Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Cherry Starburst

The "best" flavour of Starburst is a very divisive debate in the candy world. I believe this is because even the worst Starburst flavour (at least in their standard package) is still great. Personally I think cherry is just a bit better than the rest, but I'm willing to hear you out if you disagree.

CC

Monday, March 30, 2020

The Candy Bar Toronto – A Sweet Shop in my Home Town

Over the next little while, we’re going to feature candy stores all over the world that are bringing a little bit of sweetness into the world right now. Today we’re going to check out a sweet shop with heart, from my home town of Toronto, Ontario (that’s Canada eh).
I’ve been following The Candy Bar Toronto on social media for a while now and there’s just something really fun about this shop.
They have a local following that just loves them, and that all comes from the amazing personalities of the people who run it.
It’s great to see a candy store that’s all about fun, and it reflects in all the candy treats that they sell.
Right now, they’re not letting anybody into the store (for health and safety reasons), but they’re accepting online and curb-side orders, and making sure that their community is still smiling. If you’re in Toronto, and need a sweet fix, make sure to place an order and stop by. Even if you’re not in Toronto , they ship across Canada too. Follow them on Instagram to see pictures that will warm your heart. You can check out their website at thecandybar.ca.

(ED – This is not a paid advertisement, we here at Candy Critic want to help the local candy shops in this very difficult time. If you’re feeling down, and you need a little sweet treat, make sure to visit the website of your local candy shop, and consider placing an order, many are still open for curbside pick up or delivery. If you run a small sweet, snack or dessert shop, let us know, we’ll be happy to feature you on this blog and on our social media to let people know you’re still open for business.)

It's Fazer Time And We All Need a Little Fazer Right Now - Karl Fazer "Blueberry Truffle"

I think the world needs a little something that makes them happy. First and foremost we need to be health and safe, but I think being happy is the key to both of those. In this case I think I need a little Fazer chocolate in my life right now, so that's why we have today's new candy review, it just makes me happy.

If you're feeling a little down, and you think a sweet fix will help, stay tuned to this blog, or our social media, because we're shining the spotlight on places that are making the world a little sweeter right now. There are many candy, treat, and dessert stores that are still open, and ready to safely deliver a sweet treat to your front door (or curbside pickup). If you run a candy or treat store, let us know, we'll be happy to give you a shout out (for free), to help you get through these strange times.

Click here to read are review about this Fazer treat.

If you want some sweet positivity over the next little while, consider following us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

CC

Friday, March 27, 2020

Pops Sweets an Treats – A Local Candy Store in Michigan

Over the next little while we’re going to feature candy stores all over the world that are bringing a little bit of sweetness into the world right now. We’re going to start with our friends at Pops Sweets an Treats in Mt Clemens, Michigan (USA).
This fun retro candy store is not only a place to buy candy, but it’s a destination.
They not only have a huge selection of bulk treats, but they have regular visitors to entertain the kids.
Pops Sweets an Treats also knows that it’s important to support the community, and they do their best to make sure everyone in the area is a little happier, and they’re always trying to make the world a better place to be.
While the doors are closed right now, because they want to make sure they’re keeping their community safe and following the local guideline, they still offer sweet treats for sale on their website.

So, make sure to check out popssweetsantreat.com (or facebook.com/popssweetsantreats) to see what they have for sale, and help support a fun retro candy shop trying to make the world a little sweeter right now.

(ED – This is not a paid advertisement, we here at Candy Critic want to help the local candy shops in this very difficult time. If you’re feeling down, and you need a little sweet treat, make sure to visit the website of your local candy shop, and consider placing an order, many are still open for curbside pick up or delivery. If you run a small sweet, snack or dessert shop, let us know, we’ll be happy to feature you on this blog and on our social media to let people know you’re still open for business.)

Candy In The Media - Starburst Is Just Creepy


This might be the creepiest candy commercial I've ever seen.

CC

Thursday, March 26, 2020

An In-depth Look at Which Flavour in a Classic Package of Starburst is the Best Flavour

While there are several special editions varieties of Starburst taffy candies, the classic, or original flavours are lemon, strawberry, orange and cherry. The point of this article is not to review Starburst, you can go here to read my review of original Starbursts, the point of this article is to look at each flavour individually and pick out the best one. This is a debate that has been going on in the candy world for generations, and I don’t think that this article is going to solve anything, I’m hoping it’s just another footnote in the great debate.

I’m going to look at the original Starburst candies in several ways, then take this information to attempt to make a rating. Keep in mind that this is the workings of a man that is obsessed with candy, and not any kind of final decision. Most of the opinions expressed in this article are mine, except for the part with the informal pole, where I asked several other candy fanatics to list their favourite in order.

