The Family Health Guide in the UK has a listing of foods that are said to make you smarter. Food of note includes cocoa products, nuts, and blueberries. Hooray for science, now I’m going to eat a walnut blueberry muffin with chocolate frosting! It’s for the betterment of my well-being.
It’s time again for Tim Horton’s to sell cookies with happy faces on them.
But really have you ever seen a happy face that was so sad?
CC
What can I say, I'm going home soon and am all out of the cereal, and bread after today, surely a more serious attempt at cereal sampling is nigh, however! So, in a random search I found this cute little cartoon, ah l'amour!
Jon
Hey folks it’s time for another review-a-thon. This week I’m looking at fine chocolates. Every review this week is sure to be something you won’t find in your average convince store. For these treats you’ll have to put on a tie as well as some pants. I also plan on reviewing each and every one of these treats with my pinky sticking out slightly.
That’s the question I had for a bunch of my friends recently and it was an interesting response I got. There was a clear leader with no doubt at all, Licorice Babies. Now they may not seem offensive at first in particular when I use that name, however they sometimes go by a different name and that’s where the controversy starts up.
I also got a few messages with items such as gummy and chocolate body parts that people have seen in novelty stores. I’m not sure how I feel about this kind of treat as a Candy Critic, but unless they come up with a way to make the treat really unique other than just a funny shape I probably won’t mention them at all on this site.
What do you think is the most offensive candy ever?Jon (who has published few things in the past for this blog) has been, of late, sending out fun little e-mails all about his morning behaviours. It’s fun for the whole family, a great way to start your day and best of all we’ll be posting his morning ramblings and accompanying YouTube video here on the Candy Critic blog.
Morning everyone! As I sit here at my table, munching away, I've decided to go with a brief clip from my friend D, takes you back to those nintendo days that just never existed! Enjoy! Though I like to eat duck as much as the next person....this my be too great a supply!
Jon
I really don’t like coffee but I figure if I were to go for a cup roasting and brewing the entire thing at home would be a great way to do it.
Some might say I’m a little too optimistic about the possibility of this book being published or of me even getting an agent. Well first of all I figure I should just go for it and not worry about what if. But I have a plan. If this doesn’t work out then I think I’ll self publish and hope to god that you fine people buy many copies.
You could get yourself more breakfast then you possibly imagine, the only rule is you have to eat it all.I saw someone wearing this T-shirt and it made me chuckle out loud. It’s also really true, trust me.
CC
The guardian has a great list of 50 of the best places to get specific foods. Some of these foods repulse me; some I’ve tried, and some are going to be my next road trip.It’s a strange word if you think about it. It’s a made up word that sounds completely legitimate. That’s why the candy world rocks so hard.
CC
That means that people all over the world will be eating moon cakes. So try one if you haven’t before, and try many if you have had them before.
Cherries Jubilee is a strange thing in my mind. It’s strange because I’ve never had Cherries Jubilee but I have had the ice cream version many times. I’m fairly certain as well that most people are in the same boat. Have you ever had regular Cherries Jubilee?
While in Japan I was so blown away by all of the food. I was also completely turned around by my personal definitions of different foods. Some things I wouldn’t consider for breakfast are the norm; some snacks for me are meals in Japan, and so on. So when I was researching candy in Japan I found that their lines are really blurred. I couldn’t figure out what was really candy (I even struggle with this in North America) so I figured I would broaden my search and I’m happy I did. I found some great treats and it was an awesome experience.
I just tried PC’s new Passion fruit soda and man am I impressed. It’s nice to see them trying some new and different flavours in their soda collection. For the most part PC tends to just make less expensive versions of already well-known sodas, so the change is good.
That means that soon the weather will get cold, the leaves will change colour, and chocolate will be easy to ship across the country. The last one might not mean much to you, but candy distributors all over North America are squealing with delight. Also to bring in the first day of fall I’ve decided to post a bonus review that I feel is totally appropriate.The book is about Japanese Snacks. I think snacks are a great way to look at people and cultures. I also think that snacks may have different meanings for different people so I expect to get a lot of criticism about what I feel is a snack and what isn’t. After all I’m sitting here eating Macaroni Salad and I would say that it’s a meal, mainly because I’m eating it at 12:30 pm. If I was eating this at 3 pm and I had eaten lunch then I would call it a snack.
The book however will not feature any Macaroni salad. For the purposes of the book I looked at snacks as being smaller treats, sometimes salty often sweet. Maybe something you might find these treats in your back pocket on in your knapsack. I guess it’s kind of hard to explain but I knew these snacks when I saw them and you could argue all you want.
I also decided to make this book all about the visual aspects of these snacks. The photography is really going to be the key thing I’m going to focus on. I love the visual side of candy, snacks, and pretty much all foods.
CC
Today’s review is one of those treats that so many people recommended to me that when I finally got my hands on a bag I was super excited. Then after eating them I was super worried. I was worried because I know that there are many people out there with a love of these snacks and I’m not one of them. Say what you will but just because they’re popular doesn’t make them taste any better.
