Watching Candy Get Made

 Watching candy get made is probably the most relaxing thing I know.

CC

Time For My Annual Halloween Tradition

 Every year I eat a Molasse Halloween Kiss candy. Each one of these candies come from the same bag that I bought (now) 3 years ago. The plan is to eat 14 of them over the course of 14 years, and to find out if they ever get truly stale, like I remember as a kid.

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

Here's last year's video: https://youtu.be/FOlXM-Iuo0s?si=zPYwoGxUFakndhBR

And here's the first video: https://youtu.be/9heIrajA7y0?si=nIgXJVOccDOfTm8w

It's Time To Eat Gum, And Regret It Almost Instantly

In this episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!, I eat a piece of Dubble Bubble that's more than 20 years old. I don't really know why I have such an old piece of gum, but I should mention that I have more, if you're interested in having a piece for yourself.

If you're interested in a piece of really old gum, make a case for yourself on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

If you follow me on Patreon your chances will drastically improve.

CC

It's The All New And Improved Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! - Retro Star Wars Candy

This year we're looking  at updating Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! with new graphics, and a slicker look. We're doing this because we like  to mount more and more work on our tables  every day.  This episode features a candy that we've been saving for a long time. How long, likely more than 10 years. This candy rates as one of the most most likely to earn a trip in an ambulance after eating it.

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

And make sure to follow us on Twitter or Facebook and suggest some other weird foods we could try on future episodes.

CC

Candy In The Media - Drinking A Really Old Bottle of Coke

Drinking Coke From 1956 from Mark on Vimeo.

Vintage Coke is probably something you don't want to drink.

CC

This Week In Candy

One of the greatest friends anyone can have is a foodie friend. I consider myself extremely lucky, because I have many of them.  Some like to talk food, others like to act on it.  My friend Chris is one of those people who really likes to act on his food interests, and his foodie interests are really fascinating.  Chris likes to cook foods the old fashioned way. To be more precise, he likes to cook food the ancient way.  The other day I was over at his house for dinner and he made me an awesome dessert called Libum.  It's a very simple, yet very tasty ancient Roman cheese cake.  The flavour was really clean, and it warmed me up inside on the cool night that it was outside.  Chris apparently has more ancient cooking tricks up his sleeve, and I'm looking forward to trying them all out.

Over the last few weeks I've reported about a big shipment of lollipops from our good friends at Original Gourmet Lollipops.  The shipment was so big that I ended giving many away throughout the last few weeks. Then I had to try and figure out which of the many flavours I should review.  It was too big a feat for me to figure out, so I decided to ask around both in person and online.  So many people voiced their opinions that even after collecting all the data, I still couldn't decide on just one flavour to review.  I have managed to take this list down to just 5 flavours, so that means that every day this week I'm posting a new Original Gourmet Lollipop review.  So stay tuned to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Google+ to keep up with this week's Lollipop Review-A-Thon.

This week on Snack Facts (our Instagram feed), we're looking at Rockets... Or Smarties... Well that all depends on where you live really.  We're looking at those little powdery pill like candies that come in a cellophane tube.  Every day will post a new fun fact about this unique candy on our Instagram feed.  If you don't use Instagram, you can also follow Snack Facts on our Facebook page and our Twitter feed as well.

Part 1 of our Lollipop Review-A-Thon this week is a look at a classic malt shop drink, turned into lollipop form.  I love a good root beer float, and why can't I have one any time of the day, no matter how far I am from a malt shop.  So check out Original Gourmet Lollipops answer to my problem, and check back every day for another lollipop review in our Lollipop Review-A-Thon.

CC

Friday Candy Video - Chocolate Record

Breakbot has just released a special edition of his latest record (you kids might need to Wiki that) on chocolate.  Apparently a chocolate record is playable on a record player, and I bet it has the yummiest scratches and pops while it plays.  Best of all, if the record gets a scratch, you can have some chocolate to console yourself.  While I love the idea of chocolate records, I sure hope it doesn't catch on, I don't want to have to buy my entire Beatles collection again.

Link Via Boing Boing.

CC

Friday Candy Video - New Years Makes Me Think Retro

Whenever I think of a new year, I always remember old fashion things.  I think about how they were once new, but now they're old.

