Friday Candy Video

The animation geek in me just loves this commercial.  There's something so nice about the character design, and the simplicity of the animation.  You don't see advertising like this anymore, particularly with the fun story.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

I keep forgetting that one of the big angles of Baskin-Robbin's ice cream is that they sell 31 different flavours of ice cream.  I know that they have a lot of flavours, and I know my favorite is Gold Medal Ribbon, but I can't say that I've ever counted the flavours at any Baskin-Robbin's location.  I think this summer when I'm back in North America, I may give this a try.

I found this ad here.

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A Cool Candy Thing

Of all of the "Cool Candy Things" I've mentioned on this site, I think this is the one I'd most like to really own.  Sure the Snoopy Snow Cone Machine is neat, but who wouldn't want the ability to make their own Slurpee's whenever they wanted.  Not to mention, you could make any flavour of Slurpee you wanted, even strange ones like a gravy flavour Slurpee.  Santa, if you're reading this... hint hint.

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It's a Whole Bunch of Candy Posters - Part 6

Colorful Gummy Bears Posters by bewarethecheese
View custom art Posters & Prints at online Zazzle

For 10 weeks we're going to be featuring great looking candy themed posters from our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Beware the Cheese not only created all of these great looking candy shots, but they also shoot all of the candy photos for Candy Critic.  Why not pick up a poster as a gift or for yourself.

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Canadian Candy List - Part 5 - Best Salty Treat

Over the last few years I've been living away from my home country, Canada.  I've been traveling the world exploring all kinds of snack foods, junk foods, and sweets, but my heart is still in Canada.  I'm going to be back home for an extended period, and I've decided to compile various lists on the theme of Canadian candy and snacks.  Each week, for the next several weeks, I'll be posting a different list of Canadian candies I've reviewed in various categories.  Some of these treats may be available in other parts of the world, some are exclusive to the Great White North, but in my mind all of them are Canadian.

Canada is very well known for its beer, or at least it should be.  For any country that's know for its beer there's an industry for the perfect salty snacks, and Canada has some great ones.  Some of them might seem a little strange to an outsider, but to Canadians these salty treats are a staple of our snacking diets.

 I'm sure you're probably looking at these Cheezies and wondering how they're any different than the standard cheese puffs you see all over the world.  It's simple, there's a density to these that are truly unique, and a cheesy flavour that's second to none.

Click here to read the Cheezies review.

These might not be the best chips I've ever eaten, but they're a great example of how even the big name brands understand how important the local flavour can be in Canada.  Rather than just making fun chips flavours, they make chip flavours that represent Canada.

Click here to read the Lay's "P.E.I. Loaded Baked" Potato Chips review.

 If you've never tasted dill pickle chips in your life you're truly missing out.  You're either missing out on one of the best flavour experiences you'll ever taste, or you're missing out on one of the strangest flavour experiences of your life.  Either way, you'll have an experience.

Click here to read the Old Dutch "Dill Pickle" review.

I love tacky souvenirs, and this one might be the best.  Why wouldn't you want to eat a chips out of a bag that looks like it should be filled with potatoes?  Best of all this bag is filled with locally made Prince Edward Island potatoes, some of the best in the world.

Click here to read the Prince Edward Island Potato Bag Chips review.

I'm sure that Canadians didn't invent the idea of using vegetables other than potatoes as chips, but with our awesome climate for growing root vegetables, we have some of the tastiest.  We have room to grow things, and we grow lots of great vegies to fry up and eat.

Click here to read the Root Chips review.






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Friday Candy Video

The 70s were a strange time in candy advertising.  While I commend them for taking a classic song about candy and re-writing the lyrics to suit their candy, I'm thinking that the folks at M&M's should have considered a different costume for their "Candy Man".

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Another Update Of My Canadian Adventures

Well it's been a while since I've been able to sit at my laptop and collect my Canadian candy/junk food/treat thoughts, so this post is going to be a long one.  Some of these experiences have been mentioned on our Twitter feed, Facebook page, and Tumblr page already, but I'll get into a little more detail.  A few of these fun adventures are new as well. This first photo is of a peanut plant, and I can't say that I've ever seen one before.  It's on my friend's organic farm, and hopefully he'll send me a photo of the crop once it's ready.

For the next few photos I'm going to talk a little bit about the fast food that I've sampled on this journey.  This first photos is of the new Wendy's pretzel burger.  I'm not really sure why they call it a pretzel burger because the bun isn't really pretzel like at all.  I guess it kind of looks like a pretzel, but that doesn't cut it for me.  I think the dough should have been much more dense, and maybe a sprinkling of salt on the top would have worked.

