Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Chocolate Candy,Mint Candy
I don’t understand why I am hesitant to eat mint-flavored candy. I mean, I do like the taste of it. Hand me a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream and watch me make it disappear in seconds. But probably because of my dislike for gum, I avoid most mint products. It isn’t that there isn’t a non-gum mint candy out there, but not enough of them, and not enough of them done well.
As I strolled down the candy aisle at my local Dollar Tree Store, a pretty red box caught my attention. “Andes Cherry Jubilee Thins” the box proclaimed. Hmm I thought. I never much cared for regular Andes Thins: Crème de Menthe, but we all know that I am a sucker for fruit in chocolate.
Maybe because it was the cherry, maybe it was because I wanted to branch out from my mint horizons, or maybe I will just buy candy because I love it, but whatever the reason, I picked up a box and headed to the register with a dollar clenched in my fist.
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Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Chocolate Candy,Classic and Retro Candy,Oddly-Named Candy
Here we are, with the third in my series of four oddly-named candy bars (that is, the Oh Henry!, Look!, 5th Avenue, and U-No).
In 1936 it seemed a great idea to William Luden (of cough-drop fame) to name a food after a street in New York City. Now, sure, linking your candy bar to arguably the wealthiest bit of real estate in the world might seem to be a good move to give your candy some cachet, but present-day maker Hershey should remember this: it also sets high expectations. (Yes, I know there’s a 5th Avenue in Reading, PA, where this bar was made, but don’t tell me they weren’t trying to associate their bar with the famous Manhattan boulevard.)
When you open this big bar (2 oz, 56g), you immediately smell the peanuts. Hershey’s label describes the bar as “crunchy peanut butter in a rich, chocolately coating.†Notice, they didn’t say a chocolate coating. We know what this means, unfortunately. Yup, it’s mockolate.
Still, maybe this candy tastes good anyway. Is it, for example, better than a Butterfinger?
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Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Chocolate Candy,Classic and Retro Candy
The Clark Bar has been the Big Foot of my candy life. For years and years I have scoured gas station after convenience store in hopes of spotting this elusive bar. My obsession with it began several years ago when I read glowing reviews of it and its brother Zagnut, a product that was easier to track down.
But my search had always ended in frustration… until now. This past week at Walgreens, in a bag of Old-Fashioned candy packaged by Necco, amidst Banana Splits and Necco Wafers, these Lost Cities of Atlantis appeared as if they were weren’t one of the most difficult candies I’ve ever tried to find.
I had always intended to try the full-sized bar, but this package only sold the miniature version, a small concession for being able to finally sample this product.
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Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Chocolate Candy,Soft Candy
There is no candy company out there that is both as famous and infamous as the New England Confectionery Company, aka Necco. That is because they produce many products people adore (Clark Bar and Sky Bar) and many products people despise (Conversation Hearts and Mary Jane).
I have never really had anything against the company. I do enjoy several of their products, and have no major qualms with some of their more disliked candy. I don’t think Necco is as good in quality as other brands out there, but I know what I am getting and am satisfied when I pay ten-cents for a day-after Valentine’s Day candy sale box of conversation hearts.
Except during the holidays, I rarely see Necco products in stores, excluding Necco Wafers. That is why when I saw this orange bag dangling at a Walgreens, I was immediately drawn to it. The bag read, Necco Old Fashioned Cream Drops.
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Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Classic and Retro Candy,New Candy
One of the new candies unveiled at this year’s All Candy Expo was this new twist on a classic candy: the Abba-Zaba Chocolate Cream center. When Brian told me about his find on the showroom floor I couldn’t help but respond by asking a gazillion questions about it. For me, a new addition to the Abba-Zaba family was big, big news.
The original Abba-Zaba is a sweet taffy with a stripe of peanut butter running down the center. There’s also a Sour Apple variety with the taffy carrying the flavor and the peanut butter center remaining intact. What I found most exciting about this new Abba-Zaba was the replacement of the peanut butter with “chocolate cream” (ok, so it’s really mockolate), which sort of takes away the consistent component of the candy. I was curious to see if this hurt the formula of the bar at all.
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