Milk Chocolate By Definition

I find that the definition of milk chocolate is a little complicated to nail down. Many dark chocolates contain milk, white chocolate also often contains milk. One might even argue that some white chocolates contain more milk than milk chocolates. Some milk chocolates are very cocoa forward, in fact I would argue that most milk chocolates, should be called chocolate with milk. This Milka bar that I reviewed this week is probably one of the best examples of a chocolate bar that really celebrates the milk part of milk chocolate. 

Check out the full review right here.

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I Don't Really Like Coffee

 

When I was younger, even a teenager, I hated coffee. Today I can drink it if it's offered, to be polite, but I would never choose it. I'd prefer tea any day, and hot chocolate every day. I feel the same way about most coffee candies too. While I'll eat them, it's rare for me to hunt them out. When I do appreciate them, I tend to look for ways that it doesn't really taste like coffee. It could be that it's nice and creamy, or in some cases it kind of tastes like chocolate.

Check out this coffee review, that I bought kind of by accident.

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It's A New Review... With A Twist! - Milk Tablet "Sweetened Flavour"

We've decided that over the next little while we're going to play around with some new ideas for Candy Critic. One of the ideas is to do a live review on Periscope every so often that we're calling Chris's Late Night Candy Review. As you can see above, we're also recording our live review and posting it on YouTube as well. We don't have a schedule for them yet (but as the title implies, it'll be at night), as we're still working out the kinks, but we'll be sure to announce when we're going to do a new review on Facebook and Twitter.

Click here to read the more detailed written review of this treat.

Also make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to find out when we're going to do another live review.

You can also follow us on YouTube to make sure you know about all the video stuff we're putting out.

Finally, if you can, please check out  our Patreon page, to find out how you can be a part of the Candy Critic team.

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We're Doing More Videos!!!

Our new show is called Chris's Late Night Candy Review, where I do a review of a candy live on Periscope. For now I'll announce the shows as we go along on Facebook and Twitter. We'll also be archiving the shows on our YouTube channel as well.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to know when a new episode is going to be recorded.

If you can't stay up late, remember, we'll also post the episodes on our YouTube channel as well.

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Candy In The Media - Eating a Lot Of Cookies And Milk

Now that's a lot of cookies.

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Holy Cow! It's a New Episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!

In this episode Chris tries the drink made famous in the television show Lavern and Shirley, Pepsi and milk. Find out if this is a bad idea, or something we should all try.

Click here to find old episodes of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!

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Another Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! On The Road

This is our last episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! from our trip to India (and eventually Dubai).  This one was a bit of a surprise, and it took two parts to get it right.

Click here to check out past episodes of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!

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Hey Jelly Belly!!! Some Flavour Ideas - Creams

Creams

This week we've filled the blog with ideas for future Jelly Belly flavours, we started with Middle Eastern spices, then we went to Japanese snacks, yesterday it was candy bar flavours, today it'll be smooth and creamy.

Creams have been associated with fruits and cakes since the inception of desserts.  While some might argue that every cream is the same, I think Jelly Belly would be the perfect company to produce cream flavoured beans that each have their own subtle difference.  These beans on their own would be OK, but much like the Middle Eastern Spice beans, mixed with fruit and other sweet beans these would just elevate the flavour to a new level.  The real trick to these beans would be to keep them from being sweetened.  You don't want the cream bean to blend in too much with the other sweet flavoured beans, you want it to contrast it.

The sour cream Jelly Belly would have to be cool.  The idea of this bean would be to cool down the flavour of any other Jelly Belly that you've already eaten.  Not only would this bean work well while eating fruit flavoured Jelly Bellies, but it could work to help you wear off the effects of a Jelly Belly that's too spicy for your liking.

Clotted cream Jelly Bellies would have to be the most decadent of all the cream flavours.  The flavour would have to be strong and very rich in order to simulate the cream it's portraying.  Probably one or two clotted cream Jelly Bellies would be enough to balance out with a small handful of cherry Jelly Bellies.

