A Cool Candy Thing

If you've ever wanted to wrap up Christmas gifts in a way that would not allow the person to open them with any ease at all, this is the stuff for you.  It might also be really useful if you wanted to dress up as some kind of Candy Cane for Halloween.  Then again, if you simply wanted to have the tastiest looking ducts in your whole neighbourhood, this would really be the way to go.

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Wednesday Japanese Candy Review!

Most people in western countries don't associate the colour green with tasty food.  It's often connected to vegetables, mold, or slime.  In Japan however green is often associated with tea, in particular matcha tea.  So when you see a tube of green cookies, it's not a gimmick to try and gross kids out.  Instead it's a flavour choice, and in the case of today's review, a good one.

Once again I'd like to thank the folks at oyatsucafe.com for providing us with this weeks matchatastic treat. Remember to enter the word "candycritic" when you order something from them to get a great discount.

Click here to read the review.

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Mike and Ike Review-A-Thon - Part 3

Not only am I reviewing a whole bunch of Mike and Ike's flavours this week, but the folks at Just Born (makers of Mike and Ike) have announced a fun contest as well.  You can win everything from a home entertainment system to free candy (I mean how awesome is free candy), and all you have to do is visit their site mikeandike.com and fill out an entry form.  This may be your best chance to sample as many Mike and Ike's flavours as I've sampled, and you may even get them for free.

Click here to read today's Mike and Ike review.

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Mike and Ike Review-A-Thon - Part 2

According to scientific studies, red is said to be the best colour one can make a candy package.  They say that psychologically people respond to red packages and are more likely to buy them.  Assuming that science is true, the idea of making a red candy in a red package, featuring flavours we associate with red, seems like the ultimate psychological gimmick.

Click here to read today's very red Mike and Ike review.

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This Week In Candy

This week we're celebrating the many varieties of Mike and Ikes with a Mike and Ikes review-a-thon.  When I was a kid I think we really only had one variety of Mike and Ike, although I'm pretty sure that Hot Tamales are distant cousin and we had them too.  Today there are so many different flavours, and flavour combinations of Mike and Ikes, that there's bound to be one for everybody.

I'm working on a new art piece for my walls.  The plan is to make a collage of all of the candy wrappers from treats I'm eating.  Right now I've started saving a few candy wrappers, hopefully in a year or so I'll have enough wrappers to cover a huge canvas.  When I get started with actually making this mammoth collage I'll post it's work in progress.

Also this week I think I'm going to try and make some candied figs.  I'm not really sure how and when I'm going to do this, but I bought the figs, so I guess I'm committed.

I think it's about time I made myself a cola flavoured slushy, it's getting too hot and I can't think straight.

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Mike and Ike Review-a-Thon - Part 1

While posting today's review this morning, I realized that there's a good chunk of the world that has no idea what a Mike and Ike is.  Since this week is going to be full of Mike and Ike reviews, I thought I would share the description given on the official Mike and Ike's website "chewy flavored candies with real fruit juice".  That description is fine, if you have a handful of them right in front of you, however if you don't it might be a little vague.  The best way I can describe them is to say that they're like elongated jelly beans, with more fruity flavour choices, and no black ones.  I hope that helps you out a little, and better yet, I hope you get the chance to try them some day.

Click here to read the first entry in our Mike and Ike review-a-thon.

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Candy News

How do you feel when you eat a Kit Kat bar?  Maybe the best way to find out is to scan your brain.

Who knew that the Disney theme parks had so many choices when it came to popcorn?

Do you smell chocolate?  Do you have an urge to spend money?  According to science there's a link.

Apparently those gummy vitamins you see at the drug store, may not really be that great for you.

Here's a great explanation into the differences between ice cream, gelato, sorbet, and many other cool treats.

If chocolate really works that well as a medicine, I may find myself getting sicker more often.

I'm a huge fan of TCHO, and in particular I love the way that they do business.

Dear people at Hostess, please tell me that this article is completely untrue and that the new Twinkies are exactly the same, or maybe even better.

Is the chocolate/bacon/taco really a good idea?  You bet it is.

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

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Friday Candy Video

I've always enjoyed the feeling of stuffing my mouth with certain treats.  There's a certain satisfaction is having your mouth full of grapes, Smarties, and caramel cubes.  I'm not really sure if I'd like any of those treats propelled at my face at breakneck speeds, in fact I don't know if I could name a food that I would enjoy having propelled at me... maybe marshmallows?

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

The best thing about looking up old candy advertising is occasionally you find something that totally inspires you.  In this case, the idea of putting ice cream on hot cereal is one of the greatest ideas I've ever heard of.  I love cream of wheat and oatmeal, and what better way to give it an extra zing than a big scoop of ice cream.  Tell me you're not going to try this in the next week.

