A Little Dark

 So let me get this straight. The little rice crisps spend time constructing a bar and will eventually be trapped on that bar, only to be consumed by you.

Time for Junk Fud on the Road From Iceland

 Allison and I took a drive around the entire island of Iceland taking in the nature, restaurants, grocery stores and truck stops.

Blue Orchid Is Fun!

If you haven't picked up the latest issue of Blue Orchid, then you're missing out!

Pick up your copy and any other merch right now at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/

Bar Form Is Not An Improvement

I have yet to taste an M&Ms (or any candy coated chocolate treat) bar that's actually an improvement. It seems like an odd thing to do if you think about it. You take a colourful candy and hide it in brown. It's like building a giant colourful sign for your business, then building a building right in front of it. It even ruins the eating experience as well. For some reason when you put candies like this in a chocolate bar, the candy coating turns into a gritty texture after a few bites. I'm glad they're trying new things, but I'm not sure this is really working.

Check out my latest M&Ms bar review to see why it doesn't work.

Love At First Breath

 I always love how in candy commercials, fresh breath can lead to love.

Traveling With Toblerone

 I have a simple goal, to travel around on my current vacation to the Philippines while eating a Toblerone bar. The inspiration is simple, Toblerone is the candy bar that’s available in almost every single airport gift shop and duty free. In some ways it seems like the official chocolate of air travel. While getting ready for this trip I started to wonder why. One idea was that maybe it’s a bar that’s easy to eat while travelling on airplanes.

So I’ve decided to take a Toblerone (dark chocolate) and eat a triangle at various stages of my current travels. I’m travelling to the Philippines with two legs on my flight and a couple of layovers too. My layover is very tight as well. The temperature is warm at all stops, so it’ll be interesting to see how the bar holds up.

To start I’m sitting at the terminal waiting for my flight. Opening a Toblerone is actually fairly easy, so even with a few bags I managed. There was also very little garbage, it was a small enough amount that I could have stashed it in a pocket if needed. I should also mention that the bar went through customs and airport security with no problems. While it’s kind of early to be eating chocolate for me (7am), it was a nice sweet snack. Closing the bar went well, since it’s a cardboard tube(?) with a flappy lid, it slid back into my bag with no problems.

Eating a Toblerone on an airplane is a little complicated, but I feel like it’s more the fault of the airline and not the candy bar. I decided to enjoy my treat when they delivered the snack for our first flight. I also left the Toblerone in my bag that was stowed at my feet for what I thought was easy access. It was slightly challenging to get the bar from my bag with the tray down. Having said that, any treat would have been equally or even harder to retrieve. The advantages of a Toblerone in this instance was that the package is durable, but more importantly it has a distinct shape. While rooting through my bag it was easy to identify the bar because of the triangular shape.

This particular Toblerone (dark chocolate) held up very well flavour wise. They say that when flying you lose some of your sense of taste, but this bar was bold enough to satisfy. It was also easier to eat compared to my snack (chocolate cake) that required a fork and the use of my tray, which ironically made getting the Toblerone more difficult. The cake tasted pretty good, but I feel like the Toblerone was better. Allison mentioned that she preferred the cake because it didn’t have any bits that stick to her teeth. So far the Toblerone has held up well, but let’s see how it does during our tight connection, will I even be able to get a single bite on the move?

The answer about whether or not you can eat a Toblerone bar while running to your next short connection flight is not really. I did manage to get a bite in just as we arrived at the gate right before they started boarding. This was the first time that the tinfoil became a problem. I hurriedly peeled it back, and missed a piece that had broken off. Chewing on tinfoil is not fun. This might be the first issue I’ve had with the Toblerone packaging since starting this experiment.

After boarding the plane I decided to have another bite of my Toblerone bar. It was a leisurely bite after putting all my luggage away and having the tray table down. Within a few minutes of biting this our dinner arrived. It was a chicken curry with a salad, I did not enjoy either and wished I had eaten the Toblerone after to cleanse the palette.

I decided to challenge myself for this bite and had a triangle just as we were pulling up to the gate. As you might know, pulling up to the gate on an airplane is a very stressful time. At this point you’re collecting your belongings, and thinking about getting up. Since this bite was rushed, I ended up eating another piece of foil. I also damaged the package a little. I seem to have twisted the end cap a bit. The strength of this triangular, cardboard tube is starting to give.

For my last bite of this particular leg of my trip, I had a bite after eating at a Wendy’s in the airport. This was another leisurely bite, but I did do a bit more damage to the top of the package. I did also take some time to peel away the excess foil and throw it away.

After a quick break, we went onto our second leg of the journey. This leg is a little less traditional, yet I feel like it’s a place where one might still find a Toblerone bar. To start this leg of the journey I find myself in another airport waiting for a plane. This other airport also sells Toblerone bars, so I know the concept of this article still stands.

The reason this airport is different than the first airports is that this is a domestic airport (in the Philippines) with smaller planes and much less grandeur than some airports (but still nice). It also means that in our case we would not be boarding our flight with a jet way, but instead we had to get on a bus. Allison was slightly annoyed with my effort to take a bite of a Toblerone on a busy bus, and I think I ate some foil again. The top of the package is also getting worse and the chocolate was very melty (the bus was hot).

We finally made it onto our small propeller plane and were on our way. My seat mate (which due to booking issues wasn’t Allison) was a little perplexed at me taking a selfie while eating a single bite of a Toblerone. It was fairly easy and since we had a really short flight, was a nice accompaniment to the small bag of cookies we got as a snack. 