CC

Dare Candy Dare

This candy is a mystery to me, it's also a mystery to Allison as well.  Allison discovered this candy in a jacket pocket.  She had not worn this jacket in a long time, and she couldn't remember exactly where she got the candy.  She says that she remembers getting it for me, but she's not really sure where or when.  Normally I would jump at the opportunity to eat a free candy.  Finding a candy in your pocket is like finding free money.  The thing that worries me about this candy is its name "Dare".  It's as if it's sending me a threatening message.

So after a great deal of stalling, I decided to give this candy a try.  The name "Dare" might have made sense a while ago, but now it's not really that scary.  This little treat would best be described as a hot cinnamon Skittle... well sort of hot.  I'm not sure if it was hot when Allison got it and it's cooled down, or if it was never really that hot and just improperly named.  So if you happen to come across one of these when it's fresh, try it out, and let me know if it's hot at all.

CC

Old Candy Critic Articles - When Candy Goes Bad

I've decided to take down several old articles from the candycritic.org and re-post them here on the Candy Critic blog.  This week is an article I wrote after eating some pretty rotten candy.

You might think this article is all about that strange candy, like a pickle flavoured lollipop, salted plums, or meat flavoured ice cream. Well it's not. This is all about eating the wrong candy at the wrong time or wrong place. It could be as subtle as eating chocolate covered coffee beans right after brushing your teeth or it could be as bad as eating a Halls lozenge that's been sitting in a drawer for 2 years. As you know every editorial is based off an experience and this is no different. Even while I write this, I'm suffering through a nasty little cold/flu. Being the “Candy Critic” I figured that all the answers to my illness lie in the candy drawer. After digging through my massive candy stash, sitting at the bottom, was a very beat up package of cherry Halls. Once again candy comes through for me. Is there nothing in the world that candy can't fix?

The first thing that would have come to mind had I been in a right state of mind, would have been the fact that I don't really remember having a Halls in the candy drawer. Having said that candy almost never steers me wrong so my cure must be at hand, or so I thought. Let me make something very clear to everybody reading this, never eat really old Halls. If cough syrup could rot, that's exactly what this tasted like. A smart man would have spit out the candy, but me I figured I could just bite right through it and all would be fine. Candy why would you treat me this way?

I've also had some pretty bad chocolate bar experiences when exploring a new corner store that hasn't updated their candy shelves since the Carter administration. Right before this flu hit me, hey wait this might explain everything, I was in a store and craving something sweet, this store was a little scary. On one shelf was a bag of kitty litter, a bottle of olive oil (which I think Zeus himself pressed), and a watch battery, that was all. So this was not the best store in the world, but as you know a candy fix must be met, so I figured I would go for a Kit Kat bar, one of my favorites.

I learned a valuable lesson about the freshness of chocolate that day. When I opened the bar it practically turned into dust in my hands. It was as if I had unearthed a relic from the great tombs of Egypt. Desperate for anything sweet, I bit into this bar, and I tell you it had to be the worst tasting bar I have ever had in my life. I don't blame the Kit Kat folks, since I'm sure they wouldn't recommend eating a 20 year old chocolate bar, but heed this warning never eat old chocolate.

My final tale of eating old candy has to be the dumbest one, on my part, yet. When I was a kid I would always stash candy all over the house, and I think my Mom did too. Because every once in a while I would find treats I knew nothing about, hiding around the house. Well one day while playing in the basement in a back room I came across a can of caffeine free A&W root beer. At least I'm sure that's what it said. The label was so faded you could hardly read it and there was a little bit of rust on the top. Even as a child I couldn't resist the sight of a treat going uneaten. So I opened it up and took a big gulp. To this day I find it difficult to drink root beer, I generally don't mind it but that first gulp brings back memories of a flavour to horrible to describe.

CC

Popcorn Storage

My biggest pet peeve about popcorn is the quantity that you have to make.  From Jiffy Pop to Microwave popcorn you always have plenty for you and some friends, but what if you just want a snack for yourself?  Sure you could always make it in a pot (note, that's how I make it most of the time from Allison's secret recipe), but that's a lot of work for a small bowl of popcorn.  The only solution to all of these problems is storage, but nobody like stale popcorn.  So after a fun night with a few friends, who didn't eat their full share of popcorn, I decided to do a little experiment.  I put a small amount of popcorn in three containers.  Then I put one container in the freezer, one in the refrigerator and one, I just left sitting out.

