Cheese and Chips

It's a little weird, the name of my company is Beware The Cheese, yet for the most part I'm not really a big fan of cheese. Actually, that kind of makes sense now that I think about it. Most people assume that I might love cheese because it features so much in my creative life, but I'm actually pretty picky. There are only certain cheeses that I enjoy, and even then there are only certain ways I enjoy them. Fortunately as a potato chip flavour I'm generally pretty happy. There are few versions of cheese flavoured potato chips that I don't like. Oddly, from a creative standpoint, I'd actually like to taste one that I hate.

Check out my latest cheesy review.

That Bar Has No Name

 For those unfamiliar, "No Name" is a discount brand in Canada. It's made by one of the largest grocery store chains in Canada, and sold in all (or almost all) of their stores. The idea is that these brands are not fancy at all, they're basic products that are perfectly good, but nothing amazing. I'm not sure where the name "No Name" came from, but it's been around for as long as I know. It's even gained a bit of a cult following, they have No Name t-shirts and other apparel as well. I would say that I buy a good number of No Name products when I go grocery shopping, even candy.

Check out my latest No Name review.

Purple Is Awesome

 

I don't think I've ever been disappointed with a purple coloured treat. It's not to say that I've loved every single purple snack I've ever eaten, I just find that most purple snacks either taste great, or at the very least are very interesting. I'm not sure I've ever had an amazing flavoured, really interesting purple treat, but generally you're likely to get one or the other. Maybe one day I will get the perfect purple treat, but for now I'm just happy when they're either interesting or really tasty.

Check out my latest interesting purple review.

Purple Isn't Always Grape

When I was kid, if you handed me a purple potato chip I would have assumed that it was grape. I don't think there were many purple coloured treats in the world that weren't grape. I'm not sure if times have changed, or if I've just seen more of the world, but I'm seeing more and more purple in the snacking and treat world all the time. Probably the most popular purple flavour that's out right now is ube, a popular flavour that I believe came from the Philippines. But Japan also has some pretty impressive purple potato treats too.

Check out my latest purple potato treat review, this one's from Japan.

Toasted Marshmallow Flavour?

I've said it before on this site a few times, but I'm not a huge marshmallow fan. There are a few exceptions to this rule, I often enjoy them when their an ingredient in a dessert, I've tasted a few handmade marshmallows that are pretty good, and I love them toasted. In the last few years I've seen a trend where toasted marshmallow has become a flavour, rather than a way to eat a marshmallow. I've sampled treats and ice cream that claims to taste like a slightly roasted marshmallow and weirdly enough, it works. I'm not really sure what gives these treats a toasty flavour, but it often actually tastes like a toasted marshmallow. It's not often that this kind of flavour trickery works for me, but toasted marshmallow seems to work almost all of the time.

Check out my latest toasted marshmallow review, with s'more added flavours as well.

What Is Mint?

This is not the first time I've ever mentioned this, but I have a real fascination with the difference between mint flavoured candies and real mint. It's probably one of the most perplexing of fake flavours because it's actually not that far off from the original. I would even bet that many fake mint flavoured treats contain some real mint. The main difference I find between fake and real mint is an earthy flavour, which makes sense since it's actually an herb. Are there any people out there who like fake mint over the real thing, or the other way around?

Check out my latest minty review that caused me to think about this problem again.

Tropical Fruit and Chocolate

 

There are a few tropical fruit and chocolate treats out there in the world, but not as many as you'd think. I feel like most fruit and chocolate combinations are about raisins, but maybe there are a few other berry and definitely cherry and chocolate treats out there too. The thing about tropical fruits might be the fact that they're often very sweet already. When you dry them out they get even sweeter, so adding some sweet milk chocolate might just be too much. It could also be that most places that grow tropical fruit are already warm, and chocolate doesn't last very long on a warm store shelf.

Check out my latest tropical fruit covered in chocolate review.

So Weird, But In A Good Way

There are two kinds of unique candy out there. There's candy that's weird by design, constructed to make you wonder what's going on. Then there's candy that's unique because it's culturally different than what you might expect. I like both, but I find that few candy makers can construct weird or unique candies well. It takes years to perfect a candy, and trying to make it very different and good takes a lot of time. Unique because I'm not familiar with it culturally is different because it's very possible that it's been around for longer than I (or even my grandparents) have been alive. This means that it'll be new to me, but perfected over time.

Check out my latest unique candy review.

Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! - Têtes Brûlées

 In today's episode of Chris Why Would You Eat That?!! I taste one of the most popular candies in France, Têtes Brûlées. I thought it might extreme, but...

Is Yogurt Underrated?

While I've tasted a few yogurt flavoured treats in my day, it's not a flavour that you really see everywhere. I think it's mostly found in the Asian candy world, with maybe a few European treats participating as well. The thing about yogurt flavoured candy is, it's hard to simulate yogurt and be super sweet at the same time. While yogurt can have some sweetness in it to cut down the sour, the sour itself is really what makes yogurt great. Too much sweet just turns it into a sweet cream. This is exactly what happened here, but that doesn't mean I don't want to see more candy companies attempting this unique flavour.

Check out my latest yogurt themed candy review.

