McHolidays?

 I'm always amazed that McDonald's used to have so many commercials around the holidays, yet they never (as far as I know) have offered a holiday themed food item. I want to eat a McTurkey burger!

Candy Experiment - Coca-Cola VS Oreos VS Coca-Cola Flavoured Oreos VS Oreo Flavoured Coca-Cola

 When Coca-Cola and Oreo do a collaboration, it gets very confusing. Here's my attempt at sorting it all out, and maybe coming up with some kind of idea about how well this collaboration worked.

Get Yourself Some Blue Orchid

In case you didn't know, we've got several issues of Blue Orchid available, as well as t-shirts and even a few free downloads.

Pick up your Blue Orchid comics or merch right now at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/ or on Amazon.

Why Do We Call It Dark Chocolate

This week's featured review got me thinking about the words "dark chocolate". While it is a fine enough description, it doesn't really tell the whole story. The koala cookies from this latest review describe it as both "black" and "bitter" chocolate. I have a bit of a problem with the word "black" used to describe chocolate, only because I've never actually had black coloured chocolate. Even the most cocoa filled chocolate I've ever eaten still had a brown tinge to it. Bitter chocolate on the other hand is a really good decryption. It not only describes the flavour well, but it also focuses on the feature that most dark chocolate lovers appreciate most. I've also seen dark chocolates that are only dark in colour, but actually really sweet in flavour. So dark chocolate might not be the thing everyone wants, but bitter chocolate is often the popular flavour note.

Check out the full review of this bitter chocolate treat.

Coca-Cola Is Tied To Christmas

 If you're ever looking to ruin Christmas traditions, just do some research about how Coca-Cola is tied to Christmas. While it might seem innocent enough, you'd be surprised at how much Christmas lore is based on the fact that people weren't drinking Coca-Cola during the holidays.

Japanese Sugar

On a recent trip to a Japanese grocery store I came across a collection of flavoured sugars. While I can’t read the packages my assumption is that you’re supposed to sprinkle this sugar onto toast (likely with butter) to give plain toast a sweet boost. While I think this is a good idea, I feel like there’s more you can do with these sweet sprinkles, and toast is only the beginning. So I picked up 3 of the flavours and I’ve decided to do a taste test and not only see which is best, but which one works beyond toast.

To get started I figured I would taste test them with toast as intended.

The first flavour I picked up was Melon-Pan. Now I don’t have a history of enjoying melon flavoured... well.. anything, but the one exception is Melon-Pan (or melon buns) from Japan. I not only enjoy these melon flavoured buns, but I seek them out every time I visit Japan. The main reason I love them is that they really only have a hint of melon, and the rest is a wonderful buttery flavour.

This Melon-Pan Toast flavour on the other hand is very melon heavy. I’ll be honest, I was kind of expecting this, but I figured I’d give it a try anyways. I’m sure if you slathered your toast with even more butter the flavour would die down a bit, but at this point I find it to be a little too melon forward for my liking.

Next I decided to try the Vanilla Sugar flavour. This one seemed like the simplest of them all and also seemed to be the most versatile. It even feels like the kind of sugar sprinkle you could use for baking in a pinch. The real trick of this particular sugar is that the quality of the vanilla has to be fairly good for it to work. A cheap/fake vanilla flavour might be a little off putting.

On toast the vanilla seems pretty good. I’m not entirely confident that it’s pure vanilla extract, but I feel like it might be a blend of fake and real vanilla. There appears to be some black spots in it, which could be vanilla bean. The flavour works well on this toast, however I wonder if the flavour of the whole wheat bread is helping it out a bit.

Finally I went with the most ambitious of all of these sugar sprinkles, Caramel Cinnamon. This is either going to be the best of the bunch, or it might disappoint. The flavours are fairly common with this kind of treat, after all cinnamon and sugar is probably the oldest sweet toast powder out there. I’m just worried that they might over do it and it might just be overly sweet.

