Doritos?

I've recently been going through my list of all the candies I have (and will) review on candycritic.org. I've realised something that's made me think. I used to have a rule that once a brand had more than 10 reviews, it would be a featured brand on the site. I also had the same rule for treats that had more than 10 varieties or flavours. It's been a few years since I've updated my lists, and I've realized that I haven't been keeping up with this policy. I now have several other brands, varieties and flavours that are not featured on the site. I'm wondering if 10 should continue to be the number, or if I should start adding many more treats to my featured lists.

Check out the latest review of a new Doritos flavour, which would qualify it for the list technically.

I Think I Like Pretzels

It's not that I ever thought that I hated pretzels, but after doing this review I think I've realized that I like pretzels a lot more than I thought before. There are some exceptions, as not all pretzels are made equal, but a good pretzel might be one of the best salty snacks out there anywhere in the world. I think the pretzel doesn't get as much notice because it's a snack that's available almost anywhere, and has always kind of been around. However, if you look at it objectively, it's a pretty amazing snack.

Check out my latest pretzel review, a review that's made me love this snack a lot.

Potato Chips and Candy Critic

I thought I would use today's review to highlight one of the biggest complaints I get about this site. Many people tell me that since I'm writing a site dedicated to reviewing candy, that I should not include potato chips. I will not argue with anyone that potato chips are not candy. The thing is, I just couldn't leave them out. While they're not technically candy themselves, I think we can all agree that they're kind of similar in many ways. In stores the chips and and candy are often close to each other. The times we eat chips and candy are often the same.

Check out my latest potato chip review, and stop complaining that they're not candy.

Attempting To Solve A Popcorn Problem

 The popcorn problem is a mathematical problem that takes place mostly at theatres, but can also happen at just about any place that entertains you and offers popcorn. I've never bought popcorn at a concert or professional sporting event, but I have seen it for sale at those events and can imagine that the problem happens there as well. For the sake of explaining this problem, I'll use the theatre as my example. The problem is that all too often you run out of popcorn before the entertainment has even begun. On some occasions you might manage to limit you popcorn intake during the time you're waiting for the event or movie to start, and maybe you'll have popcorn available during the first 15 minutes of so. 

This is a strange situation because I always associate popcorn with watching movies, but maybe I'm actually associating popcorn with waiting for movies to start. Maybe once the movie starts I might actually have no interest in popcorn at all. I wouldn't really know because I've always finished my popcorn before the movie has started.

Popcorn is an odd snack. You might be thinking to yourself, "those buckets of popcorn at theatres are huge, that's more than enough". The fact that they call the container for popcorn a bucket supports that theory. The thing is, most popcorn buckets don't actually contain much solid food mass. I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain about having to carry a bucket of popcorn before because it's too heavy. It's a bit of an illusion, as most of what you're buying is actually air, and these air filled popped kernels have lots of air between them as they don't really nestle together very well.

I should also point out that I tend to order the medium, or maybe large if I'm sharing popcorn when I go to the movies. I pretty much just go along with whatever "combo" or deal the theatre is trying to sell that seems appropriate for my party size (a single if I'm alone and a two person combo if I'm with Allison). I am aware that many theatres also offer insanely large buckets of popcorn as well. I'd just always assumed that these buckets were meant for families and since I don't have kids, I've never bought one... That is until now.

On a recent trip to see the movie Inside Out 2, Allison and I jokingly suggested that we pick up the largest bucket of popcorn available at this theatre. As you might be able to see from the picture, it's about 10 inches tall with a diameter of about 12 inches. I feel like this sudden urge to get a giant bucket of popcorn came about because of our last theatre going experience where we bought the "large" box of popcorn at another theatre and it contained maybe 50 kernels of popcorn, and that's it. Maybe we were over compensating, but the price wasn't too bad and we figured it might be an interesting experiment.

We got this behemoth and couldn't stop laughing the whole time. We were actually watching this movie in Thailand, and I couldn't help but imagine how the locals would see the "westerners" with their giant bucket of popcorn since there's a generalization that westerners eat large portions (spoilers, we do). We waited for the theatre to be cleaned out, and once it was, we wandered inside to our seats. In this theatre they offer special seating for couples that consist of two large, comfy chairs squished together like a couch. We generally opt for this and it worked out well as our popcorn needed a large place to sit and between us on this couch worked perfectly.

We also decided that we would eat the popcorn as usual. So no holding back and waiting for the movie to start. We sat down and watched a good 20 to 30 minutes of trailers happily munching away on our popcorn. I would occasionally feel around the bucket to see how far we'd gotten. By the time the movie started it felt like we'd eaten about 1 and a half inches into the bucket. After about the first 45 minutes of the movie I assumed that we must have been near the end, but we weren't even halfway through.