I found this ad here.

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A Cool Candy Thing

I consider this to be more novelty than candy, only because the candy itself doesn't change, just the ridiculous size of the box it comes in, and the quantity of candy you receive.  I'm not sure who or why anybody would need such a larger quantity of Nerds candy, unless you where really popular at retro 80's nights at your local night club.  It's funny, I don't think I would ever want to eat this many Nerds, however I think the giant box would be kind of cool to have.  I'm sure I could use it to decorate our living room.

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Wednesday Japanese Candy Review!

This week's Japanese review was filled with hits and filled with misses.  Sadly the biggest hit of this whole treat had nothing to do with the candy.  I loved the cheesy little plastic monster man I got with this box of grape whistle candies.  It will sit on my shelf until I'm old enough to forget about where I got it and I end up selling it at a garage sale, only to regret selling it because it's just that awesome.  I think I have an attachment to cheesy little monster action figures since I lost my very large collection of Muscled Things (a toy from the 1980's).  So for now I'll keep this little guy, he'll be guarding over my toy empire.

Once again I really want to thank the folks at oyatsucafe.com for providing us with these awesome Japanese treats to review.  Make sure to check out their store, and use the code "candycritic" to get yourself a nice little discount.

Click here to read the latest Japanese review.

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This Week In Candy

Last week we started a new feature on the blog called "A Cool Candy Thing".  While I am a big fan of candy, even more I love the culture of candy, and all the candy related merchandise I find.  So I've decided to show you guys something cool, and candy related, that I've discovered lately.  Every week it'll be a new thing, and every week you can add something to my Christmas list, just in case you were going to get me anything.

In a few weeks I'm heading off on a Northern England/Scotland adventure.  I'm not sure what kind of sweet treats I'm going to come across, but I'm pretty sure that I'll eat at least one deep fried Mars bar.  I'm also interested in finding out how much the folks in Scotland like butterscotch.

My huge candy backlog for review is starting to thin out a bit lately.  About a month ago I posted a Vine video of all of the treats I've had to taste and review.  It's been a pretty big adventure, and I've been lucky enough to sample some pretty fine treats.  Having said that, the only thing I like more than taste testing new treats, is discovering new things that I have to taste.

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Put It On a Stick And Review It

I'm not sure if this is a trend that I've just discovered, or if it's a new up and coming trend, but lollipops seem to really be making a comeback.  Best of all, it appears that handcrafted lollipops are really making a comeback, and the big boys in the candy industry should be keeping an eye open.  I'm hoping that this trend starts to grow, and we see more and more candy companies coming up with really creative and smart lollipop flavour combinations.  I've been lucky enough to sample quite a few lately, and I'm eager to sample even more.  If you make handcrafted lollipops, and you think you have some creative flavours, let me know (like the folks at www.thischarmingcandy.com did) because I'd love to help promote your candy cause.

Click here to read my latest lollipop review.

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Candy News

So you think you're a lollipop expert, well here's a few facts you may or may not know.

If you know your flavours of ice cream and your paint colours really well, this quiz should be no problem for you.

Everyone loves a good fizzy drink now and then, and here's why.

For once North America has created a chocolate trend that's making its way over to Europe, bean to bar.

The past week Twinkies made a triumphant return, Walmart even got an exclusive early release in some places.

There may be a limit to the size one can make a Whoopie Pie, but it has yet to be surpassed.

Watch out Cronut, the Frozen S'more is coming to New York.

The strangest ice cream flavour I've ever tried was raw garlic and chocolate, what's the strangest flavour you've ever tried?

Many great foods came about by accident, chocolate chip cookies, and Popsicles just to name a couple.

Whenever I think of Cadbury chocolate, I always have pipe organ music going through my head, don't you?

I bet you thought that the Slurpee was invented by the folks at 7-11, well you'd be wrong.

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

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Friday Candy Video

This collection of strange Japanese commercials (including a few candy commercials) is a great example of what can happen if you loosen the rules around advertising just a little.  It's also pretty astounding how some of these commercials get their message across even though I don't understand a word that's being spoken.

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The Many Halvas Found In Greece

Halvas (this is the Greek spelling) while available in many places all over the world really hasn't caught on as a popular dessert treat in many countries.  Halvas, loosely translated, means sweet food. For the most part halvas is a dessert specialty often found in Middle Eastern, Jewish, or Greek bakeries.  It's kind of a shame, because not only are there many varieties to choose from, it offers such great potential as a candy ingredient too.  Most people are not really familiar with the many varieties available either, and often they've only tried one variety.  People also don't understand how much better this treat can be when it's fresh.  Since moving to Greece I've been lucky enough to sample so many varieties of halvas both fresh and packaged.  A dessert I used to think very little about has quickly become one of my favourite sweet treats.

