The Caramilk Secret

 When I was a kid, the caramilk secret was such a big deal. Does anyone ever wonder how candies are made today? So much so that they could do an entire add campaign asking about it?

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Junk Fud and You in South Korea

 We traveled from the far south of South Korea right to the line with North Korea, and we ate a lot of candy coated almonds along the way.

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Beasts Love Treats, I Have Proof

 Pick up the fun alphabet book featuring beasts and the treats they love.

To get all the Treats and Beasts you need check out bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts or Amazon.

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Is Maple The Official Flavour of Canada

As a Canadian I struggle to define the flavours of my own country. I've given several answers to the question about our national dish. I've told people it's poutine, baked potatoes, and even ketchup chips. The one thing however that most of the world associates with Canadian food is maple syrup. The problem is maple syrup isn't really a dish as much as it's an ingredient. I also get a lot of push back from Americans in Vermont. So what do you think is Canada's national dish, and does it even have maple syrup in it?

Check out my most recent maple flavoured Canadian treat review.

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The Big Chunk of Fudge!

 I have vivid memories of running around the school yard yelling, "it's the big chunk of... Fuuudge". I'm so weird and easy to influence.

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A Box Of Georgian Treats

 

It's not too often that I'm given treats that completely surprise and mystify me. I've been writing about snacks and treats for a very long time, and I've been lucky enough to travel to many places to try them, so finding something new is becoming more and more difficult for me. However, we were recently gifted a box of treats from Georgia (the country not the state for all of my American friends out there), and I was pleasantly delighted with everything, with one thing in particular really blowing me away.

The main contents of the box was a selection of dried fruit. There were dried apples, apricots, plums (I think) and what appeared to be some kind of rolled dried fruit mixture. All of these fruits were tasty and I'm still going through them now. I'm actually a big fruit eater, and dried fruit makes fruit even better because it's portable.

There were also a few chocolate disks in this box, nothing that surprising here, just nuts and dried fruit embedded in chocolate discs. This is a great delivery method for nuts and chocolate because you don't have any guess work when it comes to knowing what kind of nuts you might be eating. Chocolate bars for some reason are more popular, yet most of the time they hide the contents. I like a surprise now and then, but when it's all out on display you really know what you're getting into.

There were also several candied oranges, covered in chocolate with strawberries. These made me a little nervous as I've had candied oranges in the past that are a little too bitter for my liking. These on the other hand were pretty sweet, and the chocolate/orange combination was well balanced. The strawberry was kind of useless flavour wise, but at least it looked cool.

There were several of these round balls in the box. They seemed to be some kind of mashed fruit inside. Honestly they weren't my favorite thing in this box, but I still ate them all.

The true treasure in this collection was this strange, lumpy stick. My first instinct was that it might be either dried fruit covered in chocolate, or some kind of jelly treat covered in chocolate. I took a bite and was instantly surprised and very happy.

Each one of these lumps was in fact a hazelnut. A fresh and very crunchy hazelnut covered in tasty chocolate.

The really cool feature was that there was evidence left behind explaining how these were made. Each hazelnut had a hole drilled in it, and through that hole was a piece of string. The string obviously held it together while it was being dipped in chocolate. Sure I almost choked on the string after my first bite, but after I figured it out it was no problem pulling it out. I love that they left behind a clue about how these were made, and they tasted great.

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Looking Back at the Mac

 It's been such a long time since I've had Macintosh Toffee and I was wondering if anything other than the package had changed.

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Snack Facts For You To Check Out

 

Pick up the complete Snack Facts (or even single issues) right now and learn all about the snacks you love.

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

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It's Not Always Easy Finding A Trendy Candy

 

People assume that I have just about every single candy in the world at my fingertips, but that's just not the case. Right now I live in South East Asia, and while there are a bunch of fun exotic (for North Americans and Europeans at least) treats around me all the time, I find it pretty difficult to find the trendy treat from other parts of the world. I happened to luck out to get this latest trendy treat, but often I find myself missing out on some of the really neat treats I see online. 

