Candy In The Media - I'm Not Sure That This Kit Kat Commercial Is Politically Correct

This Kit Kat Chunky commercial made me feel a little uncomfortable, I won't say why, I'll let you figure that out for yourself.

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The Candy Critic's Thanksgiving Candy Ideas That Should Exist

There are so many flavours associated with Thanksgiving, and many have crossed over to the snacking world. Pumpkin spice is probably the most popular flavour right now, but there are also many potato chips flavoured with inspirations from this holiday as well. I seem to remember Jones Soda pulled off Thanksgiving flavours at one point, and people went nuts over them. I personally think we need more snacks with the awesome flavours of Thanksgiving, but I’m not just going to complain about it.

Instead I’m designing a few Thanksgiving candy and snack creations, and best of all for the candy/snack companies out there, I’m giving the concepts away. I invite any snack or candy company to use these ideas, all I ask in return is that you send me some samples. I’ll even post a review on candycritic.org.

Sweet Potato Marshmallows

The connection between sweet potatoes and marshmallows is a weird one. I don’t know how it started,  but I can’t deny that it works. One of the thing it taught me is that sweet potatoes work well in sweets. In Asia sweet potato candies are common, but not in North America. That’s why I think introducing a sweet potato candy in North America around Thanksgiving makes sense. If you tie it with marshmallows it just could be the novelty candy that people grow to love.

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Pop Tarts

The idea of a savoury Pop Tart is due. McDonald’s in Asia have been selling savoury pies for years, and what is a Pop Tart other than a flat pie. I think theming it to Thanksgiving would be a great way to introduce this concept, and mash potatoes and gravy would be the perfect flavour and texture combination. You could fill the pie with the mashed potatoes and then make a nice gravy (unsweetened) topping. After that the sky’s the limit, chicken pot pie, pizza, so many choices.

Cranberry Bubble Gum

Of all the concepts I’m presenting today, I think cranberry gum is the most logical and least intimidating. It’s so logical that I wouldn’t be surprised if someone mentions in the comments that it already exists. I think cranberry could easily become the flavour of Thanksgiving much like pumpkin spice, this way we’d have a flavour to put between pumpkin spice and peppermint/candy cane.

Turkey Spice Corn Bread Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

This next idea requires a little bit of imagination. Take your a average store bought cupcake, like a Hostess Cupcake, and flip it around. Go savoury over sweet, and use some Thanksgiving flavours. To start, get rid of the cake and go cornbread instead. Then take the spices one normally uses in turkey stuffing, and flavour your cornbread. If you so choose, maybe fill it with mashed potatoes as well. Next, top this cake off with some savoury cream cheese. I think this would be a fun play on pumpkin spice, and done well could actually work. Having said that, if it does work, and Starbucks makes a frappuccino flavoured with Turkey Spice, I claim no responsibility.

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Tom's Look At The Visual Side Of Christmas Snacks And Candy - Christmas Haul Part 1

Aaah, Christmas time! This is the time of year when companies pull out all the stops to make tempting treats for dazzled eyes! Here are but a few seen recently while shopping...

This is the first time I’ve seen this item. It is a log cabin to build using Kit Kat bars. It’s a fun twist on the traditional gingerbread house. A second visit to the store revealed that Smarties are also involved in the bundle. The photograph I took shows the charming graphics of the bear outside the cabin. It may be his alternative to hibernating in a cave!

The second photo is of two Lindt Lindor treats of a massive proportion! It may not be apparent in the picture but these babies are the size of basketballs! If you are told you have to cut back on sweets and can have only one treat this season, maybe keep this monster in mind! If they’re as good as the regular size Lindors, it’s a win!!

Finally, a local grocery store has a sizable Lindt display that includes the brochure in the third photograph. This is an example of what my sister jokingly refers to as “chocolate porn”. On specifically selected paper stock with high quality printing, paper after page of chocolate Lindt products are temptingly laid out for daydreaming and list-making. Just look at the Lindt treats adorning the cake on the cover!!The season has just begun, folks! Hang in there and pace yourself. Don’t forget the New Year’s promise of copious regular exercise!

Cheers
Tom

Make sure to check out Tom's amazing art on his Instagram feed.
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It's A New Episode Of Junk Fud On The Road, and It's All About Malaysia

In this episode of Junk Fud on the Road, Chris and Allison talk about their quick adventure in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was a very interesting place to visit, and the taps was amazing.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to keep up with all our adventures as they happen.

