The End of the Review-A-Thon

The end of this month means it's the end of this crazy idea I've had to try and review a new treat every single day for an entire month. It was both a chore and a joy, and that often depended on how I felt about the particular treat I was reviewing. I'm not sure if I'll make this an annual event, but maybe once in a while it's worth doing. More importantly, I managed to get through my candy backlog a bit, and that means more room to get more treats.

Check out one of the last treats in this month's review-a-thon.

Super Hero Candy

 There was a time, before regulations, that candy companies could claim that their treats would actually make you stronger.

So, What Flavour is a Rainbow (or a Unicorn)?

 Today I look at the super trendy flavour (actually two flavours) that has kind of confused me for the last little while, Rainbow.

The Blue Orchid is Pretty Amazing!

Make sure to check out Blue Orchid, a fun comic about a girl from South East Asia who has to fight all kinds of crazy monsters.

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

When In England, Buy Milk Chocolate

I feel a little sorry for candy makers in the UK, unless you make a milk chocolate treat. My problem is that every time I visit the UK, I tend to gravitate towards any of their treats that contain milk chocolate. The reason is simple, some of (if not the) best mass produced milk chocolate comes from the UK. On just about every visit to the UK I tend to load up on milk chocolate treats, and that means that I might miss or pass up something that doesn't have any milk chocolate in it. If you know a great non-milk chocolate treat that I should try, let me know, I'll add it to my list and really try hard to get it.

Check out my latest UK, milk chocolate treat review.

You're Not Fat Enough Yet

 According to this candy advertisement from South Africa, you have to be heavy in order to eat a giant chocolate bar.

Attempting To Solve A Popcorn Problem

 The popcorn problem is a mathematical problem that takes place mostly at theatres, but can also happen at just about any place that entertains you and offers popcorn. I've never bought popcorn at a concert or professional sporting event, but I have seen it for sale at those events and can imagine that the problem happens there as well. For the sake of explaining this problem, I'll use the theatre as my example. The problem is that all too often you run out of popcorn before the entertainment has even begun. On some occasions you might manage to limit you popcorn intake during the time you're waiting for the event or movie to start, and maybe you'll have popcorn available during the first 15 minutes of so. 

This is a strange situation because I always associate popcorn with watching movies, but maybe I'm actually associating popcorn with waiting for movies to start. Maybe once the movie starts I might actually have no interest in popcorn at all. I wouldn't really know because I've always finished my popcorn before the movie has started.

Popcorn is an odd snack. You might be thinking to yourself, "those buckets of popcorn at theatres are huge, that's more than enough". The fact that they call the container for popcorn a bucket supports that theory. The thing is, most popcorn buckets don't actually contain much solid food mass. I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain about having to carry a bucket of popcorn before because it's too heavy. It's a bit of an illusion, as most of what you're buying is actually air, and these air filled popped kernels have lots of air between them as they don't really nestle together very well.

I should also point out that I tend to order the medium, or maybe large if I'm sharing popcorn when I go to the movies. I pretty much just go along with whatever "combo" or deal the theatre is trying to sell that seems appropriate for my party size (a single if I'm alone and a two person combo if I'm with Allison). I am aware that many theatres also offer insanely large buckets of popcorn as well. I'd just always assumed that these buckets were meant for families and since I don't have kids, I've never bought one... That is until now.

On a recent trip to see the movie Inside Out 2, Allison and I jokingly suggested that we pick up the largest bucket of popcorn available at this theatre. As you might be able to see from the picture, it's about 10 inches tall with a diameter of about 12 inches. I feel like this sudden urge to get a giant bucket of popcorn came about because of our last theatre going experience where we bought the "large" box of popcorn at another theatre and it contained maybe 50 kernels of popcorn, and that's it. Maybe we were over compensating, but the price wasn't too bad and we figured it might be an interesting experiment.

We got this behemoth and couldn't stop laughing the whole time. We were actually watching this movie in Thailand, and I couldn't help but imagine how the locals would see the "westerners" with their giant bucket of popcorn since there's a generalization that westerners eat large portions (spoilers, we do). We waited for the theatre to be cleaned out, and once it was, we wandered inside to our seats. In this theatre they offer special seating for couples that consist of two large, comfy chairs squished together like a couch. We generally opt for this and it worked out well as our popcorn needed a large place to sit and between us on this couch worked perfectly.

We also decided that we would eat the popcorn as usual. So no holding back and waiting for the movie to start. We sat down and watched a good 20 to 30 minutes of trailers happily munching away on our popcorn. I would occasionally feel around the bucket to see how far we'd gotten. By the time the movie started it felt like we'd eaten about 1 and a half inches into the bucket. After about the first 45 minutes of the movie I assumed that we must have been near the end, but we weren't even halfway through.

By about the 1 hour mark I started to not want to eat popcorn anymore, and only continued to eat out of habit or some drive to finish this bucket. About 20 minutes after that I was pretty much tapped out. I nibbled here and there, but I just couldn't eat any more popcorn. I felt like Allison was in the same boat as me.

