Monday, February 29, 2016

Hey Jelly Belly!!! Some Flavour Ideas - Middle Eastern Spices

Recently Jelly Belly announced two new crazy/gross flavours of Jelly Beans, rotten fish and rotten milk. I generally support Jelly Belly and their crazy flavours because they're creative and very well done. I also know that Jelly Belly continuously creates new normal flavours as well, although they don't seem to get the same amount of press. I think there's a market that Jelly Belly is missing, and it falls right in the middle of both of their categories. I think Jelly Belly should create flavours that are surprisingly good. Or flavours that you may not have tried, say popular foreign foods.

Rather than simply suggesting that they research this and dump all the work on the research and development team at Jelly Belly, I'm going to help out a bit. I'm going to suggest a few new flavours of Jelly Belly that fit this middle category.  Everyday this week I'll post a new collection of flavours based on a theme.  From exotic spices to interesting cross candy tie ins.

I'm also going to help design the look of these Jelly Bellies, and give a little info on why these new flavours would work. Normally when I create candies on this site I tell you that my ideas are free for any candy maker to make, and all I ask is that you send me some to try. This list is a little different, this is just for Jelly Belly, and if possible I'd really like to help with their creation. So if you're reading this Jelly Belly, I'd really like to help you out, and I work fairly cheap.

Middle Eastern Spices

For our first day I thought I'd look at something a little exotic.  The Middle East has long been a hub of curiosity and exotic flavours.

Middle Eastern cooking is probably most famous for its spices.  When you think of Middle Easter spices you think of curries, masalas, and other spice blends. These spicy combinations aren't just for the savory foods though, all over the middle east and southern Asia you'll find desserts that are full of spices, both hot and flavourful.  I think this is an area that Jelly Belly could easily latch onto, but with a twist.  Rather than make Jelly Bellies that taste like Middle Eastern desserts, why not make jelly beans that taste like the spices often used in these desserts.  This would allow the eater to choose a few fruit flavoured Jelly Bellies and make their own Middle Eastern influenced dessert creations.

The first spice that comes to mind for Middle Eastern desserts has to be cardamom.  It's a very popular spice used in puddings and baked goods, and would blend very well with many of the fruit flavoured Jelly Bellies. These would also be very tasty on their own, and in some cases might work as a bit of a breath freshener, as cardamom is often used as an after meal treat.


Rose Water Jelly Bellies is a bit more Mediterranean, but I think it still works in this contexts.  It's most obvious use would be to simulate different kinds of Turkish Delight.  But Turkish delight isn't the only treat that uses rose water it is also a common flavour added to other baked goods in the Mediterranean.  In Greece Rose water is often lightly sprayed on cookies to give them a wonderful perfumed flavour.

Fruit Chaat Masala is probably the most specific spice in this line, but I think it would be the most daring.  This would be the Jelly Belly that people would dare their friends to eat, and some of their friends might actually enjoy it.  This spice combination is specifically designed to work with the sweet flavour of fruit, and I could see this jelly bean becoming very popular.

CC

This Week In Candy

Hey we're back!!! Thailand was a great place, and really a food mecca. It isn't until you visit Thailand that you can truly appreciate the word "street food".  Never have I seen so many varieties of food on the street.  This is truly a culture of local food, made fast, but made so well.  There were even some street food vendors with longer lines than some of the restaurants.  I'll have a blog post going up next week with details about all of the food, treats, and junk food we found on this adventure.

Now that we're back, we're getting back to work on our regular projects.  We'll be recording two episodes of the Junk Fud podcast this week.  One will go up later this week, and the second will go up next week.  This week's episode will be our regular installment of Junk Fud News where we'll look back at some of the junk food news that happened in the month of February.  The second podcast will be an episode of Junk Fud On The Road where Allison and I will talk about our trip to Thailand.

This week we're also posting a week long special feature, where we're looking at Jelly Bellies.  Recently Jelly Belly released some new flavours, and they look pretty good, however we think that we can do better.  So we put our money where our mouth is, and this week we're going to show you our awesome ideas for new Jelly Belly flavours.  Every day there will be a new category of flavour that we think will rock your taste buds, are you listening Jelly Belly.

Now that we're back home, Snack Facts, our Instagram feed is back to it's daily schedule. I don't want to give anything away, but this week's Snack Facts is all about birthday cakes.  It might be because someone's birthday is coming up... really soon.  So tune in this week to learn a little history about one of the best parts of any birthday party.  You can follow Snack Facts on our Instagram feed, our Facebook page, and our Twitter feed.

