A Scary Candy Cookie Thing

This Alien cookie jar might be a good way to keep your kids hands out of the candy jar.

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Twisted Gummy Bear Card...

Gummy Bear Love Card by candycritic
Find more note cards online at zazzle.com

For the one you love.

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This Week In Candy (A Little Late Because Of Easter)

The days after Easter are always the same, it starts with a little regret after you realize you've eaten a huge chocolate Easter bunny in one day.  Then you're filled with hope, that starts when you go shopping for something to help your stomach ache and you see discounted Easter candy.  The next move is to buy that same chocolate Easter bunny on sale, and this time take it slow.  That works for a few days, until you binge on the chocolate Easter bunny while watching Walking Dead in one night.  Fortunately, by then all of the good discounted Easter treats are gone, and you're left two weeks after Easter debating if it's worth buying that case of Peeps.

This week at Candy Critic, it's a bit of a work week.  We'll be recording the latest episode of the Junk Fud podcast featuring all of the junk food news that we came across in the month of March (it should go online later this week).  We're also working on some of our new Youtube content, including a new intro for our soon to be regular segment known as "Chris, Why Would You Eat That!??". We're also going to be working on a new segment that we hope to have going soon where we'll look back at some of the candy we've reviewed in the past, and see if it's still the same.  Finally we're writing a few articles that will be coming online in the future, and possibly starting an art project related to the candy we've reviewed.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're looking at when certain chocolate bars came out. It's amazing how long some of the classic bars have been around.  Most would say that they don't remember these bars not existing, but chances are your grandparents may not have known a world without a Hershey Bar either. Check back every day this week to find out when some of the classic bars came out, you can follow Snack Facts on Instagram, our Twitter feed, and our Facebook page.

This week's new review is a classic treat, it's a classic treat that everyone loves to hate.  I'm still looking for anybody to make the Circus Peanut fan page (that's not affiliated with any company that makes them).  So click here to read why I loved and hated reviewing this bright orange peanut.

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I Want Easter Candy Variety, And I Have Suggestions

Easter is a very simple holiday candy wise.  There are really only a few candies that dominate the market, Easter eggs, jellybeans, and chocolate bunnies.  Don't get me wrong, I love all of those treats, in fact I think we should have these treats (or versions of them) available throughout the year.  I am however a lover of creativity, and seeing the same Easter candy year after year gets me down.  Several times on this blog I've spent the time designing specific new candy treats for holidays, but not this time.

Rather than be specific about the design of treats, I want candy makers out there to be a little bit more creative.  I'm going to suggest types of candies that I think would work for Easter, and let the candy companies’ work out the details.  These are fairly broad candy categories that I've never seen Easter candy touch, but I think with a little creativity you could have some new classic Easter treats. Right now Easter treats are really limited in creativity, so I think there's just so many places you could go.

The first category is one that might seem like the worst Easter treat idea ever, but I think it would work is potato chips.  Instantly I'm sure your mind is thinking, how do chocolate eggs and potato chips go together, but you have to think a little more broadly.  Recently Lay's has had several contests to vote for a new flavour of chip, and in almost all of these contests there was a "sweet" flavour.  Why not take this sweet flavour and work in an Easter spin, how about hot cross buns flavoured chips (hot cross buns are a traditional Easter dessert in the UK).  You could also go with Easter ham flavoured chips, that would be far less strange but still in the spirit.  Best of all you could limit these chips for the holiday, and therefore not wear out the novelty.

The second category for Easter expansion is gummies.  I feel like a broken record when I tell people that gummies should be expanded into a holiday treat, because frankly I believe gummies are the most versatile candy in the world.  There have been a few Easter gummies (pictured above), however I feel like there could be thousands more.  This is also something you could merge into the chocolate bunny and chocolate egg world. Why not make chocolate flavoured gummy eggs and bunnies.  Even fruity gummy Easter eggs would work, and you could make them super decorated.

Probably the most obvious treat that seems to have missed out on Easter is lollipops.  The round shape of a lollipop would be perfect to link up with an Easter egg.  You could make all kinds of fun flavours and decorate them just like fancy Easter eggs.  If you're really creative you could go with super detailed Easter egg lollipops and decorate them like Ukrainian Easter eggs.  A lollipop of that calibre could be the first edible museum piece ever.

