Happy Halloween!

 

Happy Halloween! I hope your bags are more filled with treat than tricks.

Treats and Beasts!

Can you imagine an alphabet where every letter brings together a wild beast and a tasty treat?

That’s exactly what you’ll find in Treats and Beasts, a fun A–Z adventure full of animals, sweets, and silly surprises.

A perfect book for young readers, animal lovers, candy fans, and anyone who enjoys a creative twist on the alphabet.

Get your copy here: bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/ or on Amazon.

Just Promotional Packaging

 I’m a sucker for a candy promotion. What I’m talking about is when a candy company crosses over with something in real life. Sometimes a candy promotion can be with a celebrity, sometimes there’s a big event, sometimes it can be with a television or movie franchise. Candy promotions are one thing I keep my eye open for all of the time. The problem is that candy promotions are becoming more and more common, and more importantly some candy companies aren’t really putting their full effort into candy promotions.

It used to be that when I would come across some kind of candy promotion, I’d buy it. In some cases I’ve even gone out looking for particular treats that were having some kind of promotion. That’s because when the idea of cross promoting candies with famous intellectual properties, candy companies used to be fairly creative. If a celebrity was involved, then candy company might make a special version using flavours that the celebrity might like. When it came to movies and television, candy companies used to try and make foods that might be in the show a reality. Even if the treats didn’t work flavour wise, I loved the idea of a candy company thinking hard about how they can work with an intellectual property and tie things together.

With more and more candy companies doing tie-ins, I’m finding that candy companies have gotten a little lazy. Instead of making a special treat to celebrate their tie in, many candy companies have resorted to packaging only. Basically I’m seeing a lot of candy packages that simply add a few logos and design elements to their package, but the candy inside is just the same candy that they always sell. In many cases they don’t even decorate the candy inside the package either. It’s just a plain chocolate bar with logos and stuff on the package. 

I think my site is proof that there are so many creative things one can do with candy. I also understand that sponsorship and cross promotions can get complicated legally, but I feel like the candy consumer is really the one losing the most here. I’ve had a few occasions where I’ve picked up a treat that could have had such potential, but was just a simple (maybe boring) candy inside. I’ve actually started to be very skeptical of crossovers and promotions when I hear about them, and I don’t really seek them out anymore. While I haven’t completely given up, if there’s no indication that there’s something unique on offer inside the package during these promotions, I just don’t bother.

Junk Fud And You - Best Country For Chocolate (in my opinion)

 Here's a quick look at the best and sometimes most surprising places to get chocolate from around the world, at least in my opinion.

I See You...

 

I wonder what the first creepy candy ever was. I feel like most traditional Halloween candy is just standard candy made in trick-or-treat sized. However, as the years have gone by, I think more and more candy companies are trying to make Halloween themed candy, and the best way to make any candy Halloween themed is to make it creepy. Sometimes the creepiness of a Halloween candy is kind of cute, but on occasion, like this new review, the candy is actually a little unsettling. 

Check out my latest of review of a really creepy candy.

Eating Really Old Halloween Kisses - Part/Year 6

 In this episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That I eat another Halloween Kiss, for the sixth time. It's part 6 of a 14 year series where I'll eat a Molasses Kiss candy from the same bag till they get stale or until I finish them all.

Read my full Halloween Kisses review here: candycritic.org/halloween%20kisses.htm.

Here's last year's Halloween Kisses review: youtu.be/EJbBIfqoR2o?si=VZZ9V4sV3E9nT2N5

Blue Orchid!

A teenage girl. A world filled with monsters. An adventure unlike any other.

Blue Orchid is my manga-inspired comic series following a young South East Asian heroine as she battles strange creatures and discovers what it takes to become a true hero.

Available now at bewarethecheese.com/blueorchid/ or on Amazon.

Fruity Chocolate

Blending chocolate and fruit together is one of the most common flavour combinations out there. The thing is, many, maybe even most of them are not great. It's amazing how many companies blend fruit with chocolate and get it wrong. There are thousands of ways to get this combination wrong as well. Poor choice of fruit, poor quality chocolate, bad ratio of ingredients can all ruin what could be a great combination. Maybe on paper it seems like an easy thing to do, but I've tasted so many bad fruit and chocolate combinations that I'm pretty certain in reality it is not.

Check out the latest fruit and chocolate combination, spoilers, it didn't really work.

Healthy Chocolate Cereals

 I’m not sure which cereal was the first to introduce the concept of chocolate for breakfast. More importantly I’m not really sure when the first cereal brand added chocolate to their breakfast menu, but it’s been happening much longer than I’ve been alive. Chocolate and breakfast have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, sort of. The idea of chocolate and breakfast together has been something I’ve known about for all of my life, but in our house any cereal that had chocolate was considered junk food and not healthy enough for breakfast. The only time we would get these chocolate cereals was at my grandfather’s house, who fed us full of sugar all the time.

It should also be noted that I’m talking about both chocolate flavoured cereals, cereals a that contain cocoa as well as cereals that have full-on pieces of chocolate. I feel like in my younger days most “chocolate” cereals were in fact chocolate flavoured. I’m thinking of things like Count Chocula and Cocoa Pebbles Cereal. I can’t recall having healthy cereals with just cocoa powder or even fancy cereals with real pieces of chocolate.