On our Thailand adventure we came across a whole lot of cool treats.  So we figured the best way to celebrate these newly discovered treats would be a review-a-thon.  Everyday this week we'll be posting a new review of a treat that we discovered in Thailand.  The first review is of a very surprising ice cream treat that we discovered in Phuket.  Check out Twitter feed or Facebook page every day this week for more Thai candy reviews, however you can click here to read the first.

CC

Friday, February 26, 2016

Candy In The Media


After posting a retro video about the Hershey's factory last week, I cam across this video about how Snicker's bars are made.

CC

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

A "For My Birthday" Candy Thing

Every Wednesday, till my birthday, I'm posting candy things that I'd really like to have.  I'm not saying you have to get me anything, but if you're planning to, these things would make me really happy.

This week I thought I'd go a little retro.  Ever since I was a kid, I've always wanted my own arcade.  This probably stems from the fact that I'm not really good at games, but I really enjoy playing them.  I used to drop quarter after quarter in the Paper Boy arcade game, yet I don't think I've ever made it past level 3.

A claw game that dispenses candy would be the perfect addition to my fictional home arcade.  It's a game that I've never been good at, but really enjoyed.  It would be a great way to minimized that amount of candy I eat because it would take me hours just to get one candy out of this machine.

CC

Monday, February 22, 2016

This Week In Candy

Does anybody know what kind of seeds these are?  I just got about a pound of them, and the're pretty tasty.  They're similar to pumpkin seeds only much narrower and the shells seem a lot thinner than most pumpkin seeds.  The label at the place where I got them just called them "white seeds", so it wasn't very much help.  If you've got any theories, either researched or made up, let me know.  I most want to know so I can get them again, that is unless they're origin is extremely disgusting.

As I mentioned last week, we're in Thailand, still. If you've been following our exploits on our various social media sites than you have a better idea of how our trip is going since I'm writing this way in advance.  I sure hope we're having fun, because this trip was really not as much about working as it was relaxing.  Having said that I never really take time off, and I'm pretty much constantly either writing or taking pictures of things.  This annoyed Allison to no end, and will probably lead to me losing my sanity at any moment.

As I mentioned last week as well, Snack Facts is going to be based on the various treats I find in Thailand and be very erratic (as we find things to write about and good internet connections).  We'll go back to our regular format when we're back home.  Being away also means that we won't be posting any new reviews either.  The good news is our regular posting of a Cool Candy Thing and Candy in The Media will still be around.  Also, when we get back home we'll have a ton to talk about I'm sure.

CC

Friday, February 19, 2016

Candy In The Media


This is a long, but pretty awesome documentary that looks how the Hershey's plant ran a long time ago.

CC

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Candy Critic Dessert Club – Something Simple? - Apple Pie

The saying "it's as simple as apple pie" obviously has more to do with the people eating the pie, than the people making the pie.  Apple pie is in no way the easiest dessert to make, it's not even the easiest pie to make.  It takes about 3 hours, and involves many pots and pans, spices, and the a great deal of apple know-how.  The apple know-how is the part that I am most lacking, in my mind there are about 3 or 4 different varieties of apples (know there's more but I don't think about them), and I've never bought apples for pie in my life.  Instead, I find that I have apples that seem to be going bad, so I figure the best way to use them is to make an apple pie.  This never works our right.

Dough
2 1/2 cups flour
4 teaspoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
14 tablespoons cold butter, diced
1 large egg, beaten
 2 tablespoons cold water

Filling (Although you can just use a can if you don't have the apples, but in that case, why did you want to make an apple pie anyways?)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 pounds apples, in my case whatever you have on hand
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground nutmeg