You can also follow us on Patreon where you get a bunch of bonus content, and maybe even some candy.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Taco Train

You wouldn't think that there would be a way to make Tacos more entertaining, but here we are.

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I Love Candy That Looks Like Other Food - Burger Gum "Ketchup - Like Liquid Filled"

The thing about candy that looks like other food, is that it has to look good too. Looking good does not mean that it has to look exactly like the food it's trying to imitate. I'm okay if a candy looks like a cartoon version of a food, anything, as long as when I see it I think about whatever food it's trying to imitate. Sometimes the package over hypes a candy that's supposed to look like another food, then when you open it up, you're  wondering how anyone would think that this candy looks like anything other than a candy.

Click here to read this week's review of a candy that is supposed to look like a food.

Also be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to find out about other things we're eating.

Be sure to check out our Patreon page too.

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Candy In The Media - A Kit Kat Commercial From The Country That Changed Kit Kat Forever, Japan

I'm not sure that this is a great commercial, I assume that the huge popularity of Kit Kat in Japan comes from the crazy flavours, and not the clever advertising campaign.

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Tom's Look At The Visual Side Of Christmas Snacks And Candy - Lip Pops Lollipops "Rudolph"

Hohoho! Who’s ready for the holidays? Well, it’s landing in a commercial sense already, so buckle up, folks! It’s not all reason to grumble though! Some of the fun is visiting with old familiar faces once again. Relatives and family, sure but what I really mean is seeing old characters from classic Christmas tv specials! One of the greats from my childhood is the Rankin/Bass “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” that was made in the mid-Sixties. It is a fantastic stop-motion animated story with new characters like Yukon Cornelius, the Abominable Snowman and Hermy (one of Santa’s elves who really wants to be a dentist) added to the tale told in the song. If you haven’t seen it, I warn you of a *spoiler* in today’s column! Go watch it and come back later!!

You’re back? Great! So, above is a header from a box that displays Lip Pops connected to the show. One is a snout of Rudolph the other is the teeth of the Abominable Snowman! Fun, right? Well, in the photo on the header, the manufacturer of the treat has chosen the moment when “Bumble” (as nicknamed by Yukon) realizes he’s had ALL HIS TEETH REMOVED by amateur, aspiring dentist elf Hermy. That’s right! A truly horrific, traumatic moment for the beast is used to help sell candy!

Fortunately, the package of the treat shows Bumble in all his toothy glory! When I was a kid, I’d have wanted the Abominable Snowman chompers really badly!! There’s a good chance I may buy it before the season is done! If I do, I will send Candy Critic a Bumble/Tom selfie!

Happy Holidays!

Tom

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Candy Critic Eats Food, A Restaurant Review - DC Super Heroes Cafe

For those of you who may not know me, not only do I love snacks, candy and junk food, but I’m also a bit of a comic book nerd. Before Candy Critic even existed, I had been reading comic books, and I even spent a few years working in a comic book store as a teenager. When I was a comic book reader, my publishing company of choice was DC comics. I know today DC has fallen behind Marvel comics in popularity (particularly with the movies), but I don’t consider myself that hip, so I don’t feel like I have to be down with what the kids are into.

With my love and fond memories of DC comics, you can only imagine how I felt when I was in Singapore recently and I stumbled across the DC Super Heroes Café. I had not read about this place in any of the guide books, nor had I heard about other branches of this café anywhere else in the world. Allison and I were just walking through a mall (mostly to cool down) and we came across this amazing place.

I’m going to assume that this place is fully licenced by the folks at Warner Brothers, and that each piece of merchandise and the menu items are fully endorsed by the company who owns these characters. I don’t know this for a fact, but there is one detail that really made me believe that whomever built this place had permission. Most of the time when you see unlicensed things in certain countries, you find discrepancies in the details.  For example, when I’ve come across unlicensed toys in the past, they often mix up the DC and Marvel universe, and you’ll see a Batman toy packaged with a Spiderman toy. This wasn’t the case at the DC Super Heroes Café, it was all on brand and very on the mark.

For the start of my review we’ll talk about how the DC Super Heroes Café is laid out and decorated. The place is split into two sections, the restaurant and the store. The store is pretty much full of all kinds of DC related toys, merchandise and art work. Some of it is very expensive, other things are more reasonable. There was nothing that you wouldn’t find in an average comic book shop, if all that comic book shop sold was DC merchandise, and no comics. The store (and parts of the restaurant) was also filled with life sized statues of various comic book characters, mostly from DC movie tie-ins. I’m not sure if these were for sale, but I’m sure the price tag was way out of my range.