There are three simple candy ideas that I've never seen (or seen very little of), that we already know are popular in the snack food world. So come on candy companies, let’s stretch out the Easter candy lines and make something a little out of the ordinary.

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Candy In The Media

I don't know if I've ever tried a Whoopie Pie, although I really appreciate the fact that the word "pie" is in the name of this treat twice.

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Easter Greeting Cards From Candy Critic

Chocolate Line Greeting Card by bewarethecheese
See other greeting card templates on zazzle.com

Hey gang, why not pick up a fun greeting card for that special someone this Easter.  Candy Critic has a whole bunch of designs for you to check out including this snazzy one.

Click here to check out the store to see a few more of our cards, t-shirts, and posters.

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A S'mores Foot Warming Candy Thing

Not only do these slippers look really cool, but they're heated as well. I'd have a hard time not eating them.

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Easter Greeting Cards From Candy Critic

Easter Bunny Greeting Card by bewarethecheese
Shop for more greeting cards online at Zazzle.

Hey gang, why not pick up a fun greeting card for that special someone this Easter.  Candy Critic has a whole bunch of designs for you to check out including this snazzy one.

Click here to check out the store to see a few more of our cards, t-shirts, and posters.

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This Week In Candy

Spring is here, and that means so is Easter.  With spring in the air, and chocolate bunnies on our mind, we're going to celebrate the chocolatiest holiday of the year.  We've got a few plans for this holiday, some which will be revealed later this week, other's we'll talk about right now.

You may have noticed that we've been posting a lot of Easter themed greeting cards lately.  It's not too late to pick up a special Easter themed card for that special someone.  I'm sure it would decorate that Easter basket perfectly.  You can check out all of our cards right here.

This week we're also going to keep you very informed about this candy fun holiday on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed.  Every day this week we'll post a new fun fact about Easter, and the treats we're all hopping to get in our basket (pun intended).  You can check out our daily Snack Facts on our Instagram feed, Facebook page, and Twitter feed as well.

What would be an Easter week without a special Easter review.  This week's review takes one of the modern classic Easter candies, and gives it a little twist.  Click here to find out if Cadbury Creme Eggs translated well into cookie form.

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Easter Greeting Cards From Candy Critic

Nesting Chocolates Greeting Card by bewarethecheese
Shop for a greeting card on zazzle.com

Hey gang, why not pick up a fun greeting card for that special someone this Easter.  Candy Critic has a whole bunch of designs for you to check out including this snazzy one.

Click here to check out the store to see a few more of our cards, t-shirts, and posters.

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The First Episode of "Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!"

Earlier this week I mentioned that I'd be posting a video about eating Galamay. It was a horrible success, and it's inspired something new.  We're going to start posting quick little videos of me eating strange and either wonderful or horrible candies whenever we get our hands on something.  In some cases it might be associated with a review, in other cases it'll just me eating something that seems really strange.  We're calling the segment "Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!", and the name pretty much sums it up.

Make sure to subscribe to us on You Tube to get all the updates as they happen, along with the latest episodes of the Junk Fud podcast.

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Candy In The Media

Seinfeld crushes it on Late Night with a great set about snacks.

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Candy Critic Dessert Club – Allison's Special - Pancakes!

I love Allison's pancakes, there I said it.  I love Allison too, even more than her pancakes, but as long as I can have both, I'm in a pretty good place.  Allison only makes her pancakes if we have at least 2 guests visiting for brunch.  Because of this rule, we've had more brunches at our house than any other meal combined.  People always tell Allison that she shouldn't "fuss" over these pancakes for them, but frankly, some of these people would never be invited if pancakes weren't on the line.

Allison claims that her pancakes are simple, but I disagree, while the ingredients are simple, the finesse to make them just right is something that must be practiced.  If you happen to make this recipe, screw it up, please send pictures as I'd like to prove that to Allison how awesome she is.

The ingredients (Think 2s):

2 cups all purpose flour

2 table spoons white sugar
2 tea spoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt

2 cups milk

2 table spoons oil

2 eggs (optional you can separate the egg yolks and beat whites to fold into mixture)

This first thing you can do is mix all of the dry ingredients together, that means the flour, white sugar, baking powder, and salt.  The great thing about this is that you can do this part well in advance.  Since you want to have pancakes that came fresh off the pan, and often this means getting up early to make these pancakes, why not get through part of the recipe the night before.  Sleep in a few minutes before your guests arrive.

