Tuesday's Candy Links

Check out Kegg's in Houston Texas, it looks like their butter creams are pretty tasty.

Did you know that the US military has the technology to keep a sandwich "fresh" for 3 years, is this good or bad?

Just a little reminder that Peeps Fest is coming.

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Christmas Is Coming...

And I'm going on vacation for a little while.  The posts here on the blog might start to slim down a bit while I'm away because my internet connection is not guaranteed, and Allison doesn't like it when I blog on vacation.  So over the next few weeks I'll continue posting a few things here and there, but not as much as usual.  Take this opportunity to get outside a little, you're looking kind of pale.  Enjoy some time with the family, say hi to grandma for me.  And most of all, eat lots of Christmas/Hanuka/Kwanzaa/Holiday treats.

CC

Monday's Candy Links

USC student writes a great article about a Japanese candy shop that's been open for more than 100 years.

Eating brains isn't most people's idea of tasty, eating stuff shaped like brains seems to have a universal appeal... strange no?

The stock market is down, jobs are hard to find, sales of just about everything are down, well almost everything.

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Review - Have Some Cake

As always, the holiday season has just kind of appeared on my doorstep without any warning whatsoever.  I seem to remember only yesterday setting up my Halloween reviews, quickly followed by my fun Finnish review-a-thon.  Next thing I know Christmas is quickly approaching.  It's going to get a jump start on me this year too, because I'm not planning to celebrate at home this year.  The goal is to take a wonderful trip to the Christmas capital of Europe, and maybe the whole world.  Vienna is really the place to go during the holiday season, so it sounds like something I shouldn't miss.

Click here to read today's review.

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Today is National Pastry Day.

In the last week I've eaten a few pastries, and since today is the national holiday celebrating this fine baked good, I'll just have to eat more.

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Friday Candy Video - Skittles Dance

What should one do when Skittles sends you a free boom box?  Why not dress up like a freak, dance in public, with Skittles pouring out of your pants?

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Friday's Candy Links

I'd just like to send out a warning to all of my friends "Healthy Habits Are Most Contagious Among Similar Friends", only because I have none.

Check out these great looking chocolates from Vosges-Haut.

Apparently football player Marshawn Lynch must eat Skittles whenever he does something right.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Sour Foam Candy - Made by: Cosmic   - Why: Because there's not enough foamy candy on the market today. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Thursday's Candy Links

Check out La Petite Occasion, in Northern Westchester Pennsylvania.

New Ghirardelli store opening in Disneyland, I wonder if they'll have chocolate mice?

Check out what I can only describe as the coolest cake ever based on the forest moon of Endor.

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Candy Store Tips - A Good Staff

For many years now I've been lucky enough to explore candy stores all over the world.  I've seen the worst and I've seen the best.  Now, each week, I'm going to give you a tip that will help you know instantly how good any candy store you walk into might be.  This is also useful if you happen to own a candy store as well, follow these tips and customers will notice.

Candy stores often hire a younger staff.  If you see someone in a candy store that is over 25 chances are they own the place.  I'm not saying this is always the case, I'm just pointing out an observation.  The thing about hiring young people is they don't always care about the place they work, even candy stores.  The one thing I can tell you from my candy store shopping experiences are, whenever I meet a candy store employee that knows their stuff and is enthusiastic about candy the store is good.  I can tell you that I've never been to a great candy store that didn't have employees that really loved working there.  So this is both a tip for stores and for shoppers, make sure candy store employees are good.  If they're not knowledgeable and happy employees then there's a good chance your store is not great.

I'd like to thank the beautiful Snyder's Candy for providing photos for this article.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Star Wars Han Solo Carbonite Chocolate - Made by: ? - Why: Because candy and Star Wars go so well together. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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It's National Cotton Candy Day!!!

Who would have thought that a candy that feels and looks like insulation would continue to be so popular.

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Wednesday's Candy Links

Learn all about Zoe's Chocolate in Washington.

I don't always like to talk about economy and trade, but here's an interesting look at how Pennsylvania and West Africa are linked through chocolate.

The new Sour Patch Kids game from Capcom looks tasty and fun.

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Tomorrow in Athens!!!