See what I thought about one of the most trendy treats out there right now.

Creep Mr Big Commercial

 It's interesting how it's kind of scientific, but then it just gets a little creepy.

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Pick Up Some Blue Orchid

 

Buy some comics, or download some for free and follow the adventures of Blue Orchid.

You can check out bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid or check out Amazon.

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Turkish Taffy?

 

I've visited Türkiye several times and while their nougat and delight are amazing, I can't say that I've ever seen a Turkish taffy. I generally associate taffy with the United States, although I've never actually looked into the history of taffy before. I could be wrong since Türkiye is responsible for many of the world's amazing sweets. Maybe Turkish taffy is correct, I'd only hope that the taffy in Türkiye is much better than this stuff.

Check out my review for this (possibly) oddly named chocolate chewy bar.

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So Many Coffee Crisp Memories

 I don't understand why I love this commercial, it's only slightly clever, but it makes me feel all warm and nostalgic. I love being a Canadian.

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HBAF (the “h” is silent)

On our recent trip to Korea we came across a snacking trend that was so gigantic, yet so unique at the same time. This trend is completely about almonds, in particular, flavoured almonds by a company called HBAF. According to their advertising the “h” is silent, if that makes it easier for your to read. I first noticed these almonds on day one of our trip as we had a few hours to wait at the train station in Seoul to head down south to Busan. There was a grocery store in the train station, and we thought it would be a great place to get some snacks and also see what the shopping/food is like in Korea. At the front of the store was a huge display with a giant statue of a cartoon almond greeting everyone who walked in. In this are of the store were hundreds of colourful bags of almonds, with hundreds of strange flavours to choose from. There were also dozens of people loading up on this these nutty treats.

I decided that I should probably try a few flavours. I went for a few of the stranger flavours, as I’m known to do including carrot cake, salted caramel pretzels and salted caramel latte (Allison actually picked that last one). After our shop, we got on our train and headed south to Busan. I opened my first bag of these flavoured almonds and was instantly impressed by the smell coming out of the package. It not only smelled great, but matched the flavour perfectly. Even the almond itself was perfect, fresh and very crunchy. I could see why people were so excited to pick up these nuts, and I thought to myself that I should probably go back to that store on our way home to get some more. Little did I know that there were going to many more opportunities to get some HBAF again in the future.

Our first stop was in Busan, a smaller city in the south of Korea. Within a few days of exploring I quickly realized that HBAF almonds were not going to be hard to find. Every single store had at least a small display for these tasty almonds, some had whole sections dedicated to them. At one point we were walking down a trendy shopping street in Busan and I noticed that they were in the process of building an entire store dedicated to HBAF almonds. It looked like it was going to open soon, and it looked pretty epic. I was a little sad that I wouldn’t be around to see it open, but it really gave me an idea of how popular these almonds were... or so I thought.

After our time in Busan we headed north to Seoul. Our first night we decided to walk to one of the trendy areas of town that also had a night market atmosphere. This is when I realized how popular these nuts really were. Every single shop that sold packaged food (there were a lot) had a huge display of these nuts. As far as visiting a HBAF store, I had a choice of no less than 3, each bigger than the next in this one neighbourhood. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any snack have so much publicity and available in so many places in my life. It was like spotting Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, these nuts were just everywhere.

The good thing about the HBAF almonds is they’re really good. The flavours are super creative and the way they make the flavours work is even more ingenious. You could easily try a new flavour every day for a month and not only will you not repeat, but you’ll be amazed how different each flavour is. I’d like to tell you that you shouldn’t miss HBAF if you happen to be visiting Korea, but I feel like you’d have a harder time avoiding them, they’re just everywhere. I just wonder if this trend might make its way outside Korea, I sure hope so because I’m already craving another bag.