The first thing you have to do to make this pie perfect is make sure that the butter is cold.  When you're dicing the butter you'll probably have to keep it out of the refrigerator and you'll be touching it a lot.  So to make sure that you're not working with warm butter, dice it, then put it back in the fridge.  While it's cooling, mix up the flour, sugar, and salt.  Once the butter is cooled put the cold butter into the bowl and work the dry ingredients into the butter using your fingers.  You'll want the mixture to look like corn meal.  Then ad the egg to the mixture along with the cold water.  The best way to get this into a nice roll-able dough is to use your fingers to mix it up, a spoon just wont cut it. Once the whole thing is combined cover the dough and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.
During your one hour of waiting, watch a little TV, then start working on the filling.  Cut the apples into quarters, then slice them fairly thinly.  Make sure to sprinkle the lemon juice on the apples fairly quickly after you've cut them up, as this will keep them from turning brown.  As soon as all the apples are cut, pour on the brown sugar and mix it around till the apples are evenly covered (again using your hands works really well for this).  Take all the butter for the filling, and melt it in a pan, then add the apples and let it all melt and simmer for a few minutes.  There will be a lot of liquid, so strain the apple bits out, and put the liquid back into the pan.  Heat up the pan with the juice and melted sugar until it thickens up into a syrup like consistency.  Then off of the heat, toss the apples, the thickened juice, and the cinnamon and nutmeg together.  Let all this cool before putting it in the pie crust.

Speaking of pie crust, by now you're pie dough has been in the fridge for at least an hour... right?  Well if it has, it's time to take it out and roll it flat.  Cut the ball of dough into two, one half should go back into the fridge, and the other half should be put onto a well flowered counter.  Flatten the dough on the counter as best as you can with your hands, then use a rolling pin to make it about one quarter of an inch thick.  Make sure it's as even as possible, and as soon as it's ready, use it to line your pie plate.  If you don't have a pie plate any baking pan should work, as long as you're OK with having an unconventionally shaped pie.  The rolled out dough will not fit perfectly, so cut around the plate with a butter knife and the excess should just fall right off.  If you rip the dough you can use any scraps to fix up any gaps.
Once your pie plate is layered with the pie dough, put your now cooled filling into the mix.  Then, take your scraps of dough and your second ball of dough and roll that out to the same thickness as the bottom layer, about a quarter inch.  After it's nice and thin, use the dough to cover the top of your filled pie.  As you did with the bottom, use a butter knife to cut away the excess around the edges.  Then using a bit of water crimp the edges of the bottom part of your pie with the top part of your pie.  Crimping is a technical word for pinching.  You want to have as good a seal as you can get or the crust may separate from the bottom.

You'll notice that you have some extra dough left.  You can use this dough to decorate your pie and/or make some small tarts.  The sky is really the limit, although you could just put it back in your fridge for later, or throw it away as well.  Turn your oven to 375 and wait for it to heat up... I guess I could have told you to heat up your oven sooner, but frankly I'm not really sure when that would have been appropriate, certainly not at the start of this recipe as it is now at least 2 or 3 hours later.  Before putting your pie in the oven, cut out several slits in the top of your pie, this will allow air to escape.  I'm not sure what happens if you don't cut the slits in your top crust, however I'm not willing to waste a pie to find out.  Once the oven is heated up, put it in for about 45 to 50 minutes.  You basically need to have a nice brown colour on the top crust.
If you want to make this pie a little extra fancy, with virtually no work for you at all, sprinkle a little extra brown sugar on the top.  It makes a nice little extra candy crunch, and really only takes seconds.

When the pie is done, take it out of the oven, let it cool for a little bit, then cut and serve.

My experience with making apple pie was much more time consuming than I thought it would be.  The pie itself was OK, but as expect I used the wrong apples.  My filling turned more into an apple sauce by the time the pie was baked.  I guess I could have picked better apples, but as I said before, that's not why I make apple pie.  If I was thinking more about buying ingredients for a pie in the first place I probably would have gone for a berry or chocolate pie of some sort. But I needed to use up apples and so there you go.  My crust also seperated a bit around the edges, I think it's because I didn't wet the two crusts enough while crimping, lesson learned.  Taste wise I'm pretty happy with the pie, as were the 7 people who had a slice, the only complaint being about the texture of the apples.

CC

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

A "For My Birthday" Candy Thing

March 5th is my birthday, and I love getting things (hey candy companies if you want to get on my good side).  I've decided that every Wednesday, till my birthday, I'm going to post something candy related that I'd really like to get for my birthday.  It's not really a hint, but I'd be really thankful...

This first gift ideas is something that brings back memories for me, both good and bad. When I was a kid Wonka had an offer for a certain amount of money, and several Nerds box tops, they would send you an I Love Nerds t-shirt.  Being a candy fan back then, I saved up my box tops and my allowance.  As soon as I had enough money and box tops saved, I mailed away the form, and waited... and waited... and waited. I wasn't just waiting though, I was also a growing boy.  So after waiting a long time, and growing several inches, my t-shirt came.