The restaurant side was half take out bakery and half sit down restaurant. When we first approached the place, we just looked at the various cakes and drinks available at the front counter and didn’t really think about actually eating there. The restaurant side is not really cohesive in its design, and kind of looks like a bunch of comics from the 70s exploded everywhere (take that as you want to). The lack of cohesive design of the restaurant indicates to me that this might be the only one of these in existence, and that the person who opened this place has deep pockets to pay for licences, and not an eye for design. The lack of cohesive design actually made the place kind of fun, but also made it a little confusing.

The other thing that made this place confusing is the menu. Which we eventually decided was worth checking out after looking over the items for sale in the bakery case. When you think about a comic book café, you might think about trying some of the famous foods that might appear in comic books. I would want to eat a hamburger that Superman might enjoy, or a meal that might be served at Wayne Manor. Instead the dishes are just random diner foods with DC comics puns added into the name and all kinds of logos thrown all over them (mostly made of processed cheese and cut vegetables).  Things like the “Clarks Kent’s Crevettes Carbonara” and the “Doomsday Chicken and Waffles” were what was on offer. It didn’t really feel like there was a story behind these dishes, only “clever” puns and lots of logos.

There were also several drinks and cakes with puns in the name, and many of them also had colour themes that would go with the character that was part of the pun. Or in the case of the cakes, they were decorated with logos and colours, and some designs that would associate with the characters. I will give this place credit; they made some deep cuts when it came to the characters they chose to associate with the foods. Most restaurants would only use the characters that might have made it to the mainstream or in the movies, but this place had no trouble dealing with some of the more obscure characters including Bizarro and Mr Mxyzptlk.

I also like the fact that the restaurant was clearly interested in the comics and not the movies. The walls were decorated with comic book pages featuring the origins of some of the more popular DC characters. The chairs and the tables were all decorated with character logos from the comics. The colours everywhere were just bright and comic book like. Visually this restaurant was a feast for the eyes, but the food…

As described above, the food is basic diner food, it’s nothing fancy and nothing that creative. I ordered the Doomsday Chicken and Waffles, and Allison got the Batman Burger (that came in an amazing box). Both are meals were fine, but not amazing. I felt like the chicken and waffles was made by someone who had never actually eaten chicken and waffles before. It came with maple syrup on the side, but was already covered in nacho cheese sauce. I’m not an expert in chicken and waffles, but I’m pretty sure nacho cheese is not a part of it. Allison enjoyed her burger, but felt it was a little overpriced for what it was.

The experience of eating at this place is far more fun than the food itself. I feel like this place was designed by someone who really loves DC Super Heroes, but doesn’t really understand how to tie it into a restaurant. As I mentioned before, it was not cheap. I feel like we were paying for the licensing of the characters more than the food (if I find out that this place is not licensed than there’s no excuse at all). I’m glad I tried it once, but I don’t see myself ever going back, except maybe just to browse the store.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Avocado Pool Float

I don't often use the word genius, but the person who thought of making the pit of this avocado pool float a removable beach ball is truly a genius. I'm not sure how one nominated someone for a Nobel Prize, but if I knew this person would get my nomination. It's probably a good thing that I don't know how to do such things.

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An Octopus Themed, Ice Cream Treat From Thailand - Paddle Pop "Octopus"

We just got back from Thailand, and while I picked up a pretty good selection of treats, I was most excited about the one we're posting today. It was unique in both theme and texture, but bland on taste. This isn't something I would say is common in Thai snacks (or any Thai food for that matter), but it still feels very Thai to me.

Click here to read about this strange Thai ice cream treat.

Make sure to check out our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds for some more previews of some of our Thailand junk food finds.

Also be sure to check out our Patreon page for a whole bunch of bonus material.

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Candy In The Media - A Clever Chance The Wrapper Kit Kat

I love a good pun (just check out the homepage on Candy Critic), and so I love the idea of cross promoting Chance the Rapper, on a wrapper.

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It's The Video Where I Eat Strange Foods - Tamago Gani (Dried Little Crabs)

I'm going to make a statement that I think a few of you will not like, in fact many of you  might completely disagree with me, there are no good seafood snacks on the market. I can't think of one fish flavoured snack or candy that works. The only exception is candy and snacks that are shaped like seafood, but to not taste like seafood. If I'm wrong, please tell me what I should be trying.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Bacon Bandage

I've always thought that my first aid kit was lacking in pork products, now all we need is a pulled pork salve.