On the toast this one kind of disappoints. The problem isn’t the cinnamon, but the caramel. In hindsight I should have thought about that before getting it. Caramel is really just a form of sugar, and hardened caramel can sometimes just taste like brown sugar. If you don’t burn the caramel a little in this case, the flavour can be too subtle and lost. That’s pretty much what we have here, it really just tastes like cinnamon sugar. Not that it’s a bad thing, but there’s nothing really special about it.

Now it’s time to expand the tasting and see if these sugar sprinkles work on other foods. I decided to start with apples.

The Melon-Pan sugar just didn’t work at all. I thought maybe there would be a hope, since they’re both fruit, but the melon is just too fake a flavour and it really clashes with the real apple. I’ll be honest, I don’t have much hope for the Melon-Pan at this point, but I’ll keep trying.

The vanilla is fine, but with the real apple flavour it seems to highlight how strong or possibly fake the vanilla flavour is. Again, I’m fairly certain there’s real vanilla in these sugar sprinkles, but I’m not convinced it’s all real vanilla. There’s just something odd about the flavour of this apple and the vanilla.

Cinnamon, sugar and apples, it’s a match made in heaven, and works here as well. It’s a fine flavour combination that’s been around forever. Again, the caramel doesn’t really come through, but I really enjoyed this as it was anyways.

I’ve decided to stay with fruit, and I went for a banana next.

Melon-Pan didn’t really have a hope of working with a banana. I guess if you really like this fake melon flavour, and don’t really like bananas, then you might enjoy this. The melon flavour is just too strong and doesn’t work with the banana, but covers it up instead.

The Vanilla is surprisingly good. I’ve used banana and vanilla together in baking, but I’ve never thought of just putting vanilla on a banana before. It’s doing what vanilla often does in baking and making the banana taste a little better.

I thought the Caramel Cinnamon would work, but I’m wrong. I can taste the banana, and I can taste the cinnamon (still no real caramel flavour) but at no point do they really merge into their own flavour combination. It’s as if they’re each fighting to be the dominant flavour, rather than working together.

Popcorn seems to make sense... right?

I’ll be honest, I don’t hold much hope for the Melon Pan sugar. It’s not surprising that melon flavoured popcorn isn’t that great. As I’ve said before, if you like fake melon flavour maybe you’ll like this, but I do not. I didn’t have much hope of this tasting good and I was rewarded as expected.

While the Melon may not be great, the Vanilla keeps surprising me. As it turns out, vanilla popcorn kind of works. Like the banana, the vanilla doesn’t just add a flavour, but it seems to bring up the original flavour of the popcorn. I’ve said it before, but I believe vanilla is the most important flavour in all of snacks and candy. This latest experiment is only proving it more true.

The Caramel Cinnamon was fine. I would not be disappointed if I was given a bowl of this popcorn, but I’m not sure I’d ever order it myself. The biggest problem is one that’s been happening this entire time, and that’s the lack of caramel. My popcorn was a little sweeter with a hint of cinnamon. Tasty enough, but nothing worth shouting about.

Melon is the last hope.

I’m pretty sure that you can guess that I decided to try using a melon in hopes that it might merge or even improve the real melon. Unfortunately it does not. It also disproves a theory I had about why I don’t like most fake melon flavoured treats. I used to believe that the key to a melon flavour working the refreshing texture you get with a real melon. However after tasting this I don’t believe that to be true anymore. The fake melon flavour is not improved with a real melon texture.

Vanilla is continuing to be the super hero of this taste test. I thought that it might be fine, but it’s actually blowing away the competition. I’m starting to think that I might start keeping a jar of vanilla flavoured sugar on hand, just to improve all kinds of snacks. While the melon wasn’t my favourite treat, it was improved with a little vanilla.

Cinnamon just doesn’t really work with melon. I don’t think I was expecting it to, but I might have been hoping to be pleasantly surprised. While it wasn’t gross, it also wasn’t great.

Get Some Treats and Beasts Right Now!

If you love treats, beast and/or the alphabet, then I have the perfect book for you.

Pick up my fun illustrated book called Treats and Beasts right now at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/ or on Amazon.