Kit Kat Bars I Want

 Here's a few Kit Kat bars that really should be around, but for some reason Nestle hasn't made them yet. Maybe they will now.

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Treat Those Beasts Right

 Pick up my fine alphabet book called Treats and Beasts, featuring a treat and a beast for every letter of the alphabet.

Available at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/ or on Amazon.

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Easter Bugs Bunny?

 I was never really big on Brach's when I was a kid, mostly because they didn't really have much available in Canada. I would however, have loved to get Looney Tunes Easter treats when I was a kid.

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A Salty Junk Fud and You Taste Test

 Today I decided to try and figure out what is the best salty snack. I ended up being more confused at the end of it all.

Learn a few Snacking Facts

 Join the adventures of Sir Francis Sweetums and his companion Barbara as they learn all about fun snacks

Pick up the entire collection at candycritic.org/snackfacts/ or on Amazon.

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Big Change For One Review

 

One thing that happens on candycritic.org from time to time is the addition of an international version of a particular treat. This basically means that I've discovered the same treat, but from a different place than the first place that I tried it. Most often the first place I try it is in Canada, but not always. I've only recently started to review the same treats from different places, and I've found that some of them can be very different (some are identical too). The thing that happens when I post these reviews is I have to go back into my old reviews and clarify where I bought the original. Sometimes the first time I review something is also not the original too.

Check out this Easter review of a classic treat from England.

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Do M&Ms Know That They're Candy?

 When you see a character that is a candy, and is also selling candy, it gets weird the more you think about it.

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Our Korean Adventure (the Overview)

 

Allison and I recently got back from a trip to Korea, and boy are we full. We picked this destination for a vacation for several reasons. The cool weather (we live in a place that’s hot all the time), the interesting culture, but the food was most certainly on our list of reasons as well. Our knowledge before leaving was fairly limited, we knew about kimchie, Korean barbecue, and we also knew there was some western restaurants as well.

 Since we live in a place that’s kind of cut off from western style restaurants, when we travel we tend to mix it up between the local foods and western restaurants. Some people comment to me when I travel that I waste my time at places like McDonald’s and Shake Shack, but we don’t have them where we live, so it’s a nice treat to eat something western for us.

The one thing we didn’t expect in Korea is coffee and cafes. To say that Koreans loved coffee is an understatement. Starbucks is absolutely everywhere, and there are even more local coffee shops on top of that. The local coffee shops often have a large bakery part as well, with both traditional French style treats and some hybrid Korean/French. These bakeries/cafes were great for us if we wanted a quick lunch or a snack on the go. It was always safe to know that if we didn’t feel like eating something in the area, a cafe would have a simple sandwich or sweet treat to munch on.

You can’t talk about Korea without talking about kimchi. It was pretty much available everywhere. Even some of the western places offer a kimchi version of their classic meals. At just about every Korean meal (including breakfast at our hotels) we had kimchi offered to us. At all of the markets both small and local to the fanciest boutiques, kimchi was for sale. I’d like to say that I went crazy eating the stuff, but I just couldn’t have possibly tried it at every turn, it was just too much.

Korean barbecue is also worth mentioning, it’s pretty much everywhere. We did find that there were different styles of restaurants, some better suited to tourists than others. In the high tourist areas there were Korean barbecue places that looked very touristy with giant posters of meat cooking in the windows, as well as people out front doing everything in their power to get you into the restaurant. There were also very fancy looking places, often decorated to look old fashioned. These places would always advertise the quality of the meat, and make sure not a single price was shown on any sign or menu. Finally there were places that barely looked like restaurants at all, they would have bright lights and be very crowded. They seemed very local, and slightly intimidating for anyone who might not speak Korean.

