Sugar Addiction

After reading this article about sugar addiction all I have to do is say if the scientists working on this project ever need a sugar addict to conduct human tests please contact me here.

Click here to learn more about the greatest addiction ever.

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Stirring Peanut Butter

Boing Boing has a great piece with tips and tricks on how to mix your natural peanut butter better. If you’ve ever purchased the natural stuff you’ll know what a pain it can be and frankly I don’t want any barriers between me and a PBandJ sandwich.

Click here to read more.

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A List of the NCA’s Favourites

I found this great little list from the NCA with a list of their past people of the year in candy. I’m thinking of starting a candy of the year for people, but that might be just crazy.

Click here to see these past winners.

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Furniture Stores and Candy

This is an interesting article about the fact that candy is being sold more often in places that don’t normally sell food products. I’m now sure however what their obsession with furniture stores might be.

Click here to read more about this strange mix of tables and chocolate bars.

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A Look At The Benefits of Fruit Flavours

This is an interesting look at the flavour market in England. I love the fact that the world is obsessed with flavours and the technology of this industry is astounding.

Click here to read more.

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More News About Washington States Candy Tax

There seems to be more and more news about this candy tax and although it’s only going to affect Washington for now it does set a precedent for other states to do the same.

Click here to read more.

CC

Gingerbread With No House

Tim Horton seems to be taking a break from new donuts on a regular basis and focusing on Cookies. This new addition of a gingerbread cookie is ok but I worry that they’re going to shift focus away from their donuts.

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NCA Calls for Candy Awards

Some great people contribute to the candy world all of the time. Some of these people make candy fun, and bring that special something into the industry that makes it better than the average food industry. If you know a really great candy let them know and make sure they win this cool award.

Click here to read more and maybe nominate a certain "Candy Critic".

CC

Don’t Cry Over Spilled Grape Juice

Apparently there was a huge grape juice spill in Pennsylvania and that made me wonder. Would it help clean up if someone crashed a truck with club soda at the same spot.

Click here to read more.

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Christmas Aftermath

So the Christmas holidays are officially over and now I’m dealing with the aftermath. Much like this plate of desert that I had for Christmas dinner I find this aftermath to be sweet and tasty. Actually much of my Christmas aftermath is directly related to this plate, because I’m dealing with some leftovers from each of these treats represented and that’s the best Christmas gift ever.

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$160,000 for a box of Chocolates?

Over the holidays a chocolate company in Scotland decided to sell their last box of handmade chocolates for an astronomical price.

Click here to read more about these chocolates.

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The Canadian Government and my Food

It appears that Health Canada wants to start putting drugs in my junk food in order to stop the spread of cancer. I’m not sure how I stand on this, I don’t mind processed food and I don’t even mind additives, I just don’t like them in my food unless they help with taste, texture, or food longevity.

Click here to read more.

CC

Killer Coke?

It would appear that there are certain interest groups that want to get Coke off of my school campus. I do agree that there are a lot of Coke machines on campus however there are other options and I think trying to get them banned isn’t the best way to deal with this. How about this, say you just don’t buy Cokes and either bring a drink or get something else. Then if the machines are still there then that means that a whole lot of people still buy them and therefore enjoy them and in that case you’re just being a jerk.

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A new review and stuff

Wow it looks like 2009 is almost over, and what a fun time it’s been. I expect a whole lot to come about in 2010 including the completion of my first book and calendars too. Well you kids have been great all year long and hopefully you’ll still be great next year. Enjoy the last review of 2009 and eat some candy already.

Click here to read the review.

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Merry Christmas!!!

Well I’ve unwrapped my gifts and am sitting by the tree sipping on hot cocoa. Hope you have a good holiday and I hope you eat way too much candy. If you have some extra candy this video should give you some ideas of what to do with it. Actually if you have extra candy I wonder why you’d be reading a site like Candy Critic.

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Mug House

Not Martha has a great idea for decorating your warm holiday mugs this year. They include instructions so go for it.

Click here to try making one for yourself.