Dairy Milk Is Just Good Chocolate

I've reviewed a lot of Dairy Milk bars on candycritic.org, almost 30 of them, but I'm probably going to continue to review more. The main reason I keep reviewing them is that there's one very important consistent, quality of chocolate. I know that if I eat a Dairy Milk bar, not matter what the extra ingredients might be, I know that the chocolate is likely not going to ruin it. It makes tasting these bars a little more fun, because I know that whatever they put into the bar, the chocolate is only going to make it better.

Check out my latest Dairy Milk bar review.

Every Year I Post This

 I post this commercial every single year around this time because it just makes me happy.

Quick List - The Best Candies For Each Letter of the Alphabet - L-P

A quick list of the best candies from each letter of the alphabet. This time we're going to be checking out L through P.

Check out all my review for every letter of the alphabet right now at www.candycritic.org/alphareview.htm

Learn Some Snack Facts!

If you want to learn some fun facts about the snacks you love, why not pick Snack Facts. It's a collection of comics featuring Sir Francis Sweetums and his assistant Barbara as they explore the snacking world.

You can pick up all things Snack Facts at candycritic.org/snackfacts/ or on Amazon.

Potato Chips and Candy Critic

I thought I would use today's review to highlight one of the biggest complaints I get about this site. Many people tell me that since I'm writing a site dedicated to reviewing candy, that I should not include potato chips. I will not argue with anyone that potato chips are not candy. The thing is, I just couldn't leave them out. While they're not technically candy themselves, I think we can all agree that they're kind of similar in many ways. In stores the chips and and candy are often close to each other. The times we eat chips and candy are often the same.

Check out my latest potato chip review, and stop complaining that they're not candy.

More Than You Might Think

 I feel like this commercial is selling these simple little hard candies a little too hard. Lots of sex and it seems to sell the candy as being much more than it likely is. That, or Monami is the candy that will change your life.

Best Danisa Cookie

I think we’re all familiar with this container. To some it’s a place where you can always find a needle and thread to repair those ripped jeans. To others it also represents a place where you can find some of the most buttery cookies in the world. I don’t know much about the history of these cookies, where they came from (I assume Denmark), if there’s a season you’re supposed to eat them, or even if their actually Danish. I only have my memories of these buttery cookies, and it’s memories I’ve had for my entire life.

I feel like we used to get these cookies most often around Christmas time. I also feel like they were something my grandparents would often give us. I’m pretty sure my parents did buy them, but I think my grandparents would always have them. I also remember my grandparents and parents both using the round metal containers to store things, in particularly sewing equipment. I have a true affinity for these cookies, but my love is not equal among all of the cookies available.

I’ve never really given much thought to this before right now, but in each tin of Danish cookies there is a selection of 5 different cookies. While I do like them all, I really believe that some are better than others. If you give me a tin of Danish butter cookies, some will disappear before others. So here’s my list of the best Danish cookies that come out of the tin. Keep in mind that I’m only talking about the classic tin, and not the special edition flavours they’ve come out with recently. Let’s start with my least favourite:

The one with currents (I think) – I should start this off by letting you know that I don’t know the official names of all of the different types of cookies available, so you’re just going to get a rough description as their name. Fortunately they’re all very different, so it should be obvious. I should also mention that I like dried fruit most of the time, so the fact that this is my least favourite cookie in this container is not because it has dried currents. The problem I have with this particular cookie is the fact that the dried currents are often super hard and really chewy. With the light butter cookie, the ultra hard and chewy dried fruit doesn’t really go very well and kind of feels like there are chewy little stones in each cookie.

The boring round wafer – Of all the cookies in this tin, this is really the most boring. It doesn’t look very exciting and while it tastes good, there’s nothing particularly unique about it. I feel like someone at one time had an idea to make a biscuit with icing in between, but as they were making them they realized that the icing wasn’t going to work. Then, instead of substituting the entire cookie, they just left the cookie part. I’ve always felt like these circles could use something else to pep them up a bit.

The round swirl – This one suffers from a few of the same problems as the previous cookie, however the look is a little bit more interesting. I was tempted to score this one lower because they seem to break very often.  If one cookie in your tin is going to be broken, it’s going to be the round swirl, and it’s no uncommon for every single round swirl to be broken as well.

