10 Second Kitchen - Coconut Candy on Unicorn Island, Vietnam

 Watching the machines turn the coconut and sugar to make tasty coconut candy on Unicorn Island in Vietnam.

Vegan Chocolate

I don't have anything against vegan chocolate, I've just had really bad luck with it. I do however have a great deal of optimism about it, particularly after tasting this latest treat that I've reviewed. There was a time when nut and other vegetable based milks where limited and frankly pretty gross, however I feel like they've improved a lot over the last few years. While I do have some dairy sensitivities (they're nothing that bad), I still often use regular milk for a great deal of my food, for cereal I've started to really enjoy the combination of nut milks and cereal. I think plant based milks are really improving, and I get the sense that vegan chocolate is improving too.

Check out my latest vegan chocolate review.

Coconut Candy Making

One of the benefits of doing a website about candy is the number of times I’ve been invited/gone to candy making facilities. Some of the places I’ve visited are giant factories while other times it’s a place that’s smaller than my kitchen. I can’t say I’ve ever had a bad experience at a candy makers domain, so when given the opportunity I never turn it down. On a recent trip to Vietnam I was given the opportunity to visit a really fascinating place that makes coconut candy.

The most interesting part of this factory is that it’s not very big, yet they do so much. They literally start with whole coconuts, with the husks and all and finish with a packaged candy. The first step in making these coconut candies is getting the coconut out of husks. You often hear about candy makers using local ingredients, these local ingredients are literally grown just outside the factory, harvested and brought in to be husked. Best of all, they use each and every part afterwards as well.

After clearing out the meat of the coconut they send it to this machine that basically gives you ground coconut on one end and coconut milk on the other. This is the kind of machine I could watch all day, and frankly I’m not entirely sure how it performs it’s magic.

The other good thing about a candy making facility like this is that there’s no secrets. The ingredient list is two things, coconut and malt (for sweetening). The malt is brought in separately, they don’t have a facility to make that, but the coconut and malt are mixed together and heated up. One of the sources for the fire to heat the candy mixture is actually the coconut husks.

After the coconut and malt mixture is cooked and has turned into a taffy like consistency, it’s spread out on a table, flattened and cut into strips. The strips are then cut into small squares using the most intense large knife I’ve ever seen in a candy kitchen.

As a note, this is the best time to sample this candy, fresh off the line.

After it’s cooled a bit, it’s sorted and sent off to the packaging machine. Fortunately the candies that don’t fit the right size and shape are also available as more samples.

Watching people make candy from the raw ingredients until they’re packed in a bag is pretty amazing. It not only shows great skill, but also great care. If you every find yourself on Unicorn Island in the Mekong Delta area of Vietnam, why not watch them make some coconut candy.

Kaya Revelation

 There are a few snacking trends that make their way from Asia to the west. Odd flavoured Kit Kat bars, Pocky, seaweed crackers just to name a few. There are however some Asian trends that never make their way to the west, and I can’t figure out why. Salted Egg, both on fish skins and as a flavour is a great example. It’s a flavour trend that’s just about everywhere in Asia, from Krispy Kreme donuts to every kind of salty snack and cookie you could imagine, yet most people in the west have no idea what it is. I can never really figure out why one particular snacking trend makes its way around the world while others don’t.

Kaya is the latest thing I’ve discovered that seems to fall into the category of treat that just about everyone should love, but for some reason it seems to stick to certain parts of Asia. I discovered it on a trip to Malaysia where I met a person who was so surprised that I had never tried it before. This isn’t that uncommon, for someone to introduce me to a treat that I’ve never tried before. After all there are hundreds of regional treats and snacks all over the world that are only available in very specific places. At first I assumed that this was just a Malaysian thing and while happy to try it, I didn’t think much of it.

Then, after my trip to Malaysia, we ventured to Singapore. I decided to poke around Singapore and see if they had any Kaya available as well. I was blown away by how much Kaya I found. There were snack shops and restaurants dedicated to the stuff. Dunkin’ had a doughnut flavoured with Kaya too. I also checked the grocery stores and there were shelves full of different varieties and different qualities of Kaya. After having one person in Malaysia point it out to me, I suddenly discovered that it’s actually all over the place. I’ve since travel ed to a few other Asian countries, and each and every one of them also offers Kaya.