As you would imagine, the shirt was too small for me.  I was pretty bummed about it, and I stuffed my I Love Nerds shirt in the bottom of my drawer.  As I grew up, and moved several times, including out of my house, that I Love Nerds shirt kept appearing at the bottom of my drawers, only to be put on the bottom of my new t-shirt drawer.  I still love the shirt, and remember how hard it was to save up for that shirt.  To this day, I still have the shirt.  I have no plans to give it away, but  a part of me really wants to replace it, at least with some kind of Nerds t-shirt.  I can't imagine that I'll ever have another I Love Nerds shirt, but I'd be really happy if at least for a while, I could wear a Nerds shirt at some point in my life.

CC

Monday, February 15, 2016

This Week In Candy

It's the day after Valentine's Day, and the Stewart household is celebrating something else, today is my father's birthday.  My whole family is very supportive of what I do, but if I had to give credit to any of them for sparking my interest in sweet foods, it's my father.  When I was a kid my father used to take me and my sister out for walks.  Walks were a very important part of our lives, and we would spend hours exploring Toronto, or St Catherines (in Canada).  The reason these walks affect my love of sweets is because my father would always make a stop at the local corner store with us and make sure we had plenty of snacks for the road.  While my father was always a fan of the salty snack, I would always go for the sweet snacks.  We would fill up on treats, and walk around town for ours.  We would explore these two cities, and also explore what was new in the candy world.  To this day I still love walking, and I obviously love candy, a great deal of this comes from these walks that I took with my father when I was a kid.

After that deep note, guess what?  We're not home right now, and if you had my home phone number you'd have to leave a message after the "beep".  As we've mentioned before, we're in Thailand right now.  As of writing this, I'm not really sure what the weather is going to be like, or what the food is going to be like, so this trip might be amazing, or it might be really crappy.  When we get back home I'll make sure to write up a full report, but for now I'm sure we're just exploring this awesome Asian country.

What comes with us being in Thailand?  We'll first of all, Snack Facts is on the road.  Rather than post our regular daily Snack fact on our Instagram feed, we're going to post crazy fun things we discover about snacks as we travel through Thailand.  That means that some days you're going to get a million fun Thai snack facts, and other days maybe none.  It all really depends on what I find, and my current internet connection. Make sure to check out our Thailand Snack Facts on our Instagram feed, Facebook page, or Twitter feed.

Along with the Snack Facts on the road, being away means that we're not going to be adding new reviews while we're gone.  I'm pretty sure however that we'll have some amazing new Thai candies to review when we get back, and maybe even a review-a-thon.

CC

Friday, February 12, 2016

Candy In The Media


Who would have thought that those simple looking sweets for Valentine's Day are so complicated to make.

CC

Thursday, February 11, 2016

New Junk Fud Podcast Is Online

We just posted a new episode of the Junk Fud podcast all about the history of the Kit Kat bar.  Easily one of the most famous chocolate bars in the world, it has a pretty fascinating history that goes back long before Rowntree (the candy company that invented it) even existed. Click here to listen to our latest episode, and click here to listen to all our old episodes.

CC

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Candy Themed Valentine's Day Cards


We're posting some new candy themed Valentine's cards for that special someone in your life made by our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Pick up a card, make that special someone in your life a little happier.

For more greeting card options click here.

CC

A Valentine's Day Candy Thing

Last week I thought that I had discovered the perfect Lego/candy Valentine's Day gift ever, then I stumbled upon this.

CC

Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Candy Themed Valentine's Day Cards


We're posting some new candy themed Valentine's cards for that special someone in your life made by our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Pick up a card, make that special someone in your life a little happier.

For more greeting card options click here.

CC

Valentines Chocolates For Singles

With all of the love, hugs, and warm pink fuzzy things for sale at this time of year, many people often forget about their single friends.  Single people this time of year seem to be put into one of two categories, either they're staunch singles that are militantly happy about being single, or they're depressed about the whole stupid holiday.  I don't think that this is an accurate representation of the single people on Valentine's Day.  I think there are some people out there who are happy to be single, but not violent about it.  I think these people's only complaint is that they can't get a reservation at their favorite restaurant on Valentine's Day.

Instead of casting single people out for this holiday, I think it would be better to invite single people to enjoy this day.  The only way I know how to do this is with candy, since that's my area of expertise.  So, with the help of Allison, we've designed some Valentine's Day chocolates that you can give to your single friends without having to worry about offending them, or giving them the wrong idea.