At this point I feel like I should have stopped this adventure as Toblerone bars are really sold primarily in airports and the flying portion of my trip was over. However, I still had a couple of triangles and a small boat trip. By this point the chocolate was very melted, and the bouncing of the boat made it very challenging to get the foil off (I may have eaten more foil). I don’t think Toblerone bars are really made for tropical, small boat rides.

To end this adventure I find myself at my resort enjoying the end of my Toblerone bar. In general I would say that this bar actually makes some sense as a bar to travel with. The only stipulation is that it must be the Toblerone in the cardboard tube. The tube is really the key to making this bar travel friendly. It allows you to take a bite and tuck it away easily. It also protects it fairly well from getting crushed.

The flaws are that since it’s fairly high quality chocolate, if you find yourself in warmer temperatures, it’s very melty. I would also say that the top of the tube isn’t really providing much protection. By the end of my journey it was barely holding on. 

Beasts and Treats!

 If you love treats, beasts and the alphabet, you should pick up my fun book called Treats and Beasts.

You can get your copy at bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/ or on Amazon.

Seeing Red... Pez That Is

Somehow in my long career of being a Candy Critic, I've managed to miss out on reviewing all of the red coloured flavours of Pez. It's pretty amazing since a few of these flavours were my favourites as a kid. Because I feel so strongly that each and every red flavour should be well represented on candycritic.org, I've decided to get all three reviews up this week. I'm always curious about the classic candies that I've not yet reviewed, so if you know about one, let me know.

Check out the first of 3 red coloured Pez reviews that I'll be posting this week.

An Odd Candy

 My first question about this candy being advertised is what exactly does it do to you when you eat it. My second question is should a pregnant lady being eating a candy that causes such a reaction?

A New Candy Taste Test

 I thought it might be fun to taste test 4 bars that were on the cheaper end of things, turns out it was a bit of a challenge.

CC

Get Some Snack Facts!

 If you need a few facts about your favourite snacks, pick up my comic called Snack Facts. 

Pick up all the Snack Facts you’ll need right now at http://candycritic.org/snackfacts/

Another Variety

When I did my last big re-organize of candycritic.org I decided that if any candy had more than 10 versions, I would give them their own category. I started that a few years back, but honestly haven't added a new candy or snack to the list of candies with more than one version since. I can think of at least 3 or 4 treats that should be added to that list, but I really haven't gotten around to it. Doritos is approaching that mark, and maybe when they cross it I'll finally get to adding all the treats that deserve the spot... or maybe I won't.

Check out my latest review of another flavour of Doritos.

Not Much Fun For The Mouse

 Filling this Choki Chocolate with cashews seems like a lot of work for that poor little mouse.

Is Crispy Wow Better Than Nutella?

 Not everyone likes Nutella. I know that’s a bit of shocking thing to say, but it’s true. When I tell people that I like to write about various spreads and compare them to Nutella, some people will then tell me that they assume that almost all the other spreads must be better. I don’t put these people down, I understand that they simply have different tastes than myself. Two of the most common complaints I’ve heard about Nutella are about the texture and the sweetness.

The most common complaint people have with Nutella is that it’s very sweet. I don’t deny that at all, I just happen to enjoy very sweet things. After all I have a website dedicated to the love of sweet things. If however you happen to be one of those people who feel that Nutella is too sweet, then you might actually enjoy this Crispy Wow spread. It’s not to say that it’s not sweet, but I would say that it’s marginally less sweet than Nutella. It’s not that it has a richer cocoa flavour either, it just seems less sweet.

While maybe not being the most common complaint, I have talked to several people who feel that Nutella’s texture is a little boring. Once again Crispy Wow has managed to deal with just that problem. Better yet it’s dealt with it in a really original way. While rice crisps are not rare in the candy world, it’s not often that you find them in any kind of liquid treat. The reason for this is that rice crisps often get soggy in any liquids. Some how however, the crisps in Crispy Wow have remained fairly crunchy. The texture of this spread is really a winner.

So is Crispy Wow better than Nutella? I would probably say no, unless you fit a very particular criteria. If what you’re looking for is a spread that’s a little less sweet than Nutella, with a fun crispy texture, maybe it’s better for you. The downfalls however are that the cocoa quality of Crispy Wow doesn’t seem as good as Nutella. I would also argue that the addition of hazelnuts would improve this spread as well. So this is no Nutella, but if you want a quick break from Nutella with a little crunch, this might work perfectly.

Blue Orchid Is Here!

 Looking for adventure? Pick up my comic called Blue Orchid.

Pick up all the comics and Blue Orchid merch at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/.

Spice Gum Flavours

It's funny that there aren't many gums out there with spice flavours, with one very huge exception. Cinnamon seems like it's cornered the market on spice flavours when it comes to gum. That is unless you count mint as a spice (I say herb but I won't go to the grave on that). It's just weird how certain spice flavours are so common in gum, while there are so many others that almost never appear as a gum flavour. I'm not saying that all spices would work, I just wish there were more options out there.

Check out my latest review of a unique spiced gum.

Stuck to a Mirror?

 I'm not sure I exactly understand what's fun about your candy sticking to a mirror.

Quick List - The Best Candies For Each Letter of the Alphabet - Q-U

 A quick list of the best candies from each letter of the alphabet. This time we're going to be checking out Q through U.

Check out all my review for every letter of the alphabet right now at www.candycritic.org/alphareview.htm