For those of you that don’t know, Kaya is a coconut based spread. It often has pandam in it as well as various other ingredients like sugar and sometimes egg. There are apparently different versions of it too, depending on where you get it, but most are sweet, slightly gritty spreads. There is certainly a coconut flavour, but it’s not too overpowering. The traditional way to eat it is on toast with butter, but as I said before filling donuts or dipping things in it is also acceptable.

It’s a sweet spread that has some truly fun (and fairly familiar) Asian flavours, so why is no one in North America or Europe eating this stuff? I don’t really have an answer, but I can say that it’s not because it’s brand new. The people I’ve talked to about it have been eating it for years. According to some research I’ve done online, there are Kaya recipes that have been around since the early nineteen hundreds.

I’m not sure how long Dunkin’ has offered a Kaya donut, and I’m not sure how long Kaya toast shops have been open. Maybe Kaya is just hitting the mainstream in Asia. Maybe it’s been on the shelves for a while, but now it’s finally getting a bit more of the snacking spotlight. I can’t really say for sure because it just wasn’t on my radar until recently.

What I’m hoping is that this awesome spread picks up momentum, and we start to see more and more treats flavoured with it. A Kaya Kit Kat sounds good to me, maybe even some more Kaya cookies. I would also love to taste a Kaya ice cream, if Baskin Robbins is feeling adventurous.

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Time To Mound On Some Science

 I'm not a huge fan of Mounds bars, but I thought that maybe I could improve them by adjusting their temperature. Turns out I was right.

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Also check out my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see what I'm working on right now.

While you're at it, check out my book called Treats and Beasts, it'll make you happy I'm sure.

Classics, But Not For Me

 

When I first started candycritic.org, there were a few classic treats that I thought I'd never review. These treats just weren't my cup of tea, and I figured if I wrote these reviews I'd only be slagging a candy that I knew I didn't like. This week's featured review is most certainly one of those treats, but as time has moved forward, my opinion on treats has changed. My sense of completionism makes me want to check every single candy check mark that I can, and my feelings about trying to like things that I used to hate has grown. So it may have taken me years, but I'm slowly starting to review classic candies that I never really liked. Sometimes I might change my mind, other times... well...

Find out if I changed my mind about mounds.

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Everything Is Not Clear

I think we all have mixed feelings about surprises. A surprise is great when it's something you enjoy, but it's horrible when it's something you don't. This is often the case with candies, as they are probably the food where surprises are the most common. After all, the idea of getting a hamburger and finding a "surprise" is something that scares most people. A gumball filled with something surprising sounds a lot better, but only if it's something you like. If I got a gumball filled with fake watermelon flavoured goo I'd be really disappointed and might even spit it out. If this gumball was filled with cherry goo I'd be super happy. These Malo Cups had a surprise, and I wasn't really that happy about it.

Click here to find out what surprise made me a little upset.

Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to find some other surprises (good or bad).

Also be sure to follow me on Patreon for more surprises, mostly good.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertisement

I've never really thought of Almond Joy or Mounds as a Hawaiian candy. Although Peter Paul, the company that makes Almond Joy and Mounds started in Connecticut, I can see that the flavours they produce have a Hawaiian feel to them.  With coconuts and almonds being flavours one associates with the Hawaiian islands, it makes sense to sell them as tropical/exotic treats.

I found this ad here.

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This Week In Candy

This week we're making chocolate from scratch.  Notice I didn't say "chocolates" with an "s", I said chocolate.  The folks that make Glee Gum, this weeks featured review, sent us a kit that allows you make milk chocolate from it's basic ingredients.  So instead of just melting down some already formed chocolate, we took the various ground ingredients, cocoa butter, and strange crystals to make some pretty tasty little treats.  It also made the house smell spectacular.

We're also still working on our popcorn articles, but having some trouble tracking down some oils.  Palm oil and coconut oil are very hard to find in our neck of the woods.  We'll keep searching, however we might have to limit our test for now.