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Turkey Dinner Rip Off

I love turkey TV dinners. I don’t mean that nice expensive ones either, I’m talking about a dinner that cost less than two bucks but tastes out of this world. This to me would be the perfect holiday meal. I have two comments to make about them however.
First of all thank you TV dinner people for taking the onions out of the peas. It was gross and I don’t know a single person that would eat them.
Secondly what’s the deal the cranberry desert? It’s not really a desert as much as it’s sauce for your turkey. I believe I’m owed a slice of pie or something.


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Hershey Says Thanks

Hershey Bars are going to start printing thank you notes on the back of their chocolate bars. It’s thanks for helping Hershey support their charity for over 100 years.

Click here to read more.

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Christmas from Lisa

Another great candy painting for the holidays.

Click here to check out Lisa's site.

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How to find out if your friend is truly a Canadian.

Do you have a friend that claims to be Canadian? Does this person go about telling you how great free healthcare is and how cold things get? Not really sure if this person is really Canadian or just pretending to be that cool? Well here’s a tip that will out this person immediately, ask them about the “festive special”. If their eyes don’t light up and they don’t regale you with a story of Christmas’s past then they’re faking it.Every year here in Canada, the restaurant known as Swiss Chalet has this great dinner deal known as the festive special. The picture on top is of my finished plate because I just couldn’t wait when it got to me. The picture right above is one of the great bonuses of the festive special every year a chocolate treat. As the box says the festive special is a 20-year tradition and every year they have a great high quality chocolate treat to go with it. It used to be Toblerone bars when I was younger but now it’s a box of Lindt chocolates.

The assortment on these chocolates always seems to increase every year as well. When they first started giving these out they used to only have three different chocolates but there are five. All of which are tasty and all of which go perfectly with my quarter chicken festive special with fries and lots of dipping sauce.

CC

Exercise and Chocolate, the Science

Apparently when we do some exercise we get cravings, and often they can be for chocolate. I agree with idea only if you really broaden your definition of exercise.

Click here to read more.

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When Santa Shaves I Eat

Sometimes I just don’t understand candy ideas. Sometimes it boggles my mind what people think is a cute and fun thing to eat. This very treat is exactly that.

It’s called ‘Santa’s Cotton Candy’ but it’s not really that simple at all. First of all I didn’t think anywhere in Christmas folklore did Santa have a particular yen for cotton candy.
Secondly in this particular case Santa’s cotton candy is in fact Santa’s beard. Yup that’s what you get with this bag of fun, it’s a bag of jolly fat man facial hair.
I guess it’s ok because apparently Santa is cherry flavoured. The one thing is I want to know how many kids get a bag of this stuff and then go sit on Santa’s knee and take a bite out of his beard.

Click here to read my bonus Christmas review of this treat.

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How Candy Looks

Here’s an interesting scientific article about how colours and appearances affect our enjoyment of treats. I always find myself fighting the urge to judge a treat based off of appearances when I review them and now I know why.

Click here to read more.

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The Chocolate Argument Rages

It would appear that not everybody agrees that chocolate has beneficial affects on your health. It’s interesting to read both sides of the story and since I often post about the positive affects I figure I would also post something about the negative affects as well.

Click here to read a chocolate argument.

Also the NCA posted an interesting list of articles about chocolate and chocolate benefits, which should make you, feel better about eating that bar, I figure you can make your own choices.

Click here to read from the NCA.

CC

I think I found my limit.

I love chocolate, I love things that taste like chocolate, I love cool art made of chocolate, but I don’t think I’d want to smell like chocolate… No wait I’m wrong, smelling like chocolate might be pretty cool too. Well good work Axe.

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Granola and Chocolate

You may not know this about me but I don’t always eat candy, I don’t always eat greasy food, and I don’t always eat junk. Pretty regularly I like to eat stuff that’s pretty good for me. Recently my favourite brand of crunchy granola bars introduced a new type of bar chocolate and it pretty much makes me have to retract the first few sentences of this blog.

The package say’s it’s “Made with 100% Cocoa” which is strange because isn’t all chocolate made with 100% cocoa, and if this bar was 100% cocoa then wouldn’t it just be a big bar of cocoa? I’m kind of confused but it tastes ok and I’m glad I now have another excuse to eat more chocolate.

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Great Cakes

Boing Boing has a link to a great cake maker that will pretty much make a cake look like anything. I’m sure the cat cake on the site looked great however every single photo of it gives me the creeps.

