The Science and Magic of Hard Candy

 This is a really great documentary about how hard candy is made. Watching these experts do their craft is almost as much fun as eating the candy.

CC

More Questions Answered

This is part two of my video series where I answer the most common questions I get asked as the Candy Critic. If you have a question, drop it in the comments or contact me and I'll be sure to answer you. I might even make a collection of videos featuring questions from our loyal candy fanatics.

Make sure to follow me on YouTube for all my new videos.

CC

Venture Into the World of Treats and Beasts

 Make sure to pick up your own copy of Treats and Beasts.

You can also get all kinds of fun Treats and Beasts merch.

CC

On The Subject Of Popcorn Being Candy

Of all the snacks that might or might not be candy, I feel like popcorn blurs the lines more than most snacks. If you've seen my other reviews on this site, you know that I play fast and loose when it comes to defining a candy. Some say that chocolate is not candy, some say that anything that isn't made mostly of sugar isn't candy. I on the other hand run a site called Candy Critic and I feature reviews of potato chips. Popcorn on the other hand feels like it might be the real mixed bag. If you cover a piece of fruit in sugar, you can call it candy, so if you cover a piece of popcorn, then wouldn't it be candy as well. By this definition, caramel corn should totally be candy. Today's featured review blurs that line even further as it's not only a candy popcorn, but it's flavoured/themed to a classic gummy candy.

Check out this interesting candy that really blurs some lines.

CC

Sprinkle Some On

 I feel like the sprinkle is the unsung hero of ice cream sundaes. Today we should all learn its origins.

CC

Chris, How Do I Review That?!!

 

Some treats don't come with instructions, and I have no idea what I'm doing at the best of times. The first plan with this blog post was to highlight a few of the treats that I've picked up lately where I had no idea how to eat them. It's funny because occasionally I'll post pictures of these treats on social media and explain that I have no idea how to review these treats. The most common "smart" answer I get is "eat them". Sometimes that's not as easy as it appears.

Some treats require a certain amount of interactivity to eat them. For people from North America the best suggestion I can say is take a package of Lik-M-Aid and imagine what it might be like if you've never seen it before and couldn't read the language on the package. Would you be able to figure out that you're supposed to open the envelopes from the top, take out the sticks, and then use the candy stick and a candy paddle to take out all the sugar flavour? Also think about fortune cookies, could you explain to someone why there's a piece of paper in that cookie, particularly if they couldn't read the fortune?

So I decided to write a blog post to explain that sometimes I don't really know how to eat certain candies. Then I realized that maybe I should start video taping my first attempts at eating candy that I just don't understand, make a series on my YouTube channel all about this regular struggle that I have. I invite those who actually know what I'm supposed to do to comment, but I imagine that there will also be those who think I'm over thinking these problems. To them I say I probably am, but it's fun that way.

So make sure to follow me on YouTube to watch me really try hard to figure out weird candy. I'll also be posting reviews of each of these treats too. Here's the first episode, so enjoy watching me get very confused about weird candy concepts:

CC

Under No Circumstances Would I Suggest You Don't Get Treats and Beasts

 Make sure to pick up your own copy of Treats and Beasts.

You can also get all kinds of fun Treats and Beasts merch.

CC

E. Wedel A Classic Candy Company

E. Wedel is a a great example of a candy company that's very well known in certain parts of the world, but almost unknown in other parts of the world. This is something I'm very privileged to notice, as I get to travel a lot, and when I do I taste candy from all over the place. I also talk to people from many parts of the world and try to learn about candy and snack culture in different places. When I do, people often mention brands or candies that they feel must be well known or at least well loved all over the world, and they're often surprised to know that I'd never heard about them. Don't get me wrong, it goes both ways. I've fed grown adults their first Twinkies, and talked to people who had never tried Peanut Butter Cups (and the thought of them actually grosses some of these people out). So I'm really lucky to taste, and learn about snacks and candy all over the world, and I'm happy to share information about some of these amazing brands that may or may not be well known to you.

Check out my latest (of many) E. Wedel treat reviews.

CC

I'd Play This Kirby Game

 I don't play many video games, but this one interests me.