There are only two reasons that the information from the article will be of any use to anybody. It might be useful to a person if they’ve never tried Starburst before, and for some strange reason decided that they will only purchase a bulk package of the candy containing only one flavour. That, or it might be useful to someone who likes candy and is really bored, or wants to find something to disagree with on the internet. Let’s start by taking a look at the colour of the candy.

Colour

The idea of this category is to simply look at the candies colour and see how much it evokes the flavour, as well as how appetizing the candy looks. When I say how much the colour evokes the flavour, I don’t mean how much it looks like fruit (more on that later), but instead how much it reminds me of the fruit.

Lemon – Yellow and lemon are pretty easy to put together. This is a fairly bright yellow and it makes me feel like the flavour of this candy is going to be strong, and maybe a just a little sour. It’s bright and it’s fun.




Orange – The orange is well… orange. It’s kind of a no brainer to make this orange, but I feel like it could have been just a little bit deeper an orange colour. It doesn’t make me think of fruit explosion, just simple orange.





Cherry – My memories of cherry Starburst have them being much deeper in colour than these are. Sure, they seem red in colour, but similar to the orange, the red just doesn’t seem to jump out at me.






Strawberry – This pink seems like it’s kind of muted. It seems like this should be a strawberry and cream flavour, and not just strawberry. I think that there are deeper or brighter pinks available to use in candy colouring. I just feel like this colour of pink reminds me of an un-ripened strawberry, and not a juicy ripe one.



Flavour


Cherry – When I started the idea of writing this article, I kept telling myself to keep an open mind, and look at each flavour with fresh eyes. I kept remembering cherry as being my favourite flavour as a kid, but I wanted to give the other flavours a chance. I tried, I really did, but these cherry Starbursts are really the best of the best in the original Starburst lineup.

Orange – Orange is never my favourite flavour, but it’s also the flavour that I never hate either. I always think of it as middle of the road. It's a fine flavour, but it's not impressive, or that much different than any other orange flavoured candy out there. I’m enjoying this Starburst, but it’s not wowing me.
Strawberry – It’s in my nature to like red candies more than the others, with the exception of watermelon and red apple flavoured candies. This one on the other hand doesn’t really stand up to some of the others. I feel like they’re really watering the flavour down with some kind of creamy flavour. If they called it a strawberry and cream Starburst, I’d probably like it more, but then it wouldn’t fit into this collection of flavours.

Lemon – I’m kind of surprised but I don’t really like the lemon flavoured Starburst. I feel like there’s something missing, something like a zing of flavour. I think if the lemon was just a little more tart it would taste a little bit better. For now, it just tastes like it’s trying to be flavourful, but it just stops short.

How the Flavour Compares to the Real Fruit

Orange – The problem with orange candies, and that includes these Starbursts, is that there’s a reference as old as time that we can relate to the flavour, Tang. Orange has been one of the fruit flavours that they’ve been manufacturing the longest, and rather than improve it, there seems to be an acceptance of this fairly fake flavour as being orange. If you think about it, there is something kind of orange about it, but I don’t think I could call it one hundred percent orange.
Lemon – This lemon Starburst tastes almost nothing like a lemon. This is probably a good thing since lemons are so sour that it’s hard for most people to enjoy the flavour. This tastes more like a candy with a slight essence of fake lemon flavour.

Cherry – These fall into a very unique category, they don’t really taste like any kind of real cherry, but I associate the flavour that they are with cherries. It’s a strong fruity flavour that for some reason I would call cherry, but compared to real cherries, it’s not that close. It’s more like a fruit punch than anything else.

Strawberry – This taste nothing like strawberries at all. It tastes like some kind of creamy, but slightly sour fruit punch. I would have a hard time picking this flavour out as Strawberry unless I’m given the context that I’m eating Starbursts (because this flavour is so connected to strawberry Starburst).

Other People’s Opinions

In order to find out which Starburst people liked the most, I informally asked people on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Reddit, which one they liked most. I eliminated all those who just picked one or two flavours, as that would skew the results. I will say that most people who only voted on one flavour voted for Cherry, so I guess that says something about people who like Cherry Starbursts the most. Had they actually answered the question in full, it might have changed the results of this as well. Either way, here’s the list of favourite Starburst flavours as voted by you… or at the very least people.

Strawberry – 56 points – Only one person voted strawberry as their least favourite.

Cherry – 51 points

Lemon – 39 points

Orange – 34 points - No one voted orange as their favourite.


Conclusion

I think I’m most surprised by how much I didn’t like the strawberry Starbursts, I really thought they would rank second for me in most cases. This is truly a case where they don’t taste like what I remember. I find this even more amazing considering how much people in my pole liked the strawberry Starburst. I really thought cherry was going to win that pole, but it turns out people have very different tastes than I thought.

