For The Love Of Swensen's

Have you ever had something that you were sure was a memory shared by just about everyone, only to find that you’re one of the few? I feel like Swensen’s ice cream is that for me. This isn’t a recent memory either, this is a deep rooted childhood memory. It’s also a memory of something that no longer exists, at least in the way I remember it. Taste and smells are said to be one of the most important ways of connecting people to memories, and everything about Swensen’s fits that bill for me.

When I was a little kid, my father used to take me and my sister to Swensen’s in the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto. We would either get a large sundae and share it, or we would get several small sundaes and have our own. I feel like it was a very regular occurrence, and it was most certainly something that would happen on your birthday. I was young enough that I never really thought about where this business originated. In my head it was either a special place just for us or it could have been all over the world (like McDonald’s). I frankly didn’t care, but it was a place I figured would be around forever, but it wasn’t.

In my early teens the Eaton Centre went through some major renovations, and in these renovations Swensen’s was lost. There were no other locations that I knew of, so my assumption was that I would never have a Swensen’s Sundae again. At the time the internet didn’t exist, so there was no looking it up to find out if other locations existed. It was just gone, and while I was sad at first, I eventually stopped pinning for it and let it rest in the back of my mind as a fond memory. In some ways the memories got so faded that I wasn’t sure how real any of them were.

Time went on, the internet became a thing, but I never even imagined that this distant memory could have actually been more than just a single location that was gone, but still held memories. Then I moved overseas and I went to South East Asia, and I learned that Swensen’s still existed. Best of all, the decorations for the newly discovered locations where filled with nostalgic touches. These bits of nostalgia matched my memories perfectly. The first time I saw one of these restaurants (in Thailand I believe), I may have actually shed a tear.

I got some ice cream with Allison, she thought it was fine, I was immediately brought back to my childhood. Now that I lived in South East Asia (where most of their locations are), I was even able to enjoy a birthday or two at Swensen’s. People say that reliving memories as an adult can be dangerous because they never live up to what you remember. With Swensen’s that just isn’t the case. Sure I’m not with my sister or father, but being with Allison is pretty great, and the ice cream treats are exactly what I remember.

The good thing is that I don’t actually remember the quality of the ice cream or toppings. I don’t remember any one particular item on the menu that I loved. I just remember the old fashioned light fixtures, the classic ice cream bowls and spoons and just enjoying ice cream the way it was served it its heyday. I could say that everything I want is back, but that’s only kind of true.

While I’m still living in South East Asia now, it wont be forever. Our plans are to retire back in Canada, and that means my access to Swensen’s will be little to none. Sure I know it still exists, and I can double check that on the internet, but it’s not easily accessible on my birthday (it’ll take a good 15 hours to fly). So what I would love is what I always wanted. I want Swensen’s back in Canada, at the Eaton Centre, right where it belongs.

A Candy Experiment With PopTarts

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All Those Snack Facts

Have you ever wondered who made the first scoop of ice cream? Or maybe you've wondered why theatres sell popcorn.

Well wonder no more, pick up my comic called Snack Facts and let all your snacking questions get answered.

You can pick up your very own copy right now at candycritic.org/snackfacts/ or on Amazon.

Lemon Wafer?

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Check out the full review of this lemon wafer bar right now.

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Check out Blue Orchid right now at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/ or on Amazon.

Making Wafers Great

I truly have mixed feelings about wafer bars. Some of my favourite candy bars and cookies are wafer based bar, but some of my least favourite candy bars and cookies are also wafer based. It really is an ingredient that can go either direction. The weird thing is I'm not really sure what makes for a great wafer based bar, I just know a good one when I eat it. Fortunately the folks at Manner make a good bar, and that's what I have to eat today. While it's not as good as their regular bar, it's still pretty tasty.

Check out my latest wafer bar review.

The Many Flavours of Tang in the Philippines

On a recent trip to the Philippines, I discovered what might be the greatest collection of Tang flavours offered anywhere in the world. I’ve tasted some pretty fun flavours of Tang in my life, but most places that sell a lot of Tang tend to offer 2 or 3 standard flavours, and maybe one or two unique flavours. In the Philippines however, they sell no less than 10 or 15 flavours, and it seems like they sell them at all times.

Best of all, they offer these flavours in small single serving packages. One of the biggest problems I have in sampling new flavours of Tang is that I often have to buy a giant bag of the stuff, and if I don’t like this new flavour I’m stuck with a lot of leftovers.

I decided on my recent trip to try and pick up a whole bunch of different flavours and taste test each and every one of them. The original idea was to try them on the trip, but I quickly realised there are just too many flavours, and not enough time on my vacation. So I decided to drink as many flavours as I could there, but would allow myself to take a few home.

I didn’t get to taste each and every flavour offered in the Philippines, but I did taste a lot. I also avoided what I deemed as common flavours that I think I’ve seen in other countries. I’ll be honest, I’ve never drank so much Tang in my life in such a short time, but I’ve also never had some much fun drinking Tang in my life either.

Four Seasons (pineapple, orange, mango, guava)

Colour - An ungodly orange.

Flavour - Imagine a fruit punch, only without any fruit that would give it a red colour. We always associate fruit punch with red, but logically many tropical fruits aren’t actually red, so this makes more sense. The problem with this mix is that the guava flavour dominates, with the other fruits being almost indistinguishable.

Honey Lemon

Colour - A cloudy yellow.

Flavour - It kind of works. I say kind of because honey is a really hard flavour to get right in powdered drink form. Tang is already very sweet, and while the sweet of this is a little different than classic Tang, I’m not sure I’d call it honey. The lemon is your classic Tang lemon flavour, and it dominates. This basically tastes like a super sweet lemon drink, with an odd flavour I just can’t place, but I guess we can call it honey.