Next mix in the milk, but do it slowly.  If you mix the milk in too quickly you'll get lumps, and you don't want lumps.  This is also the part that requires a bit of practice, depending on the flour and the milk  you use, sometimes 2 cups is a little too much or no exactly enough.  You want a slightly thick batter, but again, NOT LUMPY!  You might have to practice this a few times because unfortunately you don't really know if your mixture is  too runny until you put it on the hot pan, and by that time it's way too late to add more flour.

This is a point where you can mix in any extra ingredients you might want.  In our house chocolate chips are acceptable, fruit is not.  These are not my rules as I love blueberry or raspberry pancakes, but since she's making them, I'm not complaining.

Once you have the unlumpy batter mixed, stir in the oil and the eggs... sort of.

This is also the time where you can decide if you want to be lazy, or if you want to have the fluffiest pancakes in the world.  If you want to be lazy, mix in the eggs and oil and you're done. You will have slightly fluffy pancakes using this method, but they could be fluffier.  If you want to go the extra mile, add your oil, and separate the eggs and just add the egg yolks.  Then, beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until they're stiff (or can hold their shape).  Then fold in the egg white into the batter, but don't mix it too much.

Once you have the batter mixed, and any other ingredients mixed in as well, it's time to cook these bad boys.  Allison uses a standard ladle as her measurement, and in a large pan can fit 3.  There's also a bit of oil in the pan to keep them from sticking.  She cooks the pancakes until she can see the brown around the  edges and carefully flips them.  This can take a different amount of time depending on how thick the batter is, how big the pancakes are, and how hot the pan is.  Keep in mind that when you start making the pancakes the pan will be cool, so it might take a little longer than the 2nd or 3rd batch.  All I can say is that pancake cooking takes a bit of practice and chances are you'll ruin a few.

I could get into flipping pancakes, but frankly I think it's magical.  The first flip is always the most dangerous because at this point the top of your pancake is still batter, and it can be messy.  One quick motion and a little bit of nerve seems to be the way to go.  One thing to keep note is that under doing your pancakes is better than burning them, so error on the side of caution.

To keep your pancakes warm, put your stove on to about 190 degrees.  Put a tin foil covered cookie sheet in the oven, and as you finish each batch put them on the cookie sheet.  It's also a good idea to drape another sheet of tin foil on top of your pancakes in the oven to keep the moisture in.  Once all your pancakes are done, top them with whatever you want (except Vermont  maple syrup, after all we're Canadian), and serve.

A great deal of our relationship hovers around the making of pancakes.  I know that making them is a lot of work for Allison, and I appreciate it.  I tend to make her a ridiculous amount of bacon  when we have pancakes (often burning my arms in the process), so there is some mutual cooking going on.  I'm also in charge of many of the other toppings, while Allison doesn't go for them, our guests are often keen, and happy guests means we gain a reputation for having these meals, which means we have more of these meals, which means I get more pancakes.

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Easter Greeting Cards From Candy Critic

Easter Chocolates Greeting Card by bewarethecheese
Create a greeting card online

Hey gang, why not pick up a fun greeting card for that special someone this Easter.  Candy Critic has a whole bunch of designs for you to check out including this snazzy one.

Click here to check out the store to see a few more of our cards, t-shirts, and posters.

CC

St Patrick's Day Candy Ideas... That Aren't Green

Green, green, and even more green. That's pretty much the theme for St Patrick's Day. This is one holiday that really doesn't do candy very well either. There aren't that many St Patrick's Day candies, and of the small amount that there is, it all seems to be green. This green candy is often not very creative, and not Irish at all.

I've decided to take on the challenge of designing St Patrick's Day candy that's both creative and not green. Keep in mind that I've never actually been to Ireland, or studied Irish culture in any way. I certainly don't want to offend anybody, but I also want to be sure that even someone with no knowledge of Irish culture will know what these are representing.