Click here to check out the cakes.

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Worst Gag Gifts?

I have to disagree with Zug’s assessment of the worst gag gifts this year; in fact the giant gummy bear is one of the greatest most thoughtful gift any candy critic could ever ask for.

Click here to check out the list.

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Math, Science and Food

I’ve become a fan of people who mix science, math and food all together. I prefer it in non-conventional ways too. This site talks about the math behind cutting pizza however what I’d like is the math behind making sure there are equal amounts of ingredients on each slice.

Click here to read more.

CC

Smilin’ today

Everyday over the last few weeks and over the next few weeks I’ve been posting a picture of me smiling on my other blog (you can check it out here). Well today had a treat theme so I figure I’d share it here too.

I just thought I’d warn all of my loved ones that I’m living on the edge today. I just finished my second exam and my third is happening tomorrow so I’m burning out just right. I’ve decided that I should live a little between these two exam sessions and I’ve decided to go with the “Cheetos Crunchy”, most notably because they are “Dangerously Cheesy”.

CC

Extra Candy Stuff from M&Ms

One of the things I love about candy isn’t the candy at all. I love all the merchandise that surrounds it. For example M&M just sent me this little listing of some holiday ideas and most of them aren’t really candy at all. I love the pyjama bottoms with M&Ms on them… hint, hint.

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Linked Bagel Halves

Do you like math? Do you like bagels? Do you “have way too much time on your hands”? Have I got the treat for you.

Click here to learn how to do it.

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Problem at Haggen-Daz in India

Apparently there was a problem about who was being turned away at a Haggen Daz in Delhi.

Click here to learn more.

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Holiday Cookies for the Rest of Us

Looking for something to make for the holiday season that isn’t too “Christmas” like but also helps celebrate religion… sort of. Well check out this site and learn how to make the best Flying Spaghetti Monster cookies ever.

Click here to learn how to do it.

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Hey, another Illustration by Lisa

For those that aren’t in the loop, Lisa is a talented painter that has all kinds of great food themed pieces. I’m a particular fan of her candy themed pieces so I like to show them off here whenever she has a new one online. Another great work Lisa!

Click here to see and purchase more of her work.

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Less Salt in Spaghetti-O’s and other Junk Food Changes

NBC in Nashville has an interesting article about processed food companies changing their recipes in order to make their meals a little more nutritious. Not left out are sugary cereals including Lucky Charms. Most people don’t know that most food companies are constantly changing their recipes in order to improve the product however normally the goal is not to change the flavour at all.

Click here to read more.

CC

Snow and Gingerbread

Allison just got back from a trip to the great white north… Now I know many of you Americans are saying, but Chris you already live in the great white north. Well the truth is you can go norther and still be in Canada. Allison went to Yellowknife in the North West Territories and that’s much further north than I am right now.

While she was up there she came across an awesome sight in the lobby of her hotel. It was a full sized gingerbread house covered in candy and everything. It’s a good thing I didn’t go because I would have caused a scene and probably devoured half of it.

CC & CCE

Roasted Nuts are Better

According to some kind of scientific research I’m sure, roasted nuts may in fact be healthier for you than non-roasted nuts. Even if this isn’t true non-roasted nuts are often very gross so why would anybody want to eat them?

Click here to read more.

CC

A Little Holiday Warning

More science about double dipping chips. I wonder if Jerry Seinfeld makes money off of these?

Click here to fear the chip bowl.

CC

More Money For Advertising

According to people who keep track of this sort of thing spending on candy related food advertising went up this year. In particular non-chocolate advertising went up the most. This is good news because I need more material for my Friday videos.

Click here to read more.

CC

No more twisting open your Smarties

Apparently Ce De Candy in the US is going to start selling Smarties (in Canada we call them rockets) in a box version as well. I don’t know if they realise this but the whole reason I eat these is because of the cool packaging, so I’m not sure this is going to work.

Click here to read more.

CC

The Chocolate Glazed

Chocolate cake and sugar outside
One of the best, that I’ve ever tried
Round and simple like a donut should
Eat a million, if only I could
Sticky and chewy melt in my mouth
When I bite into you my heart goes down south
When I want one I could be called crazed
Oh how I love you chocolate glazed


CC