As with all of my candy ideas, I'm giving them away.  If any candy maker out there wants to make chocolates for singles, and use my designs, it's free.  All I ask is that you send me some to eat, and share with my loving wife.
The first chocolate in this selection is the handshake chocolate.  A box of handshakes is perfect for the person you like, but don't want to cross any kind of line with.  It says that we're friends, and maybe even business associates, but that's all.  A chocolate kiss is way too far, and even a hug might send off the wrong signals, but a handshake is certainly nothing more than a handshake.

For some reason Valentine's Day, and love in general, has some kind of connection with a vital organ in the human body, the heart.  Instead of giving someone a heart shaped chocolate this year, why not go for a kidney instead.  After all, you have two of them, and you can even afford to give it away and you'll still survive.  This tells the receiver of this chocolate that they're close, but not so close that you'd die without them.  It's all of the nice things about the heart without any commitment.

Finally the chocolate cat.  The best thing about the chocolate cat  is you can give them as many chocolate cats as they have real cats in their home.  I'm not saying that all single lonely people have to own cats, I'm just saying that some do.  If your single friend happens to own several cats, why not give them a box of cute cat shaped chocolates, one for each of their own furry little friends.

I think that there is a large demographic of single people on Valentine's Day, and it would be silly for candy companies to miss out on these people.  With these three chocolates alone you could increase your sales by at least a third (I imagine that at least a third of people are single, it's not researched at all).  Most importantly it's a good idea not to alienate, or judge your single friends over this holiday.  Maybe they want chocolate, without a relationship.

CC

Monday, February 08, 2016

Super Bowl 50's Candy and Junk Food Commercials

This year's collection of Super Bowl commercials is not the best I've ever seen.  It seems like the Super Bowl commercials are becoming a genera into themselves.  It used to be that Super Bowl commercials were innovative and creative, now they're just strange, shocking, and kind of boring.  It's been a few years since I've been blown away by a Super Bowl ad.  It could be a lack of creativity, fear from brands that invest big money into these commercials, or the fact that I'm an old man now.  Most likely it's the latter.

Just because they didn't impress me, doesn't mean I'm not going to post them.  Here's all of the candy/junk food related commercials I could find from this year's line up.  Since I didn't watch the game I'm not sure if I've missed any, and I'll ad any new ones if I come across them later.

Drinks:



This is pretty standard, it looks great, but it's not very creative.



Probably the strangest commercial this year.



This might be my favourite commercial, but only because I'm a comic book nerd.

Snacks:

Doritos had some kind of crazy contest where anybody could make a Doritos commercial and the "best" one would have a chance at being played during the Super Bowl.  Here's the three finalist:







Of these three, the Ultrasound commercial is my favorite.



Nothing's better than mixing candy with a rock star's ego.



While it's a funny, the concept of this Snicker's commercial is kind of old.



I'm not sure if this is making fun of extreme commercials or not.

Certainly there are some well made commercials this year.  Could I make a better Super Bowl commercial, probably not, but I'm still a little disappointed.  Maybe next year things will get better (more creative), or maybe the allure of making creative, over the top commercials for the Super Bowl might be going the way of the dodo.

CC

Candy Themed Valentine's Day Cards

Lots of Hearts Greeting Card
Lots of Hearts Greeting Card by bewarethecheese
Add your photos and text to blank greeting cards at Zazzle

We're posting some new candy themed Valentine's cards for that special someone in your life made by our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Pick up a card, make that special someone in your life a little happier.

For more greeting card options click here.

CC

This Week In Candy

It's the Valentine's Day week!  That means that love is in the air, and chocolate is on my mind.  But don't feel like you're going to be left out if you're not with a special someone right now.  We here at Candy Critic have got your back if you're single during this particular holiday.  Later this week (possibly tomorrow) we're posting a list of Valentine's Day chocolates for single folks.  Just because you're not in the midst of a relationship doesn't mean that you should be denied chocolate, quite the opposite in fact.

You may have also noticed a few Valentine's Day greeting cards for sale recently from our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Every holiday this year, we hope to feature a few selections from the Beware the Cheese catalog of fine candy themed photos as greeting cards and posters.

Just because we can't get off of this crazy ride called Valentine's Day, this week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're going to look at some interesting Valentine's Day Candy facts.  Check back every day this week for a fun new fact about the holiday all about love, that we all love.  You can follow Snack Facts on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter as well.

