One of the things I’ve noticed about treats in Tokyo is the number of crazy random spokes characters they have. They often take the form of some character but often you have no idea what exactly the character is supposed to represent. Take this blue one eared dog thing on this can of orange soda.
As I did in past years I’ve jokingly posted a picture of Macaroni on National Macaroon Day. I’ve posted it only because I couldn’t find any Macaroons in time to fill this spot. Hopefully I’ll find some by the end of the day so I can partake in this fun holiday.
Looking to work on your gummy carving skills. Well the folks at indestructible have the perfect instruction manual for operating on little gummy bears. Keep in mind some of the images are pretty graphic.
Just got myself some Tai-yaki, from a little stand. I tried these little fish shaped cakes once before in San Francisco’s little Japan. Although they’re shaped like fish, there’s no fish in them at all instead, they’re cakes filled with desert style fillings. This time I picked up a little fish cake filled with cream cheese and red bean paste.
I just got this wax moustache that is apparently candy.
I’m not sure how I feel about the wax lips and moustaches as candy. I’m thinking they’re more a novelty than a candy.
I did however get a kick out of their slogan. It’s so deep.
CC
I’m really tired today and I want to just take a nap. The thing is I’m trying to keep myself awake to adjust to the time change. I figured updating Candy Critic would be a great way to do this, I never anticipated how tired I really was. Maybe this weeks review will give me some energy. By the way I know I’m in Tokyo right now, but the next few reviews are still from North America. In fact I’ve brought a few treats with me so I’ll continue to have North American treats now and again.
Yup Allison and I are for an extended period of time living in Japan, Tokyo to be exact… Surprise! I don’t speak or read anything, so crazy (and candy filled) adventures will be a sure thing. Tonight I’ll post a few entries about my trip here (I’ll back date them) and I’ll also keep you posted on my fun adventures. Sure hope I survive.
I’m normally not one to comment on airline food. I don’t tend to do this for two reasons. One is that I’ve actually had some pretty good meals on airplanes. Second I find that commenting on airline food is a little cliché, in fact back in my days as a stand up comic it was considered the ultimate cliché to joke about it.
But I just couldn’t let this one go. I got this as a desert on my flight to Tokyo and for the life of me I can’t figure out what it is. It seems like a really horrible cake swimming in some kind of gelatinous moose. It’s kind of chocolaty but it doesn’t totally cut it. I’m afraid for my life.
While in the airport I decided to check out the gift shop and see what kind of cool treats they have that represent Canada.
They had a few things like this salmon that I felt represented this country pretty well.
But then there where a few things I just didn’t get. Like these Kinder statues full of treats with an I heart with a maple leaf on it. Isn’t Kinder from Europe?
They also had the various animal poops (generally something covered in chocolate) to please any person of high standards.
The most disturbing thing I saw however was these Winnie the Poo treat containers with what appear to be pencil sharpeners in them. It looks like you jab this poor bear right in the crotch to sharpen your 2B.
Just ate a burger at a place called Coyote Jacks at Pearson airport. The burger wasn’t great, the fries sucked.
But the straw did bend, so I guess I’m ok with this place.
Well I just got to Lester B Pearson (named after one of my favourite prime ministers) airport in Toronto to catch my connecting flight to Tokyo. Allison and I stopped at the Rocky Mountain candy factory to get some treats for friends in Japan. Is this truly the candy that represents my people? It’s not that it’s bad or anything, it just doesn’t seem purely Canadian.
This week’s video is a little different than usual. First of all you have to see it on facebook, secondly I can’t embed it (if anybody knows how to embed facebook videos let me know), thirdly and most importantly I think it’s kind of creepy. It’s the love song between two M&Ms that recently had their differences.
It would seem that it has been noticed by my co-workers that I have a proclivity for chewing mint gum...there is no mystery, nor do I particularly like mint gum - it is simply to keep my breath customer-relations friendly / kissing-sweet whilst I work. Somehow mint smells say 'fresh! clean!' more than mango or strawberry!
I just tried out some new Sour Patch Kids and on the front of the package I came across a little message making sure I know what’s in my bag of treats.
It’s nice to see candy companies concerned that people know what’s in the treats for health reason, yet not change the recipe to destroy it for those of us that want great taste.
I was searching through Worth 1000’s Photoshop challenges and I came across this great contest. Here are the rules: “You must take any everyday object and coat them generously with dessert toppings. Alternatively, you can substitute any part of a dessert with an everyday object.” Check out the results.
Apparently Red Bull (I’m not sure if this is all cases) contains extracts from the coca plant. If you’re wondering the coca plant is the same plant that’s used to make cocaine. A few countries are starting to ban the beverage in Europe so it’ll be interesting to see how this all pans out.
This morning I had myself a couple of Pillsbury Toaster Strudels and I had a problem that I would have never thought of.
When I tried to separate the packages of icing when I ripped from the top I ended up opening up the two packages instead of just separating them. So always open the icing packages from the bottom up so they don't open up on you, they do not print that warning anywhere on the box.
It’s another random summer update day. This weeks review was a gift in an attempt to find out what kind of treat the candy critic likes. The good news for the gift giver is it only took two tries. The bad news for me is that with discovering what I like I may not receive any more treats.
