chocolates. “They’re so pretty,” I exclaimed, before realizing that the maple leaves were no decoration: “Ugh, they’re maple, aren’t they.” However, I am not one to turn down a chocolate, and so I decided to give the nut-free maple cremes a try. I’m SO glad I did: they are absolutely delicious.
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