Birthday Wish List Part 5 - Jell-O Slime

I would trust this kind of product from a company like Jell-O. After all they pretty much invented the tasty treat with a weird texture industry.

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Birthday Wish List Part 6 - Oreo Music Box

This invention is pretty much the definition of playing with your food.



Check out this video sample too.

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Birthday Wish List Part 7 - Batman Serving Dish

I wish I could say that this would be a subtle way to bring my love of comics to some of the fancy parties we host, but it's not subtle at all.

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Birthday Wish List Part 8 - Candy Land

With my love of candy and board games you'd think that I would already have a copy of Candy Land, but I don't. I like this version most of all because it's the retro version.

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It's Been A Little While, But We're Back With A New M&M's Review

With our trip to Canada over, it's time we collect all the treats we got and start the arduous task of writing the reviews. Most people assume that writing the reviews is the best part of this job, but it's not. Hunting for new treats to review is fun, and even better is tasting the treats. The problem is sitting down after eating a treat and putting into words what I just ate. Sometimes it's not too hard to come up with words to describe how I feel about a particular treat, this new review is just that case. While it's a little more complicated than I expected, there was plenty to talk about.

Click here to find out what we thought of this M&M's variant.

Also make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to check out what we've been doing lately.

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Birthday Wish List Part 9 - Feed My Ego, Buy Me A Shirt

Candy Critic Chris By Tom Yeo T-Shirt
by candycritic

I'm not proud of myself, but if you bought me a shirt from the Candy Critic store, I'd be really happy. I'd even be happy if you bought one for yourself too. Maybe you could consider one of these new designs by my good friend Tom Yeo.

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My Birthday Wish List Part 10 - I Like Star Wars

You could pretty much get me anything Star Wars related and I'll be happy. Get me something that's both Star Wars related and candy related and I'm overjoyed.

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Canadian Candy In The Media - It's A Secret

It's funny, I've never thought about how other candies are made, but for some reason the folks at Caramilk convinced us that we had to know how they made their bar. I think if I find a Caramilk  bar on this trip, I'm going to drink the caramel out with a straw.

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Sometimes In Life You Make Mistakes...

Why Would You Eat That?!! T-Shirt
by candycritic

I do it regularly on Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! and Tom Yeo found a great way to illustrate this horrible situation.

Click here to check out our other t-shirt designs.

You can also check out all the episodes of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! here.

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Canadian Candy In The Media - I Wunder?

I love Wunderbars, I love them a lot. For a while they were my go to bar. Last time I was in Canada they were really hard to find. I hope I'm eating one right now.

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I Like This T-Shirt

Candy Critic Chris By Tom Yeo T-Shirt
by candycritic

What better way to say "I love candy" then picking up this great looking shirt designed by the amazing illustrator Tom Yeo.

Have other sweet thoughts you want to express via t-shirt, check out the other designs in our store.

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Happy Valentine’s Day, We Have A New Review... Sort Of.

As you know we’re not home right now, and I’m unable to post reviews the regular way on candycritic.org . The thing is I found the perfect Valentine’s Day candy to review. So rather than just skipping it all together, I’m going to post the review here on the blog for now, and when I get home I’ll post the regular way too.  So sit back and enjoy the...

Jelly Belly “Conversation Beans” Review

Made by: Jelly Belly

The point of this candy is simple. It’s kind of an homage or maybe a parody of conversation hearts made by Necco. As a novel version of this classic treat these are perfectly acceptable. Each bean had a different message on it, most of the messages were one word and all of the ones I found were positive. There wasn’t anything dirty or negative as a joke bean which was nice. In general I found the idea of these beans to be a total success.

