Tag Archives: vanilla

Candy Review: Brach’s Mini Review Roundup, Part I

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Brach’s Candy Logo

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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Japanese Candy Review: Senjaku Four Seas Ice Cream Candy

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Senjaku Ice Cream Candy

Now that I’ve worked through my backlog of Christmas chocolate reviews, I thought I’d do something I haven’t done for awhile – review some Japanese candy from T&T. (Though Christmas chocolate is great too – don’t get me wrong.) I picked up a couple of items, the first of which is this Senjaku Four Seas Ice Cream Candy.

But to start with, let’s get something out of the way. Yup, I’m reviewing Asian candy. Asian candy that contains milk and was, in all likelihood, made before the whole melamine scare. Would I chug melamine-contaminated milk by the glass? No. But the tiny amount of milk in one or two hard candies isn’t going to contain any more than a truly infinitesimal amount of melamine – if it contains any at all. I’d call that an acceptable risk, but if it bothers you, no one’s making you eat them.

If you’re not phobic about that sort of thing, there are a lot of really tasty milk-flavored Japanese candies around. There’s even a type that’s actually called “milk candy,” a condensed milk-based chew that comes plain and in various flavors, from caramel to corn (for serious!). These Ice Cream Candies aren’t milk candy, though really, it doesn’t get much milkier than ice cream. However, Senjuku one-ups American offerings like the Baskin-Robbins candies by making these not just ice-cream flavored, but also ice-cream shaped.

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Candy Review: Whitman’s Soho Artist Inspired Chocolates

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Whitman’s Soho Box

Today’s chocoholics are more demanding than ever before. There was a time, perhaps half a century ago, when “chocolate” meant “chocolate.” As our parents and/or grandparents skipped home from school, they contented themselves with plain Hershey or Snickers Bars. They didn’t give any thought to the quality of their chocolate, its regional origin, or its physical attractiveness. They didn’t care about cacao percentages or exotic flavorings. Unless they happened to be in the culinary field, neither did their parents. In that simpler era, all that most people considered was whether or not their chocolate tasted sweet, good, and at least slightly chocolaty.

It doesn’t take a cocoa connoisseur to see those days are far behind us. With dark chocolate now labeled a “health food,” it seems like new purveyors of handcrafted artisan chocolate materialize every day. In an effort to keep up with trends, retain old customers and attract new ones, old-standby chocolate makers such as Hershey have released lines of upmarket chocolates, often quite successfully.

On a recent trip to CVS, I noticed that old standby chocolatiers Whitman’s/Russell Stover, best known for their holiday chocolate collections, have gotten in on the act. While perusing the already center stage Valentine’s Day candies, I picked up Whitman’s “Soho” collection. I’d seen a similar collection the year before. I’d passed it by, less than eager to spend $5.00 on a 6-piece selection of drugstore chocolates, but my curiosity won out this time.

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Candy Review: Theo Filled Chocolates

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Theo Chocolates box

Theo is so environmentally-politically-correct that one of their bars has a picture of Jane Goodall with a chimp on it. Their products are made with fair trade and organic ingredients. That’s all very nice, but what you want to know is: How do they taste?

SPOILER ALERT: Wow.

These are a little larger than most company’s bonbons – large enough that a person like me, who usually cuts a really good, expensive filled chocolate in half to save some for later, can cut these in quarters and still enjoy them. Other good qualities of the presentation: They are all rectangular or square, further aiding the cutting-up process, and they are decorated differently and come with a flyer identifying and describing them.

The fillings are all described as ganaches. Ganache is basically cream and melted chocolate whipped together, but not for so long that it turns into whipped cream. Some of these don’t have chocolate in them, but they are nearly all that kind of very soft, melty texture. No hard work chewing caramels or crunchy nuts, here.

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Retro Candy Flashback: Caramel Creams (Bulls Eye)

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Goezte Caramel Creams Bag

There are certain names you associate with candy. Hershey? Yes. Reese’s? Yes. Goetze? Probably not. Despite their seemingly unknown name in the candy world, you most likely have seen their products, you just didn’t know they made them.

As a company now in its fifth generation of family ownership, Goetze produces only one candy. Caramel Creams. From that product alone, they offer several flavor varieties and the spin-off version called Cow Tales.

One of those cooler perks about my job (my non-candy day job) is that I am constantly making deliveries to various businesses downtown. And though it’s always interesting to see how corporate America decorates its offices, what is more fun is that there is more likely than not a candy dish sitting at the receptionist’s desk.

A law firm up on 9th St. is a regular customer of ours, and they always have a bowl of Caramel Creams waiting for me. So on my most recent delivery, I grabbed a handful (or three) of these babies. When the receptionist gave me a crooked look for taking so many, I explained it was necessary for research purposes.

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