Stuff I Want To Try

Topline Fresh Gel - Arcor - I like gum with different textures, as long as the texture isn't something bread like or waffle like, because that's just gross. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

CC

Tim Tam Appreciation Week Part 4 - The Best Drinks To Dip Your Tim Tam

As we learned yesterday, with the Tim Tam Slam, Tim Tams are a cookie greatly suited for dunking, or even sucking.  My first experience with Tim Tams and dunking was with hot tea, and it really changed the way I thought about these cookies.  If hot tea could improve these cookies so much, I wonder how the Tim Tam would pair with other drinks.  So I've decided to sample my last few Tim Tams with a nice variety of drinks, let's see which drink works, and which don't.  I should note that each drink receives one dip, there is no double dipping going on for this experiment.

Tea - As I've mentioned before, tea seems like the perfect drink for your Tim Tams. The heat from the tea melts the cookies just perfectly and turns them into a perfect gooey mess.  The drink itself also works really well with Tim Tams because it's not too rich.  The chocolate and cream from the Tim Tams, and the clear clean tea flavour is the perfect pair.

Hot Chocolate - As with the tea you do get that wonderful melting mess of a Tim Tam, however unlike the tea, hot chocolate doesn't provide as nice a contrast in flavour.  It's as if you're being overpowered with chocolate when you bring these two treats together.

Milk - I'm sure this is going to be a continuous problem with cold drinks, the chocolate outer shell doesn't melt, and so you basically get a slightly wet cookie with a hint of milk flavour.  I let it sit for a while, and the milk never penetrated the chocolate exterior.  The milk also doesn't seem to have taken on any of the chocolate, this might have been tasty, but it doesn't seem to have worked.

Coffee - For the sake of the experiment I've used instant coffee, mostly because I don't really know how to make regular coffee.  With that information you should guess that I don't really like the taste of coffee either.  It is slightly improved with the cookie, but not enough to make me love it... or even like it.  If you're a coffee fan you'll probably love this as much, or more, than I enjoyed this cookie with tea.

Juice - This was supposed to be one of those ideas that would come off as silly, but strangely it's not that bad.  The juice suffers the same problem as the milk, in that it doesn't melt the chocolate and therefore doesn't penetrate the cookie goodness.  However the fruity flavour of the juice coating the cookie is actually pretty good with the chocolate.

Cola - Like the juice, this was to be a silly idea, and it was.  The cola really doesn't add anything to the chocolate cookie.  In fact After the first half second I couldn't taste the cola at all.  When the flavours mixed in my mouth it was just strange, not really tasty, not really gross, just strange.

Bonus Chocolate Pudding - I know that this isn't really a drink, but  I had some chocolate pudding left over and a Tim Tam that needed to be dunked in something.  It's actually not a bad combination, although the cookie doesn't melt at all, and that's the best part about dunking Tim Tams.  The chocolate was a little overpowering, but maybe this would work better with a different flavour of pudding.

CC

Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

To keep in theme with our Tim Tams Appreciation Week, I've decided to find an entertaining Tim Tams ad on the internet... Ah here's one... hmmmm, I don't get it.

CC

Tim Tam Appreciation Week Part 3 - The Tim Tam Slam

When most non-Australians eat Tim Tams for the first time, they're not always impressed.  It starts off with the fact that every Australian they know has probably hyped up this treat beyond words.  But there's something else important to know about the the Tim Tam, and that's how to eat it.

Before leaving for Australia I asked for suggestions for treats that I must try while on my trip, one person suggested to me that I had to drink some hot tea through a Tim Tam cookie.  I was mostly confused by this, but also a little nervous.  I was confused because I didn't really know what she meant by drinking my tea through a cookie, and I was nervous because the Tim Tams I'd had in the past didn't really impress me (you can read my old Tim Tam review here).

I got over the fear of bad Tim Tams when I'd sampled the dark chocolate variety, but you can read more about that here.  The confusion was still a problem, so I decided to just take the idea literally. For the first cookie I thought that it would be a good idea to bite the ends off before I started to suck my tea through it.  While the shortened cookie got tea flowing through the cookie quickly, it was really short and difficult to get one into the tea and one end in my mouth at the same time.

I decided for my second cookie that I would just dip both ends of the cookie into the tea to get them started, and be patient sucking.  It was a great success and quickly I was rewarded with a slightly chcocolaty tea.  It didn't even take much longer to get the tea through the cookie as when I first attempted it with the ends bitten off.