This next treat is what I consider to be the best and worst idea of the trip so far.  Some might argue, but I'm pretty sure that Toronto has the best quality street hot dogs in the world.  Those that argue that New York has better street hot dogs are delusional.  The meat and topping selection in Toronto street meat is second to none.  While I do believe that Toronto hot dogs are the best, they will still often lead to indigestion.

Another important stop for us whenever we're in Toronto is Burrito Boyz.  Toronto has had a big influx of burrito places over the last few years, and I'm sure some might say that there's better burritos out there. The thing is Burrito Boyz is pretty tasty, and it's been our favorite burrito place since we first started going out.

This pizza is the thing of legend. No we didn't take a side trip to Chicago, this is all Hamilton Ontario.  There's a little place hidden in the backstreets of this steel town called "Chicago Style Pizza" that offers what I can only describe as the best pizza in the world.  It's full of cheese and ingredients, and will make you regret eating it the minute you stand up.  The meat lovers version of this pizza is called "No Self Respect", and it's true.

You can't visit Canada and not eat copious amounts of meat, it's un-patriotic.  I'd just like to ad that only 4 people pretty much polished this platter of dead animals off in one sitting.  We weren't proud, but we were full.

This place has the best sign ever, and being a photographer I love the name too.  Unfortunately it's out of business.  I've noticed a few grilled cheese places out of business on this trip.  It appears that I've completely missed the grill cheese craze.  Was it good, was it something worth doing, or was it just a silly fad?

The person that thought of mixing Jamaican and Italian cuisine together is either a genius or a monster.  The place was closed when I walked by it the other day, but I sense I might have to check it out later.

We decided that a road trip to Niagara was in the cards this past week, and no trip to Niagara is complete without visiting Maple Leaf Fudge.  This is probably my favorite fudge shop in the world. They had a few new interesting flavours on hand to sample including peach, butter tart, and maple bacon.  I decided that I would just go for a simple slice of chocolate nut, but I'll be back.

Allison told me that I couldn't have a full bowl of Froot Loops. She did agree that I could throw a few on top of my Cherios though.  As it turns out a few Froot Loops sprinkled in a bowl of Cherios is pretty good.  The sweet fake fruit flavour is well balanced with the nutritious grain flavour. If you're the type of person that normally sweetens their cereal with a little sugar, you may want to consider sweetening your healthy cereal with sugary cereal instead.

I'm not sure what I think of this "World's Largest  Hershey's Kiss".  It's not really a giant Kiss, and more of a thin shell of chocolate, holding a bunch of regular Kiss's.  I was thinking of picking it up, but in the end I decided that it just seemed like a rip off.  If you're going to sell me a giant Kiss, it better be solid and covered in foil.

On our trip to Hamilton Allison informed me that there was a Tim Horton's that sold a particular style of Timbit.  This style of Timbit is only available in 6 Tim Hortons around the world. The question is, was it worth searching it out...

The answer is yes.  In fact I encourage ever  Tim Hortons to carry this awesome Timbit, that way I don't have to travel so far to get it.  What you have here is a vanilla sour cream Timbit, covered in  chocolate glaze.  Here's a tip from Allison, while this Timbit is tasty fresh, as a day old it's even better.  The glaze gets a little crunchy a day later, and the sour cream dough is still soft.  It adds an interesting texture to this already tasty donut.

Speaking of Tim Hortons, did you know  that they have rules as to how many donuts they can fit in each bag.  Personally I don't think you should ever put any donut in this bag if it has icing.  I'm tempted to order 10 Timbits one day, and see if they'll put it in a bag anyways.  Then I'll complain to the management.

One night Allison and I visited Allison's family at their country home.  Every few years this farm produces some maple syrup from the local trees.  I was asked if I wanted to make some maple candy with their home made syrup, and being who I am, I couldn't refuse.  I learned a few interesting facts about maple syrup that night.

First of all I learned that you can freeze maple syrup.  Now any syrup experts out there correct me if I'm wrong, but all you have to do is put your syrup in the freezer, then when you're ready to us it, just let it thaw.  The crystals will simply break apart and in no time you have perfectly tasty syrup ready to go.  The second thing I learned is that I'm not really great at making candy, but I'm still good at eating it.

A couple of days ago we spent some time with our friends Adriana and Alessandra. Adriana is a former pastry chef (and often advisor for this blog), and her daughter Alessandra has tasted Nutella on more things than anyone I know (I'm told that it's surprisingly tasty on flank steak).  We spent a few days hanging out with them, playing board games, and most importantly talking food.  Alessandra introduced me to microwave cookies, made in a mug or ramekin.