The photo above is how far we managed to get into the bucket. By this point I could touch the bottom with my finger, but just barely. I would say we had a good 2 or 3 inches left. I took away a few lessons from doing this. First and foremost, as much as you think you'd like to eat popcorn throughout an entire movie (or concert or sporting event), I don't think that's true. Secondly, if you get a giant bucket of popcorn, make sure to get the giant drink to go with it. I noticed my consumption went way down once my drink was done.

We tried to eat more popcorn when we got back to our hotel, but frankly the idea made us a little sick. There's a great expression is show business "leave them wanting more". The expression suggests that it's better for your audience to not get enough entertainment rather than over doing it. I feel like this works with popcorn too. It's better to not get enough popcorn than have too much. When I don't have enough popcorn I just look forward to the next time I'm planning to go to a movie. If I get too much I just leave with a tummy ache and sore, dry lips.

There's Something Wrong With These M&M's

Keep in mind that I'm not a legal expert, but I feel like a line or two might have been crossed.

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Learn about Beasts and the Treats They Love

 If you haven't already picked up my awesome alphabet book called Treats and Beasts, then you're missing out on a fun day of learning all about beasts and the treats they love.

Pick up your very own copy of this book (and even some merch) at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/ or on Amazon.

A Review Every Day

 

If you haven't noticed yet, this month (September 2024) I've decided to post a new candy review every single day of the week. I'd planned to do this several months ago, assuming that I wouldn't be traveling or anything this month, and would be able to update the site every morning. So far it's worked, and I'll be honest, it hasn't been that hard on me either. Not that I should ever complain about having to eat candy. The thought has gone through my head about the idea of keeping this up for a whole year, but I feel like that might be too much on me both mentally and physically (you can have too much of a good thing). The good news is that I don't plan on stopping the review-a-thon this month, and I'll have plenty new reviews after.

Check out on of the latest entries in this review-a-thon, a bar from Iceland.

Simpson's Candy Facts?

 I just learned that this Butterfinger commercial is actually the first appearance of Milhouse. Apparently he was created for this commercial specifically.

Deep Fried Snacks Rule On Street Food

 Watching these expert street food artist make a crunchy deep fried peanut treat at a street market in Bangkok, Thailand is what makes me happy all the time.

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Do You Know Snack Facts?

You can learn some really fun facts about the snacks you love in a really fun way, and all you have to do is pick up my comic Snack Facts.

Check out Snack Facts right now at candycritic.org/snackfacts/buy.htm or on Amazon.

A Little Offensive But...

 I get the feeling that this commercial isn't trying to be offensive, but there are a lot of elements that probably wouldn't sit well with today's audience.

McDonalds Anime Update

 Ronald McDonald is probable one of the most famous food mascots ever created. I say this because I’ve seen depictions of Ronald all over the world, and I’m pretty sure that kids and adults all over the place associate this brightly coloured clown with burgers, nuggets and fun fast food. Thailand even has some very unique Ronald statues to greet people outside of every single restaurant.

The thing is, Ronald seems to be disappearing a bit. While there are still hints of him everywhere, he’s not commonly found at every restaurant anymore. I’ve seen many documentaries about the rise and fall of Ronald and the entire McDonald Land cast, and there are many theories about why these characters seem to be falling out of favour at the restaurants. Oddly however I am finding that these characters are starting to become more popular outside the restaurants, being used in clothes, shoes, and even some fine art and collectible toys.

It seems like the licensing of Ronald and the McDonald’s Land characters is going strong, but for marketing in restaurants they seem to be completely disappearing. Again I’m not sure why this is happening for sure, but I am noticing in Asia that these classic characters are starting to be replaced by new Anime style characters.

While there are some food related characters in the mix, the main theme seems to be characters based on the people working at McDonald’s. Maybe this is not only a way to sell food, but also a way to try and get people to apply for jobs.

What I wonder is how deep this goes. While I’ve seen a few posters, cut outs and window decorations of these characters, I haven’t seen any of the obvious marketing pieces that would make sense for Anime style characters, like comics and animation. I think it might be fun to see the adventures of some characters that work at a McDonald’s that’s regular attacked by various fast food related robots and monsters.

Longest Lasting Gum

 A quick list of the longest lasting gums that I've ever reviewed on candycritic.org. If you want to check out all the gum I've reviewed check out candycritic.org/reviewgum.htm.

That Blue Orchid is Awesome!

If you haven't yet picked up issue 1 of Blue Orchid, make sure you get it soon, because issue 2 is almost done.

Check out all things Blue Orchid at www.bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/ and pick up issue 1 on Amazon .

It's A Review-a-Thon Marathon

Starting this week, and going until the end of the month, I'm going to post a new snack/candy review every single day. Normally I post one or two reviews a week, with the occasional small one week review-a-thons, but lately I've had a huge backlog of reviews that I need to post. I've decided to thin out this backlog a bit and post like crazy. My goal is to have them all posted overnight with a notice on my social media every morning, but please be kind if I'm running a little late.

Check out the first entry in my mega review-a-thon and don't forget to complain about the fact that it's not really a candy.