By about the 1 hour mark I started to not want to eat popcorn anymore, and only continued to eat out of habit or some drive to finish this bucket. About 20 minutes after that I was pretty much tapped out. I nibbled here and there, but I just couldn't eat any more popcorn. I felt like Allison was in the same boat as me.

The photo above is how far we managed to get into the bucket. By this point I could touch the bottom with my finger, but just barely. I would say we had a good 2 or 3 inches left. I took away a few lessons from doing this. First and foremost, as much as you think you'd like to eat popcorn throughout an entire movie (or concert or sporting event), I don't think that's true. Secondly, if you get a giant bucket of popcorn, make sure to get the giant drink to go with it. I noticed my consumption went way down once my drink was done.

We tried to eat more popcorn when we got back to our hotel, but frankly the idea made us a little sick. There's a great expression is show business "leave them wanting more". The expression suggests that it's better for your audience to not get enough entertainment rather than over doing it. I feel like this works with popcorn too. It's better to not get enough popcorn than have too much. When I don't have enough popcorn I just look forward to the next time I'm planning to go to a movie. If I get too much I just leave with a tummy ache and sore, dry lips.

It's A Review-a-Thon Marathon

Starting this week, and going until the end of the month, I'm going to post a new snack/candy review every single day. Normally I post one or two reviews a week, with the occasional small one week review-a-thons, but lately I've had a huge backlog of reviews that I need to post. I've decided to thin out this backlog a bit and post like crazy. My goal is to have them all posted overnight with a notice on my social media every morning, but please be kind if I'm running a little late.

Check out the first entry in my mega review-a-thon and don't forget to complain about the fact that it's not really a candy.

A New Popcorn Name Might Pop Up

 When it comes to names of popcorn brands, I love a good pun. Not every brand manages to come up with a great pun, I’m looking at your Orville Redenbacher, but there are so many great names for popcorn brands that I figured it was well worth sharing my favourites. A good name can easily influence me to buy a particular popcorn, although my go to is Orville Redenbacher (it’s a bit of a contradiction I know). However, if a really clever name comes up I’ll at the very least give it a try.

Probably the most popular brand of popcorn with a fairly clever name is Pop Secret. The brand is so popular that I feel like the pun in the name is lost on most people. It’s even possible that you didn’t even think about it until reading this very article, but Pop Secret is a really clever name. I wonder if the early marketing for Pop Secret involved some kind of secret butter recipe, or maybe a top secret type of corn was being used. Either way it’s a solid pun for a popcorn brand.

I came across this Pop Star brand of popcorn, and I must say it’s also a pretty solid pun. It’s a little off track because I feel like pop stars are more about music, and people don’t really associate music and popcorn consumption. Maybe that the angle the Pop Star popcorn people thought they could exploit. Maybe people are eating popcorn at concerts, and I’m just not aware of it.

Mr Popgun is a slightly clever name for popcorn, but I’ll be honest, I think the package might be considered a little politically incorrect. I will also be honest and say that I did buy some of this popcorn because I found the package to be so politically incorrect, and the popcorn was really good. I assume the “popgun” is in reference to the toy guns that often shoot a small cork attached to a string out the muzzle. 

This Mr Bop popcorn is a bit of a conundrum. I feel like they’re trying to make some kind of pun, but I don’t really know what that pun is supposed to be. Maybe in some parts of the world the onomatopoeia for the sound popcorn makes is “bop” and not “pop”. Although that would mean you’re eating bopcorn and not popcorn. The marketing behind this brand is a little confusing, but I feel like there’s at least an attempt to make it fun.

While writing this article I was trying to come up with some good pun names that have not been used yet for popcorn. I decided to ask Allison and she instantly came up with one that was so good that I just gave up trying to come up with my own. She suggested that you use a military theme and just call it Colonel Kernel. I have to be honest, that might be better than Pop Secret, and it’s much better than all of the rest. So if any popcorn brand wants to use Colonel Kernel as a popcorn brand name, be my guest, I just ask that you send me some, I like the extra butter variety.

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An Interesting Themed Snack

Themed snacks are nothing new, but occasionally a themed snack will last longer than the thing it's representing. Most themed snacks are actually notorious for only being on the shelves for a very short time. It's something that can really disappoint me when I actually love the snack. These cheese sticks on the other hand have not only stayed around for a very long time, I believe they might have outlasted the comic strip that they're based on... I think. I'll be honest, it's been a few years since I've picked up a paper, so I could be wrong about Andy Capp being over, but at least his cheese fries will live forever apparently.

Check out these cheesy sticks based on a very peculiar comic strip.

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