This month’s new donut might just be this Coconut Cream treat pictured above. I say “might” because it didn’t have the little tag on it saying that it was the feature or anything new. It is however new to me so I feel I can safely calling it new.
It tastes ok too, although I’m no a huge fan of coconut however with cream it seems to do pretty well. It seems that the flavour combination in this case outweighs my dislike of coconut on its own.
I got these cool stickers in a barrel of Toxic waste candy the other day. I’m glad that they only rank me as a lab assistant because I don’t have a PHD in crazy sour candy yet.
This is what happens when a guy who eats a lot of candy wants some gummy bears. I end up with a whole bunch of them; so many that I’m pretty sure if they wanted to gang up on me they’d more than likely munch me to bits instead of the other way around. Fortunately I was able to take a few snapshots and dazzle them, and then I ate them before they knew it.
It’s international Towel Day today. For those that are unfamiliar with the importance of towels, it comes from Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The basic premise is that towels are the most important things any galactic hitchhikers could have.
In one part of the book they mention that the corners of some towels are soaked in nutrients that allow you to survive if you have no food. My question is I wonder what flavour towels could come in. I tasted my towels and realised that the only flavour they come in is “clean laundry” or “dirty me” flavour.
This is what I used to call the regular update day, that was until I decided to take a more relaxed approach to reviews and not do them in a scheduled way. The thing is since I’m not doing reviews on my regularly scheduled time anymore does that mean I shouldn’t do reviews on Sunday anymore? But then that would be following another schedule (not doing reviews on Sunday). I guess I should just say that I can do reviews when ever I want and forget about any kind of rules. I sure hope this review goes better than this update blog.
The folks at Mars are giving away free candy every Friday till September. I have not applied for my chocolate yet but I will be next week.I have no idea what this treat tastes like or what is being said in the commercial. All I know is that the sound effects are absolutely awesome.
CC
Today’s update is all about coconut. So why might I have coconut on the brain? I think it’s because it’s a really hot day out and when it’s hot all I can think about is the smell of suntan lotion, and that often smells like coconut. So why not eat a little snack that matches what I smell in my head. Summer is coming folks, it’s time to embrace it, and time for me to do a couple more ice cream reviews.
I worked out in Chinese how one could say 'Candy Critic' - I believe it to be accurate/usable if not entirely correct. 糖批评家 would be said in Mandarin "Tang Pi Ping Jia" (tones omitted!) - quite literally 'sugar criticism expert' - but of course, less literally, for Chinese speakers, ought to simply mean 'candy critic'. An amusing side note to this is if one were to call the Candy Critic simply "Candy Man/Person" it would be written 糖人 (Tang Ren) which is very close to a colloquial term used by Chinese people to describe themselves: 唐人 which, if you look at the first character, is almost the same except for the 'rice' radical to the right of the 'Tang' radical.
It’s crazy I know but I have some update fever and I need a cure (I refuse to acknowledge any kind of cow bell). I’m just in the mood to go through reviews for the next little while, and with all of the treats I have around me lately it’s probably a good thing. Today’s review is the perfect treat for the season too. Who doesn’t love a good Jellybelly, and who doesn’t love a good themed candy. Maybe I’m just overly giddy because spring is in the air.
Yahoo has some interesting statistics about sugar consumption. I’m glad they didn’t ask me because it probably would have skewed the results by a large margin.
Eric from the podcast ‘Just my Show’ did a great interview with the creator of Pop Rocks. Learn a little something about the man behind a legendary candy.
There’s this candy store in Ottawa that for some reason I’m never around when it’s open. I guess it’s just in a neighbourhood that I don’t frequent during normal business hours.
It’s too bad too, I’ve heard great things about it and it looks really nice from outside.
And I can’t make it because of a secret project I have on the go. The good news is they’re keeping me posted on the entire goings on so I’ll have my thumb on the pulse of the candy world. The bad news is I have to sit here on my computer staring at all the treats they’re posting without being able to try any of them… hmmm… I guess that’s how some of you feel sometimes.
I’ve decided over the summer to scatter and mix up update day a little on Candy Critic. So that means you could get a review any day, at any time and maybe even more than once a day. It all depends on how I feel and what’s going on with me at that moment. I’ll do at least one a week however and I’ll always post on the blog when the review is online. I figure the best way to start off the crazy review summer would be skittles crazy cores. See clever no?
Whenever people interview me the subject always comes to nutrition. First and foremost I don't really like to talk about nutrition on the site because frankly that's your business. However just to set the record straight here's my angle right now.
I'm not a big fan of sugar free type snacks for those trying to lose weight. If you're diabetic or something than they're great for you. However it's very rare that I enjoy a sugar free version of anything as much as the regular. In fact often I find these sugar free versions to be a bit of the problem.
If you're looking to lose weight I suggest you look at portion sizes instead. I'm pretty impressed by these candy companies that are making smaller sized treats and labelling them more nutritious. This works for me because you don't have to sacrifice any of the quality of the treat. I say rather than buy candy big, buy variety, it's much more fun and much better for you.
CC
Unlike many of the other holidays I mention on this blog Victoria Day is a real one here in Canada. We celebrate the lady that declared Canada was it’s own country by shooting cannons and watching fireworks. I figure she’s worth celebrating on this site too because it was thought that she was a big fan of sweet treats. It’s good to know my country was founded by candy fanatics.