CC

Peeps 5 Ways

 I just ate Peeps prepared 5 different ways, and I'm blown away at the results. It's amazing how different the results were each and every way I prepared them. I should note that I'm not a huge fan of Peeps, but maybe if they offered them with cooking or cooling instructions I might like them a little more. Here's the results and how I felt:

Regular - You can read all my Peeps reviews, but one thing you'll notice about many of them is that I find the flavour is just way too bland. The only Peeps I regularly enjoy are the variety that are flavoured, particularly with chocolate. This was no exception.

Refrigerated - This was probably the most surprising of all the Peeps preparations. I'm finding that most candy items that I put in a refrigerator just get cold. There are a few chocolate bar exceptions, but more often than not I'm very disappointed with refrigerated candy. This was one of the few exceptions where the texture was totally changed for the better, and that's important because I'm not a huge fan of marshmallow's texture.

Frozen - This was also a surprise, but I don't think it went as well as the refrigerated. I would say that this is an improvement, but it was almost so weird that I'm not sure if I really liked it or not. The frozen centre was fun, but not enough to really make me fall in love with these.

Microwaved - The greatest part about this preparation is how the candy coating got hard. The inside of the marshmallow also got very gooey, but the powder coating turned into a hard candy coating that I really liked. I would also suggest that anyone with some Peeps and a microwave throw a few in there just for fun, as watching them expand is really cool.

Baked - This was not surprising, but it was by far my favourite. I don't really like marshmallows, unless they're roasted. This totally worked because it gave me the nice toasted marshmallow flavour and included the hard candy shell. One day I hope to have a box of Peeps on a camping trip and I may attempt to make these into s'mores.

If you want to check out more of my videos, make sure to follow me on YouTube.

If you want to keep up with all my fun adventures, make sure to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. 

If you'd like even more fun content, be sure to follow me on Patreon as well.

CC

Today is The Best Day to Get Treats and Beasts

 Make sure to pick up your own copy of Treats and Beasts.

You can also get all kinds of fun Treats and Beasts merch.

CC

Flavours Of Gummies

I feel like there's a bias when it comes to flavours of gummies. The first bias is fruit, and while it seems normal because fruit gummies have been around so long, it's a little strange when you think about a gummy textured candy being fruit flavoured. The second bias within fruit is that many gummies seem to be certain flavours. For example, a cherry flavoured gummy is extremely common, but a mango, or lychee flavoured gummy is very rare. There's most definitely a spectrum of popular and unpopular flavours for fruit gummies. This week I tasted a fine strawberry gummy, I'd place that in the middle to middle rare for being a common flavour amongst fruit flavoured gummies.

See my full review of this slightly uncommon gummy flavour.

CC

Pop Rocks Rock!

This is probably the first candy I every discovered that had a science heavy component. Before this I thought candy was simple.

If you want to read something a little less complicated than Pop Rocks, pick up my book called Treats and Beasts.

CC

Eating In Oman

 Recently Allison and I went on a two week adventure to Oman and Qatar. Today I'm going to go over a few of the fun food discoveries that we came across while in Oman. We're both big fans of Middle Eastern cooking, but we also like that many Middle Eastern countries enjoy having western food available too. This is good for us because we often visit Middle Eastern countries while we're living in other parts of the world that may not have a lot of western foods to choose from. This allows us to enjoy a nice trip some place different, but also get a little taste of home while we're there. 

The one thing we learned about the local food in Oman is that the date is king. Dates not only play a role in the cuisine, but in the social customs as well. Traditionally dates were used a way of starting meals, as well as greeting newcomers. When people would travel through the country, they would stop in villages and forts as they traveled, and one of the ways people would welcome you is with a date. For important guests it would be a large platter of dates extravagantly displayed on a giant platter, but it could also be a simple offering as well.

The great thing is that this tradition lives on. At many of the local restaurants we would be offered dates as we came in or at the end of our meal. On one occasion we visited a small museum, we started up a conversation with the one person who worked there. At one point he mentioned the tradition of offering dates and his eyes opened wide. Suddenly he whisked away only to return with a bowl of dates. He offered us one and they were fantastic. He insisted we take a handful to enjoy for the rest of that day's adventure. It was such a kind gesture and really gave me an idea of what it was like for the travelers in the past being greeted by warm hospitality and dates.