Unlikeliest Of Flavour Combinations

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that strawberry, chocolate and vanilla together is the most common flavour trio in the world. I can't think of many cultures that don't have at least one or two treats with this flavour combination. Oddly, I don't actually know where this flavour came from, other than possibly Italy (based on the name). I'm not sure if ice cream was the first time it was used. It's objectively an odd flavour combination, unless you break the flavours into pairs. Then you realize that in pairs these flavours are pretty common, but all together it just seems a little weird. The thing is, it works.

Check out my latest strawberry, chocolate and vanilla treat review.

Fake Chocolate Problem

One of the problems I have on candycritic.org is fake chocolate. More specifically I'm not really sure what the line is between fake and real chocolate. chocolate itself isn't technically an ingredient, it's a milk/sugar treat that's made with cocoa. The amount of cocoa can vary in chocolate creating different kinds of chocolate. Sometimes you take an entire portion of the cocoa bean out of the mix and it's still chocolate. By that definition, as long as there's some portion of a treat that contains even a small amount of cocoa, than it can be called chocolate. Now I know there are some countries where the amount of cocoa matters, but I would guess that most of the world does not have such regulations. Then we add to the mix the idea that some candies are chocolate flavoured, and may not contain any cocoa at all. It's all very complicated.

Check out my latest "chocolate" review.

Not Your Average Grape Lollipop

This might be one of the most unique lollipops I've eaten recently. As far as I can remember, no one has mixed grape with a creamy flavour. The possible exception might be raisins, but I feel like grapes and raisins are worlds apart when it comes to flavour and texture. While this is a unique flavour (to me), I recently realized that I actually enjoy real grapes with a certain type of cream on a regular basis. Grapes are one of my favourite fruits to add to yogurt. There's something very satisfying about this combination, particularly the fact that the flavours don't actually blend together until you take a bite. While this grape cream lollipop was pretty good, I'm wondering if anyone in the candy world might be able to simulate the joy of eating grapes in yogurt.

Check out this unusual grape and cream lollipop review.

Mango Might Be The Perfect Gummy Flavour

If we're just talking authenticity to the original subject matter, I think mangoes might be the best gummy flavour of all. If you think about the other fruit flavours commonly used in gummies, the fruit's original texture and often colour almost never match their gummy flavoured treat. However, mangoes are pretty squishy, and when they're freshly cut they kind of look like they could be made of gummy too. It's not a perfect match, but it's remarkably close. The only problem you have is that most mango gummies don't actually taste like gummies, but when they do it's magical.

Check out my latest mango flavoured gummy candy review.

I Like Sour Candy... But...

 Probably my favourite extreme candy theme is sour. I love a good sour candy, I like subtle tart and a love knock your socks off sour. The thing is, I don't believe that sour works with every single flavour. I feel like there are some flavours that work well with sour, and some that don't work so well. You might say that fruit is always a safe place to have a sour treat, but I disagree. Sour watermelon, strawberry and raspberry never sit well with me. It's often a problem when sour is added to a fruit that either never comes sour in real life, or when it's not supposed to be eaten sour. Berries are a great example of this, particularly strawberries.

Check my latest sour strawberry review.

Mojito Drink

 Decided to do a taste test and find out if non-alcoholic mojito drink could really work. 

Not Sure About This Size Thing

In the last 10 years or so, there's been a trend about making very small versions of classic treats. By small I mean the perfect size to add to a trail mix. The kind of size that you could easily see it possible to buy these treats using a scoop. It seems like there's a trend to making treats where you can fit several in the palm of your hand. Now on paper, this is a completely fine idea, that may take some work, but should be pretty similar to the original. The problem is that the candy companies have to make some adjustments to ratios and ingredients to make these truly work, and often those adjustments don't make for a better tasting treat. For example, the chocolate on these Kit Kat Pops had to be adjusted so they wouldn't melt as easily, because they would stick together and also melt in your hands while you ate them. This adjustment did not favours to the classic Kit Kat flavour.

Check out the full review of these Kit Kat Pops, and find out exactly what went wrong.

Celebrating Canada

I'm not sure if you all know this, but I'm Canadian. I'm actually surprised at how many people assume I'm from whatever country they happen to be living in. I'll admit that most people assume I'm American, but I've also been mistaken for British and Australian too. In the same way it's amazing how many people assume that their favourite treat are actually available all over the world. It's probably the same reason that most people assume that there isn't enough candy in the world to sustain a website like candyciritc.org. The truth is, there are thousands and thousands of candies out there, and still many for me to try.

Check out my latest Canadian candy review.

Something Original

I've probably said this before on this blog hundreds of times before, "the best thing a candy can do is present something original". I've had thousands of candies that are basically the same, with the main difference being quality. Fruit and Nut bars are a great example of this, and a type of treat that could really be unique. The name is vague enough that you could easily make some really unique and possibly tasty flavour combinations, but all I seem to get is the same flavour combination over and over again. I go into this even more on this week's review, but it's worth mentioning again and again until some of these candy companies get the message. "Fruit and nut does not have to mean raisins and almonds all the time!"

Check out this version of a fruit and nut bar, and yes sadly it's the same old thing.

In Hindsight - Mr Big

 Trying to love a really big bar that seems to be just filled with nothing.