I just wanted to remind you one last time that our sister site Beware the Cheese Photography (www.bewarethecheese.com) is having a really big art show.  The show is the premier of their photography/mixed media series called "Senses".  If you find yourself in the Athens (Greece) area on December 7th (that's tomorrow), come on out to the Canadian Institute in Greece, and show a little support for the photographers that shoot the stuff for Candy Critic.

Hey guys, if you can't make it to the show, you can check out our live feed from the show on December 7th at 7:30 Athens time.

Click here for more details about the show.

CC

Drink Your Advent Calendar

Every year, Allison and I buy advent calendars.  To us it's one of the most important Christmas traditions.  We also do whatever we can to buy these advent calendars in Germany because we feel they make the best quality inexpensive advent calendars.  We never like to spend large quantities of money on the really fancy, expensive calendars, and German cheap advent calendars have proven to have the best chocolate for the price.

This year, while Allison was in Germany (lucky us), she came across a really great idea to ad to the advent calendar tradition.  Advent calendar tea gives you 24 tea bags, each a different flavour.  This is a great way to count down the days until Christmas and it also lets you try all kinds of different tea.

Each package is clearly marked with the day and the type of tea.  This is good because it would be horrible to try a tea, love it, and have no idea what flavour it is.  It's also nice that they numbered the bags because if they didn't, then you might just think they randomly threw teabags into a box and called it an advent calendar.  I'm wondering if the closer you get to Christmas, the more festive the flavours.

So this year we have a new countdown to Christmas tradition.  In the morning we enjoy our advent chocolate, and in the evening a cup of advent tea.  I sure hope advent tea takes off because I'd love to do it every year.

CC

Tuesday's Candy Links

What is the Napa Valley's second most popular production?  Chocolate?

The gingerbread AT-AT is great, the little gingerbread Luke Skywalker about to destroy this gingerbread AT-AT is awesome.

I've said this before "Chewing Gum Can Boost Mental Performance", and I'll say it again.

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Just Desserts - Simply Burgers Cookie Cheesecake

My favorite Burger chain in all of Greece just introduced a new dessert to their menu.  Actually this is really their first dessert I've ever seen them offer on their menu since I started going to Simply Burgers.  That's not to say that they're unfamiliar with sweets, they've always offered Häagen-Dazs ice cream (but I don't count it because they don't make it) and they always give you a free brownie when you get delivery.  

The dessert in question is the Simply Burger Cookie Cheesecake, and it's pretty good.  It's a lighter cheesecake with a cookie bottom, chocolate cookie bits throughout it's light cheese cake center and it's topped with a chocolate frosting.  The only thing that I didn't like about it was the size of two of the cookie bits in the cake.  For the most part I really enjoyed the fact that the cheese filling has a great variety of sizes of cookie bits floating in it.  The problem was I got two bits that where huge, and that threw off the texture and flavour balance a little.  Since the bottom is made up of cookie as well, when you have a piece of cookie in the cake that is too large you're pretty much getting a mouthful of cookie with little cream.

I have to say that this is really a small problem and nothing to avoid this cake over at all.  I also look forward to this new trend at Simply Burgers and hope to see more of their own desserts hit the shelves.  Anybody else know a good dessert at a burger place?

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Monday's Candy Links

See how you score in the Mental Floss 40th aniversary Willy Wonka quiz, I only got 33%, that's not good.

How can you make cupcakes even better?  Why not add candy to your cupcake recipe?

A look at the science that makes things taste really good.

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This Wednesday Be In Athens

I just wanted to remind you that our sister site Beware the Cheese Photography (www.bewarethecheese.com) is having a really big art show next week.  The show is the premier of their photography/mixed media series called "Senses".  If you find yourself in the Athens (Greece) area on December 7th, come on out to the Canadian Institute in Greece, and show a little support for the photographers that shoot the stuff for Candy Critic.

Click here for more details about the show.

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Review - The Holiday's Begin

Today's review is very special.  First of all it's a gift from my friend Carrie who got them from her friends at Jonhston's Cranberries, so it's like a got a gift from two people.  Secondly it's the first, festive treat I've had all year, which is good, because I love festive treats.  Finally it's national cookie day, and I know it has nothing to do with chocolate covered cranberries, but it still makes me warm inside.  So thanks for the cranberries guys, have a happy pre-holiday fun month, and eat a cookie.

Click here to read about these chocolate covered cranberries.

CC