As you can imagine, after having a great deal of hot liquid racing through a cookie, the condition of  the cookie is not great.  In fact in a mater of minutes your Tim Tam will be a sticky mess all over your fingers.  While very messy, drinking a hot beverage through your Tim Tam actually improves the flavor and texture of the Tim Tams greatly.  This is truly a brilliant idea, and the best way to eat a Tim Tam.

CC

Old Candy Critic Articles - How to Blow a Bubble

I've decided to take down several old articles from the candycritic.org and re-post them here on the Candy Critic blog.  This week I look back at a classic advertisement that taught me how to blow bubbles.

Online auctions - they can be your best friend or your worst enemy. They can make you rich, or more often make you realize how worthless most of your junk is. Sometimes, however, a piece of junk can turn into something else. It doesn't make you any money, but it teaches you something about life, about love, or most importantly, about candy. Nestled in this Fantasy Masterpieces Number 1, circa 1979 I found a little educational tidbit that will either bring back memories or teach the old ways of candy.

Looking through this gem…

Past the shots of Spiderman selling Twinkies...

Sexy iron-ons...

Even past the skinny guy that's going to get strong and get his girl back....

Looking past all of this I found it...

"Gumfighting do's and dont’s." Back in the day, Hubba Bubba wasn't just about selling gum. No, they were also about educating the world on how, you too, could blow bigger bubbles. Now you can benefit from the wise old ways of the gum chewers of the 1970s. You can blow bubbles that'll make your mother cry. You, my friends, can be further educated in the lost art of giant bubble blowing.

First of all, stance is important. Make sure you bring tools to measure the angle of your arms. And akimbo, darn it! Keep the elbows akimbo!

Keeping the knees slightly bent helps with balance. With large bubbles you never know what might happen. Keeping the feet planted is also important for the same reason.

Size doesn't matter when it comes to bubble blowing. Young or old, small or huge, the big bubble is no longer something you can only dream about... It's a reality that you, too, can achieve no matter what your stature.

We all know the embarrassment of having gum stick to your face, and we know it is less embarrassing to wear a paper bag over the head.

I hope this lesson helps you improve your bubble gum experience and I'm sure you'll notice great improvement and better bubble abilities in no time.

CC

Stuff I Want To Try

Katy Perry Popchips - Popchips - Katy Perry has been impressing me with her candy related products, and this is no exceptions. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

CC

Tim Tam Appreciation Week Part 2 - The Many Varieties Of Tim Tams

When Tim Tams were first invented, it was a simple idea, a couple of cookies with cream in the center, covered in chocolate.  Today the milk chocolate variety of Tim Tam is still available, but now there are many more varieties to choose from.  Arnott's has done a wonderful job with these many varieties as well, they're both true to the spirit of the original cookie, yet creative with some of their selections of fillings.

The first, and most obvious change you could make to a Tim Tam would be to change the type of chocolate used.  I imagine this is probably the first varieties of Tim Tams that came onto the market.  They're still available today in white chocolate and dark chocolate.  I can't blame them for making these obvious, and not very creative varieties, since they're pretty much guaranteed to work fairly well.  In fact I enjoyed the dark chocolate variety more than the milk chocolate, but you can read more about that in my review.

The next step in making variations to this cookie was to change the filling.  This is were I feel the folks at Arnott's have excelled and turned this cookie into something even more spectacular.  With fillings range from a basic chewy caramel, to strange fillings like honeycomb and Turkish delight  these fillings explore so many  textures and flavours.  Best of all there's a great deal of attention spent on making sure the texture and flavour of these fillings works perfectly.  The caramel is chewy, instead of gooey, and with the cream and cookie it make a perfect combination.  The flavoured jams are also chewy and not too soft, this insures that when you bite into the cookie you won't have goo shooting out the sides.

Arnott's has obviously thought a great deal about the types of fillings they put into a Tim Tam.  Many candy companies have ruined their treats by adding and subtracting ingredients, but I'm convinced that Arnott's may have actually improved upon their original cookie.

CC

Candy Art - Heart Chocolate

I think this year's trend for Valentines Day is going to be the realistic looking heart in many candy forms.  I think many of them are beautiful works of art, like the one above created by Katherine Clapner.  I'm certain however that we'll also see others try and get into this game, and you'll find different degrees of "reality" in the designs.  At some point I'm pretty certain that I'll come across a chocolate heart that looks more like a standard valentines heart than an anatomically correct heart, and that means everything will have gone full circle.