Unlike the clotted cream Jelly Belly, the whipped cream Jelly Belly would have to be lighter.  This would be a bean that would never over power the fruit or sweet bean that it's mixed with.  Instead the whipped cream Jelly Belly would ad a subtle accent.

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The Origins Of Lucky Charms or Circus Peanuts Cereal

A few months ago I was doing research for Snack Facts (our Instagram feed). I was researching sugary cereals, in particular I was reading about Lucky Charms. Lucky Charms are the king of sugar cereals, and in my house were always the example of a cereal that isn't healthy. I'm pretty sure my mother never once bought us a box. Fortunately my grandfather had a different perspective and when we would visit him there would always be a box waiting for us.

While researching the cereal that proves grandparent’s love their children more than their parents, I came across an interesting fact. When the creator of Lucky Charms wanted to find out if marshmallows would work in a cereal, he took a bowl of Cheerios, cut up Circus Peanuts, mixed them together, and added his milk.  So that means technically if someone asks what was the original marshmallow in Lucky Charms, you could say chopped up Circus Peanuts.

Seeing as I am still not allowed to have Lucky Charms in my house (I'm sure it's some kind of wife/mother conspiracy), I decided to take matters into my own hands.  You see, Cheerios are perfectly acceptable in my house, and I managed to acquire a large amount of Circus Peanuts.  So I decided that it would make perfect sense to make my own, old school, Luck Charms.  Although I don't know if you can really call them "Lucky Charms" since I don't believed sliced bright orange peanut can be found in any leprechaun fables.

The first thing I did for this experiment, after photographing Circus Peanuts in various set-ups with Cheerios, is slice up the Circus Peanuts.  When I read this history there weren't any specifications as to how the Circus Peanuts should be included with the Cheerios.  My best guess was to slice them up to roughly the same thickness as I remember the Lucky Charms Marshmallows.  This was a little difficult because I did not have any Lucky Charms as reference because as mentioned before, my wife cares a great deal about my health.

I was also unsure about how many Circus Peanuts to chop up.  The bowl I was using is rather large, it holds about two servings of cereal, and it looks really cool.  I have a long story about why this is the best cereal bowl in the world, but I'll get into that on another blog post sometime.  For two portions of cereal, I started with four Circus Peanuts, it seemed like it needed a few more, so I added three more Circus Peanuts to a total of seven.  I stirred the cereal and Circus Peanuts together before adding the milk.  If not all of the "marshmallows" would have floated to the surface, and what fun would that be.

After mixing them up, I loaded up an old episode of one of my favourite Super Hero cartoons (Super Friends), sat in the living room, and prepared to be brought back to days at my grandfather’s house.  The cartoon was awesome, but the cereal was the real surprise.

My thoughts before doing this was that the "marshmallow" Circus Peanuts might just melt into oblivion the minute the milk hit them.  I assumed this because they kind of melt on your tong when you're eating them.  I wasn't sure if that was because of the heat of my mouth or the saliva.  If these were in fact quickly water soluble, I was expecting a bowl of Cheerios in orange coloured overly sweet milk.  Fortunately I was wrong, as it turns out Circus Peanuts are not really water-soluble. In fact they stayed fairly dry for a long time while floating in my milk.  That information was both pleasant and disturbing.

Flavour wise I was a little worried about how well the orange, yet banana flavoured, Circus Peanuts might go with the Cheerios.  Surprisingly again, it was actually very pleasant.  The milk and cereal really watered down the banana flavour of the Circus Peanuts.  Instantly I was surprised at how similar this combination was to regular Lucky Charms.

After my first bowl, I have to say there was only one "gross" part of this experience.  The milk afterwards had gone fairly orange, and it was super sweet.  Some people like the sweet milk left after a bowl of sugary cereal, but I really don't like it at all.  I actually dislike it so much that I will often eat my sugar cereals with no milk in the bowl, just a glass on the side.