I'm told that one of the prides of Ireland is their beer. If we think of Ireland and beer one word comes up on top all of the time, Guinness. St Patrick's Day is often a time that many adults take up a pint of Guinness to celebrate the fine people of Ireland, but what about those that do not drink and prefer sweets instead. Why not have a gummy Guinness? It's a strong flavoured beer that would translate really well into gummy form. You could even fill the gummy with a liquid Guinness centre to make it more authentic. Best of all, it represents something very Irish, and it’s not green.

Probably one of the most famous expressions from Ireland is to "kiss the Blarney Stone". You may or may not know that the Blarney Stone is a real stone that with some difficulty you can kiss. Legend has it that if you kiss the stone you’ll be given the gift of gab and flattery. The thing is, most people won't have the opportunity to kiss this stone and gain all of the magic that comes with it. So why not bring some of this magic home, in candy form with a Blarney lollipop. A reproduction of the famous stone made of rock candy is easy to kiss or lick till your heart's content. Why not give yourself some sweet Irish magic on St Patrick's Day. The trick here is to make it look as much like real stone as possible, the only green you might find is a bit of moss growing on the bottom.

It seems that almost every holiday has some kind of hollow chocolate treat available, except St Patrick's Day. It's a no brainer that a chocolate leprechaun would be perfect for the kids to celebrate this Irish holiday. The leprechaun could be size appreciate, and you could have smaller ones as well. Best of all, like many holiday hollow chocolate treats, this one could be filled with more treats. The best, and most obvious filling could be gold coins, however Lucky Charms would be cool too. The fun of breaking open a small Irish fictional character, to reveal a whole bunch of chocolate coins would be great. It would also answer the question as to where they hide their pot of gold. My only hope is that they make it out of tasty milk chocolate; white chocolate coloured green would not be great.

As usual these candy ideas are free for the taking for any candy maker out there. All I ask is if you make them please send me some to try. It's about time that kids were brought into the St Patrick's Day fun. By the end of the day parents will be drunk and kids (myself included) can enjoy a wonderful sugar buzz. Most importantly, they're not green.

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A Chip Eating Candy Thing

While these look like they'd keep my fingers clean, they do look fairly complicated to lick clean.

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A New Butter Friendly T-Shirt

Butter Not Margarine Shirt by Bewareshirts
Browse Butter T-Shirts online at Zazzle.com

We just finished designing this awesome new t-shirt that will allow anyone to proclaim their love for the tastiest fat in the world, butter.

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Easter Greeting Cards From Candy Critic

Ducky Chocolate Greeting Card by bewarethecheese
Browse Easter Cards

Hey gang, why not pick up a fun greeting card for that special someone this Easter.  Candy Critic has a whole bunch of designs for you to check out including this snazzy one.

Click here to check out the store to see a few more of our cards, t-shirts, and posters.

CC

This Week In Candy

Holy cow we have a busy week here at Candy Critic! As you may have noticed, over the last few weeks’ we've been posting new candy themed Easter cards available from our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Make sure to check out their store, and pick up a card for the one you love.  Also this week, we'll be recording and posting another episode of the Junk Fud Podcast, this week we'll be looking at the history of a fairly famous candy company.  This week we're also going to be revealing the secret to Allison's famous pancakes, in our regularly monthly installment of the Candy Critic Dessert Club.

Our big project this week we’re going to look at Galamay.  Galamay is a traditional Thai candy that has stumped us.  We bought a bag of them on our recent trip to Thailand, but we couldn't figure out what to do with them, particularly since there are so many flavour varieties.  We've decided that we're going to review the classic version (check this week's new review), and we're going to write an article about the other flavours.  Included with this article will be a short video (on our new and improved You Tube channel) that will feature my reaction to biting into each flavour of Galamay, one at a time.  This may not seem that interesting, however one of the flavours is durian (the grossest fruit in the world), and I'm not sure which one is the durian flavoured Galamay.

St Patrick's Day is also coming up this week. While thinking up ideas of how to celebrate, we realized that St Patrick's Day is really lacking in the candy department.  Sure there's a million places to get green beer, but how can someone with a sweet tooth celebrate this day?  There are a very few candy options, and all of them are just so green.  We put our minds to the test, and later this week we'll be posting some candy creation ideas for St Patrick's Day, that aren't green.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're going a little out of the box.  This week we're looking at famous Internet food memes.  Being on the Internet almost all of the time, and constantly looking at food websites, we come across all kinds of food related Internet memes.  So this week on Snack Facts, we're going to drop a few facts about some of the more famous ones.  Make sure to check our Instagram feed, Facebook page, or Twitter feed every day for a new fact about internet famous food stuffs.