It's a similar idea to cooking cake in  mug (which I highly recommend  you try), so you have to be sure not to over cook it.  If you're siting at home right now, and you want a cookie, than all it takes is a few basic ingredients, a microwave, and a mug.  It's really tasty, and with a scoop of ice cream, it will satisfy all of your sweet cravings.

Finally Adriana gave me a pie.  When a pastry chef gives you a pie that they made at home you might as well kill yourself when you finish eating it, because it's all down hill from there.  This pie made from fresh berries was amazing.  Best of all she let me help her make it.  Adriana is so good at making pies that she will often substitute money for her desserts, and it works.  Imagine paying for your gym membership with pie, that's how good her desserts are.

Well that's it for  now from my adventure in Canada.  I'll try to post another entry later in my journeys.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

I'd never thought about putting Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the freezer.  Has anyone tried this out yet, is it worth trying out?

Found this ad here.

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A Cool Candy Thing

Hey look kids, another strange toy that you can't eat!  Do kids really like the idea of pretending to eat?  I think it would be really cool if they made Duplo ice cream that you could eat.  Build it, freeze it, then eat it.

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It's a Whole Bunch of Candy Posters - Part 5

Circle of Gummy Bears Posters by bewarethecheese
View Candy Posters online at zazzle

For 10 weeks we're going to be featuring great looking candy themed posters from our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Beware the Cheese not only created all of these great looking candy shots, but they also shoot all of the candy photos for Candy Critic.  Why not pick up a poster as a gift or for yourself.

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Canadian Candy List - Part 4 - Best Bar

Over the last few years I've been living away from my home country, Canada.  I've been traveling the world exploring all kinds of snack foods, junk foods, and sweets, but my heart is still in Canada.  I'm going to be back home for an extended period, and I've decided to compile various lists on the theme of Canadian candy and snacks.  Each week, for the next several weeks, I'll be posting a different list of Canadian candies I've reviewed in various categories.  Some of these treats may be available in other parts of the world, some are exclusive to the Great White North, but in my mind all of them are Canadian.

Chocolate bars are a global phenomenon.  In fact I often judge a countries ability to make sweet treats by the types of chocolate and candy bars I find in local store shelves.  Some places only sell the global brands, other countries have a huge collections of local bars.  Canada is truly split down the middle in this regard, you can get all of the big name brands in the stores (or many of them), but there are truly some pure Canadian chocolate bars that are well worth trying.

 This bar isn't really a classic Canadian bar, but it is one of the best bars that's ever found its way onto Canadian shelves.  Sadly, as you'll read more about in a future post, it's not longer available.

Click here to read the Choclairs review.

 Most kids that I know, myself included when I was a kid, don't really like Coffee Crisp bars.  However, as an adult, most people can't get enough of these.  This is the kind of chocolate bar that one could eat in a business meeting, and not get any stares.

Click here to read the Coffee Crisp review.

 This bar will always have a soft spot in my heart.  It is my father's favorite sweet treat, so I always remember having them around.  To this day if I want to put a smile on his face, all I have to do is send him one of these, since he now lives in the USA.

Click here to read the Crispy Crunch review.

I had about two years of my life when the Mr Big bar was my bar of choice.  There was something great about the texture, and the fact that it was called "Mr Big".

Click here to read the Mr Big review.

Of all of the Canadian bars on this list, the Oh Henry! bar is easily my favorite.  It's not only my favorite now, it's been my favorite bar for most of my life (excluding the two years I was into Mr Big).

Click here to read the Oh Henry review.

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Friday Candy Video

When I was a kid, I never really like Cherry Blossoms.  It could have been because I never saw them on TV.  Had I seen this advertisement when I was a kid, I'm not convinced I would have wanted to eat them anyways.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

M&M's were the perfect treat to ship overseas in wartime.  They're fairly durable, taste great, and can be divided into small portions.  It's a little strange to make this a selling point for these candies, but I guess that was a different time.

I found this ad here.

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A Cool Candy Thing

What could be more fun for kids than pretending to make ice cream cones?  How about making ice cream cones?  Maybe you could use this as a training tool for your kids if you want them to work up to a career at a malt shop.

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It's a Whole Bunch of Candy Posters - Part 4

Gumballs in Nature Print by bewarethecheese
See additional Poster templates & designs online at Zazzle.com

For 10 weeks we're going to be featuring great looking candy themed posters from our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Beware the Cheese not only created all of these great looking candy shots, but they also shoot all of the candy photos for Candy Critic.  Why not pick up a poster as a gift or for yourself.