Dates are also very common in the desserts found in Oman. One day we visited a traditional Omani restaurant, and as luck would have it they had a mixed sweets option for dessert. I'm always happy when traveling to find this kind of dessert because it gives us a nice variety of local flavours to try. Very often I'm stuck trying to pick just one local dessert that I have to hope is good, but in this case we were able to sample many locally made sweets, and they were all so different, but also very yummy.

The meal at this restaurant were pretty fascinating too. I tried an interesting porridge, and best of all the sauce was made with date syrup. After learning that date syrup was a thing, the first thing we did was headed to the grocery store and picked up a bottle. I don't know what I'll use my date syrup for, but I can't imagine that I would come up with something so creative as to use it with a vegetable porridge.

While I did enjoy my porridge, and the date addition made it work, the highlight at this meal was an eggplant dish made with a very garlic filled cream. The cream was light and the flavour was serious garlic. We've had other Middle Eastern dishes similar to this, but the coolness of the cream really made this version spectacular.

While we did enjoy a few more local delicacies, including many wraps and shawarmas, we also got our fix of western treats as well. One tradition we have when we travel is to try and sample the local McDonald's pies. Not everyone knows that McDonalds will often tailor their pie flavours to local palettes, and apparently in the Middle East they love having custard in their McDonald's pies. Fortunately so does Allison, and she was sure to pick up a few of these strawberry custard pies on this trip. One unique thing we found about the pies in Oman is that they seem to make them made to order, unlike other parts of the world where they're ready to go. This means you're always getting a fresh pie, a scorching hot fresh pie that is. The thing is, it was strawberry custard, and it was yummy. Eventually we learned to let them sit for a few minutes before eating them to avoid burning our mouths.

We got a few more western meals on this trip including a stop at Chillies, a cheesesteak, and some fried chicken. We also stopped at IKEA (it was literally attached to our hotel) and picked up meatballs one evening. I believe that the meatballs might be a little different than the ones you get in western countries since I believe (and you can correct me if I'm wrong) that IKEA meatballs normally contain pork. It's funny because this aversion to pork comes across many different ways, in particular I found that many gummy brands only sold their vegetarian versions, due to the use of gelatin.

This trip was not just about food. We decided for this first Omani leg of the trip that we would rent a car and drive out to some of the sites outside of Muscat. We visited many forts, wadi's and other natural wonders. This meant that we had to be sure to have plenty of snacks for these road trips. Nuts were a staple, but I also really got into the various nut bars or chikki available as well. I made sure to have a handful of these with me at all times, and they were great for traveling. They didn't melt in the heat, and there was such a variety that I had a new treat every day.

We had a pretty amazing trip, and tasted some great local and comfortable western foods. While many of the meals were amazing, I feel like the generosity of the people giving us the food made it even better. From the nice man that gave me a band-aid at a rooftop coffee shop at an oasis in the middle of nowhere, or the amazing people that handed me a date just to say hello.

CC

The Return of the 10 Second Kitchen

 A while back I decided that whenever I had the opportunity to watch someone make food for others, I would make a short video and post it on the Candy Critic map. When Covid hit, things slowed down on this project, but now that things are getting back to normal I think I'll bring it back. This is the world famous Tiny Tom Donuts making their tiny doughnuts.

Check out the Candy Critic map for all of the cool locations of the 10 Second Kitchens.

Seriously, You Need To Get Treats and Beasts Right Now

 Make sure to pick up your own copy of Treats and Beasts.

You can also get all kinds of fun Treats and Beasts merch.

CC

Chips, Chips, Chips All Week

I've decided to have yet another review-a-thon and it's going to be all about chips. All this week I'll be posting all kinds of bonus potato chip reviews for you to enjoy. When I was a kid growing up in Canada, I was always intrigued by the sheer number of different flavoured potato chips were available. Now as an adult seeing the world, I'm even more impressed. Of all of the snacking categories, I really feel like the chip manufacturers have been on the ball creating amazing flavours to choose from. Sure some of them are better than others, but you have to give them credit for trying just about anything.

Check out the first flavour of this week's potato chip review-a-thon.

CC

54321 Is a Name?

 This might be the oddest name I've ever heard for a candy bar. I'm assuming it gets its name because there are 5 different components to the bar?

Pick up issue 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 of Snack Facts if you like, you can pick up all 13 if you choose.

CC