The sugar square – If you can’t tell already, this list is being written by someone with a sweet tooth, and that’s why the top two cookies are the ones covered in extra sugar. I had a hard time deciding which of these two cookies would be my favourite and which would be my second favourite. If I did pick this one as my favourite, it would be because of the amazing concentration of crunchy sugar. The reason it’s not the number one is that the shape is a little boring.

The sugar pretzel – As I mentioned above, this cookie and the sugar square are really running neck and neck, however I think this one edges it out because of the unique shape. When I was a kid, this was one of the only treats with a pretzel shape that wasn’t a pretzel. The fact that it has a crunchy sugar that feels like the crunchy salt on a real pretzel only sells the shape even more. The one fault of this cookie is that much like the round swirl, it’s not uncommon to find a few broken pretzels in your tin.

Rating the best and worst Danisa cookie is a bit of a silly proposition, only because they’re all really good. A few months ago I was gifted a miniature tin of these cookies that was full of only the cookies with the currents, and I loved it. So it’s safe to say that even the worst of these cookies is better than many other cookies out there.

So What Is Extreme?

 Is the word "extreme" (and other words like it) just a marketing tool, or is there a flavour called extreme?

That Blue Orchid Is Something Else

Have you seen my awesome comic series called Blue Orchid? It's all about a cool girl from South East Asia that fights all kinds of monsters.

Pick up the latest Blue Orchid comics or merchandise right now at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/.

The Benefit of Trendy Treats

Today's featured review is a trendy treat. It's a chocolate bar from Dubai that's made all of the rounds on various social medias. I got my hands on one of these bars, and honestly thought I might just give it a pass. I've been burned a few times on candy and snacking trends. However, I just couldn't resist, and honestly I'm glad I couldn't. Every so often a trendy treat comes along that actually pays off.

Check out my review of this very popular chocolate bar.

Another Weird Skittles Commercial

 I'd like to say that I'm surprised to find an odd Skittles commercial, but frankly they're fairly common. The odd thing about this one is that it's almost entirely in a language that I don't understand, yet it still works perfectly.

I Bit Into a Little Spicy Wiener

 I'm not sure what I expected from this little spicy wiener, but I can tell you that sometimes the title of these videos (Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!) is very accurate.

Those Beasts Will Eat Treats

 

If you're looking for a fun way to celebrate your favourite treats, beasts or even the alphabet, may I suggest my fun book called Treats and Beasts.

Pick up your very own copy right now at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/ or on Amazon.

Are We Running Out of Candy Ideas

This week's featured review was a little confusing. It's called a Kinder Card, but I'm not really sure what kind of card it's supposed to be. My first guess is a credit card, but it could also be a business card. Honestly, it really doesn't matter what kind of card it's supposed to be because I'm thinking that any kind of card is a silly shape for a candy. Candy and treats are supposed to be fun, but I'm not sure how much fun credit cards or business cards are. You can pretty much make treats into any shape, but someone thought that a card was the shape that kids would love.

Check out my review for this very oddly shaped treat.

A Little Insulting?

 The fact that they hired a slightly chubby kid for a commercial for a candy bar called Chubby might be a little offensive in some places.

The Most British Dessert

 

National dishes are a really hard thing to nail down in many countries. As a Canadian it seems that one of our national pastimes/arguments is to try and figure out what our national dish might be. Then you can get into the details of food when it comes to nationalities and try to figure out what a countries national dinner, breakfast, lunch or even dessert might be. I assure you that there are countries that look into it with that much detail, and people who are strong and proud of their national lunch.

Since this is a site dedicated to sweets and treats, I always try and figure out what a particular countries national candy or national dessert might be. Maybe I should be a little more politically correct and say that it’s their most (insert the name of a country) dessert or candy. On a recent trip to the UK, I think I might have figured out what is the most British dessert. I’ll be honest, I didn’t look into the history of this dessert, I simply thought about all of the times I’ve visited this part of the world and what I’ve found that is unique, always around, and who’s flavours really seem to represent the types of desserts they have at most places. This dessert has the added bonus of having a name that seems to suit the British English. I’m talking about sticky toffee pudding.