As you've read above, this week we're dealing with a huge variety of strange Thai candies known as Galamay.  We thought it would make sense to review the most traditional of all the flavours, whatever that flavour happens to be.  We knew it was the traditional flavour because it was the only one to come wrapped in a banana leaf.  Click here to read about our first experience with this strange Thai sweet.

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Easter Greeting Cards From Candy Critic

Ten Hut Greeting Card by bewarethecheese
Create custom greeting cards at Zazzle.

Hey gang, why not pick up a fun greeting card for that special someone this Easter.  Candy Critic has a whole bunch of designs for you to check out including this snazzy one.

Click here to check out the store to see a few more of our cards, t-shirts, and posters.

CC

Candy In The Media

Apparently animal instinct and candy don't always work together, particularly when you're a raccoon trying to wash your cotton candy.

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A New Episode of Junk Fud On The Road Is Online

We've just posted the latest episode of Junk Fud on the Road where Allison and Chris talk about their recent food adventures in Thailand.  Click here to listen or download this latest episode.

Also, if you want to follow Junk Fud, and possibly some future Candy Critic adventures, you can follow our You Tube channel here.

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Easter Greeting Cards From Candy Critic

One Up Gummy Bear Greeting Card by bewarethecheese
View Gummy Cards online at zazzle

Hey gang, why not pick up a fun greeting card for that special someone this Easter.  Candy Critic has a whole bunch of designs for you to check out including this snazzy one.

Click here to check out the store to see a few more of our cards, t-shirts, and posters.

CC

A Frozen Banana Candy Thing

I'd love to have a set of these and fill them with my new favorite homemade ice cream recipe, bananas and Nutella.

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Thailand Food Adventure

Thailand really is a food loving culture.  They love their own food, and they embrace foods from other parts of the world.  Their own food is uniquely theirs, and found just about everywhere.  There doesn't seem to be a huge range within the country, as you pretty much find the same foods in the north, south, near or far away from the water.  That's not to say that there isn't variety, the smallest towns and the large cities all offer huge varieties of Thai food in just about every form.

As far as international foods go, there is certainly some that are more preferred by the Thai people. American, Japanese, and some European foods are all over the place.  The European foods seem to be French, British, and some Mediterranean foods, but there are a few others as well.  You also find a lot of Chinese foods in parts of Thailand, but I'm assuming that's because there are also many Chinese tourists in this area.  The surprising thing is the number of Japanese and American restaurants in this country.  Some are restaurants that you don't normally see around, like MOS Burger and Japanese Curry houses from Japan, and Swenson’s ice cream from the US.  There are also many Japanese convenience stores in Thailand as well including 7-11 (Japanese style) and Family Mart.

When it comes to Thai food, the most obvious style of food is street food. There is not a market, or even street corner that doesn't have some kind of street food available.  The street food is far more sophisticated than what you would find in North American as well.  These street food restaurants offer complicated fish dishes, tasty skewered meat varieties, and even some tasty desserts. Each vendor generally specializes in one particular type of food, however several vendors are often crowded together so a group of people can really get whatever they want.  The mango sticky rice was certainly a highlight of our street food eating, but I'm a sucker for sweet treats.

Fruit is a big part of the Thai diet, both with the street food and in the grocery stores.  Just about every collection of street food vendors will have at least one juice maker in the group.  A few others offer fruits with crepes, or even on their own.  Grocery stores and markets also have a huge selection of tropical fruits, and it's easy to walk away with a juicy treat while you wander around town. Mangos, pineapples, and dragon fruit seem to be very popular. However the most popular fruit appears to be durian.

I'm not sure if durian is actually popular amongst the locals, or if it's some kind of silly tourist scam.  You find many durian stands all over tourist areas, but you don't really see locals lining up to eat the stuff.  If you've never tried durian before, the taste is smooth and creamy, but the smell is like an old sweat sock filled with rotting onions.  The smell is also fairly potent, so strong that the airport has warnings about not allowing you to bring durians onto the airplanes.  So these stalls all over town must be selling to someone, either Thai people that somehow have built a tolerance for this very smelly fruit, or tourists that try it as a dare.