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Candy Kick Starter

My friend Sarah Chickee has decided to live her candy dreams and make chocolates for a living. She's trying to get her start on Kick Starter, and the only thing better than helping someone start their dream company, is to help someone and get some chocolate in the mail as well.  There are never enough independent candy makers in the world since they ad some of the best diversity into the industry.  So check out her Kick Starter account, and if her brand of chocolate appeals to you, give her a hand at making the candy world a better place.

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My Canadian Adventure, A Quick Little Round Up Thus Far

Well it's been over 10 days, and my trip back home has gone really well.  Other than visiting friends and family, I've also had time to taste some of the treats that remind me of home.  I've only scratched the surface, but I thought I'd quickly share with you some of the things that make me think of home.  If you're Canadian you'll know exactly what I'm talking about, and if you're not, this is a great primer on must have foods when you come to the Great White North.

In Eastern Ontario, and Quebec, cheese curds have been a staple treat for decades now.  Most people know cheese curds as one of the main ingredients in the Canadian classic food Poutine, but not everybody knows how great they are all alone.  The key to getting good cheese curd is to get them fresh, and when I say fresh I mean not only same day, but within hours of being made.  Some cheese curd makers actually put a time on their bags, along with a date, that they where manufactured. You know you have really fresh cheese curds if the squeaky sound they make when you bite into them is almost headache inducing.

Another must try food is Montreal Smoked meat.  Now many people will say that they have the best smoked meat, but their wrong, unless they're Schwartz's Deli in Montreal, but you don't have to take my word for it.  First of all the lineup to get into this place can be hours long, secondly the shop is co-owned by Celine Dion...I mean what's more Canadian than Celine Dion?

One of the great traps that people fall into when they visit Canada is the tourist maple syrup vendor.  The shop that held the sign above was selling syrup at double the going rate and it's not nearly the highest quality.  The best maple syrup that you can get in Canada comes in March-April, and is only available if you know someone.  The best thing you can do is befriend a Canadian, and ask them where they get their maple syrup.  Don't worry, most Canadians are very friendly and always happy to share their source.

There's nothing really Canadian about the photo above.  I just thought that these Barba-Papa syrup bottles were really cool.

My latest stop on this adventure so far was at the Beaver Tail shop in the Byward market in Ottawa.  As far as Canadian treats go it's not very original (fried dough with toppings), but it is a great memory of home.  How good are Beaver Tails?  When President Obama came to Canada, he diverted his whole motorcade just to get one.

I'll hopefully post another update or two documenting more of the awesome treats and foods I've sampled on my visit back home.  You can also see more regular updates on our Facebook page and Twitter account as well.  Also be sure to let me know if there's any Canadian treats/foods that I can't miss.

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Canadian Candy List - Part 3 - Best Local Treats

Over the last few years I've been living away from my home country, Canada.  I've been traveling the world exploring all kinds of snack foods, junk foods, and sweets, but my heart is still in Canada.  I'm going to be back home for an extended period, and I've decided to compile various lists on the theme of Canadian candy and snacks.  Each week, for the next several weeks, I'll be posting a different list of Canadian candies I've reviewed in various categories.  Some of these treats may be available in other parts of the world, some are exclusive to the Great White North, but in my mind all of them are Canadian.

Above I've mentioned that I wasn't really sure if all of the treats on these lists are in fact exclusively Canadian.  Today is the exception, today all of these treats are Canadian, and I know it.  I know this because I bought almost all of them directly from the people who made them, and I bought these all in Canada.

 Nothing is more Canadian than the idea of eating a bear.  For some reason Canada has this reputation with wild animals, and many of our candies are themed with nature.  Lanark Village treats is a fun little candy store in Ontario that capitalizes on this trend with a really tasty, chewy treat.

Click here to read the Bear Paw review.

Cocoa West, a candy store recommended to me by some friends from British Columbia, makes an egg that has the most peculiar name.  It's called the "Unbelievably Good Egg" and it lives up to its name.

Click here to read the Unbelievably Good Egg review.

My friend Carrie is a proud Canadian, one of the things that proves her Canadianess is her love of cranberries.  While she has a normal day job, annually she heads out to the cranberry marsh to work the fields.  She also always has some cranberry treats for me to try.

Click here to read the Dark Chocolate Cranberries review.

The last two entries in today's list are all about potatoes.  Prince Edward Island is famous for some of the best potatoes in the world.  They're also not shy about promoting their amazing products, and this bag of chips is a great example of that.

Click here to read the Prince Edward Island Potato Bag Chips review.

This treat on the other hand, is a great example of how the people of Prince Edward Island like to innovate with their potatoes.  Not only does this ball of fudge look like a baked potato, but the fudge itself is made of potato.

Click here to read the Spudge review.



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