Sesame halvas is probably the kind of halvas that most people have tried.  Chances are the Sesame halavas you sampled was imported from somewhere in the Middle East or Mediterranean, and it probably wasn't that fresh.  Unfortunately this particular kind of halvas is the easiest to ship, and also unfortunately it's the kind that often turns people off of halvas forever.  Don't get me wrong; there are many great Sesame halvas in the world, however many of the pre-packaged varieties just don't cut it.  They're dry, chalky, and have no discernable flavour.  A good Sesame halvas should taste of toasted sesame with a hint of chocolate sometimes.  It should melt in your mouth almost like a honeycomb.

Semolina halvas was the first step I ever took outside of the dry sesame halvas world.  At first it terrified me, it looked nothing like sesame halvas, and I already thought I didn't really like Halvas as it was.  This particular halvas is much softer and moister than the sesame halvas.  Because of this, its shelf life is very limited, I've made batches of this only to see it go bad in a couple of days.  When you get it fresh, it's absolute perfection.  Best of all, one of the keys to making semolina halvas flavourful is in using syrups, and you can flavour these syrups any way you like.  This means that this halvas has an unlimited choice in flavour potential.  If you can boil it in sugar and water, you can use it to flavour semolina halvas.  The base ingredient, semolina, has a slight toasty flavour, so it can really work with just about any sweet syrup concoction, even maple syrup would work.  Add a few nuts into the mix and you can have a really creative sweet treat.

Farsala halvas is the most mysterious of all halvas.  Many candy makers I've spoken to say it's the most complicated of all halvas to make.  The recipes for the high quality stuff are closely guarded secretes, but one of the key ingredients I’ve learned is cornstarch.  It's said that the highest quality Farsala halvas is only available in its origin town of Farsala in Greece.  Fortunately for me the piece you see above was purchased there, and I can attest to this claim.  Farsala halvas has a shelf life of about 1 week in your refrigerator, but nothing is better than getting a slice that is still warm, straight out of the oven.  It's not as gelatinous as it might appear, and the texture is best compared to the filling in a sugar pie or butter tart.  It's very sweet, and since it’s primary ingredients are cornstarch and sugar, it's not very healthy for you.  The thing is, as soon as you take a bite of this sweet treat, the strangeness of its texture and the fact that it's completely unhealthy for you will fade out of your mind.

As I mentioned before, halvas is a very versatile sweet.  One way to really enjoy any variety is to cover it in chocolate.  While halvas can be very sweet, it's often also fairly nutty as well, and this combination lends itself well to blending with chocolate or cinnamon.  I've only touched on many of the varieties of halvas available in the world, you can get them made with many different seeds, nuts, and flours, each lending a different flavour into the mix.  While you may only be able to buy the packaged variety of chalky sesame halva at your local store, the Internet is filled with many halvas recipes well worth trying at home.  This is a sweet treat well worth sampling in its many forms, and in particular well worth sampling as fresh as you can get it.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

Do you remember the Munchies?  I don't really know much about their history, other than the fact that they were a staple part of my childhood eating habits.  I remember the commercials, the many advertisements in the back of comic books, and in particular I remember the many strange flavored chips they would promote.  So did you have the "Munchies" where you grew up?

I found this ad here.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Star Wars Light Saber Pocky - Glico - It's both of my nerdy loves combined into one crunchy sweet treat. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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A Cool Candy Thing

Has your dog ever looked longingly at your bowl of gummy bears?  Do you wish somehow you could give him one or two?  Those puppy dog eyes make you so sad, and all he wants to do is fit in.  Well worry no longer, now your dog and chew the heck out of his own gummy bear, without getting really sick and throwing up a rainbow of slightly digested gummy slime.

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Wednesday Japanese Candy Review!

Every single culture in the world has some kind of sweet treat.  I have traveled all over the place, and I always find something local, sweet, and something kids go nuts for.  This is what makes candy great.  Even better is that each culture takes their sweet treats and presents them in a way that reflects the culture.  Some cultures are rustic, others are very organized, and some are bright and flashy.  No matter where you go, you'll see a little of every culture in their candy.

This week's Japanese candy review is a little different than most Japanese treats.  Most of the time Japanese sweets are not only tasty, but works of art for the eyes.  This week is the exception, and a rare one at that.