You can read more about the heart pictured above here.

And

If you are interested in this kind of Valentines Day offering, here's a great listing of some really great looking heart themed gifts.

CC

Tim Tam Appreciation Week Part 1 - What is a Tim Tam

When you think about the national foods of Australia, you can't deny the role that Tim Tams play.  Not only is this cookie popular in Australia, but it's become a global wide treat, and in the United States it's known as "Australia's Favorite Cookie.".  Any time I talk about Australian treats, with any Australian, they ask me if I've tried Tim Tams.

The first variety of Tim Tams were the plain milk chocolate, invented in the early 60s.  The story goes that the creator of the Tim Tam had sampled some British Penguin cookies and decided that he could improve upon them.  The name is apparently based off the name of a horse that won the Kentucky Derby in 1958.  Since their creation Tim Tams have been manufactured all over Australia, and today 3000 Tim Tams come off the assembly line every minute.

So now that you know a little history of this extremely popular cookie, you might be asking, what exactly is a Tim Tam?  The design of this cookie is very simple, two cookies with a cream in the center, covered in chocolate.  Today there are also many varieties available, there is sometimes extra fillings like jam or caramel in the center as well as different varieties of chocolate on the outside.  The cookies in most varieties of Tim Tams is a chocolate cookie, it's fairly dense, and perfect for dipping into drinks, because it stays relatively hard.  The chocolate is known to melt when dipped into hot drinks, and later this week we'll introduce you to the ultimate experience known as the Tim Tam Slam.

While this cookie is fairly simple by design, it doesn't diminish how popular it is all around the world, and in particular Australia.  Australian expats covet these cookies, and if you happen to befriend one (assuming Tim Tams aren't available where you live) they just might share a bite of their Tim Tam stash.

CC

This Week In Candy

All this week we will be celebrating the magic that is the Tim Tam cookie.  For those unfamiliar with this wonderful treat, we'll have more details later today, but for now I can tell you that it's an Australian institution.  I can also tell you that it's spreading around the world like wildfire.  This week find out why a simple cookie is such a big deal to an entire country.

For the future, this week we're recording two podcasts, that will go online very soon.  We're also looking for more guests to chat about junk food, so if you make, sell, or just eat junk food, and you think you'd make a good guest for the show, let us know and we'll try to make it happen.

Finally today represents the last day for our Australia review-a-thon (strangely it's a review of Tim Tams), but it also represents our new schedule, where reviews will now be posted on Monday mornings.

Lots going on this week, enjoy the Tim Tam fest we call the Tim Tam appreciation week.

CC

Australia/New Zealand Review-A-Thon - Tim Tam "Dark Chocolate"

Today marks the last day of our Australia/New Zealand Review-a-Thon, however with every ending comes a new beginning  Today we're ending the review-a-thon with the world famous Tim Tam, and today we're kicking off our Tim Tam Appreciation Week.  See how clever we are, linking the two weeks together.

Click here to get started on the road to Tim Tam Appreciation Week, by reading our latest review.

CC

Australia/New Zealand Review-A-Thon - Caramello Koala

While many of the treats I discovered in Australia and New Zealand were unknown to me, the Caramallo Koala was not.  In fact the Caramello Koala had quite the reputation, and a lot to live up to.  I think Allison was the first to tell me about these, but she was not the last.  Just about anybody I know who has tried these caramel filled delights has had nothing but fine words to say.  This makes the review fairly difficult since it's so built up in my head, it means I'm going to have high expectations.

Click here to find out if my expectations have been met.

CC

It's National Chocolate Cake Day!!!

To me, chocolate and cake go together better than peaches and cream, Tom and Jerry, Brad and Angelina.  If you ask me what kind of cake I want, it will almost always be chocolate.  If I bake a cake, it will almost always be chocolate.  If I photograph a cake, it will almost always be chocolate.  In fact, I'm working on an article in the future where I answer some cake questions that I have, and you better believe I plan on using chocolate cake.

CC

Australia/New Zealand Review-A-Thon - Fabulicious Sherbert Fizz

Happy Australia Day!!!  Who knew that National Peanut Brittle Day was also Australia Day.  Australians seem to be very passionate about this holiday, but they don't really seem to explain to people what the day actually celebrates.  Is it the discovery of the continent, is it the day they became independent from the commonwealth, maybe it's just a great day to be Australian.  Either way, I'm glad I can help them celebrate this awesome day by posting yet another Australian treat in this review-a-thon.