In all my travels I don’t think I’ve travelled anywhere else in the world that really celebrates sticky toffee pudding like the Brits. It’s not a special dessert by any stretch of the imagination, it’s an everywhere dessert. One could picture British royalty enjoying this dessert, but you can also find it in all of the pubs all over the country. From fine dinning restaurants to people’s kitchens, this is truly a dish that’s all over the UK.

The flavours of the dessert are also very in tune with the flavours of the UK as well. First of all it’s very sweet, and I’ll go on record to say that I find the British palette to be sweeter, rather than savoury. There’s also often raisins or dried fruit found in sticky toffee pudding. While dried fruit is not exclusively a British thing, it is very common in many of the cakes and desserts. The fact that there’s a cream added to this dessert is also a very British thing. It can be a warm cream or an ice cream, often vanilla, and a great accompaniment to this dessert.

Finally the name “sticky toffee pudding”, just sounds so English. More specifically it sounds like the English one speaks if you’re from the UK. While we might all use any or all of these words in other English speaking countries, the combination sounds very British.

Probably the most important reason that this could be the UK’s national dish is that no one on earth does it better. I’ve probably had dozens of sticky toffee puddings in my life, from finest to the restaurants to the local pubs and even from the grocery stores, and all of them taste great. There are some that are better than others, but I’ve had a hard time finding one I didn’t like in the UK.

I Learned Some Snack Facts

The most fun way to learn some facts about some of your favourite snacks, is to pick up my collection of mini comics filled with fun information about all the treats you love.

Pick up Snack facts at candycritic.org/snackfacts/buy.htm or on Amazon.

What's In A Name

When I first started candycritic.org I used to try and live by the idea of not reviewing the package, only the candy inside. Then as I got more and more deep into the candy world, I realized that it's not fair to the candy companies or the candy eater if I totally ignore the package as well. Today when I review a treat I do think a bit about the package when I write my review, but maybe not how you might think. First and foremost I never look at the fanciness of a package most of the time. More importantly I don't rank a candy down for having a cheaper package. The only exception is if this package affects the quality of the treat inside. I will take note of a candy company that gives a great deal of thought to their packaging, particularly when the package directly affects the candy. This can backfire as I've tasted several treats that have had amazing packages, only to fail with the candy. This latest review highlights another thing I look for when I look at candy packages, descriptions and claims. It's not uncommon for a candy company the give hints or even totally explain what this treat might be. Honestly if the description is very close or spot on, I probably won't mention it, but if it's off, I almost feel like the company is misleading me and that's not good.

Check out my latest review with a candy that seems like it's offering something that it's not.

Nips Are Magical... But It's Not What You Think

 I've tasted Nips (check out my review), and while the name is kind of inappropriate in English, the commercial's kind of cool.

Quick List - The Best Candies For Each Letter of the Alphabet - G-K

 A quick list of the best candies from each letter of the alphabet. This time we're going to be checking out A through F.

Check out all my review for every letter of the alphabet right now at www.candycritic.org/alphareview.htm

That Blue Orchid is Amazing

  Have you picked up the latest and greatest Blue Orchid comics (and merch)?

Make sure to check out all the cool stuff at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/ or on Amazon.

Simple Can Be Fantastic

The number of times I've been told that it's "just milk chocolate" and nothing spectacular is enormous. I feel like people truly believe that to have a "good" candy bar, you have to have a lot of ingredients. After years of taste testing candy, I can tell you that a simple treat done well can rival any fancy treat out there. If you've ever tasted a high quality vanilla ice cream, a hand made marshmallow, or a milk chocolate bar like the one I just reviewed, you too would understand how simple can be really great.

Check out my latest review featuring a bar that's simply milk chocolate.

Cool Or Be Cool

 I don't know what I'd prefer, a candy that can cool you down on a hot day, or a candy that can make a brightly coloured entourage that follows you around.