Finally, if you're of the Greek Orthodox religion you're now in the time of Lent.  Someone explained the rules to me and said that you can't eat anything with a face.  So I'm sorry to say that means that gummy bears are off limits.  Both because they contain gelatin, and they have cute little faces.

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Australia/New Zealand Review-A-Thon - The Cherry Ripe

After such an epic trip across two amazing countries, you better believe I have many a treat to talk about. I came across many a fine treat on this adventure, and I hope to show you every single one of them throughout this week.  I've decided to start this review-a-thon with a bar that is a truly Australian creation, first made by MacRobertson's until Cadbury bought it up in 1967, it's really an Australian staple.  You can pretty much find it on every single store shelf, I guess the question is, is it worth picking up?

Click here to read the Cherry Ripe review.

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Happy New Years!!!

This year I've decided to make a New Year's resolution.  I'm going to try to eat more candy.  That may seem like an empty promise from a guy that runs a site called Candy Critic, but it's not.  I'm going to go out of my way to try and sample a wider range of treats this year.  I'm also going to attempt to eat more treats that I might have been unwilling to eat in the past.  More coconut, licorice and fake watermelon flavoured treats are on the agenda.  I'm also going to eat more hand made sweets, and try to experience even more variety from around the world.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Mocha Coconut  - Lindt - It's really great to discover new candy flavour combinations, and Coconut and Coffee sounds interesting. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Round White Ball Review

Why is it when a candy is presented as a white fluffy looking ball, it looks so tasty, but often disappoints.  They look so delicate, like there's something so subtle and almost cute about them, but inevitably something's wrong.  It's rarely the texture as well, it's most often a flavour imbalance.  Maybe, since you see a light treat, and often these treats are also light in texture, when you have a flavour that is any short of very subtle, your mind does flip flops.

Click here to read our review of this fluffy looking white treat.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Dark Coconut Toffee  - Alter Eco Foods - I'm craving toffee right now. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Old Time Candy Packs

Allan Peters has amassed a great collection of photos of vintage packaging and advertisements.  Included is this Mounds box that has the greatest slogan I've ever heard.

Click here to check out Allan's collection.

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I Slept On a Coconut

Or at least I think I did.  On a recent trip I was inundated with information about the matress that I was sleeping on.  It was called a "Coco-Mat" and it was made from Coconuts.  It also contained sea weed and horse hair, but I think the coconut was the main selling point.

The pamphlet on the nightstand said it contained "elasticated coco-fiber".  I'm not sure how one "elasticates" coco fibers but I can say it was pretty comfortable.

I can also say that these guys really go all out when it comes to advertising.  The artwork above the bed was also an advertisement for the mattresses.  P.S. if the folks at Coco-Mat want to send me a bed to preview for a long term test please e-mail me.

Click here to check out their website.

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Off to the Races in Our Greek Review-a-Thon

I don't really understand that name of this bar.  It's called "Derby" but it doesn't appear to have any relevance to horse racing.  There are no horses on the package, and the main ingredient is coconut.  From what I understand coconut is not something one generally associates with horse racing.  Sometimes they call soccer tournaments "derbies", but then I still don't understand the coconut reference.

Click here to read the review.

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Coconuts For Sale

Throughout many of the tourist spots here in Athens one often finds these vendors selling coconut treats. Actually only some of the items for sale could be deemed as treats, the main attraction is actually just chunks of coconut. They keep the chunks hydrated with mini sprinklers that put on a good show. The only treat they seem to have is these small little logs that I can only assume are made up of coconut.

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Monkey Mounds

I love monkeys.

Ad from Vintage Ad Browser.

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Coconut Cream Tim Horton’s

This month’s new donut might just be this Coconut Cream treat pictured above. I say “might” because it didn’t have the little tag on it saying that it was the feature or anything new. It is however new to me so I feel I can safely calling it new.
It tastes ok too, although I’m no a huge fan of coconut however with cream it seems to do pretty well. It seems that the flavour combination in this case outweighs my dislike of coconut on its own.

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