Click here to read all about one of the great treats that makes up this country.

CC

It's National Peanut Brittle Day!!!

One of my favorite aspects about candy naming conventions is the fact that the texture of your candy can be incorporated.  I think peanut brittle is the only time you ever want to hear the word brittle in your life.  Most of the time brittle is used in negative ways like, your bones are getting brittle, those bricks are brittle, and the steel on that bridge seems brittle.  It's never good news, unless you add peanuts.

CC

Candy News

The economy is getting so bad that even some candy companies are feeling the pinch, this is rare because often in bad economic times candy companies thrive.

The folks at Ring Pops want you to decide on their new flavour of Ring Pop.  Personally I think I'd want to try the cookies and cream.

My friend Peter (@ponate), gives us his reasons why cotton candy is the best theater food ever.  He does however neglect to mention the sticky fingers problem.

If you want to plan a vacation this February, might I suggest Hershey Pennsylvania?

Learning something new, and chocolate, put them together and you have a very fun afternoon.

You may want to argue that Missouri is not the chocolate capital of the USA, but they have a pretty good argument.

Can chocolate be fine art, a gallery in New York would like to say that it can.

I think science is using M&M's for evil experiments, like finding out if we eat more candy/junk food because we're stressed.

How many letters do you mail in a month?  Would that number increase if the envelope tasted awesome?

If you want to keep up with all of the daily candy news that we come across as it happens, follow us on Twitter.

OZ/NZ Epic Trip Roundup - Part 5 - Disappointing Candy Stores

I had a great time traveling through New Zealand and Australia.  It was a great place to visit, explore, and sample great food.  I managed to sample so many sweet treats and junk food bites that I just couldn't find anywhere else in the world, but I was really disappointed about one thing, candy stores.

It's not that there wasn't any candy stores in either of these countries, in fact there were many.  Small towns, large cities, malls, main streets, there were plenty of candy shops to choose from.  The problem I had with most of them was the selection of treats.  These stores were full of imported candy, mostly from places like the UK or USA.  Don't get me wrong, I love UK and US treats, but not when I'm in Australia or New Zealand.  When travel, the candy I want is the stuff I can't find anywhere else, or at the very least the stuff they make better than anywhere else.

In North America and the UK they too have candy stores, and these stores also supply imports, but they have more.  Many have a supply of classic and retro candy from their own area.  Candies that are local, but that you're not likely to find on the shelf of a grocery store.  Most candy stores, the good ones at least, also have staff that weren't such candy snobs that they could recommend a local treat, even if it was "pedestrian" to them.  I didn't walk into any candy stores in either country feeling like I learned something about Australia or New Zealand candy.  Instead I walked out with a feeling that most of these candy shop owners and employees just wanted to show off how much they new about treats from other places.

CC

Stuff I Want To Try

Peca Pop - Nestle - An ice cream banana with an edible peel... that's just too awesome. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

CC

Junk Fud Podcast 2 - The Twinkie

We just posted the second episode of Junk Fud, or podcast all the In this episode my special guest Jonathan talks about candy in the UK, having friends bringing you candy from all over the world, chocolate and beer, and we touch on what Canadian treats Jonathan has encountered.  Jonathan also gets to sample a Twinkie for the first time ever, find out if he's disappointed that they don't make them anymore.

Click here to download this latest podcast.

You can also download the first episode of Junk Fud here.

We are now hosting our podcast on Drop Box, if you have any problems listening or downloading this podcast, let us know.

CC

Friday Candy Video - Fresh Breath Horse Head

If the makes of this (I assume) parody ad for Mentos was to creep me out and make me never want to eat a Mentos again, mission accomplished.  I don't know if I can even look at a horse again after watching this.

CC

Australia/New Zealand Review-A-Thon - Dairy Milk Marvellous Create!ons

If this bar is available anywhere else in the world besides Australia or New Zealand, then it's just wrong.  I say this because Australia and New Zealand food has a really strange way of taking random ingredients, putting them together, and making something magical.  Some countries have strange ingredients, but in Australia and New Zealand the ingredients aren't strange themselves, it's how they're presented that's strange.  Let me make it perfectly clear, it's not gross strange, most of the time it's extremely yummy strange.

Click here to read about this strange Dairy Milk bar.

CC

OZ/NZ Epic Trip Roundup - Part 4 - No Darrel Lea

With a great deal of European influence, Australia and New Zealand really have a handle on fine chocolates. Not only do they import many high quality brands, but they also have several chocolate makers of their own. Many of these chocolate makers have their own shops, as well as selling in stores all over both countries.  While the selection was fantastic, I had my sites set on one brand in particular Darrel Lea.