As always we want to thank the folks at oyatsucafe.com for providing us with our Wednesday Japanese Candy Review treat.  Make sure to visit their site and enter the word "candycritic" to get yourself a discount.

Click here to read this week's Japanese Candy Review.

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Candy Art

I've never actually seen an episode of the show Dexter, but I'm told it's pretty freaky.

That's what makes this cake that Fox apparently ordered for the last episode particularly appropriate, because it's freaky.  I don't know if I have the heart to eat a piece of cake that looks so much like person.  Well, maybe if the cake is really tasty I might take a bite, but I'd probably just nibble on a hand of a leg.

I found out about this cake here.

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This Week In Candy

Well I'm back from what I can only describe as an exhausting vacation.  While the trip did not focus on any candy adventures, being the Candy Critic I couldn't avoid sampling a few great sweets.  Most notably I learned a little more about a treat I had merely sampled in the past called Farsala Halvas.  Seeing as one of my stops on this trip was to Farsala, the place that this treat originated, I couldn't help but learn a little something about it, and I couldn't help but sample some of the best.  While I've talked a little on this blog about Halvas, later this week I'm going to break down the differences between the many varieties, and let you know why you should be sampling them.

Also on this vacation, I was inspired to start up a few new ideas on this blog.  To start it off, I'm going to start taking a look at awesome candy merchandise, in a section I'll call "Awesome Candy Merchandise".  I think that candy is much more than the sweet treats we eat, I think it's part of our culture, and some of things you can buy with a candy theme are pretty awesome.

Finally, I'm still working out my details for a future trip I have planned to Scotland and Northern England.  If you have any suggestions for must see, and must eat stops, let me know.

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The Chocolate British Invasion

I think if one part of the world had the ability to take over the candy world, it would be the UK.  While some countries may have better chocolate, and some countries may have more creative candy, the UK is both a really creative candy market, and high quality.  The mix great flavours, the ingredients are always great, and they sell these fun treats in everyday locations.  It's not like you have to visit specialty shops in the UK to find their most creative and tasty treats, many are found in local shops as well.  If you're booking your trip to Belgium, Switzerland, or France, to experience a great candy vacation, make sure you spend a few days in the UK on a stop over, and sample some fun, tasty and creative sweets.

Click here to read today's fun UK treat review.

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Friday Candy Video

This just might be the best result I've ever seen from a science experiment.  I'm not sure what would make me happier, watching my cola magically turn into a ice, or eating a lot of slushies with very little preparation needed.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

Over the years, sampling many candies and desserts, I think that you can pretty much use any candy as an ingredient in cooking and baking.  I do however believe that some concepts work better than others.  While never having actually tried baking anything with Jelly Bellies, I'm not convinced that they would work.  I'm thinking that they would probably melt when baked into cookies.  I'm also convinced that a chewy Jelly Belly and a mouth full of cake may not be the best texture mix.  I invite anybody to prove me wrong, send me a recipe so I can try it myself.

I found this ad here.

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Wednesday Japanese Candy Review!

The Japanese people love fish, if you ever need proof of this, visit Tokyo and head over the Tsukiji fish market at around 5 am.  You'll see more fish than you could possibly imagine any city eating in a week, but all of it will be sold in a day, and the next day it opens again.  With this love of fish, fish flavoured snacks are very common.  Japanese people love fish so much, they even have non-fish flavoured snacks in the shapes of fish.  I guess that's what happens when you live on an island.

As always, I'd like to thank our friends at oyatsucafe.com for providing us with another great (and strange) Japanese treat to review.  Make sure to pay them a visit, particularly if you want to sample this week's review.  Also, enter the word "candycritic" in the coupon box to get a great discount.

Click here to read our latest Japanese candy review.

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Candy Art

Did you know that Salvador Dali had a hand in designing the Chupa Chups lollipop logo.

This is his version of the logo.

And this is the current version.  It just goes to show the commercial art is truly as fine and fine art.

Click here to read more about Dali and his work with Chupa Chups.

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This Week In Candy

For a good portion of this week, there is a good chance I will be completely away from any kind of Internet connection.  That doesn't mean there won't be posts on this blog, it just means I won't be posting much extra content this week.  I'd like to tell you that I'm off on a candy adventure, but I'm taking a week off of sweets and doing some manual labour instead.  That's how a Candy Critic takes a vacation, it's a little backwards, but it is rewarding.  I don't think I'll be posting a Candy News segment this Friday, or I don't think the social media pages will be doing much more than re-posting blog posts, but you never know.

While I'm on my adventure I'm going to be doing a lot of thinking, and most likely a little writing.  I've got a few fun articles I want to post here, as soon as I finish writing a few magazine pieces I'm working on.