Where these beans fell down a bit was in the flavour. Before even eating them I was surprised to read that all of the flavours were sour. I don’t really associate sour fruit with romance, in particular sour grapes seems pretty negative. After tasting them it turns out that they’re actually not that sour at all either. So they market something that doesn’t make sense, then they kind of failed at it. The fruit flavours were also not that great, and none of them tasted much like the fruit they claimed to be. The flavours were not unpleasant, but other than the cherry they were very generic. I did however really enjoy them when I ate all the flavours together.

Texture wise they were what you would expect from Jelly Bellies. In general I think these were a slightly gimmicky candy, but appropriate for Valentine’s Day. I wouldn’t seek these out for any other reason than it would make a nice gift for a jelly bean fan on Valentine’s Day.

Taste 3

Texture 3.5

Novelty 3.5

5 Strange Candy Choices For Valentines Day - Part 5 - Snickers Hearts

Of all the candies we've featured on this list of strange choices for Valentine's Day, this one is probably the most personal. I say this not because I have a grudge with Snickers, in fact I really love Snicker's bars, and might even be eating one right now. I just personally don't find Snicker's to be very romantic. If I had to give it a feeling, I think it might be tough. When I associate Snickers with a memory it often involves Betty White getting tackled in a football game and not a first kiss or memorable date.

I guess these might be OK since they're heart shaped, but I'm still not sure how I feel about the candy that makes me feel more manly being used as a way to romance.

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It's A New Episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! And A New Review - Umeboshi

Today is a special day, today we have a new episode of  Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! and a new review. The reason we're posting a new review and a new episode is because they're one in the same. It's all about a very particular Japanese candy known as Umeboshi. In English it's basically a salty plum. In this episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! I not only sample this odd delight, but I try to improve upon it. Spoilers, it doesn't go well.

If you want to find out a bit more about this treat, I also wrote a full review. The review goes into a bit more detail and lets me reflect on this odd treat with a bit more thought. It doesn't improve it by any means, but I do think about why I don't like it.

Click here to read this review.

We're out of town right now, so make sure to check out our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds to find out what we're up to.

You can also follow us on YouTube as we might be dropping a few videos from our trip as well.

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5 Strange Candy Choices For Valentines Day - Part 4 - Fun Dip Valentine Mystery Flavor

I don't really associate Fun Dip with Valentine's Day. Sure you could probably find a sexual innuendo in there, but it's not very romantic. The candy itself is also a little strange when you're sharing with someone you love.  Licking a paddle with powder stuck to it is not like feeding your loved one a nice chocolate out of a heart shaped box.

The other detail that's a little odd for Valentine's Day is the "Mystery Flavor" part of this candy. Nothing says romance like eating something that can't be identified.

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5 Strange Candy Choices For Valentines Day - Part 3 - Sour Patch Kids Conversation Hearts Candy

I've never been a fan of conversation hearts as a gift on Valentine's Day. It's not that some of the messages aren't sweet, and they could be the perfect way to say "I love you". The problem is the risque that comes with these hearts. Many candy companies like to mix it up a bit and put sassy and or insult messages on some hearts. If you give your loved one the wrong heart it could ruin Valentine's Day for everyone.

The reason these are particularly strange is because you not only have the risque of getting the wrong message out, but you're also giving that person you love a sour candy. For me sour is a great treat to eat, but not really that romantic.  I also find those Sour Patch Kids to be somewhat mischievous, and that doesn't jive well with this holiday either.

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Opening Footage For My Canadian Video

We’re still here in Canada and I’m collecting all kinds of treats, photos and videos. I’m working on a piece about the food in Canada that I feel represents Canada to me, and I found the perfect piece of footage for then start of the video.

Click here to check out this great footage.

Make sure to keep up with all our Canadian adventures on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram too.

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5 Strange Candy Choices For Valentines Day - Part 2 - Junior Mints Chocolate Hearts Shaped Candy

I'm not going to judge Junior Mints as a bad choice for Valentine's Day. There's nothing wrong with giving someone chocolates on this holiday. The fact that they're shaped like hearts also plays into their favour as being a very appropriate sweet gift on this holiday. The thing I find strange is that it appears that some of the hearts have a blood red center.

