It's The 4th of July!!!

To all of my American friends it's a big deal, to me it's an excuse to eat a giant American cookie.

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Wednesday's Japanese Candy Review

What a rainy day it's turned into, nothing makes me happier than to flick on a cartoon, sit on the couch, and munch on a handful of snacks.  Today's review is absolutely perfect for a rainy day snack.  I find that small bite sized treats work best as rainy day snacks, but I'm not sure why.  There's just something appealing about stuffing your face with a lot of little things that seems to brighten up any rainy day.  Sure I don't mind eating a chocolate bar now and then, but today little cookies seem just perfect.

Click here to read today's new review.

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Friday Candy Video

While I'm not really a big fan of food companies having political opinions outside of food issues, I really like this commercial General Mills did for Pride week using Lucky Charms.  It only makes sense that a cereal that features a rainbow marshmallow would be the perfect representative for Pride awareness.

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Friday's Candy Links

The stock market is a confusing place for a guy like me, fortunately I do understand that if the prices of cocoa goes down, my happiness level goes up.

With the election coming up in the USA, I've found many ways that people are taking poles on who they plan to vote for, this one sticks in my mind the most.

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Trying to Get an Agent/Publisher - Rejection?.. Nope

It's been a while since I last published about my search for an agent... that's because I've been very fortunate to have been signed.  I've actually had it worked out for a while now, but I didn't want to publicly announce it till everything was set up and running smoothly.  The wonderful Dorothy Spencer, from the Jennifer DeChiara Agency has been working with to get some of my candy book ideas out the door.

As a side note, I'd like to thank all of you who gave me words of encouragement and advice while I was going through this.

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Friday's Candy Links

Dylan's Candy Bar is opening another store... in Los Angeles.

With prom season almost over, here's a story about a girl that made a great looking dress out of Starburst candy wrappers.  Here's a few more examples of creative prom dresses.

If you don't think candy can make people legitimately happier, than you haven't read this story.

Boing Boing has recently posted two great how too links. First, how to make waffle shaped jello shots, and finally how to make Game of Thrones cake pops.  Both look fantastic.

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Friday Candy Video - Happy To Find Some Cheezies

No man on the face of the planet has ever been happier to find a bag of cheezies and a couple of chocolate bars.  It could be because he's just finished a trek to the South Pole and back, just to find some treats that he buried on his way there.

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Happy Valentines Day!!!

Can you feel the love?  The chocolate covered, candy coated, lightly dusted with powdered sugar love?

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Merry Christmas Gang

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to any and everybody who happens to read this blog or www.candycritic.org.  I hope you have a great holiday, and I hope you get some sweet treats under the tree.

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Friday Candy Video - The Commercial That's Sweeter Than The Candy

If sickly sweet commercial that make you feel like M&Ms provide a great snack, and the answer to all the problems in the world, are your cup of tea, then do I have a video for you.

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Candy Store Tips - A Good Staff

For many years now I've been lucky enough to explore candy stores all over the world.  I've seen the worst and I've seen the best.  Now, each week, I'm going to give you a tip that will help you know instantly how good any candy store you walk into might be.  This is also useful if you happen to own a candy store as well, follow these tips and customers will notice.

Candy stores often hire a younger staff.  If you see someone in a candy store that is over 25 chances are they own the place.  I'm not saying this is always the case, I'm just pointing out an observation.  The thing about hiring young people is they don't always care about the place they work, even candy stores.  The one thing I can tell you from my candy store shopping experiences are, whenever I meet a candy store employee that knows their stuff and is enthusiastic about candy the store is good.  I can tell you that I've never been to a great candy store that didn't have employees that really loved working there.  So this is both a tip for stores and for shoppers, make sure candy store employees are good.  If they're not knowledgeable and happy employees then there's a good chance your store is not great.

I'd like to thank the beautiful Snyder's Candy for providing photos for this article.

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A Candy Store You Should Visit

If you find yourself in the New York, you should visit Little Things, a candy store in New Midwood.  Not only does it look like a nice little shop, but it also has one of the best hiring policies I've ever known in a candy store.

Click here to read more, and give them some support too.

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Food Is A Big Industry In Canada

According to this article, the food industry in Canada is actually one of the biggest industries in Canada.  More people are making food in Canada than other things, like Blackberries (although the name sounds like a food) and auto parts.  Best of all one of the top food makers in Canada is Honibe, a company that makes some of the best honey candies I've ever had the pleasure of eating.

Click here to read more about the food industry in Canada.

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It's National Junk Food Day!

I'm going to start with some ice cream, then it's a big fat greasy hamburger, followed by a nap, and a bag of chips to cap it all off.

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Happy Canada Day

It's the best day in the world to be Canadian.

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Why Is Chocolate Good For You?

There are many articles posted all over the internet telling you why chocolate is good for you.  Some focus on the technical ingredients in cocoa that are good for you. Other focus on the scientific studies that say it's good for you.  I can tell you one reason why chocolate is good for you without any scientific jargon at all.  Chocolate is good for you because when you eat it you're happy, and there are already too many unhappy people in the world.

Click here if you want to learn more about the technical stuff.

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Chocolate Buffet Tomorrow

If you happen to be in Atlanta tomorrow, you might want to check out the 11th annual Chocolate! buffet.  It's for a good cause and... oh yeah... there's going to be a whole lot of chocolate to sample.

Click here to read more about the event.

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Chip Delivery Truck

Over the last week or so things have been rather hectic here in Athens and for me in general.  I've been so busy that I started not enjoying all the cool things that I do.  Then while watching some chaos from my balcony I saw this truck.  It made me want a bag of chips, it made me smile, and it made me remember why treats are so cool.

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New Art, That I've Been Working On

This isn't really candy related at all, but I wanted to show off my latest art project to you guys.

The series is called "Senses" and I'm really proud of it.

You can click here to check out more.

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Some Very Smart Words About Eating Disorders

Michigan State University is running a really interesting and sensible campaign to help people gain awareness about eating disorders.  The focus is on the fact that eating disorders is not about loving food, but instead it's about self esteem.  There are some pretty smart words in this article and if you ever feel bad about enjoying a snack now and then I suggest you start helping yourself and maybe read this article.

Click here to learn about eating disorders.

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