Canadian Candy List - Part 5 - Best Salty Treat

Over the last few years I've been living away from my home country, Canada.  I've been traveling the world exploring all kinds of snack foods, junk foods, and sweets, but my heart is still in Canada.  I'm going to be back home for an extended period, and I've decided to compile various lists on the theme of Canadian candy and snacks.  Each week, for the next several weeks, I'll be posting a different list of Canadian candies I've reviewed in various categories.  Some of these treats may be available in other parts of the world, some are exclusive to the Great White North, but in my mind all of them are Canadian.

Canada is very well known for its beer, or at least it should be.  For any country that's know for its beer there's an industry for the perfect salty snacks, and Canada has some great ones.  Some of them might seem a little strange to an outsider, but to Canadians these salty treats are a staple of our snacking diets.

 I'm sure you're probably looking at these Cheezies and wondering how they're any different than the standard cheese puffs you see all over the world.  It's simple, there's a density to these that are truly unique, and a cheesy flavour that's second to none.

Click here to read the Cheezies review.

These might not be the best chips I've ever eaten, but they're a great example of how even the big name brands understand how important the local flavour can be in Canada.  Rather than just making fun chips flavours, they make chip flavours that represent Canada.

Click here to read the Lay's "P.E.I. Loaded Baked" Potato Chips review.

 If you've never tasted dill pickle chips in your life you're truly missing out.  You're either missing out on one of the best flavour experiences you'll ever taste, or you're missing out on one of the strangest flavour experiences of your life.  Either way, you'll have an experience.

Click here to read the Old Dutch "Dill Pickle" review.

I love tacky souvenirs, and this one might be the best.  Why wouldn't you want to eat a chips out of a bag that looks like it should be filled with potatoes?  Best of all this bag is filled with locally made Prince Edward Island potatoes, some of the best in the world.

Click here to read the Prince Edward Island Potato Bag Chips review.

I'm sure that Canadians didn't invent the idea of using vegetables other than potatoes as chips, but with our awesome climate for growing root vegetables, we have some of the tastiest.  We have room to grow things, and we grow lots of great vegies to fry up and eat.

Click here to read the Root Chips review.






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Canadian Candy List - Part 3 - Best Local Treats

Over the last few years I've been living away from my home country, Canada.  I've been traveling the world exploring all kinds of snack foods, junk foods, and sweets, but my heart is still in Canada.  I'm going to be back home for an extended period, and I've decided to compile various lists on the theme of Canadian candy and snacks.  Each week, for the next several weeks, I'll be posting a different list of Canadian candies I've reviewed in various categories.  Some of these treats may be available in other parts of the world, some are exclusive to the Great White North, but in my mind all of them are Canadian.

Above I've mentioned that I wasn't really sure if all of the treats on these lists are in fact exclusively Canadian.  Today is the exception, today all of these treats are Canadian, and I know it.  I know this because I bought almost all of them directly from the people who made them, and I bought these all in Canada.

 Nothing is more Canadian than the idea of eating a bear.  For some reason Canada has this reputation with wild animals, and many of our candies are themed with nature.  Lanark Village treats is a fun little candy store in Ontario that capitalizes on this trend with a really tasty, chewy treat.

Click here to read the Bear Paw review.

Cocoa West, a candy store recommended to me by some friends from British Columbia, makes an egg that has the most peculiar name.  It's called the "Unbelievably Good Egg" and it lives up to its name.

Click here to read the Unbelievably Good Egg review.

My friend Carrie is a proud Canadian, one of the things that proves her Canadianess is her love of cranberries.  While she has a normal day job, annually she heads out to the cranberry marsh to work the fields.  She also always has some cranberry treats for me to try.

Click here to read the Dark Chocolate Cranberries review.

The last two entries in today's list are all about potatoes.  Prince Edward Island is famous for some of the best potatoes in the world.  They're also not shy about promoting their amazing products, and this bag of chips is a great example of that.

Click here to read the Prince Edward Island Potato Bag Chips review.

This treat on the other hand, is a great example of how the people of Prince Edward Island like to innovate with their potatoes.  Not only does this ball of fudge look like a baked potato, but the fudge itself is made of potato.

Click here to read the Spudge review.



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Valentines Links... Part 1?

Green and Blacks chocolate sent me an e-mail with some suggestions for using chocolate to make a great valentines meal for your loved one. I checked out their site, and low and behold they have some great recipes to help you out.

Anne of Green Gables chocolates from Prince Edward Island in Canada has a great list of treats to give your mate, including chocolate covered potato chips (Allison if you're reading this the chips... yum.)

M&M's is once again offering a great way to leave cute messages for that special someone.  Best of all they offer special Valentines colours and you can even include pictures as well.

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Honibe Teaches Me About Honey

I have to say when it comes to honey I'm a bit of an ignoramus.  Sure I can taste a difference in some honeys, and I might even like one over another, but I really don't think I have a developed pallet for honey.  The reason I bring this up is because Honibe just sent me this e-mail:


"Honibe™ Announces Collaboration with Comvita to Launch World's First 100% Pure Manuka Lozenge

Island Abbey Foods Ltd™, specialty honey manufacturer, today announced a partnership with Comvita, the world's largest manufacturer and marketer of Manuka (Leptospermum) honey .Comvita will use the technology created by Honibe™ to produce the first pure dried Manuka honey products in the world.
The first product from this collaboration will be Pure Manuka Honey Lozenges with a UMF (Unique Manuka Factor) of 10+.

The Honibe™ brand is built around a proprietary platform technology that has enabled the creation of 100% pure dried honey products in a variety of form factors with no additives or preservatives. Comvita will now expand their current product lines to include Honibe’s innovation in honey to create a 100% Pure Manuka Lozenge “Comvita is the leading producer of Manuka honey and Manuka products in the world,” stated, President of Island Abbey Foods Ltd., John Rowe. “Comvita has established a reputation for creating innovative natural health and wellbeing products which is further reiterated by this partnership. We will be producing a 100% Pure Manuka Lozenge for Comvita with our patented technology to create an entirely new innovation in Manuka honey."

Now I'm fairly certain I don't know what a "UMF" is and I'm really not sure how good a 10 is either.  However I trust the folks at Honibe so I'm sure it's pretty darn tasty.

UPDATE:

Graham from Honibe sent me this message:


"Manuka honey comes from a Manuka flower that is only native to New Zealand. This honey has considerably more active ingredients in it compared to other honeys on the market. It has been proven to provide more health benefits for the body than other honeys. The Unique Manuka Factor is the biggest reason for this as it contains high levels of antibacterial properties which is graded based on the +5, +10, +15, +20, +25.

I hope this helps explain it a little bit better.

Best,
Graham"


Thanks Graham, see the folks at Honibe are OK.

Click here to check out Honibe's site.

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Blizzard in The Spring Causes Traffic Problems in PEI

See, I'm being really clever here because I used the word "Blizzard" in the title. I didn't say that it was a Dairy Queen Blizzard, and that the traffic jam was caused because of a Blizzard sale. For the anniversary of the DQ Blizzard they had a buy one get second for 25 cents deal and it caused havoc in PEI the other day. Man that's one clever title, not going to be another like that anytime soon.

Click here to read about the traffic jam.

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