I always assume that the heart symbolism used on Valentine's Day is not related to the heart you have in your body pumping blood. In general I think it's best to avoid the comparisons. No one wants a bloody heart for Valentine's Day... right?

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5 Strange Candy Choices For Valentines Day - Part 1 - Valentines Day Poop Emoji Pooper Candy

I thought I would start this list of really strange candy choices for Valentine's Day with the most extreme example I could find. I know the poop emoji is very popular, and I know some people find it cute, I just don't understand how one would want to associate it with a holiday about love and togetherness (not to be judgemental or anything).

I'm also going to call this one out a little because technically the candy is just small red and pink candies and the poop is really just a toy.... hmmm,  never thought "poop is really just a toy" would ever be words used in this blog.

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Canadian Candy In The Media - Red Smarties

When I was a kid there was a strange obsession with eating red Smarties (British/Canadian Smarties). Frankly I always found the purple and brown ones to be the most fascinating. I'm probably stuffing a whole box of them in my mouth right now.

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More Canadian Junk Food Footage

While we’re here in Canada we’re compiling a list of our favourite must have Canadian Junk food. We’ll be putting together a video all about it when we’re back home. For now though we’re sharing some of the random footage we’re collecting of each of our selections. Today is all about poutine.

Click here to check out the poutine footage.

Make sure to keep up with all our Canadian trip shenanigans on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well.

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Even Thinking About This T-Shirt Makes Me A Little Ill

Why Would You Eat That?!! T-Shirt
by candycritic

It's not that the design is bad, in fact Tom Yeo's design is amazing, it just brings back the memories of eating things that really shouldn't have.

Check out the other cool designs we have here.

You can also check out all the past episodes of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! here.

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Happy Chinese New Year

I was wandering through my local market when I came across this really strange thing. The sign in the store had the words “mochi” on it. Mochi is a popular Asian treat made from pounded glutinous rice. Since this was a grocery store and it said “mochi”, I assumed it was some kind of treat in a really creative package. I took it home and filmed this video.

The packaging was really unique and I had an interesting time opening it up for this movie. You’ll also notice that each mochi were individually packaged. What I didn’t expect was the texture of the mochi. Normally mochi is very soft and sticky, this on the other hand was hard and plastic like. You’ll see that I cut one in half for the video, it was no easy task. After shooting the video I took a bite of one, and I couldn’t sink my teeth through it at all. I’m not convinced these are eatable.

I think they might be fake mochi, in a really ornate package, to give as an offering for a shrine. Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I don’t think I’ll attempt to eat them again.

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It's Monday!!!! We Don't Have A New Review, But We Do Have An Episode Of Chris's Monthly Morning Breakfast Thoughts

Sorry about the lack of new reviews over the next little while, but we're in Canada right now. We're visiting friends and family, and also going crazy eating nostalgic food and drink. It's been a while since we've been back home, so  you can imagine how we might want to get back some of the flavours of our past.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all our adventures in the great white north.

We're also hoping to post on YouTube while we're here, so make sure to subscribe.

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We’re Putting Together A Video About Our Favourite Canadian Foods

One of the projects I want to do is list 5 of the food things that remind me of home (Canada). So while I’m here I’m going to film some random footage while I’m enjoying all these things that remind me of home. The first stop was Swiss Chalet and my favourite quarter chicken dinner with extra dipping sauce. When I get back home I’ll edit all the random footage together and talk about why these places are so Canadian.

Click here to check out the footage from Swiss Chalet.

And make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to keep up with our adventures in the great white north.

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Canadian Candy In The Media - OHHHHHHHHHHH

While I'm in Canada, I figured I'd look at some of the classic candy commercials from some of my favourite Canadian candies.  I can pretty much guarantee that I'm going to eat at least one Oh Henry bar while I'm here.

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