What's In A Name

I've never really given a great deal of thought about the names of treats until I got this bag of gummy candies. For some reason "Frogs Alive" sounded really dark. I think if you put it in the context of "I'm eating Frogs Alive", you might see where I'm coming from. This has made me think about other treat names, and how dark, weird or just wrong they might be. Nerds is a great example of just that, but I'm sure there are more. The problem is that many treat names become common place no matter how weird they actually are. Can you think of any treat or candy names that are just weird?

Find out how I felt about eating Frogs Alive (see what I mean).

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.

Fancy a Sip of Coke?

 If you love the idea of a 14 minute art film about various ways to open a bottle of coke, have I got a treat for you.

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Terrifying Japanese Candy Commercial

An odd casting choice was made when making this commercial.

If you like twisted gummy treats, check out these twisted gummy bear t-shirts.

Kitty Cat Ice Cream?

I'm not sure why they made a connection with these amazing looking cat toys and ice cream, but I don't always understand marketing.

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When Company Mascots Don't Make Sense

I really wonder how this got beyond the ideas round.

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Strange Candy Commercial

This commercial is both strange and very heart warming... then it gets strange again.

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Just 7-Up?

I'm not sure if the creators of this commercial were just drinking 7-Up.

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I Eated It Wrong - Kit Kat

 Here's the first in a new mini series I'm working on where I try to eat candy incorrectly. In this episode I do the worst thing possible and munch a Kit Kat bar like a monster.

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Terrifying Candy In The Media - Weird In So Many Ways

The strangest part of this commercial is the way people seem to handle the candy. Have you ever seen a kid on Halloween gently lift up a candy and put it in their bag?

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Time To Eat Cereal Out Of A Can In This Episode Of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!

The worst part about this cereal in a can? It's actually the fact that it came out of a can, other than that it's not too bad.

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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.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Pagan Breakfast God Mask

For all your breakfast worshipping needs.

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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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Birthday Wish List Part 1 - Banana Surprise

I don't really know why the idea of a hollowed out banana filled with either cream or goo appeals to me, but it does.

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Unusual Candy For Your Tree - Gravy Candy Canes

I think of all the strange candy canes we're featuring this month, this one is the most useful. I think on its own it's probably not going to taste great, but like the macaroni candy cane, dipping this one into your mashed potatoes might be a fun treat. If you want to go one step further, suck one end into a spike, skewer your turkey onto the candy cane, and dip it in your mashed potatoes. It will completely eliminate the need for utensils and make cleanup a breeze.

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Unusual Candy For Your Tree - Macaroni and Cheese Candy Canes

For some odd reason, macaroni and cheese candy canes have become all the rage this year. Stores have been selling out of them at breakneck speed. I really want to love this candy cane, but I'm not so sure I will. The best way to enjoy this candy cane over the holidays, maybe dip it in your mashed potatoes.

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Candy In The Media - Melting At Christmas

This Christmas commercial for Hershey's may seem harmless, but I think it's super weird. The weirdness surrounds the choice of  song. First of all "I'll Stop The World And Melt With You" is not a Christmas song, so that's a little weird.  The downright disturbing part of this commercial is the fact that it's sung by people made of chocolate. It's implying that these chocolate people are happy to melt (or die) for me on Christmas.  That's a pretty grim message if you as me.

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Have The People At Oreo Gone Mad?!!

When I was a kid there was one kind of Oreo, it had chocolate cookies and a white icing center. At some point in my childhood the Oreo Double Stuff was introduced with the idea that there was twice as much cream as there was before. This was to be Oreo's first foray into changing their cookies, as well as into some controversy. There was a theory that Oreo simply reduced the amount of cream in their classic cookie, and the more expensive double stuff was in fact just the old version of the regular Oreo.

Slowly Oreo started to add more versions of their cookies onto the market. Golden Oreos are an Oreo with vanilla cookies instead of chocolate. Uh-Oh Oreos were a vanilla cookie with a chocolate cream center. Most of these variations used either chocolate or vanilla cookies and chocolate or vanilla cream. At this point things weren't out of hand, chocolate and vanilla seemed like an area where Oreo could venture safely.

Somewhere between 2006 and 2010 things seem to have fallen off the rails. As usual it appears to have originated in either Japan or Canada. Both of these countries are often the source of strange flavored things becoming the norm in the western world. You can always reference potato chips in Canada and Kit Kit bars in Japan for a better idea of the phenomenon. Canada often introduces not extremely strange versions, but slightly different flavours to the American market, it's easy with their close proximity to the USA. Japan on the other hand is legendary for their extreme flavour varieties of classic treats, and on the Internet these crazy flavours slowly find their way into American homes.

By 2010 it appears that the western world had jumped on board the freaky Oreo cookie bandwagon and things have been getting weirder and weirder ever since. It seems that the folks at Oreo have been given cart blanch and can pretty much come up with any flavour choices they want. Gone are the days when chocolate and vanilla are the only two flavours allowed. Today it seems that Oreo cookies come up with some kind of crazy new cookie every month. Pumpkin spice, blueberry pie, and orange creamcicle are just a few examples of some of the limited editor flavours we've seen so far.

But much like the introduction the double stuff cookie, these varieties have stirred up a bit of controversy. In my circle of friends the Oreo fireworks cookie (an Oreo with pop rocks like candy in the icing) was the topic of a huge debate. Some calling it a travesty of nature, others calling it the greatest thing ever created. Then there was the Oreo Peeps debacle, something that affected me personally. These Oreo cookies made headlines when it was found out that the pink colouring of the icing caused a certain colour shift in a solid biological function.  Yup, it made your poop pink.

I had already eaten a few of the cookies before I learned about this, but I didn't check my bathroom colours at the time. Fortunately I had more than half a bag left when I did learn about this issue, and I can tell you that the story was true... And a little disturbing. While this was the big story that broke about these cookies, the thing I found odd about the Oreo Peeps was what they did to your mouth. I realized that every time I ate a few of these cookies, I would spit up pink every time I brushed my teeth, for a few days.  So even if it was 2 or 3 days since eating them I would find that when I brushed my teeth I would spit out pink.

Oreo is on the edge of crossing over into dangerous territory with these crazy flavour, a line that's been crossed by a few candy companies trying to ride the wave of crazy flavour varieties. After that line is crossed, few survive. This line is crossed when a company has obviously run out of logical ideas when it comes to flavours. After this point these companies start to "get creative" and often weird for the sake of being weird. Kit Kat has weathered this storm and built an industry on their strange flavours, but a few other candy companies have fallen down that hole and not done well. The true indication of this is when Oreo decides they want to try savory flavours instead of sweet.

When you cross that line, you may find that some of your die hard fans have fallen out of favour. The news release about your new wacky flavour doesn't get the rush to the stores, but instead gets ridicule or a ho-hum type reaction. While the debate among my friends rages about whether or not Oreo has jumped the shark with these wacky flavours, I've found myself on the side of enjoying them. I've enjoyed the creative ideas, I've even enjoyed the flavour of most of them. So far Oreo, I'm on your side, but be careful. One day I may not rush out the store to try your latest creation.

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