One of the unique things I noticed about eating in Thailand is the choice of utensils.  You might assume that since it's an East Asian country, chopsticks would be the tools of choice, but that's not really true.  Chopsticks are around, but the eating tools of choice are forks and spoons, but not in the way you might be using them yourself.  In North American you generally use a fork to stab some foods, and a spoon to eat liquids.  In Thailand however they have a really unique way of eating their food.  They use a fork to collect the food onto the spoons.  Once the spoon is loaded up with a nice balance of all of the elements from the plate, you're left with a nice organized perfect bite of everything on your spoon.  You enjoy that perfect bite, and then start to collect the food with your fork to make another.

It seems like a strange way to eat, but it really makes for a very pleasant meal.  Each bite is a perfect balance of all of the flavours that you enjoy from your plate.  It's delicate, intricate, and really improves the way you eat.  It does slow things down a bit, but it's really worth it.  I may start eating like this more often myself at home.

I think if you're a foodie person Thailand has a lot to offer you. I also think if you're a picky eater there's plenty of simple western cooking available as well.  You may have to walk by a stall with squids hanging on a bar, or watch a person eat a deep fried fish head, but there's certainly something for the weak stomached and the food adventurer.

My only complaint about the food is the abundance of American and Japanese places.  Not that I don't like a few now and then no matter where I travel, just in some cases it was overwhelming.  There seemed to be some areas of Bangkok where the only Thai food available was the street food, and if you wanted to eat at a restaurant you had to either eat Japanese or American.

CC

Easter Greeting Cards From Candy Critic

Crunch Bears Greeting Card by bewarethecheese
Check out more Gummy Cards at Zazzle

Hey gang, why not pick up a fun greeting card for that special someone this Easter.  Candy Critic has a whole bunch of designs for you to check out including this snazzy one.

Click here to check out the store to see a few more of our cards, t-shirts, and posters.

CC

This Week In Candy

Have you ever walked down the aisle of your local grocery store and something just catches your eye.  This something isn't new to you, but the minute your eyes see it the cravings start.  This is what happened to me last week, and the thing I saw was a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos.  It's been a while since I've eaten a bag of Doritos, and they're not my chip of choice, usually.  This day however I just needed to eat the glowing orange cheese covered corn chip so badly.  It also crossed my mind that I've never reviewed Nacho Cheese Doritos, and we've never covered them on Snack Facts.  So I picked up the bag and spent a few days photographing, writing, and most importantly eating Doritos.

Along with our latest Doritos obsession, we're also still capping a few loose ends from our Thailand trip.  Tomorrow we'll be posting our Thailand food overview blog, with highlights from our trip.  We're also going to be recording the third episode of Junk Fud On The Road where Allison and I will discuss some of the things we discovered on this trip.  Finally, this week I have a bit of a conundrum to work out.

While in Thailand I discovered a candy called Galamay.  I was going to feature it on the Thailand candy review-a-thon last week, but I didn't know what flavour to review.  This candy comes in such a range of flavours that I thought it deserved something on its own.  This week I have to figure out exactly what that something is.  Next week I'll either post a second review-a-thon featuring only Galamay, or I'll post a special article all about this uniquely Thai candy.  I may have a few updates on our Twitter and Facebook about the process of working out this story idea as the week goes on, and on next week's This Week In Candy, I'll let you know what I decide to do.

As you read above, this week's Snack Facts (out Instagram feed) is all about the bright orange chip we know and love, Doritos. This chip has a pretty fascinating history, and there's a lot out there that people don't know a lot about it.  Every day this week we'll post a new fact about this crunchy snack on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed. We'll also post our fun facts on our Twitter feed and Facebook page as well.

In keeping with our Dorito obsession, this week's review is of the classic nacho cheese flavour. It's one of those snacks that I've eaten many times since starting candycritic.org, but for some reason never thought about writing a review.  Click here to read the review, and find out why it's taken so long.

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Easter Greeting Cards From Candy Critic

Gummy Bear Gang Greeting Card by bewarethecheese
Shop for a different greeting card template online at zazzle

Hey gang, why not pick up a fun greeting card for that special someone this Easter.  Candy Critic has a whole bunch of designs for you to check out including this snazzy one.