I don't want to forget about the Super Bowl. I'm sure the game was great, and the best team won, which ever team that was.  More importantly this afternoon we'll be posting a look at all of the candy and junk food related commercials that appeared this year.  Some are great, some are lame, and some are just freaking weird.

For this week's review I was torn, should I review a football themed candy for the Super Bowl, or should I review a Valentine's Day candy?  Then I realized that no one makes a Super Bowl themed candy, and it surprised me.  I think Super Bowl themed snacks (more than just plastering NFL logos on packages, would be a great idea.  Maybe next year I'll try and come up with some.  As it stands, I found a great Valentine's Day treat to review that's sure to make that special someone in your life really happy this year, especially if that special someone is yourself.  Click here to read the new review.

CC

Sunday, February 07, 2016

Candy Themed Valentine's Day Cards


We're posting some new candy themed Valentine's cards for that special someone in your life made by our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Pick up a card, make that special someone in your life a little happier.

For more greeting card options click here.

CC

Saturday, February 06, 2016

Candy Themed Valentine's Day Cards


We're posting some new candy themed Valentine's cards for that special someone in your life made by our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Pick up a card, make that special someone in your life a little happier.

For more greeting card options click here.

CC

Friday, February 05, 2016

Candy Themed Valentine's Day Cards


We're posting some new candy themed Valentine's cards for that special someone in your life made by our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Pick up a card, make that special someone in your life a little happier.

For more greeting card options click here.

CC

Candy In The Media



Why would you want to shoot a gummy bear?

CC

Thursday, February 04, 2016

Candy Themed Valentine's Day Cards


We're posting some new candy themed Valentine's cards for that special someone in your life made by our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Pick up a card, make that special someone in your life a little happier.

For more greeting card options click here.

CC

A new Episode of Junk Fud

Make sure to check out our latest installment of the Junk Fud podcast, Junk Fud on the Road.  This week Allison and Chris (that's me) are looking back at their adventures in the USA and what kind of junk food, snacks and candy they came across.

Click here to have a listen.

CC

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Candy Themed Valentine's Day Card


We're posting some new candy themed Valentine's cards for that special someone in your life made by our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Pick up a card, make that special someone in your life a little happier.

For more greeting card options click here.

CC

A Valentines Day Candy Thing

Am I the only person in the world that thinks Lego is one of the best gifts you can get for Valentine's Day?  I particularly like that this set is not only romantic, but it comes with Lego cupcakes.

CC

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Candy Themed Valentines Day Cards

One Loving Card
One Loving Card by bewarethecheese
Look at Valentines Cards online at Zazzle.com

We're posting some new candy themed Valentine's cards for that special someone in your life made by our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Pick up a card, make that special someone in your life a little happier.

For more greeting card options click here.

CC

Monday, February 01, 2016

This Week In Candy

Valentine's Day is coming!  If you're in love, and you like chocolate, this is pretty much the best holiday to be alive. If you don't like chocolate then there are a few other options, including Conversation Hearts and Cinnamon Hearts.  However, if you're not in love this holiday might not be that great.  Don't worry though, we have an article going online next week just for all of you single folks out there.

This week however we're only hinting at Valentine's Day, instead we're going to focus this week on America.  For no reason that I can logically think of we're going to look at my favorite people to the south (of Canada, where I'm from).  This week on Junk Fud, our podcast, we have an episode of Junk Fud on the Road all about the USA.  We're also looking at this proud nation by having an American candy bar review-a-thon.  That means that instead of just one review this week, we'll have 5, and all of them are going to be American candy bars (I'd like to thank my friend Katie and Kyle for helping out with this review-a-thon).

Not that we want to push this any further, but since the time is right, we figured on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we thought we'd look at Hershey's (a truly American candy company). Say what you want about the quality of the chocolate, this company has a pretty big history in the candy world.  It's probably the only candy company that has an amusement park too.  So make sure to check our Instagram feed, Facebook page, or Twitter feed every day this week to learn a little something about this history of Hershey's.

As we mentioned above, this week we're having an American candy bar review-a-thon.  As far as I know all of the bars featured this week are only available in the US as well.  You might find some in fancy candy stores that sell American exports, but average candy stores outside of the US probably don't sell these at all.  This might come as a surprise to some of you Americans out there.  Our first review is so chock full of America that it'll make you salute an eagle, after all it's got bacon in it.  Click here to read today's new review, and check back on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, or Google +, to see the rest of our American candy bar review-a-thon updates.

CC