The Future Of Chocolate Science

 I've never not wanted to eat chocolate so much... nope, I still want to eat it.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Microwave Grilled Cheese

This one device can pretty much solve every problem I've ever had between 11 am and 2 pm.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Robot Tea Infuser

The perfect accompaniment to any snack or candy is a nice cup of tea. The best way to make this tea is with a robot. Seeing as I can't afford a robot to make me my tea, this robot themed tea infuser is as close as I'm going to get.

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Candy In The Media - Burger Bot

It's fun to watch this Burger Bot make burgers, but is it a better burger to eat?

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Candy In The Media - Greatest Invention Ever?

The PancakeBot 3D printer might be the greatest thing  to have happened to breakfast in a long time.

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Candy In The Media - VR Meets Japanese Candy

I've always been a fan of VR technology, however I think this machine might have taken the VR exspirience one step too far.

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Candy In The Media - Creepiest Ice Cream Commercial Ever

I'm no expert, but I don't think this is a good way to advertise ice cream.

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This Week In Candy

With the holidays behind us, I can safely tell you that I managed to eat more cookies in one week than I have in my entire life.  I'm not sure why, but cookies were truly the theme for the holidays this year.  I can't complain about that though.  Cookies allow you to have a lot more variety than cake or pies.  You can pile many varieties of cookies on one plate and no one looks at you as if you were some kind of dessert hording glutton. You can also go back for seconds on cookies on the grounds that you didn't get to taste a particular type of cookie.  For some reason if you do that with cake people seem to frown upon it.

This week at Candy Critic we're preparing for the new year, and what a year it's going to be.  We're already gearing up for some new adventures this year, travel wise.  We're preparing for a trip to Thailand in the near future, and have other trips planned later in the year.  The new year is also going to bring the return of Junk Fud, the official Candy Critic podcast.  With a new format the show will go live in January, and we hope to have 3 or 4 episodes going online every month. We'll also be continuing some of our other new segments in the new year, including the monthly Candy Critic Dessert Club, that's posted on this blog each month.  We're also going to see an increase in candy review-a-thons since we have a huge backlog of reviews to post.  This is were we post 5 or 7 new candy reviews in a week instead of just one.  All this and we'll still be continuing our regular weekly segments like our Candy Thing, Candy in the Media, and in January Snack Facts (our Instagram feed) returns.

This year we're also going to be focusing on more writing projects outside of the website.  We've got three projects waiting to go out, and we hope to have several of them out by the end of the year.  So it's going to be a busy year, and we hope you'll be along for the ride.

Speaking of busy years, 2015 was a pretty crazy year for us as well.  Later this week we'll be posting our top 5 most memorable candy reviews, and today we're posting a new candy review from our most memorable trip.  Our trip to Southern Africa was pretty intense, and a whole lot of fun.  We tried all kinds of amazing foods from wild game to not so wild candy bars.  Today's new review is a snack we found in South Africa that really made us excited, that was until we ate it.  Click here to check out the new review.

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Star Wars Candy Ideas

With all of the hype over the Star Wars the Force Awakens opening later this month, it got me thinking.  There are a million cool toys, games, and even clothing tie-ins with this movie, but I haven't really seen that much when it comes to candy.  Sure there are a few brands that are putting characters on their packages, but no one seems to be making special candies that relate directly to the movies.

I've decided that I'm going to solve this problem myself.  My only problem is that I haven't seen the new movie, only 5 or 6 trailers.  So I've decided to stick to what I know and design some candy treats themed to the older movies (original 3 in fact).  Maybe when I see the new movies I'll be inspired to design even more treats, I'm guessing that BB-8 will probably work as some kind of gumball, but we'll see.

Before I start I just want to say that I'm giving these ideas away for free.  If you're a candy maker, feel free to use any of these ideas.  I have one stipulation though, send me some.  Don't just go off making millions of dollars without letting me sample one of my own creations, that's just mean.

My first idea is simple, and is based on one of the most popular character in the entire franchise.  Best of all, we know for a fact that Chewbacca will be in the new movies, so you'll be fine selling these now.  The key is to make this treat look like a square cube of fur, yet also make it chewy.  The recipe is simple, take a caramel cube and cover it with spun sugar. You can make it a dark caramel with a nice burnt flavour, as I'd imagine that a Wookie would have a slightly toasted nutty taste.  This would work best for all those high quality chocolatiers out there wanting to take part in this movie franchise.  Why not fill your case with something fun for this movie, I bet the kids will go "nuts" for them... Come to think of it, some nuts mixed in would really ad to the "Wookieness" of this.

This is the one candy that I'm surprised no one has made yet, gummy Jabba the Hutts. In fact, why stop there, with so many gelatinous looking characters in the franchise, I'm really surprised there aren't a bunch of jelly/gummy Star Wars tie-ins.  Jabba would work best though because you could pretend that you're a spiteful frog getting his revenge on the evil Hutt for eating his brothers. This would take a little bit of effort to make at first, but once you have the mould it would be easy to make millions more.

This was not my idea, my friend Raph came up with the name.  I just came up with how one would deliver a candy called "Light Savers".  I think having them break off a hilt would be the best idea.  You could also have an LED light at the base of the hilt so the Light Savers would glow.  What could be more fun than having sword fights with your friends, then eating your sword.

There you go JJ Abrams/Disney Corp, while I'm sure you'll be making more money on action figures and other toys, I think these candies could earn you enough money for a new summer home at the very least.  Check back after I see the movies (which I imagine will be soon after it comes out) to see if anything from The Force Awakens inspires anything else.