Apparently with all of the “Talk like a pirate day” shenanigans I completely forgot that Saturday was also National Butterscotch day too.
Well I’m making up for it by eating a whole bunch of Butterscotch pudding. One of the few treats still available in butterscotch flavour. It’s too bad too because butterscotch is just so tasty.
CC
I was in the grocery store today and I came across some Reese’s Pieces. Man these things are tasty and it’s so rare that I ever pick them up. I’m not sure why but I just never think about them when I’m craving sweets.
I got excited at the thought that maybe they changed the candy instead. I ripped open the bag and…
Same old (yet tasty) Reese’s Pieces. I’m not sure why they would put “New Look” on a treat that really wasn’t that new. Maybe the fonts on the package are a little different but for the most part it’s exactly the same. I think I may have been swindled.
A friend of mine pointed out Retrocrush’s article on “The worst candies of all times”. The list is pretty American based and fails to mention the many international horrible candies out there but it’s pretty entertaining if you ask me.
The Chive posted this funny little picture of Gummy Bacon. I’ve never seen it in real life but I soo want to try it.
It’s started already; the Halloween treats are creeping into stores. Now I can’t complain really because one of the biggest dilemmas I have is deciding which treat to review this year on Halloween. I want to be sure it’s either a classic Halloween treat or something so new and cool that people will be impressed. If you have any ideas please let me know.
Boing Boing posted a piece about Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York. I’ve been there and it was ok selection wise, but it looked great. The stairs were one of my favourite highlights in that store.I figure since I’m working so hard and full time on the book from here on in it might start affecting the time I have to focus on Blogs, or at least the number of adventures that I’ll be going on in the next few months. Then it hit me, why not write about the writing process of this book. I’ve decided to start with a look at where I stand right now.
Publishing: At this point I don’t have a publisher or even an agent. Agents have approached me in the past but when they contacted me I really didn’t have a book idea in my head. Now that I have something to work on my goal is really to get a pitch and samples ready to go.
The Samples: Right now I’m working on picking photographs and short writings for each photo. I’m also working on writing some chapter introductions as well. The focus of the book is on the beauty of Asian Treats so photos seem like they’d be key. I also figure my background is in visual arts and in particular photography so this is a good blend.
The Pitch: Well this as I write it is sort of the pitch I guess. I’m going to refine it a bit and put something nice and neat together with the samples. If you happen to be a book agent and you want a copy of said pitch please let me know. 
The First deadline: I’m giving myself until October 31st (Halloween) to have the samples and the pitch ready to either mail or e-mail. Then after that the goal is to compile a list of agents and publishers to send said pitch.
CC
It’s a little late but the folks at Cake Wrecks had a great post about 911 cake disasters. Well worth checking out.
Do you like Dark Chocolate? Do you like Peanut Butter? Do you like things that are round? Well do I have a contest for you. The folks at Reese have generously donated some prizes for me to give away to several lucky readers. The prizes are boxes full of Reese Dark Peanut Butter Cup treats. To win you have to do the following:
Stopped by a bakery today to get my sweet snack grove on and I noticed that this particular bakery was really creative with their gingerbread cookie designs. Sure they had the standard gingerbread man… and women… gingerbread people? (Gender issues in the gingerbread community could be a future blog on it’s own)
They also had these cool butterflies with great look icing decorations. The blendy thing made me think of “Cream” concert footage I saw once.
But by far the best cookie design they had was this fried egg cookie. It’s so cool looking and so clever. I think they should do more foodstuffs on their cookies as long as they don’t flavour them to match.
CC
SF Weekly has a collection of photos from the 14th Annual Ghirardelli Chocolate festival. Before I saw this I wished I could have been there, now that I’ve seen them the want is almost uncontrollable.
I’ve been a little slow with the holiday posts as of late, but I did want to mention how I spent “National cream filled donut day” (it was yesterday). I decided to visit Tim Horton’s and enjoy what I so deserved. But what I got was a Boston Cream donut that looked like a map of the continents millions of years ago. 
I’m always disappointed when they just throw the donuts in the bag with little to no thought. If you get icing on the bag then I can’t eat it, and if I can’t eat it then I’m not happy.
Fortunately it didn’t play a role in my ability to enjoy the holiday as the cream (it was of the Boston variety) was still safe in the middle.
I think this might turn out to be the best day for new reviews. It used to be Sunday but frankly I think I wouldn’t be able to post that regularly at this point on Sundays. So to start things off with a bang here’s a little treat I picked up in Japan and it changed the way I felt about Sweet Potatoes.
It’s always interesting to look at how candy companies work other than in the manufacturing of candy. It’s interesting to look at this while munching on a chocolate bar at least.
I think this might be a joke, but the packages are pretty funny. If it is a joke then it’s based in some reality because I’ve seen some pretty questionable images on candy packages.
I got this e-mail from a company that manufactures printers that print directly onto chocolate. This seems like an awesome idea but the price is a little steep for me. However if anybody out there has one of these things I’d love to (taste) see some samples. Most of all I think it would be the coolest thing ever to have a copy of my resume on chocolate, getting jobs would be so much easier that way.