I then let each container sit in their respective spots for about 3 days.  After those three days I sampled them all together to find out if any of the storage methods worked better than another.

There was a difference between each of these samples of popcorn.  The one that was just sitting out was by far the least crunchy, and the pieces with putter on them were particularly soggy.  The flavour was OK, but the texture was most certainly off.

The sample from the refrigeration was significantly more crunchy than the one that was just sitting out.  The buttery pieces also had much more crunch and were more similar to the non-buttered ones than that of the sitting out sample.

The frozen popcorn was fairly similar to the one from the refrigerator, although it might have been a little more crunchy.  Most surprising was how quickly it defrosted, or how little difference there is between the texture of cold popcorn and frozen popcorn.

I guess if I have to give you any storage advice I'd say keep your popcorn in the refrigerator, and if you don't have the room the freezer works too.  In all cases I did use sealed containers and I think that's just a good idea as well.  I would say that butter does affect the lifespan of old popcorn, however I can't imagine eating popcorn without butter and I'm way too lazy to melt more butter every time I want to open one of my stored batches of popcorn.

CC

Kinder Kid Is Still Around

I found this ad on Vintage Ad Browser from the 1960s and I realised that I think they still use the same kid in their ads today.  That's kind of cool, I wonder what he looks like now?

Ad from Vintage Ad Browser.

CC

Sun Bleached Window... Not So Good

I love looking at candy windows.  Not only do they make my mouth water, but they appeal to the artist in me.  The thing is, there's a fine line between having an impressive window and having a window that makes me want to avoid your shop.  This window on the other hand has crossed this "fine line" and kept walking for a kilometer or two.  If you can't notice from the photo, the light chocolates in the window are not supposed to be light, they've been sun bleached.  Makes me wonder how fresh anything in the store might be.

CC

Jello Commercial... A Little Racists?

Anything I write here about this commercial will either make me look like a horrible person, or get the Jello folks really mad at me.  So just watch the commercial and judge for yourself.

CC

Old Candy Store In St Louis

This old time candy store in St Louis looks like the perfect place to sit back, relax, and indulge in sweet treats.

Click here to read more about Crown Candy Kitchen.

CC

Fun Food Logos

On top of photographing and writing about candy, I also have a strange interest in food logos, food advertising, and especially food mascots.  I came across these two older Greek mascots (at least I think they're Greek) while venturing to IKEA the other day.

This first guy is really cool.  This strawberry is one giddy dude.

I've seen this logo around a little, but from what I can understand it's been replaced.  The replacement logo looks almost identical to the logo for Lay's chips.  I imagine this happened because Lay's might have bought out Tasty?  That's a shame, because this smiley guy with the comb over is really cool.

CC

Old Candy Store In Crookstown Minnesota

The statistics for this Widman's candy store are pretty impressive, 4 generations of owners for 100 years.

Click here to read more about this store.

CC

A Look At a Great Old Candy Store In New Jersey

It's a candy store that's been in the family for generations.  Best of all it looks like it's been keeping kids happy for generations as well.  I can't imagine the variety of treats that have been through this store.  Thinks about it, when this store opened there where no gummy bears, and moon pies where as common as the cold.

Click here to read about this great old store.

CC

Old Cake Went Up For Sale

Apparently JFK's birthday cake from 1962 recently went up for sale (or is going up for sale, I'm not really clear about that).  The expected price it should fetch... wait for it... between 5 and 10 thousand dollars.  This only makes me wonder exactly who in the world buys old cakes, more importantly who's been saving this cake for almost 50 years.  Are there antique cake collectors out there?

Click here to read more about the really old baked delight.

CC

Don't Save Your Halloween Candy

Experts say that you shouldn't really keep your Halloween candy stash that long. Many candies have a shelf life, and it's not just for freshness or flavour. In many cases old candy can be harmful and can make you sick. So if you've got a big bag of candy sitting in front of you right now, the only sensible thing to do is eat it all right now.

Click here to read more about expired candy.

CC