On the subject of social media, I've started using Vine lately, and I've made a few movies, I think you can find me as candycritic.  If you've been following us on other social media sites, you may have noticed our new (well brought back) segment "Chris stuffing his face".  I've toned it down a bit lately, with fewer shots of my gaping mouth, but I'm still eating all kinds of fun things that I love to share (Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook).

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A Cheesy Candy Review

I love new flavour combinations, or at the very least, flavour combinations that I've never tried.  That's one of the problems I have when I discover a flavour combination that I've never tried before.  I write a review hyping this treat with a new flavour combination, only to find out that somewhere else in the world this combination has been around for generations.  I guess I can't be expected to know about every flavour, and every kind of treat in the world.  I guess that's why I do this, to try and learn them all.

Click here to read about my latest flavour discovery.

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Candy News

Necco now lets you customize your candy hearts, I wonder if the'll let you put anything you want on them?

How do take your medical Marijuana?  How about in cotton candy form?

According to science, if you're really happy, you'll probably indulge in some tasty treats.

I don't think banning junk food is the best way to get kids to eat right, but what do I know.

It's national ice cream month, what a coincidence that this holiday would happen when we're having such sunny weather (my apologizes if you're reading this and it's raining).

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

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Friday Candy Video

While I'm not really a big fan of food companies having political opinions outside of food issues, I really like this commercial General Mills did for Pride week using Lucky Charms.  It only makes sense that a cereal that features a rainbow marshmallow would be the perfect representative for Pride awareness.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

The idea that someone might make candy the perfect size for my action figures gives me the biggest smile you could possible imagine.  It's strange because you'd think that I would be disappointed with the idea of smaller sized candy, but sometimes I really think I like it more than the regular size.

I found this ad here.

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Happy 4th Of July My American Friends!

I only post this because statistically Americans are my number 1 source of hits on this blog.  Followed by Canadians, Brits, and then it constantly changes depending on the spammers that are visiting.  So does this mean that all you Americans are BBQing right now?  If so, make sure to throw a few marshmallows on some sticks and make yourself some s'mores as well.

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Wednesday Japanese Candy Review!

When oyatsucafe.com contacted us to say that they wanted to send us all kinds of strange Japanese candy to review, this treat was pretty much what I had in mind.  It's a gooey candy, with cute cartoon characters all over it, and detailed instructions on the back on how to eat it.  If you ever need a definition for strange Japanese candy, this might fit the bill, as an added bonus it's pretty tasty too.

On another note, we still haven't come up with a better name for our weekly Japanese candy review than "Wednesday Japanese Candy Review".  If you have a better idea, please let us know.

Finally we would like to once again thank the folks at oyatsucafe.com for providing us with all of the treats for this new weekly review.  Visit them, buy something, and enter the word "candycritic" to get yourself a fine discount.

Click here to read this latest strange review.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Crispello Vanilla Velvet - Cadbury - I like the idea of the Crispello in a vanilla flavour. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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This Week In Candy/It's Canada Day!!!

When you live outside of your home country, your national day starts to become one of your favorite holidays.  Within your country the national day tends to be more of an inconvenience than anything worth celebrating.  You find yourself just trying to get out of the city and away from other Canadians, rather than celebrating how cool the country and the people of Canada really are.  I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing on this Canada Day (I'm writing this in advance) but I think I'll probably eat the Oh Henry bar that a friend brought me while waving a flag (I'll post a picture on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram if I can).

Now back to the business of Candy Critic.  If you haven't noticed already, we've started to post a new review both Monday and Wednesday.  Our Monday review is still our featured review, but now every Wednesday we're posting a new Japanese review, with help from our friends at oyatsucafe.com.  Remember, if you want to sample any of the treats we review on Wednesdays, you can go to their site, pick it up, and if you use the code "candycritic" you also get a great discount.

Finally, I'm just finishing up a few articles I've written about the candy world.  I hope to get them published in print, but who knows.  I'm looking for suggested places that might be interested in publishing them.  If you have any suggestions, let me know.

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New Sweet And Sour Review

While ice cream and Popsicles are what we normally think about when you talk about summer sweets, I think treats like these Sour Punch Punchies also work really well as a summer treat. I have memories of riding my bike as a kid to the local corner store, and buying a bag of treats just like these.  Then me and my friends would go to the local park, find a great hiding spot, and munch down on all of our sweet treats.  It was a time long past, but a time I'll never forget.  It's a big part of the reason I like candy so much.  Whenever I eat a treat like these, I want to get on my bike and head to the local park again.  The problem is, as an adult, hiding in the bushes is generally frowned upon.

Click here to read our latest review.

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