I Both Love and Hate the M&M's Stores

 

On a recent trip to London, Allison and I decided to visit the M&M’s store near Piccadilly Circus. I’ve visited a few M&M’s stores in the past, but for some reason this visit made me think a little bit more about these stores. Who came up with the idea of building a store dedicated to one particular candy? Why do they sell more merchandise than candy itself? Are these stores even run by the candy company?

I’ve personally had love/hate relationship with these stores. I’ll be honest, I like M&M’s, but they’re nowhere near my favourite candy. One of the issues is I feel like there’s a great potential to offer a bunch of different versions of this simple treat. While they have a few different varieties, there are many other candies out in the world with many more varieties, like Kit Kat or Pocky. There was a short period where M&M’s did go a little crazy with alternate varieties, but they really only have a handful of standard flavours out there. All of this can also be considered unimportant since when you visit an M&M’s store you’re sure to notice that they don’t actually sell much candy.

This is where things get a little odd for me. I’m a little turned off by the lack of candy at most M&M’s stores. While they do offer some treats for sale, it’s not the main focus of the store. The main focus is candy themed merchandise. Strangely, I would argue that there’s a good percentage of merchandise at these stores that isn’t even really themed to the candy itself. At almost all of the M&M’s stores I’ve visited, I’ve found a lot of merchandise that’s themed to the store itself and its geographic location. I know that places like Hard Rock Cafe have built a brand based on shirts featuring the various locations of their stores, but I feel like there’s something more to them. Most of the tourist themed merchandise at the M&M’s stores just feels really disconnected from the namesake candy.

The part that’s odd for me is the fact that while I don’t like the fact that the M&M’s store sells more merchandise than candy, I personally own several pieces of merchandise. I’ve even been known to purchase some of the more tourist heavy stuff. While I wish there was more candy at these stores, I really like some of the merchandise that they sell. The great thing about M&M’s over other candy companies for merchandise is the fact that one of the key features of the candy is the colours. They’ve managed even to transfer the colours into characters. So this allows for some really fun merchandise.  I’ll also say that all (or at least most) of the merchandise I’ve ever purchased at an M&M’s store has lasted me a pretty long time.

I also don’t mind the decorations at many M&M’s stores. I think it follows the same rules as the merchandise in that the candy offers many colours, so it allows the store designers to be colourful as well. The pallet of colours and design of the candy are simple and kind of beautiful (just look at a bowl of M&M’s and tell me you’re not impressed).  The M&M’s mascots also give the store some appeal, creating fun little scenarios as well as photo opportunities.

I guess what I’m saying is, I don’t mind the M&M’s stores at all, but I wish they sold more candy. It would be great if the stores offered some limited or exclusive flavours of M&M’s. As it stands, many of the stores offer a variety of colours, but very limited flavours.

I also haven’t answered the question about who might actually be running these stores. I assume that it’s Mars (the manufacturers of M&M’s), but I also imagine that this is something that could be licensed to outside retailers. I could dig deeper, but honestly I don’t know if it’s that big a deal. I don’t feel like the people who run these stores are doing a particularly bad job, I just wish they could include a little more room for candy, and maybe work with the candy makers for exclusive products.

Not Everyone Can See Candy Critic

 Today I talk about the two places I've discovered that candycritic.org is banned.

Jump into Treats and Beasts

If you need the perfect gift for someone who loves candy, sweets, animals or the alphabet, then I have the perfect idea. Pick them up a copy of Treats and Beasts!

You can order a copy at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/ or on Amazon.

Halloween Candy, But Not For Trick Or Treaters

I've been thinking a lot about this lately, but there are really two categories of Halloween candy. There are those candies that are themed for Halloween, and those candies that you're likely to receive on Halloween.  There are a few candies that cross both lines, but there are many that don't. These gummies (my latest Halloween candy review) for example are very Halloween themed, but I don't think I've ever seen or received a gummy like this for Halloween ever. I'll be honest, if it was between these and a peanut butter cup, I'd probably prefer to get the peanut butter cup, even though it's not Halloween themed at all.

