2014 A Year In Reviews

2014 was an interesting year here at Candy Critic.  There's been a lot of travel, a lot of experimentation, and a lot of fun new treats.  The biggest travel experience came about this summer when we moved from Athens Greece to somewhere else.  I don't want to mention the somewhere else yet because frankly I'm home so little that it's fairly irrelevant where I "live".  Needless to say the move was fun, and it meant spending a few weeks at home catching up on Canadian snacks and treats.  Experimentation wise, 2014 has really been the year that I discovered my love of baking and making desserts.  From making my own phyllo dough from scratch, to my recent attempt at making a dessert out of ration packs, I've really found a love of making my own sweet treats.

This however doesn't compare to the kinds of amazing treats I've been lucky to taste test over the last year.  Some was great and some not so great, but all fun to taste test.  Below I've decided to highlight our highest ranking new reviews of 2014, the lowest ranking new reviews, and a few honorable mentions as well.

Best Candy Reviewed in 2014


For our top candy treats this year actually have a tie, and for the first time ever, one of them is a special holiday treat.  We all know and love the Cadbury Creme Eggs, but who would have thought that I'd like the special Halloween edition Cadbury Screme Eggs so much as well.

Click here to read the Screme Egg review.

And tied for first is a new treat from some old friends.  A true Canadian treat made by the gang that invented Clodhoppers, this is a great step forward in the candy world.  They also make these in dark chocolate and with peanuts, and you can bet that I'm going to review those too.

Click here to red the OMG's review.






In third place for the best candies reviewed this year is a classic chocolate bar that really needs no introduction... Well unless you live in the US where I don't think you can really find these anywhere.  In fact not a single one of the top 3 candies this year are available in the US... yet.

Click here to read the Caramilk Bar review.

Lowest Rated Candy Reviews in 2014

Our number 1 lowest rated candy this year is a bit of a shock.  You wouldn't expect a Snickers bar to rank as the lowest rated candy on Candy Critic this year, but here we are.  Fortunately the original Snickers bar is still just as good and this was just an experiment gone wrong.

Click here to read the Snickers Max Caramel review.

At number 2 on the list of lowest candy reviewed in 2014 is another candy made by a big name brand, Haribo.  I'm sure my bias against marshmallows had something to do with this.  I'm OK if Haribo makes an occasional bad treat though, just as long as they keep making the best gummy bears on the market.

Click here to read about this horrible Smurf Marshmallows.

For the third spot on this list, we have a tie.  I'm not really sure what the deal is with this candy, but I can tell you that it was pretty bad.  This is one of those occasions where I dare to sample a candy that I can't read a word on the package, and then I suffer because of it.

Click here to read about these strange chocolate star treats.

There's something very wrong with this package.  First of all the unlicensed Mickey Mouse is a sure sign that this might go horribly wrong.

Click here to read more about Sweet Peanuts.






Highest and Lowest Greek Candy Reviewed in 2014

As an added bonus this year, since this was the year I left Greece, I decided to highlight my favorite and least favorite Greek treat that I sampled this year as well.

The lowest ranked Greek treat this year was a bit of a disappointment to me.  This treat is based on a traditional Greek sweet, but it's just done so horribly.  The other sad fact about this treat is how common it is around Greece.

Click here to read about the Xalbadopita.

The best Greek candy I tasted this year might be the best Greek chocolate bar ever.  Although it's a fairly simple bar, it's done well.  Allison would probably go on record saying it's the best sweet thing she ate during our entire stay.

Click here to read about this awesome ION bar.

Special Mention 2014

While this treat didn't make the top or bottom of my list of reviews this year I wanted to mention it anyways.  If you didn't sample the Cinnamon Bun potato chips made by Lay's Canada this year, then you missed out on a really interesting experience.  I wouldn't say I loved them, but I would say that this is a treat that should have survived (even though it lost the best new chip flavor contest).  I'd like to see chip companies exploring the sweet side of potato chips, and I hope to see more flavors like this in the future.

Click here to find out why I liked these Cinnamon Bun chips.

CC