My suggestion to any fan of Lucky Charms, or anybody who's not allowed to have sugary cereals, is to give this a try.  It's not that bad, and it's pretty close to the Lucky Charms experience. I would even say that this is probably the best experience I've ever had with Circus Peanuts.  I'm normally not a big fan, but the additional texture of the cereal, and the fact that this knocks the strong flavour of banana out of the Circus Peanuts, makes them fairly tasty.

I'm not saying that I'm a creative genius or anything, but I think if anybody making Circus Peanuts is listening, making a Circus Peanuts cereal might be something to look into.  And for those of us that aren't allowed to have sugar cereals, this might be a way to get around this rule.

This Week In Candy

Well I'm back from Venice, and what a fun trip it was.  As some of you might be following our Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr sites, you may have seen a few snippets from our adventure.  If you haven't been keeping up don't worry, we're going to feature a few of our favorite Venetian snacks tomorrow on a post here on the blog.  Frankly I wasn't disappointed by any of the food, unless you count this week's review which I got on the trip.

How much do you know about milk?  I'm working on a project right now, and I think I'm going to focus on milk.  I want to learn the history, the science, and how much it's used in the candy industry.  I've got a few ideas about where to go with this project, but if you have any suggestions, let me know.

Finally, I've been receiving a lot of treats in the mail lately.  For everybody that's sending me candies to sample, I assure you that I'm getting to them as quickly as possible.

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A Cool Candy Thing

I'm not sure if these are a candy, a candy thing, or none of the above, but I can tell you that I think they're pretty neat.  In fact I can honestly tell you that I have a package of these sitting in my cupboard right now. I'm not sure why I'm saving them, but now that I think about it, I think I might use on of them up tomorrow morning to drink up the extra milk in my bowl of cereal.

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Candy News

Technology now allows us to print photographs on marshmallows, it's a good time to be alive.

Here's an interesting look at how candy can help us look back at American history.

What did you do for Fat Tuesday?  If you happen to be fat, you could have scored from free candy.

When famous spokes characters collide, Geico Gecko VS M&M's Mrs. Brown.

Who knew that Canada would actually have so many controversial candies, we seem like such nice people.

Don't read this list of "Shocking Food Facts" unless you're into crushing some of your food related dreams.

There's a movement to keep chocolate prices down, even though cocoa prices are going up, it could be hard to argue this considering we keep eating more and more chocolate.

I was going to post this as "Stuff I Want To Try", but frankly I don't really want to try it.

Do you have plans to eat at Buckingham Palace in the near future, if you like chocolate, you're in for a treat.

Did you know that Snickers has had the same slogan since 1986?

There are some foods you make at home, other foods that you get in your neighborhood, and others still that you only eat on vacation.

Beautiful and completely edible, the British Art Fund has funded some amazing edible art.

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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Friday Candy Video

"Each year millions of gallons of milk, the kind you drink, go into Milky Way candy bars."  So what you're saying is that I can eat a Milky Way bar every day, and not a glass of milk?!!  See mom, I was right, candy is healthy.

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The Nesquik Bunny Would Like This Review

It's pretty amazing how the beverage industry and the candy industry get along.  There are hundreds of sweet treats based on drinks, and hundreds of drinks based on sweet treats.  The only other industry that I think gets along as well with the candy world is cereal companies.  There are a lot of cross over treats and cereals as well. While this Nesquik bar is a pretty obvious cross over, there are a few that are a little stranger, the old Gator Gum comes to mind.  I hope that these ties stay close, and it might be nice to see even more food industries getting into the candy act.

Click here to read today's chocolate milk themed candy review.

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A Cool Candy Thing

I can't tell without actually using this thing, but it's either the greatest invention ever, or a potential for a cookie disaster.  The worry I have is in the strength of the cream.  I'd worry that after soaking in the milk too long, the cream might separate, and therefore your cookie would sink to its milky grave.  Having said that, I do find that when it comes to dunking Oreos, the cream does hold up better than the cookie when soaked.  So I guess timing will be an issue, but if timed right you'll have a fully submersed cookie, and dry fingers as well.