When I think about Australian chocolate, Darrel Lea is the first name that pops into my head.  It's not a very well known brand around the world, but my Australian friends and co-candy fanatics sing its praises regularly.  I was really excited at the idea of sampling some of this chocolate.  However, a few month before I left, I read that Darrel Lea was filing for bankruptsy, and there was a question about whether or not they would remain in business.  I was worried that because of bad management, I wouldn't get to sample this Australian institution.  As time went on I read more on the company and it appeared that they would survive this problem, and with the encouragement from my Australian friends, I was assured that I would be able to find some Darrel Lea chocolate on my adventure.  After all, you can't just wipe out a huge candy institution like that in such a short time... or so I thought

As it turns out, you can pretty much wipe out a huge candy company in a matter of months.  I did come across one tourist shop selling Darrel Lea chocolate,  near the beginning of my journey, and that was it.  I thought, stupidly, that I could look around and see what other Darrel Lea treats I could find before buying, and ended up not being able to sample any.  The store in these photographs is no longer a Darrel Lea store, instead it's a money exchange/variety store.  I can't believe that in such a short time a candy company known all over the world could be zapped into nothingness.  I'm a little sad that I never got to sample this classic Australian chocolate, but fortunately there were many other treats to be had, and I assure you I sampled plenty of them.

CC

Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

When I look at this advertisement I think of two things.  First of all I think about what a mess it would be to pour a bunch of juice into a box.  Then I wonder, could I make my own fruit gums?  I wonder what it takes?

I found this ad here.

CC

Australia/New Zealand Review-A-Thon - Pineapple Lumps

The last few reviews I've posted could arguably be treats from anywhere in the world, but today's addition to the Australia/New Zealand Review-a-Thon is unquestionably from New Zealand.  While these, much like many treats are available in both Australia and New Zealand, there's no arguing about its origins.  Kiwi's love these chocolate covered lumps of chewy pineapple flavoured goo, and it's a source of pride for the country.  It's said that this treat originates from a need to use up left over candy ingredients, was this a good idea?  Well you'll have to read the review to find out.

Click here to read the Pineapple Lumps review.

CC

It's National Peanut Butter Day!!!

There are so many candy treats with peanut butter, Reece Cups, Wunderbar, Abba Zaba, and many more. But did you know that outside of North America peanut butter just isn't that popular at all.  I've discussed this on Twitter and Facebook with a few people, and you get a real mix feeling.  Some people think peanut butter is the most revolting thing on earth and they can't figure out why North Americans eat the stuff.  Others, most of whom have sampled a few North American peanut butter treats, can't figure out why the rest of the world isn't praising the brown spread.  What do you think of peanut butter, and peanut butter treats, is it crazy, gross, gods gift to humanity?

CC

OZ/NZ Epic Trip Roundup - Part 3 - Random Treats

Whenever I go on a trip I always discover all kinds of fun treats.  Some treat discoveries are worth writing an entire blog entry, but some are worth a quick mention, and this is where I'll do it.

In just about every gift shop in Australia they sell jerky.  But not regular run of the mill beef jerky, no that would be too simple.  They all sell kangaroo, emu, and crocodile jerky. What I want to know is, do any real Australians eat this stuff?

You wouldn't think too much of this candy, a marshmallow treat covered in a blue sugar coating.  The thing that caught my eye is the jar of glucose pouring over the berries on the package.  I don't think I've ever seen a candy company advertise the use of glucose before.  Most of the time it's something they'd rather keep secret.

Some people consider licorice babies candy to be a little offensive.  While I'm sure you have your own opinion on that, I'm sure we can all agree that this package for Allen's licorice babies (called chicos) doesn't really help the argument.

Caramello Koalas are probably one of the most popular and well known Australian chocolate treats.  With good reason, they're pretty good (you can read more about that on my review later this week).  The treat I'd never heard of before this trip, is Fredo the Frogs.  While I'm sure they're pretty tasty, I think they're trying way too hard with all of the different varieties.  Sorry Fredo, you're just not as tasty as Caramello Koala, and the millions of different flavours only makes you come off as desperate.

The only reason I'm including this is because of the name, it's "Extra Juicy" Juice.