Melon

Colour - A murky orange.

Flavour - I’m not a big fan of melon flavoured candies and treats, with the biggest problem being that they don’t offer the refreshment that real melon provides. I thought that maybe in drink form it might work, but alas there’s one giant problem, it’s too sweet. This is coming from a guy who runs a fairly prolific candy review website too.

Guyabano 

Colour - A murky green/yellow white.

Flavour - I should start by saying that I have no recollection of ever eating or drinking anything called guyabano before tasting this. I have sampled many tropical fruits and juices in many parts of the world, so maybe I’ve tried it under a different name. However, based on the flavour of this Tang, I would say that a guyabano tastes kind of like an apple and pear combination. As Tangs go, this one’s not that bad.

Apple Iced Tea

Colour - An appropriately reddish brown.

Flavour - I’m not sure that I’ve ever had a real apple iced tea in my life, so I don’t have anything to compare it to. What I can say is that this starts off with a hint of fake apple, but suddenly it’s stopped with something I can only describe and tea like. Neither flavour really dominates, but they also don’t really blend together very well. I’m thankful that it’s not just fake apple, but I'm not sure about the iced tea. It’s also very sweet for iced tea.

Mixed Berries Lemonade

Colour - A murky purple.

Flavour - I don’t think this really tastes like lemonade, but it does have a hint of berry. It also doesn’t just taste like a berry flavour drink either though. The best way I would describe it is that it tastes like a random berry lollipop made up of that compressed sugar candy. It’s very tasty, but I’m not sure I’d call it refreshing, mostly because it’s super sweet. I actually had to double check the directions to make sure I made it properly, because I was convinced I must have made it with too little water. It’s good, but it’s also a little odd.

Lychee

Colour - A murky white with a hint of pink.

Flavour - Before this day I had never even thought of Tang making a lychee flavoured drink before. Lychee (to someone who was brought up in North America) seemed like a flavour that was too exotic/fancy to make into a flavour of Tang. The thing is, it’s perfect. I’ve had lychee juice in the past, and flavour wise this is super close. The texture of the drink is a little different than lychee juice, but flavour wise it’s really close. It’s probably because lychee are super sweet already, so since Tang is a super sweet drink it just makes sense.

Apple

Colour - Surprisingly similar to real apple juice.

Flavour - In science fiction, food replicators are often described as making food that tastes similar to the real thing only just a little off, and not in the good way. That’s probably how I would describe this apple Tang. Your taste buds just keep hoping that it will taste like apple juice, but it just doesn’t get there.

Grape

Colour - Very, very purple… almost too purple.

Flavour - In the past I would describe the flavour of most Tang flavours to be sweet, maybe even too sweet. While this is a very sweet drink, it also has a slight (very slight) sourness to it as well. It’s very subtle, but it adds a nice counterbalance to the intense sweet flavour. The grape flavour itself tastes nothing like real grapes, but it has that fake grape flavour that I’m so used to by now that it doesn’t bother me that it’s fake.

Strawberry Lemonade

Colour - A murky pink colour, which is fine because it’s lemonade.

Flavour - Just before I took my first sip of this Tang, I wondered if this was going to taste more of lemonade or strawberry. As it turns out, kind of neither. I guess if I had a gun to my head I would say more lemonade, but lemonade with a really strong fruit like flavour that I wouldn’t really describe and strawberry. This is a tough flavour to get right since I’m a big fan of frozen strawberries in my lemonade, so I have some reference for what it should taste like.

Calamansi

Colour - A murky yellow.

Flavour - I have a bit of a beef with Tang, and it’s all about when they choose to make a flavour that’s orange adjacent. I’ve had a few flavours of Tang that are based on fruit that are very close to orange, but slightly different. For the most part I find that the flavour of these Tangs is very similar to their regular orange, only they’re dyed a different colour. This Calaminsi falls right into that category. I find it hard to believe that this is that much different than their regular orange flavour, except for the fact that it’s yellow instead of orange coloured.

Strawberry

Colour - A very bright pink.

Flavour - I’d probably say that this flavour is the least surprising of all the flavours I’ve tasted so far. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s also not a great thing either. It’s a perfectly fine fake strawberry flavour that works fairly well when it’s a really sweet drink. There’s nothing subtle about the flavour, even opening the package has a strong fake strawberry smell. It’s perfectly fine, but nothing unique about it at all.

Pomelo

Colour - A murky pink with a hint of orange (pretty close to the fruit to be honest).

Flavour - As with the colour, the flavour of this pomelo drink is pretty close to the original. The main difference is the sour/bitter flavour that sometimes happens with some pomelos is totally gone. They got the sweet flavour right, and the basic flavour is there, but I always feel like if I eat too many wedges of pomelo that my tongue might go numb, but I doubt that would happen with this drink. Having said that, this might be the winner for flavour I’d most like to try again in the future.

Orange and Carrot

Colour - Really bright orange.

Flavour - This Tang flavour unfortunately falls into the same category as many other orange based flavours of Tang, in that it generally just tastes like regular orange tang. There might be a slight difference, but I wouldn’t call that difference carrot flavoured. It could be that they’ve added real carrots to this drink, but I doubt it. I’ve only recently discovered carrot juice as a mixer with vegetable juice and one thing carrot juice gives fruit juice is a balance. The balance comes from the fact that carrot juice is not sweet. This Tang as usual is super sweet, so there really isn’t that balance.