Click here to check out the store to see a few more of our cards, t-shirts, and posters.

CC

Hey Jelly Belly!!! Some Flavour Ideas - Salty Snacks

Salty Snacks

For our last entry into our week long look at ideas for Jelly Belly flavours we're going to look at salty snacks.  Check back on some of our past ideas including Creams, Middle Eastern spices, candy bars, and Japanese snacks.

When I talk to people about Jelly Bellies, there is inevitably at least one person in any group that loves buttered popcorn Jelly Bellies.  I would probably fall into that group as well.  There's something rather strange about eating a savory Jelly Belly, particularly with the butter flavour.  This is why I think Jelly Belly should take a few more steps forward in this area.  Why stop at just popcorn when there are so many other savory snacks that would make great flavours for Jelly Bellies.

The first savory snack that came to mind when I thought up this selection was pretzel.  I think for the sake of this bean they should go for a German soft pretzel rather than a hard small pretzel.  The key to making this flavour work is the slight sweetness of the bread mixed with the subtle salty flavour of the rock salt.

The next flavour is one that could expand, and is probably the most vague of all of the Jelly Belly flavours that I've thought of.  In Canada we're well known for our many varieties of flavoured potato chips, and this trend is starting to spread widely.  I think a whole line of flavoured chips would work, however you could start with a classic (in my Canadian mind) salt and vinegar potato chips.  This chip would be a great sour, with a slight hint of sweet, and just a dash of salt flavour.  It would be one of the most complex of all of these flavours, but I think it would be pretty tasty.

I'm not sure how well this last of these savory snack themed Jelly Bellies would actually work, flavour wise, but I'm pretty sure it would be the one flavour to get headlines.  Doritos have been licencing their brand a lot over the last ten years or so, and Jelly Belly would be a great fit.  I imagine that the cheese flavour would either be a surprising success, or a disgusting failure.  Either way, I think many people would at the very least want to give them a try, myself included.

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Candy In the Media

I shall be singing this song tomorrow, and likely eating a cake.

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Hey Jelly Belly!!! Some Flavour Ideas - Creams

Creams

This week we've filled the blog with ideas for future Jelly Belly flavours, we started with Middle Eastern spices, then we went to Japanese snacks, yesterday it was candy bar flavours, today it'll be smooth and creamy.

Creams have been associated with fruits and cakes since the inception of desserts.  While some might argue that every cream is the same, I think Jelly Belly would be the perfect company to produce cream flavoured beans that each have their own subtle difference.  These beans on their own would be OK, but much like the Middle Eastern Spice beans, mixed with fruit and other sweet beans these would just elevate the flavour to a new level.  The real trick to these beans would be to keep them from being sweetened.  You don't want the cream bean to blend in too much with the other sweet flavoured beans, you want it to contrast it.

The sour cream Jelly Belly would have to be cool.  The idea of this bean would be to cool down the flavour of any other Jelly Belly that you've already eaten.  Not only would this bean work well while eating fruit flavoured Jelly Bellies, but it could work to help you wear off the effects of a Jelly Belly that's too spicy for your liking.

Clotted cream Jelly Bellies would have to be the most decadent of all the cream flavours.  The flavour would have to be strong and very rich in order to simulate the cream it's portraying.  Probably one or two clotted cream Jelly Bellies would be enough to balance out with a small handful of cherry Jelly Bellies.

Unlike the clotted cream Jelly Belly, the whipped cream Jelly Belly would have to be lighter.  This would be a bean that would never over power the fruit or sweet bean that it's mixed with.  Instead the whipped cream Jelly Belly would ad a subtle accent.

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Latest Episode of Junk Fud News is Online!

Just posted the latest episode of the Junk Fud podcast, Junk Fud News.  In this episode we look back at some of the new articles from the month of February from the Candy Critic Twitter feed.  Stay tuned later this month for more episodes of the Junk Fud podcast including a special Thai episode of Junk Fud On The Road.

Click here to listen to the latest episode of Junk Fud News.

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Hey Jelly Belly!!! Some Flavour Ideas - Candy Bars

Candy Bars

So far we've looked at two categories of Jelly Belly flavours that I think should exist, yesterday it was beans based on Japanese snacks, the day before Middle Eastern spices, today it's about working with other candy companies.