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Tim Tam Appreciation Week Part 4 - The Best Drinks To Dip Your Tim Tam

As we learned yesterday, with the Tim Tam Slam, Tim Tams are a cookie greatly suited for dunking, or even sucking.  My first experience with Tim Tams and dunking was with hot tea, and it really changed the way I thought about these cookies.  If hot tea could improve these cookies so much, I wonder how the Tim Tam would pair with other drinks.  So I've decided to sample my last few Tim Tams with a nice variety of drinks, let's see which drink works, and which don't.  I should note that each drink receives one dip, there is no double dipping going on for this experiment.

Tea - As I've mentioned before, tea seems like the perfect drink for your Tim Tams. The heat from the tea melts the cookies just perfectly and turns them into a perfect gooey mess.  The drink itself also works really well with Tim Tams because it's not too rich.  The chocolate and cream from the Tim Tams, and the clear clean tea flavour is the perfect pair.

Hot Chocolate - As with the tea you do get that wonderful melting mess of a Tim Tam, however unlike the tea, hot chocolate doesn't provide as nice a contrast in flavour.  It's as if you're being overpowered with chocolate when you bring these two treats together.

Milk - I'm sure this is going to be a continuous problem with cold drinks, the chocolate outer shell doesn't melt, and so you basically get a slightly wet cookie with a hint of milk flavour.  I let it sit for a while, and the milk never penetrated the chocolate exterior.  The milk also doesn't seem to have taken on any of the chocolate, this might have been tasty, but it doesn't seem to have worked.

Coffee - For the sake of the experiment I've used instant coffee, mostly because I don't really know how to make regular coffee.  With that information you should guess that I don't really like the taste of coffee either.  It is slightly improved with the cookie, but not enough to make me love it... or even like it.  If you're a coffee fan you'll probably love this as much, or more, than I enjoyed this cookie with tea.

Juice - This was supposed to be one of those ideas that would come off as silly, but strangely it's not that bad.  The juice suffers the same problem as the milk, in that it doesn't melt the chocolate and therefore doesn't penetrate the cookie goodness.  However the fruity flavour of the juice coating the cookie is actually pretty good with the chocolate.

Cola - Like the juice, this was to be a silly idea, and it was.  The cola really doesn't add anything to the chocolate cookie.  In fact After the first half second I couldn't taste the cola at all.  When the flavours mixed in my mouth it was just strange, not really tasty, not really gross, just strange.

Bonus Chocolate Pudding - I know that this isn't really a drink, but  I had some chocolate pudding left over and a Tim Tam that needed to be dunked in something.  It's actually not a bad combination, although the cookie doesn't melt at all, and that's the best part about dunking Tim Tams.  The chocolate was a little overpowering, but maybe this would work better with a different flavour of pudding.

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Candy Jokes

What do you call a cow that can’t moo?











A Milk Dud.

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Chris Stuffing His Face - Cereal

I love cereal, I eat it for breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner.  I don't think I've ever had a day where I've eaten only cereal all day, but I rarely have a day where I don't eat some cereal.  I like sweet cereals, nutritious cereals, any kind of cereal.  I even like granola.

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Friday Candy Video - Clanky Is Awesome

I can't begin to express how great this commercial is, you really have to watch it.  My favorite part is the candy/sugar themed backgrounds.

I found this video on Boing Boing here.

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Tuesday's Candy Links

Mental Floss examines some of the stranger flavours of chips they know of.  I'd like to add these, these, and these to the list as well.

It seems the war on sugar is back all over the USA.  While I don't disagree with the basic principle, it better not turn into a war on candy.

I love chocolate milk, I'm not sure how I feel about root beer and cotton candy milk.

Do you smell cotton candy?  Well it's probably coming from that huge truck over there.

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