When talking about Korean treats and candy, it seems like the package is worth as much as the candy itself, sometimes more. At the time we went, there were at least 4 cross promotions with various K-pop bands and certain treats. It would mean your favourite K-pop start would be on the advertising and often the package of your favourite treat. There were also several cross promotions with various cartoon characters too. It made for interesting advertising, but one thing I noticed is that they rarely if ever actually made a special treat for these promotions. For the most part they were just decorating a pre-existing candy with the latest trendy person or character. The candy and sweets themselves were fine, with a lot of a cross over from Japanese flavours and trends (although I won’t say who had it first less I start a big debate).

We had a really great time in Korea, we got the cool weather we were hoping for, we saw some beautiful palaces and temples, and boy did we eat. One thing I noticed about the Korean people is that many of them did not speak English, but it never stopped them from being outgoing and super friendly. Many of our best food experiences were tied to the people around us and that made things taste just a little bit better.

It's Not Easy Being Green... Or a Pea

 Every so often I come across something in the store and the minute I see it I know it's going to be an episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!. Sometimes I hope that I discover something that tastes great, but sometimes...

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More Blue Orchid

 

Right now you can buy Chapter 1 of Blue Orchid, or download (for free) a special edition of Fire Monster at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid. You can also buy Chapter 1 on Amazon too.

Simple Hard Candy

Probably the second biggest complaint I get about some of the treats featured on candycritic.org is the idea that some may not actually be candy. Defining candy is kind of tricky, but I feel like this new review would be hard to argue. I can agree that potato chips, cookies and maybe even chocolate may not technically be candy, but I would be happy to debate anyone who felt these weren't. As for the treats that might be a little harder to argue that they're candy, my answer is simple, if you strongly disagree that something I've reviewed is not candy, you're welcome to make your own website and exclude them.

Check out my latest (truly) candy review.

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Clucking Rabbit

 It's weird how a clucking rabbit took the world by storm.

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Beasts Love Treats

 

Pick up my alphabet book all about beasts and the treats they love.

Available on Amazon or at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts.

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Ice Cream Can Be Anything

Every time ice cream becomes trendy, it's because someone out there has decided to expand what flavour it can be. When I was a kid ice cream was just a coloured and flavoured cream that would occasionally have nuts or some kind of ripple in it. Then more flavours appeared, either because they were new to the world or just new to me. These updated flavours would be about putting new sweet and snack foods into the classic flavours. Today however it seems like ice cream is taking giant steps again, and the types of flavours are expanding even further. This ice cream treat may not have been totally successful, but it pushed an idea forward that could totally work, ice cream for breakfast.

Check out this cool review that inspired me a little.

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Watching Candy Get Made... Again

 I'm pretty much a sucker for any video that depicts candy being made. This one however is particularly fascinating as they're also attempting to make some really unique treats.

The Home of the Theme Park

 

It's not commonly known, but Denmark is actually home to at least 3 of the most important historical theme parks in the world. These three parks have amazing history, and two of them are considered part of the reason theme parks are the way they are today. As we all known, theme park food has become very trendy these days, with many theme parks hosting world class restaurants and snack stands. On a recent trip to Denmark, Allison and I visit these three theme parks and sampled some of the delights. There were some highs and some lows with the food, but there were also some interesting trends well worth mentioning.

The 3 theme parks in question are Tivoli Gardens, Bakken, and Legoland. Tivoli Gardens is one of the oldest theme parks in the world, and it's said that it is the theme park that inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland. Bakken is actually the oldest theme park in the world opening in 1583, the current mascot (a creepy white clown) came about over 200 years ago. Legoland might arguably not belong on this list, however it is the first Legoland to ever open, and might be one of the earliest single theme, theme parks ever.

While each one of these parks had some unique foods and snacks, there were a few things that really seemed to happen across all boards. Beer and coffee was one thing that seems to loom large at all of these parks. All of them had places where you could buy both of these drinks, and all of the places selling these drinks had huge lines all day long. I felt like the Danish way to enjoy theme parks is to balance your coffee and beer intake to allow for the perfect buzz all day long.