I seem to remember Jelly Belly having a few bean crossovers with soft drink brands in the past (and maybe present).  I'm pretty sure I've had a Dr Pepper Jelly Belly before.  I think expanding this idea is a great way to go.  Why stop at drinks, why not work tie inns with other candy brands.  I assume that Jelly Belly isn't really in competition with Kit Kat, as they're completely different kinds of candy.  This difference is what I think would make candy bar themed Jelly Bellies work so well.  I think visually you could decorate the beans with the package colour to make them more distinguishable.

Since it's my favourite candy bar, the first one I'd love to see is a Kit Kat inspired Jelly Belly.  I think the only challenge with this bean would be getting some kind of hint with the texture.  I'm not sure how you could simulate wafer without just adding wafers, but if anybody can do it, the folks at Jelly Belly can.

Snickers has the best option for gimmicks when it comes to making a Jelly Belly.  I think you could give the bean a chocolate/caramel flavour, then instead of adding peanut flavour, why not add real little chunks of real peanuts?  It would ad an interesting texture, and would insure that the peanut flavour was authentic.

Butter Finger would probably be the most difficult of all of these bars to re-create in a Jelly Belly form.  If they were willing, I would suggest that Jelly Belly look to their Canadian neighbours for help.  In Canada there's a similar bar to Butter Finger called Crispy Crunch, the two difference between these bars is the shape, and the nutty quality of the toffee.  The flavour of the Crispy Crunch is just so much nuttier, and I think that's what you'd need to sell the Butter Finger as a Jelly Belly.

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A "For My Birthday" Candy Thing

Over the last few weeks I've been posting Candy Things that I would love to get for my birthday.  No preasure, I mean it's not like I've ever bought you anything.  But if you feel like paying it forward for all of this free candy information I've been giving you, then maybe this would be a great way to do it.

This week I'm posting something that I think would benefit the whole world, a deep fryer.  There are two ways I think this would help the world.  First of all it would insure that I don't cause fires everywhere that I go.  I love deep frying, but at this point I'm strictly a pan deep fryer, and that can be dangerous.  Secondly I'm going to stop people from deep frying stupid things and eating them.  I'd do this by deep frying stupid things, eating them, then posting on the internet why it was such a stupid idea.

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Hey Jelly Belly!!! Some Flavour Ideas - Japanese Snacks

Japanese Snacks

All this week we're looking at some new ideas for flavours of Jelly Bellies.  Yesterday we looked at Middle Eastern spices, today it's all about Japanese snacks.

These Jelly Bellies would fall firmly in the middle of tasty candy and gimmick.  Japan is well known for their "weird" selection of candies, so I think this would be a trend that Jelly Belly could hope right on.  Two of these three flavours are not too odd to the North American pallette, and would therefore be a great way to start this line of beans.  There are also hundreds of other strange Japanese candies and snacks that could be turned into beans in the future.  This line would be never ending.

Of the three suggested flavours on this list, taiyaki would probably be the simplest to convert.  The only two issues I could think of with these beans would be the appearance of a fish (even though there is no fish or fish flavour in it), and the idea of red bean in a sweet.  If you've tasted red bean sweets before you'd know that it's not that strange at all, but some might be a little nervous about trying these taiyaki Jelly Bellies for the first time.

Mochi might be one of the weirder ideas I've thought of for Jelly Bellies so far.  It's not strange because the flavour is so powerful, it's strange because the flavour is so weak.  Moochi is just a ball of stick rice that has been pounded so many times that it turns into a sticky ball of goo.  The flavour of Moochi is what you might expect, like that of unflavoured rice.  I've tried it a few times, and each time I keep expecting to find some kind of bold flavour, but I never do.  While this is a strange flavour to choose for a Jelly Belly, it is a popular treat in Japan, and should not be left off the list.

The first two flavours of Japanese Jelly Bellies I feel could be fairly manageable for the average North American, but salted plums might be a little extreme for many.  A real salted plum tastes like a cross between sea water, sour powder from gummy candies, with a slight hint of plum.  The first time you try it is often a bad experience.  Japanese people claim that the taste grows on you, so maybe getting a big bag of salted plum Jelly Bellies is a good idea.

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