This Week In Candy

Last week I was challenged... well sort of, by the folks at Kit Kat to make a Kit Kat hot dog.  There's pretty much no food challenge I won't consider, and this one seemed like it might work out.  On Twitter, the folks from Kit Kat sent me a photo of a Kit Kat hot dog and kind of dared me to try it.  The bread and Kit Kat seemed like it would be not problem, but I was a little concerned about the ketchup.  At first I went through the various ingredients that I could use that would look like ketchup, but would taste good on a Kit Kat bar.  I had a few ideas like jam and strawberry sauce, but then I thought about it.  I thought that using anything but ketchup would be cheating, and not really in the spirit of the challenge.

So I decided that the best thing I could do is just go for it.  As you can see above, it's not the most appetizing of foods to look at, but strangely enough the ketchup wasn't so bad.  The fact that many bottled ketchup's have so much sugar worked with the Kit Kat bar.  The slightly sour vinegar taste of the ketchup actually balanced out with the sweet Kit Kat.  While I don't think we'll be seeing a Ketchup Kit Kat in the near future, it wasn't as gross as I thought it would be.

We just posted a new episode of our Junk Fud podcast.  Junk Fud is a podcast where I chat with my friends about the world of candy, baked goods, fast food, and anything else we might deem as "junk food".  This episode I'm talking with my friend Mark about one of our favorite foods, pizza.  Mark and I are going to try and post a monthly episode of Junk Fud, and we're looking for any subject ideas you might have.  You can download the latest episode here, as well as some of our older episodes as well.

Over the last few weeks several chocolate bar companies have announced that they're changing the size of their chocolate bars.  Some companies have also come out announcing that they refuse to change the size, but prices will likely go up.  This is in big part to a huge increase in the price of cocoa right now.  Or more realistically, a huge fluctuation in the price of cocoa over the last few years.  Since candy companies don't know how much they're going to be paying for cocoa, they assume that they're paying the most it's been for a while, rather than lose money.  So what's your opinion on this, should candy companies change the size of chocolate bars, make them more expensive, or is there another alternative to keeping the candy industry in business.

I can't believe I'm already down to the fourth paragraph and I'm only now talking about Valentine's Day.  It's this week, and that means that heart shaped boxes of chocolates, conversation hearts, and heart shaped lollipops are going to be flying off the shelf this week.

To help you gear up for the holiday of love, this week on Snack Facts we'll be looking at Valentine's Day.  Check out our Instagram feed were every day we'll be posting a new fun fact about the holiday we all love.  If you're not on Instagram, you can also follow our loving posts on our Facebook page and our Twitter feed as well.

I've reviewed a few Valentine's treats in my day, but so many of them aren't really that clever.  So this year I thought of the most clever treat you could give that someone you love.  I thought the Passion Flake is both tasty and a clever gift for this holiday, I just hope Allison agrees.

CC