Another thing that seemed to be very popular at all of these theme parks is betting for candy/chocolate. Each of these parks offered the opportunity to place a bet in various games, and first prize would be a giant (and I mean giant) chocolate bar or candy. We're talking Toblerone or Daim bars that weighed several pounds. While they did have a few games offering classic carnival stuffed toys, I saw many people walking around with giant candy prizes too.

All of these parks also offered mostly classic theme park food. There was lots of popcorn, cotton candy, and ice cream available at every single park. There were sit down restaurants as well at each park, and at least one buffet available as well. I feel like Denmark really likes buffets a lot. While these are some of the similarities, it's time to look at some of the highlights from each park, starting with Tivoli Gardens.

The theming at Tivoli Gardens was pretty amazing, particularly when you realize how small this theme park actually is. We happened to be visiting during the 180th anniversary of the park, and I picked up their special limited edition ice cream treat to celebrate this anniversary. One thing I'll say about the theme park food at Tivoli Gardens is that they make it with such care, almost all of the snacks are a piece of art.

Meal wise we made two stops, for lunch we ate a place called Gasoline Grill. It wasn't really themed to anything except minimalist trendy burger shop. I believe that they're a chain with more locations in Denmark. This was a bit of a theme with many restaurants in Tivoli, including their adjacent food court that's exclusively trendy foods and chain restaurants.

For dinner we ate at a more traditional Denmark theme park style restaurant, it was their German beer garden. The thing we noticed about beer gardens in almost all the theme parks is that the point was not just to sell you beer, but sell you amazing German food to eat with your beer. Most beer gardens in North America are just fenced off bars, but here it's a German culinary experience, with beer.

Our next theme park is Bakken. I should note that we didn't spend nearly as much time in Bakken as we did at Tivoli and Legoland. Frankly there just isn't as much to do at this park. Most of the rides are your standard state fair or carnival rides. Our ultimate goal was to check out the oldest theme park in the world, and ride one ride. It also rained for a good deal of the time we were at Bakken. Food wise the choice was kind of slim.

There are several restaurants located in one section of the park. We considered getting a buffet meal while at Bakken, but we checked out the buffet and it was kind of disappointing. Most of the snacks were just things like ice cream, cotton candy and popcorn. While the setting was pretty fun, the snacks themselves did not impress too much.

The final stop was Legoland. This was obviously the most unique of these parks, and also the newest. I was actually surprised at how much of the food at Legoland was similar to that of the other two theme parks. Both of our meals at Legoland were buffets. The first was the most important stop for me food wise, as it had the "famous" Lego french fries. They were fun, but they did highlight one thing about this park that surprised me.

There were very few food options themed to Lego itself. In our entire time at the park I found two treats that were themed to Lego. There was the french fries, and one coffee shop offered Lego shaped chocolates for around 10 dollars each block. We even stopped in the candy store, and they did not offer one candy in the shape of a Lego brick. They would use Lego characters to promote treats, but the lack of Lego themed food was a little disappointing.

We did make one more stop, and while not technically a theme park, it is theme park adjacent (almost literally). Lego House is a museum located a few minutes walk from Legoland. While they also lacked any food that looked like Lego, they did offer a few fun treats. My favourite being the overpriced coffee from the Lego movie (all proceeds went to charity). The museum also offered a look at how food was represented in Lego, as well as some amazing pieces of Lego art with food themes.

Being a theme park fan, I really enjoyed all our adventures in Denmark. I had never thought about Denmark's relation to theme park history, but it's truly an important place. While they haven't really adapted to the amazing food selections available at some of the more modern theme parks around the world, there are some amazing examples of classic carnival food done right.

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Best Green Candy

 When you can't think of any St Patrick's Day treats, you try and figure the next best thing.

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Learn Some Facts About Snacks

 

Have you picked up my comic series called Snack Facts? If you love adventure and snacks you should.

