Candy Review: Junior Fruit Cremes

Junior Fruit Cremes

Tootsie’s Junior Fruit Cremes are probably the most notorious candy to hit the shelves this year, or in recent memory for that matter. Many other candy bloggers have reviewed/lambasted them, and the results have all been the same: abomination (and that’s the nice way of putting it).

So why do you think I wanted to try these after everyone warned me not to? Well, why did anyone go see Sylvester Stallone in a new Rambo movie? In the sagacious words of Mr. Owl, “The world may never know.”

The only thing that prevented me from buying these was that I could not find them anywhere in Austin. Recently, however, I had visited Oklahoma City for work, a place I have never been to before. One of my favorite things about going to a new city is seeing what sort of candy they stock in their supermarkets, gas stations, and drugs stores, as any good candy addict is aware of the regional differences. At the Dollar Tree store, among the outdated and probably expired Carnival Skittles and Coconut 100 Grand Bars (both of which I still bought and consumed), I finally came across Junior Fruit Cremes!

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Candy Review: M&M’s Premiums

M&M’s Premiums

The new M&M’s Premiums line has arrived, and as soon as you see a box you’ll realize that these are no ordinary M&M’s. These M&M’s are something special. From presentation to taste, M&M’s Premiums are quite impressive, hitting the mark in both style and substance.

The presentation is fantastic, starting with the outer packaging. The typical M&M’s bag has been swapped out for a sleek, upscale-looking box that is resealable on the outside as well as on the inside, as both the outer carton and the plastic inner pack of M&M’s come with resealable tabs to keep the candy locked in and fresh.

It’s a small but wonderful innovation, as it allows buyers to carry, share, and store the M&M’s without worrying that they’ll spill. You can also pour out a handful for a friend and then save the rest for later without having to resort to the old school M&M’s pack method of rolling the bag as tight as you can and shoving it in your pocket, which is nice.

The M&M’s themselves are also quite striking: with pearly shells of soft mint green, royal blue, shimmering copper, raspberry red, and a dazzling lavender, the M&M’s provide a lovely visual that I’m sure will be quite popular for parties, gifts, and holidays. Their decorative quality is fancier than your typical holiday-themed M&M, which makes them appropriate candy decor for weddings and other formal events as well. They really are quite lovely. Almost too pretty to eat.

Almost. But come on, now. A pretty candy shell isn’t going to stop me from shoveling M&M’s into my mouth in the least dainty way possible. I can’t help it, man! I’m a Candy Addict!

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Candy Review: Hershey’s Extra Dark infused with Raspberry Flavor

Hershey’s Raspberry Infusion

I’m about to reveal a little-known Candy Addict secret about myself, something that only my three non-judgmental roommates have become privy to over the course of our mulit-year cohabitation. Late at night, to quell a raging chocolate craving, I have been known to whip up a little chocolate concoction of equal parts cocoa powder, sweetener, and soy milk or yogurt. The resulting creation falls somewhere between a glob and a paste that is not in any way intended for your casual chocolate fan. I then add things to this chocolate crack and eat it with a spoon. (Yeah, that’s right.) One of my favorite add-ins is frozen raspberries, and it is because of this that I so eagerly dove in to the latest and greatest from Hershey’s Extra Dark Collection, Hershey’s Extra Dark infused with Raspberry Flavor.

The tasting samples deviate from the traditional Hershey’s Miniatures rectangular block, instead mimicking the thinner squares of the gourmet pre-packaged chocolate sect. A good choice, in my opinion, as it presents a more pleasing oral experience. The squares, stamped with the Hershey’s logo, have a pretty strong, natural, raspberry aroma and while the chocolate didn’t boast a great “snap,” nor did it bite as hard as I’d have liked, I am willing to overlook it as that may be attributable to the fact that I enjoyed it on a sunny July afternoon in Southern California.

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Candy Review: Clif Shot Bloks

Clif Shot Bloks

My friends often wonder how I can consume so many sweets and not weigh a million pounds. Well, I run. But here’s something they might not know – I eat candy when I run! Back when I trained with some ultrarunners, I learned to eat while running. Typical endurance foods such as PowerBars just didn’t taste that great to a Candy Addict like me, so I started taking more appealing yet equally energy-boosting treats, such as Snickers bars, red licorice, M&Ms, gummi bears, and ooh, Jelly Belly jellybeans!

Well, manufacturers of energy foods have gotten smarter, and they’ve started producing endurance treats that actually taste good (that means they taste like candy). Clif, the makers of Clif Bar, have developed a carbohydrate and electrolyte replacement product called Shot Bloks that are rather like gummi candies. Offered in a number of flavors, including strawberry, cola, orange, lemon lime, and cran razz, these little cubes are designed to give the athlete a boost of energy. Some of them contain caffeine, but all boast organic brown rice syrup and are sweetened with organic evaporated cane juice.

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Candy Review: Endangered Species Chocolate

Endangered Species Wrapped Chocolates
Whilst on a run-of-the-mill Target trip today, I came across an exciting assortment of Endangered Species Chocolates: dark chocolate with delicious, antioxidant packed flavors and a generous spirit (10% of their net profits are donated to “support species, habitat and humanity”). What’s not to like, right? Plus, they were all natural, ethically traded, on sale, and had pictures of cute animals all over the packaging. How could I not grab every variety available and be inspired in a third grade, let’s-describe-ourselves-using-words-that-begin-with-each-letter-in-our-name kind of way? (Hey, chocolate does that to me sometimes.)

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