Check out my latest Halloween review, that you probably won't get trick or treating.

Glow In the Dark

 It's funny, I never understood why a candy company would choose to make glow in the dark candy packages, since they don't really improve the candy. Yet, I would love to see more of them.

Fact Those Snacks

 If you've wanted to learn a few fun facts about the snacks you love, make sure to check out my fun book called Snack Facts.

Pick up your very own copy at candycritic.org/snackfacts/buy.htm or on Amazon.

Gummy Shape Problem

I've always believed that you can make a gummy into any shape or size. I've never before thought about whether or not you should. Today's new review features a gummy in a shape that felt really weird to eat, mentally. The problem is they pulled it off very well. Eating a soft animal paw in gummy form is weird, not hating it is even weirder.

Check out the full review of this cute little paw treat.

Creepy Cat Lady

 This Kit Kat commercial is so many levels of creepy.

The Stories I Don't Understand

 One of the interesting things about how candy is marketed involves stories. Candy is a little different than many food items in that one of the big selling points to candy is often the story that goes with it. That story could centre around a popular slogan like "bet you can't eat just one", "take a break" or "sometimes you feel like a nut". Sometimes that story can be based on mascots, for example the M&M's guys, the Sour Patch Kids or the Tootsie Rolls Owl. While many of these brands may not have started with the mascots or slogans we now know, in many ways these marketing ideas have become part of the treat itself now. There is one thing about marketing like this that can become problematic, and that's international shoppers.

It's very possible or I would even say likely that there are several people who have read the slogans or list of candy mascots I've just listed above and have no idea what I'm talking about. While these slogans and characters are well known where I grew up, in the time I grew up, there are many people who fall outside of that circle. One of the things about having a website where you taste test candies from all over the world is that you're often given treats that have slogans or mascots that just don't make any sense, that have cultural touchpoints that fall out of my circle.

I'm sure if you grew up with these slogans or mascots you would have the cultural and historical context to make sense of them, but for someone who's outside of your bubble, it's confusing. Don't get me wrong, I now know that many of my candy and snack mascots and slogans are weird, but at one point I didn't. If this is a little confusing to you, let me suggest an example, or actually two Percy Pig and Colin the Caterpillar. 

When I wrote those two names, there were a group of mostly British people who don't really understand where this is going. That is because these two characters are British mascots for the sweet treats sold at Marks and Spencer stores in the UK. There are a few Marks and Spencer stores outside of the UK too that sell these character themed snacks, but let's assume that people who buy them outside of the UK either don't know who they are or maybe lived in the UK for a while and have grown to love them.

While they're not offensive mascots by any means, objectively they're a little weird. From what I can tell Percy Pig came from some gummy pigs that Marks and Spencer have been selling for many years now. Why they're pigs and not other farm animals doesn't make any sense to me. Colin the Caterpillar makes even less sense to me as I can't really figure out where his origins come from. My only guess, since most of the products featuring him are baked, is that he was once features in a cake form. I'm not really sure why you'd want to eat a giant caterpillar cake in the first place, but who am I to judge.

Objectively these two characters really shouldn't be as popular as they are in England. I imagine that most British kids and many adults of a certain age would know exactly what you where talking about if you said Percy Pig or Colin the Caterpillar. The strange thing is that unlike characters from television shows or books, these characters seem to be based on sweet treats. As an outsider I can't for the life of me figure out how their origin story (either fictional or real) might have come up.

Every time I walk into a Marks and Spencer food section I'm slightly baffled by all of the different candy and treat choices featuring these characters. Why did they become so popular, how good are those gummies (review coming soon) or that cake. It's really a confusing thing that while I accept on the surface, it confuses me when I think about it.

The thing is, I realize that I too have characters and slogans embedded in my cultural history that British kids just don't understand. I can't see them because they're just part of who I am. One of the great things about the candy world is that even if you don't understand what's going on, you can still try and enjoy it. If you enjoy it enough you can do the research and maybe become a fan. I can tell you that becoming a fan of another cultures treats or snacks can be hugely rewarding.