You can pick up your own set on Amazon or at candycritic.org/snackfacts.

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Temperature Sometimes Matters

One of the key issues I have when one candy replicates another is when there's a temperature difference. I find that some flavours only work well when they're presented at a certain temperature. Cola is a great example of this, as it really only works well when it's cold. Ice cream is also another flavour that works so much better when it's cold. It's not only cold things though, a slice of apple pie should be warm, so it's a little odd when you have an apple pie flavoured treat that's room temperature or even cold. I'm not saying that these are hard and fast rules, you can break them, it's just very challenging to keep the spirit of some flavours when presenting them under different temperatures.

Check out the latest temperature variating snack and let me know if you think it works.

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Beautiful Fake Food

 Japanese fake food is the best in the world, and this man is a master.

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Denmark Adventure

 In this episode of Junk Fud on the Road, Allison and Chris talk about all the theme parks they visited in Denmark with a few other stops as well.

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Pick Up Blue Orchid!

 

Watch her fight off awesome monsters!

 You can pick up chapter 1 of Blue Orchid right now on Amazon or at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid.

Better With Chocolate

 I've heard people say that anything can be improved when covered in chocolate, but I'm not sure I always agree. There are a few things out there that I've said cannot be improved with chocolate, like onions. Most of the time people use this expression when they're talking about something that they don't like, and claim that if it was covered in chocolate it would be good. Few people (and even few candy makers) ever think about what might happen if you take something great, and then cover it in chocolate. Can you make a great thing even better by covering it in chocolate. Today I discovered probably the first sample of this kind of treat. Jelly Bellies are some of the best jelly beans in the world, but when you cover them in chocolate... well you'll just have to read the review.

Find out if an awesome candy can get even better with chocolate.

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Candy Art

 Many people say that certain candy is too beautiful to eat, in this case I believe it's true.

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The Best Candy Store Ever?

 

Whenever I travel I tend to visit candy and junk food sites. These sites could be historical, they could be a great shopping experience, or they could be just an amazing experience. Almost every place I visit sells candy in some way. Even the few candy museums I've been to tend to have some kind of shopping experience attached to them. The thing about the candy shopping experience is that it's rarely more than just a place to get exclusive or inexpensive treats. Sometimes there's a little decoration or theming, and that's fun, but it's never more than just decoration. There is however one candy store that has more, and that's the Fazer Cafe in Helsinki, Finland.

For those unfamiliar, Fazer is a chocolate company from Finland that may not be very well known in certain parts of the world, but in Northern Europe it's the top brand. It's the top brand for good reason too, I would rank it as one of the best mass produced chocolates in the world. It easily holds its own with brands like Cadbury. They also make some amazing bars with fascinating combinations, their licorice blend is surprisingly amazing. Fazer started in Helsinki by a Russian imigrant. The cafe in downtown Helsinki is not only their flagship store, but it's the original location.

The interesting thing about this cafe is that it's not completely chocolate bar themed. It's really a nice cafe where you can order a tasty sandwich or a classic cinnamon bun. Most of the cafe is actually still a cafe, and not a chocolate shop. According to the information at the cafe, this is how Fazer got its start, as a cafe that became famous for their chocolate treats. Eventually the chocolate treats became the main source of their business, but they've kept the cafe open, and selling nice baked goods and coffee. 

They also do sell chocolate, I would say that about one third of the cafe is dedicated to selling their chocolates and gummy candies. They offer all of the classic Fazer treats, but also some exclusive harder to find treats too. The price is a little higher than you might find at your local Finnish grocery store, but not much. The cafe is also not the cheapest cafe either, but you get a chance to sit in a historical site, doing what people did there before this brand became a chocolate giant. It's not themed either, it's just remained a cafe.

I can't visit Finland without a stop at the Fazer cafe. I don't think I'd plan a trip just to visit, but Finland is one of my favourite countries to visit, so I feel like I'll be there again in the future.

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