Truly Some Of The Most Beautiful Candy Art Ever

 All this month I've been posting some funny and downright weird candy commercials from Japan. I didn't want to leave out the fact that Japanese hand made sweets and desserts are some of the most beautiful pieces of candy art in the world. This video is just one example, and best of all most of these beautiful creations taste amazing too.

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Is Delicious Chocolate Share Happy Moment Better Than Nutella?

The theme behind this series of blog posts is to sample various spreads and compare them to Nutella. The title of this series suggests that I’m looking for a spread that’s better than Nutella. They do exist in the world, however this Delicious Chocolate Share Happy Moment is under no circumstances better than Nutella. In fact, I feel like you could take the worst spread I’ve eaten up to this point, and this would still be worse.

This spread is not only made from lacklustre ingredients, and almost impossible to spread, but it’s also really confusing. For some reason there’s a single small cookie embedded in my package of Delicious Chocolate Share Happy Moment. When I first bought this treat, I thought that it might be a candy. Then after a bit of investigation it seemed like it was more likely some kind of spread. So I took it off my list of candies to review, and added to my list of spreads to compare to Nutella. The problem is, after seeing the cookie embedded in the spread I’m once again not too sure what kind of treat this is supposed to be.

I use the word “embed” instead of “floating” because this spread is rock hard. Even if it’s a candy, I feel like you’d want it to be soft and gooey. This is just some semi hard chocolate with a cookie stuck in it.

To be fair, I decided to place the random pieces of this treat onto a piece of toast. The chocolate did melt a little bit, but it just became a softer solid rather than any kind of spread. The texture was nothing like Nutella, and because of the solid state I wasn’t able to cover my entire slice of bread. As a spread goes this totally fails (to be frank if it is a candy it’s a pretty big failure too).

The flavour is about as disappointing as the texture. It had a slight chocolate taste, but that flavour was mostly overpowered by staleness. The name of this spread/candy suggests that I Share Happy Moment, but instead I’m sitting here writing this blog about my misery.

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Is White Chocolate, Chocolate?

 Probably the most heated debate in the whole of the candy world, but I believe there are some answers.

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I Know Some Beasts That Would Love Some Treats

Did you know I wrote an alphabet book? It's called Treats and Beasts and you can pick it up for yourself or that special treat (or beast) loving love one.

Pick up a copy at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts or on Amazon.

The Challenges With Cola

I'm not sure when cola flavoured candy came to be, but I have memories of cola flavoured gummies when I was a kid. I also seem to remember a few cola flavoured chewing gums as well. Cola flavoured treats have been around for a long time, but very few (if any) have every mastered this challenging flavour. Cola flavoured treats must have that classic cola flavour, but they also have to have a bit of a sour flavour too. The biggest challenge with cola candies is how to make them feel carbonated. This is important because a cola without carbonation is flat, and no one likes flat cola.

Check out my lates cola flavoured candy review.

A Little Strange Mayber

 What I love about Japanese candy commercials is how they never get too weird.

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A Strange Little Coin

 I have a few theories as to why this strange coin shaped treat exists, but I don't know for sure. It's not the most pleasant thing I've ever eaten, so I can only assume it serves a purpose.

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Enjoy Some Snack Facts While You Snack

 If you've ever wondered why they're gummy bears, and not gummy bunnies or gummy anteaters, then check out Snack Facts and learn a little something about your favourite treats.

You can get Snack Facts at candycritic.org/snackfacts/ or on Amazon.

Not All Failed New Candy is a Failure

One thing about writing reviews for so many years is that I've learned that just because a candy doesn't do well, doesn't mean that I wish it never existed. I'll admit that there are a few candies out there that I wish I had never tasted, but there are also some candies that didn't work, but with a few tweaks could be a revolution in the candy world. My latest featured review, cheese ice cream, is just such a treat. I think cheese and sweet treats work well together, there are hundreds of baked treats filled with cheese. It also makes sense to have two dairy product merge together. So the idea of cheese ice cream isn't really that strange. While I didn't love this cool cheese treat, I love the idea of it.

Check out my lates cheesy review.

Saved Brittney!