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Candy In The Media

Skynet now owns your birthday cake.

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Candy In The Media

Check out this awesome gummy printer!  While the things it makes are still pretty crude looking, it's the first in what I hope to be a new trend of custom candy.  Soon you'll be able to go to your local candy store and get any candy you like, in any shape you like.

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Candy News

3D printed cakes are the cakes of the future, and can only be improved if they could make a 3D printed ice cream cake.

Mental Floss posted a great list of "39 Amazing Facts for National Trivia Day", included are a few great sweet facts in there as well.

More good news about chocolate, apparently it reduces cholesterol.

Speaking of chocolate, what does the future hold for this most popular of sweet treats, unfortunately it's not perfect.

So the "Soda Ninja Swipe" is a pretty awesome party trick, the problem is it might leave your soda flat.

I love food dioramas, and I love miniature scenes, so these miniature scenes made from food are awesome.

It turns out that candy bar wrappers can help people that suffer with Dementia, it triggers a happy memory in all of us.

If I could go to one New Years eve party in the world, I think Bethlehem Pennsylvanian would be my choice.

If you want to keep up with all of the daily candy news that we come across as it happens, follow us on Twitter.

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Orville You Amaze Me

A few months ago I made a special order of fun treats from home.  Every once in a while I crave some treats and foods that I can only get in Canada, things like Shreddies and Kraft Dinner just remind me of home and make me feel warm inside.  One of the things I ordered on this round was microwave popcorn.  Now you may be wondering why I would have microwave popcorn from so far away when you can pretty much buy the stuff all over the world.  This first reason is Mr Redenbacher, that man makes some mean popcorn.  It puffs up nicely, leaves very few un-popped kernels, and the fake butter flavour is stupendous.

 The other reason I placed this order was to try out their new microwave bowl technology.  Orville Redenbacher found a way to change their microwave bag into a bowl.  I have to admit that I was skeptical of this, and I figured I would just end up with the same floppy bag that I always get, only it would have an opening on the side.  As it turns out it not only works, it brings more entertainment to the popcorn popping experience.  While the bag is popping both sides of the bag are made from a red transparent plastic.  That means that for the first time ever, you can watch your microwave popcorn pop.  It seems like a trivial thing, but I assure you that if you buy this you'll watch at least one bag pop.

 As far as the bowl itself, it was really easy to open up.  You still have to be careful of the steam, and if you're like me you'll burn yourself at least once because you'll rush trying to open it.  The only fault I found with this design is that the red plastic doesn't seem to come off as easily as they say it would in the instructions.  I find that I have to work one end till I get to the middle, then I have to start on the other end. The instructions imply that it comes off in one easy tug.  This is only a problem because this is also the time you're most likely to get a steam burn.

Once the plastic is off, the bowl works perfectly.  I enjoyed a few bags of this wonderful treat watching movies at my house and the bowl sat nicely on my lap and on the table.  As always the popcorn popped very well, and the butter flavour was very well distributed.  I think that this might be the next great step in microwave popcorn technology.

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Friday Candy Video

I got an e-mail from the folks that designed a really great candy machine.  This might be the first time I've seen a machine that can sell bulk candy really well.  First of all you're not limited to one type of candy, you can mix and match all you like.  Secondly they make mixing the candy fun and interactive.  This thing is like combining a coffee machine with a Roald Dahl book.  The only problem I see with this machine is keeping the candy fresh.  One would hope that whomever runs this machine would change and update the candy regularly.  I've seen on many occasions bulk candy machines with very stale candy.

(Just as a note, this is not an advertisement, I really think this is a cool idea)

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Friday Candy Video - Skittles Sorting Machine... 2?

Some people might look at this Skittles sorting machine as being way over the top and pointless.  Those people don't realize how wonderful it is to take a mouth full of just red Skittles and chew till your jaw hurts.  These people also don't realize how lazy I am.

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Stuff I Want To Try

iD gum  - Kraft - Sure the gum sounds great, but this magnetic package sounds completely fascinating. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Did You Just Spill Some Goop?

Being a Candy Critic can be a pretty messy job.  I can't tell you how many times I've spilled various goops and had to struggle to get them up.  I wish I had one of these gadgets, then I'd be the happiest boy in the land every time I made a mess.

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In The Far Future There May Be No Marshmallow Peeps

I'm not saying this because I feel that "Just Born" the makers of Peeps, will go out of business.  I'm talking in the long term, like thousands of years into the future.  I only say this because I just read an article about a scientist in Arizona just tried to do a pathology report on a Peep and was unsuccessful.  Apparently the soft chewy Peep wouldn't allow for genetic testing.  So if you think that Peeps will make a valiant return in twenty million years due to genetic science, you'd be wrong.

Click here to read more.

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You Smell Bad, Eat Some Candy

Apparently science has been back to its old tricks again and created another strange candy treat.  This time science has found a way to make candy that makes you smell better.  I'm not just talking about your breath either, this treat claims that it will make your whole body smell  better.  Now I know I rarely ask for free samples, but if the makers of this treat are listening I'm pretty smelly right now and could really use some help.

Click here to read more about this treat.

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App Tells You How Healthy It Is

According to this article a new phone app has the ability to tell you everything you need to know about what you're eating.  I'd love to take this app out for a spin to my local candy store and see what kind of millage it racks up.

Click here to read more.

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