These are not Licorice Alsorts, they're soaps made to look like Licorice Alsorts.  I'm not sure why one would want to bath with a licorice candy, but what do I know about soaps and bathing products.  Come to think of it, I should have picked one of  these up for my mom, she's a girl (and therefore into soapy things) and she loves Licorice Alsorts (that I can't explain).  I wonder if the soap smells like licorice, that would be horrible.

I found this sign in Chinatown in Sydney, I'm thinking that the people at Haagen Dazs might want to have a word with these people.

This just might be the greatest slogan ever printed on a candy bar.  I also think that this would me a great title for a Kung Foo movie.

It's good to be in a country that knows the  importance of having ice cream trucks.  In Sydney, even on a rainy day, it's hard not to run into several of these vans filled with all kinds of ice cream delights.  They're specialty is soft serve ice cream decorated to the nines.  You can get your cones dipped, covered in nuts, covered in sprinkles, chocolate bars jabbed into it, swirled with syrup, or all of the above.  In fact I've never seen so much topping variety in an ice cream truck in my life.

Both Australia and New Zealand are packed with bakeries.  Even the smallest of towns will have at least one bakery to choose from.  The baking culture seems to borrow from all over the world.  Some of my favorite finds were Anzac cookies, Melting Moments, and Pavlova, just to name a few.

CC

Stuff I Want To Try

Chocolate-covered Cherry Peeps - Just Born - The fancier Peeps get, the more I think I'll like them. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

CC

Old Candy Critic Articles - Gummy Trouble

I've decided to take down several old articles from the candycritic.org and re-post them here on the Candy Critic blog.  This week I look at a box of gummies that really ticked me off.

Now is the time for the Candy Critic to rant. For the most part I'm pretty positive about all candy, and I'd never tell anybody not to try or purchase anything even if I didn't like it. But there is one unforgivable candy no-no, and that is ripping people off. Recently, I went to my local candy store to check out any new treats that may have come out. When I got there, I started to go on a candy buying rampage. One of the treats that came out of this was the "Austin Powers Sour Gummies". I'd seen them before but since they're a little bit expensive I always waited, but this was going to be the day.

That's night when I got home, I decided to take some candy pictures for the site, and these gummies were on my list. I was soon-to-be very disappointed. When I opened the gummies, I discovered that the box was full of gummy bears, plain gummy bears. I'm not saying I don't like them, but considering how much I paid and the creative possibilities of "Austin Powers Sour Gummies" I was very disappointed. So my beef is simple:

First of all I paid a lot for these gummies, I'm not saying that I've never paid a lot for candy in my life. With the cost of shipping some of the candy I've sampled is worth its weight in gold. If I get something cool, I'll pay for it, and have no problems with that. The problem I have is paying for something that doesn't seem worth it. With a little help from my local candy store, I calculated that I paid almost 3 times as much as I would have paid for the same amount of gummy bears. I mean "Austin Powers" is great but I don't think the box is worth that much.

This leads me to my second problem; "Austin Powers" is a creative collection of films using icons from the past and present to make light of current situations. Now that you've heard my little movie speech here's how it pertains to this. Why don't they make custom gummies instead of just giving me gummy bears? I've got a section of this site dedicated to the diversity of gummies and they couldn't think of any cool shapes or ideas for these gummies. The movie is full of ideas. Right off the top of my head, I thought it would be cool if they did male and female symbols. Anything would be better than, well nothing.

I'm not telling you not to buy these gummies; I would never tell anyone not to try something out. I'm just telling you how I felt when I experienced this particular treat.

CC

Australia/New Zealand Review-A-Thon - Hokey Pokey Milk Chocolate Bar

Is a "Hokey Pokey" an Australian/New Zealand thing?  I can't say that I've seen it anywhere else, but I can't say that I've looked either.  It sounds like it could be Australian, they seem to have an affinity for funny names for their food (for example they call McDonald's "Maccas").  I could easily see them calling the wonderful combination of honeycomb bits and chocolate something like hokey pokey.  It's not that it's a bad name, it's just not a name that many other places in the world would give to such a fine culinary delight.

Click here to read my Hokey Pokey review.

CC

It's National Pie Day!!!

I'm not really sure what defines a pie.  Does it have to be round, does it have to be sweet, does it have to have a crust on the top?  I'm pretty sure that all pies need a filling, and some kind of crust, but after that I'm just not sure.  McDonald's pipes are not round, they don't really have a top, and in Japan they offer a savory one, yet I would not argue that it is not a pie.  Does that mean that a quiche is a pie, or a flan?  Any advice on the topic is greatly appreciated.

CC