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Wafer Bars Are Tough, And This Review Proves It - Tivoli Combo

I have a love hate relationship with wafer based bars. Some of my favourite bars in the world are wafer based, however there seem to be more failures than successes in this style of candy bar. I'm not sure why this is, I don't think that wafers have a complicated flavour, and they also add a great texture. My guess is that wafers are cheap to purchase, so if you want to make a cheap bar, use wafers to take up space. What happens then is most cheap candy bars choose to use wafers, and they use them poorly.

Click here to read why this particular wafer bar didn't really work.

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Candy In The Media - The Kit Kat I Remember

This is the commercial that sold me on Kit Kat when I was a kid/teenager. Objectively it's not a great commercial, but that song is still stuck in my head so many years later.

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Classic Candies I Haven’t Reviewed And Why - Part 2

Lucky Elephant Popcorn - I've always been a little bit nervous about reviewing Lucky Elephant Popcorn. I've always had fond childhood memories of this treat, but I'm not sure it actually holds up on its own. I'm thinking that if I break down Lucky Elephant Popcorn, and look at it objectively, it's just sweet, bland popcorn. Sure it's bright pink, but is that enough?


Regular Lays or Ruffles, or Pringles - Every time I find myself in a store, facing the wall of potato chips, I always seem to find a flavour so interesting, or weird that I have to try it. I do eat regular potato chips, but only at parties, and almost always with some kind of dip. Some day I might have to go out and specifically buy plain potato chips to review, but only after I've exhausted all the other amazing flavours available.


Hot Tamales - I don't like spicy food. I see Hot Tamales as the quintessential spicy candy. It's not the hottest candy out there, but it's really the grandfather of hot candies. I actually think candies that are hotter than Hot Tamales are more interesting to me because I'm curious as to how hot they really are. Hot Tamales are hot enough that I'm scared to eat them, but not hot enough to make me interested.


Cherry PEZ - I've reviewed three flavours of PEZ so far, orange, grape and lemon. I've enjoyed each one of these flavours, but cherry has been my favourite flavour since childhood. The reason I've never reviewed cherry PEZ is because I've haven't selected the flavour of a package of PEZ for as long as I've been doing this site. Any PEZ candies that I've reviewed on this site came with a PEZ dispenser. I guess it's just been my luck so far (or maybe they never package PEZ dispensers with cherry PEZ), but I have not tasted cherry PEZ in years.

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I'm Thinking Again, And Eating Breakfast

In this episode of Chris's Monthly Morning Breakfast Thoughts, I drink a really weird blue drink. I also talk about the candy and junk food news from the last month, as well as the new updates on candycritic.org.

Make sure to check out our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram feed to find out about all the stuff we mentioned on this episode.

If you followed us on Patreon than you'd already have seen this video a few days ago.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Bob Ross Cereal

Last week we featured Bob Ross Energy Drink, this week it seemed appropriate to show you the Bob Ross Cereal. One might imagine that Bob Ross ate a lot of granola, so a cereal makes sense. A sugar cereal doesn't make as much sense, but I'd be more likely to eat it.

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We're Going To Be Reviewing Kit Kat Bars This Week - Kit Kat "Japanese"

In celebration of the new and improved candycritic.org, I've decided to do a review-a-thon that I've been thinking about for a while now. This week we're going to be posting a new Kit Kat review every single day, the twist is that each of these Kit Kat bars are milk chocolate. None of them have any kind of fancy flavours, they're all plain milk chocolate.

Most of the Kit Kat reviewed will be from different parts of the world, with one exception. One of them is from North America, but it apparently contains "100% sustainable sourced cocoa", a claim that our current Canadian Kit Kat bar review can't make. The point of this week's review-a-thon is to see if Kit Kat bars are any different depending on where and how they're made. Today's review is proof that there are some big differences that may or may not improve this classic bar.

Click here to read this first milk chocolate Kit Kat bar review.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to keep up with this week's review-a-thon.

Also check out our Patreon page to find out about other review-a-thons we have planned.

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Candy In The Media - Slurpee Sipping

If you're a fan of Slurpees, Stranger Things, and you have a lot of time on your hands, then sit back and enjoy.

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