 I'm not sure why celebrities are/were always willing to do commercials in Japan and not in North America, but I feel like they wouldn't be the same if things went differently.

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Take A Picture, It Might Not Last Longer Anymore

 One of the biggest recent food trends really bothers me. It goes by the name of Instagramable food, and I have some serious issues with it. I feel like I’m not the only person that has issues as I’ve also noticed  in the last year or so a decline in this trend. Basically this is the trend of food makers, restaurants, bakeries and even candy companies focusing on making treats and foods that are really pretty. The notion is that these foods are so pretty that people will post them on social media (hence Instagramable). The problem with this trend is that many of these beautiful foods taste pretty mediocre.

It’s a totally logical trend for any food maker out there. If you can get a bunch of people lining up to buy your pretty food, then you’re not only selling the food, but you’re creating free advertising at the same time. From a business standpoint it makes all the sense in the world. I feel that this trend really took off, and it worked on building so many business over the last few years. As I mentioned before, there is a recent drop in this trend, and I think I might know why. My guess is that while people will line up for an Instagramable treat when it’s new, if the quality of the food doesn’t stand up, people won’t come back.

While you might get a big crowd coming out to buy your good looking food, once people post it on their social media, unless it tastes amazing, they there’s little reason to come back. That’s one of the benefits and downfalls of food on social media. After something is no longer new, it loses its cache on social media and I feel like sales of these treats go down as well. There’s often a race to be the first person to get a treat on social media, but there’s little staying power for many of these trendy snacks.

I guess the important thing to note is that this really only applies to Instagramable foods that don’t follow up with a great eating experience. Over the last year or so I have noticed a few food makers coming up with foods that not only look great, but also taste great. To me that’s a real challenge and deserves a great deal of respect. Even those foods that don’t look pretty, but taste amazing deserve a lot of credit. In particular, when you’re talking about candy since making something pretty is actually much easier than making it taste great.

I wouldn’t call the trend of Instagramable foods over, but it seems to be only on the decline. I’m seeing more people talking about nostalgic food lately, which has it’s own pros and cons. However, I feel like nostalgia is a much better trend then food that is only pretty to look at. Nostalgia can tell a story and bring back memories for people, pretty things just look pretty, and once you eat them they become far less pretty.

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Check Out Blue Orchid

 If you want to read a fun comic about a girl who beats up giant monsters, then check out Blue Orchid.

Visit bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/ or pick up chapter 1 on Amazon.

Candy Corn?

Our latest featured review on candycritic.org has got me thinking about when I was a kid. I seem to have memories of my family calling popcorn with a sweet outer coating "candy corn". Today you mostly see sweet popcorn flavours called caramel corn when it's really sweet and kettle corn when the sweetness is less severe.  I think later in life I used to think that candy corn only referred to the popcorns that were covered in sweet stuff, however it had to be a flavour other than caramel. I'm not sure if this was all a construct in my mind, or if other people have the same memories. Today you don't really see candy corn mentioned anywhere except with those Halloween treats.

Check out our latest candy corn... I mean caramel corn treat review.

I've Been There

 I love this series of Japanese gum commercials because they show off different parts of Japan, a few of which I've visited and really enjoyed. Ironically I don't think I've ever tried the gum.

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The Best Ice Cream?

 Here's a quick list of the top ranked ice cream treats that I've reviewed on candycritic.org.

Better Get Those Beasts Some Treats

 

If you love the alphabet as much as you love candy and treats, then I have the perfect book for you.

Pick up Treats and Beasts right now on Amazon or at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/.

A Simple Bar?

The general assumption when you say the word "simple" is that it's both easy and fairly basic. I'm here to tell you that when it comes to most milk chocolate bars with nuts, that's just not the case. While a milk chocolate bar with nuts (any kind of nut really) is very common, they're far from being easy or fairly basic. I can tell you from experience that not all milk chocolate bars with nuts are equal, even if the nuts are the same kind. This week's featured candy review is the perfect example of a simple bar, that got many different details of a great milk chocolate bar with nuts down perfectly, they messed up on one. This one mess up caused this bar from being ranked among the other great milk chocolate bars, down to one of the lower tiers of milk chocolate bars.

Find out why this chocolate bar didn't cut it, even though it's simple.