What I’m getting at is, there appears to be a big shift when it comes to chocolate in cereals. I think it’s a shift that’s been growing for decades now. Don’t get me wrong, the old sugary chocolate regulars are still around, but the trend that just seems to be growing out of control is “healthy” cereals that contain pieces of real chocolate. It seems to be a really popular trend with granola mostly, but there are a few others as well. 

The trend is getting so extreme that many of these cereals not only offer you chocolate in each bowl, but they allow you to choose what kind of chocolate you might want. Many brands now offer their “healthy” cereal with white, dark or milk chocolate. On occasion some offer a combination of chocolate types as well.

I understand why people buy these cereals, chocolate in granola tastes great. What I don’t understand is if you can sell chocolate in cereal and sell it as healthy. If it was just cocoa I could understand it, but when you add full on pieces of chocolate it feels a little less authentically healthy. Now don’t take my word on this as I’m not an expert in healthy eating at all. Maybe chocolate (not just cocoa) has some kind of health benefit I don’t know about. Trust me I’d be very happy to hear that news.

Is chocolate going to take over the cereal isle? My taste buds might be happy about this prospect, but I feel like my waste line might be a little disappointed.

Folding Cranes with Kit Kat Wrappers

 I can't resist a fun art project, particularly when it's on the back of a bag of Kit Kat bars.

CC

Some Snack Facts!

 

Ever wondered where your favourite snacks came from?

Snack Facts is a fun comic that follows Barbara and Sir Francis Sweetums as they uncover the surprising history behind some of the world's most popular treats.

Grab your copy at candycritic.org/snackfacts/ or on Amazon.

Cheese and Chips

It's a little weird, the name of my company is Beware The Cheese, yet for the most part I'm not really a big fan of cheese. Actually, that kind of makes sense now that I think about it. Most people assume that I might love cheese because it features so much in my creative life, but I'm actually pretty picky. There are only certain cheeses that I enjoy, and even then there are only certain ways I enjoy them. Fortunately as a potato chip flavour I'm generally pretty happy. There are few versions of cheese flavoured potato chips that I don't like. Oddly, from a creative standpoint, I'd actually like to taste one that I hate.

Check out my latest cheesy review.

Quick List - My Go To Snacks and Candy

 Here's a quick list of my go to snacks and candy. They may not be the best, but their the ones that I crave and that are close to my heart.

Treats and Beasts!

 If you love beasts and you love treats, then you’ll love Treats and Beasts!

A fun A–Z alphabet adventure packed with wild animals, tasty treats, and silly surprises. The perfect book for little readers and anyone who still loves a good alphabet adventure (even if you already know your ABCs).

Grab your copy today:

bewarethecheese.com/treatsnbeasts/

You can also find it on Amazon.

That Bar Has No Name

 For those unfamiliar, "No Name" is a discount brand in Canada. It's made by one of the largest grocery store chains in Canada, and sold in all (or almost all) of their stores. The idea is that these brands are not fancy at all, they're basic products that are perfectly good, but nothing amazing. I'm not sure where the name "No Name" came from, but it's been around for as long as I know. It's even gained a bit of a cult following, they have No Name t-shirts and other apparel as well. I would say that I buy a good number of No Name products when I go grocery shopping, even candy.

Check out my latest No Name review.

Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) Wrap Up

This year I was fortunate enough to return to the CNE. It's the first time I've been to the CNE two years in a row for a long time, and from a snacking perspective I felt a different vibe. Last year when I attended everyone wanted the next crazy food. Deep fried pizza, mustard flavoured ice cream and even a cookie flavoured hamburger. There were tones of crazy foods for sale and huge lineups for each and every one of them.

This year there were a few more crazy treats and snacks, but the lineups for these foods weren't nearly as long as last year. I would even venture to say that there were more crazy food stalls available, but not nearly as many people going to them. Now I don't have the hard numbers to prove that, only the fact that I walked by a few of these stalls and they were empty. I'm not sure what's causing this change, it could be the high prices of these odd foods, or it could be a nostalgia for the classics.

I say this because the lineups for many of the classic CNE foods were really long. I've never waiting for a waffle ice cream sandwich before, but this year it was pretty packed. It's odd too, but I also lost a bit of drive to sample all of the new and weird foods this year, and really craved some of the classics. So here's a quick look at everything I ate.

Ironically I started my day with something that's a little odd, but not that crazy. It was a plate of tater tots covered in mac and cheese and then covered in cheese sauce. It's a little extreme (particularly for your first meal) but it's not that crazy. It was also pretty tasty.

Next we went for some Tiny Tom donuts. 

These have been a staple at the CNE for years. It used to be the only place you could get them, but I see them around a lot more now a days. We thought cinnamon sugar was the way to go.

Our next treat is not only a CNE classic, but I'm pretty sure every county fair and festival has corn dogs. A little mustard makes it just a bit better.

The next treat we got was the classic CNE waffle ice cream sandwich. It's something we rarely miss, even when we go with the weird foods.

I particularly liked their system of selling them. You go to the cashier and buy an ice cream sandwich coin. Then you line up for your fresh (and slightly warm) sandwich. It keeps the line moving and the coin's kind of fun as well. It's too bad you have to put your coin in a hole to get your ice cream sandwich, because I'd love to have it as a souvenir.

My last meal was also a little extreme, but once again not so gross out weird. It's pulled pork on fries with all the fixin's.