I think the one thing we can all agree on is that Starburst do not taste like any kind of real fruit, however they do taste like something special. Even the worst flavour of Starburst still tastes great, even if it doesn’t taste like lemons at all.

CC

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Lucky Charms Marshmallows

If you had told me when I was a child that as an adult I would have the ability to purchase a bag of Luck Charms without the cereal bits, I probably would have skipped my depressed punk rock phase and just looked at the future as the greatest thing that was ever going to happen.

CC

Monday, March 23, 2020

A Soft and Squishy New Review - Mango Teddy Marshmallows

I have a common problem when I review a treat that I don't really like (spoilers). I'm not a big fan of marshmallows, and cheap marshmallows are the worst. Needless to say I wasn't a big fan of these Mango Teddy Marshmallows. So after writing the review, I had a common problem that I get when I don't like the candy I'm reviewing, I had a lot of these left over. When I have a bunch of candy left over that I'm not interesting in eating, they either sit around for a while, or I try and figure out something clever to do with the leftovers.



Sometimes I try and bake with these leftovers, and sometimes I make silly videos. Baking can improve a treat, silly videos never improve a treat.


Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to see what we're doing right now.


CC

Friday, March 20, 2020

Thursday, March 19, 2020

It's Time To Stuff My Face With Mango Teddy Marshmallows.


I'm not sure why I did this, other than the fact that there was a bag of Mango Teddy Marshmallows sitting in my candy stash and it seemed like something I'd do. As usual with these stuff them in your mouth challenges, it turned into a fairly bad idea about three quarters of the way through.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to get previews of other things we're working on.

CC

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

A New 10 Second Kitchen From Margaret River Chocolate Factory


It's not often that I manage to find a 10 Second Kitchen that's actually candy related. This is a special treat because it's not only candy related, but it's good candy related.

CC

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Cherry Jolly Ranchers

If I can only eat one more flavour of Jolly Rancher for the rest of my life, it will be cherry. If you argue with this and tell me that it should be watermelon then we will have to agree to disagree.

CC

Monday, March 16, 2020

An Interesting Week - Tryffeli Pussi

The news this week is pretty dire all over the world. I'm not the kind of person to look at the negative, but I'm also realistic as well. I've been fluctuating between shutting down all updates and just hunkering down, or doing more on the site, to try and entertain any of you out there that might be under lock down. Frankly I haven't decided if I'm going to change anything, so I decided to just keep things up as normal and see what comes up. That's why we have a new review today.

Right now I'm leaning towards working on extra content. I'm thinking about posting a few extra reviews, and maybe finishing off a few random ideas I've had for a while. While I'll be happy if it entertains any of you out there that might be feeling down, the main reason I'm doing it is to keep myself distracted and entertained.

Click here to read the latest review.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to check out how we're keeping ourselves entertained for the next few weeks.

CC

Friday, March 13, 2020

Candy In the Media - Starbust Weirdness


I remember the berries and cream Starburt candies, I don't remember this commercial. I probably blocked it out of my memory.

CC

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

10 Second Kitchen, It's Been A Little While


We haven't posted a new episode of 10 Second Kitchen in a while, but I'm hoping that changes. I've got some ideas about how to expand this little video project, and I hope you enjoy what we have to offer.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter so you can see where we might be filming new episodes of 10 Second Kitchen.

And be sure to subscribe to our YouTube feed to see the episodes as soon as we put them up.

CC

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - A Tub Of Cheese Powder

I think we all underestimate the possibilities one has with Kraft Macaroni and Cheese powder. It's not just for pasta anymore.

CC

Friday, March 06, 2020

Candy In The Media - Did You Forget?


I don't think there's one candy in this list (or any of their follow up lists) that I've forgotten, having said that I do have some insight into the subject.

CC

Tuesday, March 03, 2020

Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Stay Puft Yo!

I keep forgetting that the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is a real classic candy icon. When I think about him now, all I think about is Ghostbusters. So I guess you can pick up this cool action figure to celebrate the treat or the movie.

CC

Monday, March 02, 2020

We're Going To Eat A Lot Of Cookies This Week - Hello Panda "Biscuits with Chocolate Flavoured Filling"

The plan this week is to eat a lot of cookies. I want to try and sample at least four different versions of Meiji's Hello Panda cookies and post a new review every day this week. There seems to be a number of versions of this cookie, but at this point the plan is to try at least four of them. I also can't help but notice the similarities between Meiji's Hello Panda cookies and Lotte's Koala cookies. I do wonder who came up with the idea first, and I also wonder how they compare to each other, but that's for a future video or blog.

For now I'm content just to sit here and bite the heads off of hundreds of crunchy pandas.

Click here to read the first Hello Panda review in our Hello Panda review-a-thon.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with this week's review-a-thon and see each Panda cookie post as they go up.

You can also follow us on Patreon to get all kinds of other cool stuff.

CC