Gummy Shape Problem

I've always believed that you can make a gummy into any shape or size. I've never before thought about whether or not you should. Today's new review features a gummy in a shape that felt really weird to eat, mentally. The problem is they pulled it off very well. Eating a soft animal paw in gummy form is weird, not hating it is even weirder.

Check out the full review of this cute little paw treat.

The Shape Of Salty Snacks To Come?

We're going to forget the argument that salty snacks are not candy and have no place on this site. I've covered that a few times on this blog, and I'm not going to stop reviewing this kind of snack. The thing I want to talk about today is the lack of creativity when it comes to the shape of salty snacks. Right now I'm seeing a trend is making salty snacks 3D. This means escaping the common flat potato chip (or perfectly round, or triangle) shape of salty snacks, and we're adventuring out a bit. Sure there's also pretzels and cheese puffs, but frankly those are shapes that have been around for such a long time. What I'm talking about is making salty snacks in fun shapes similar to gummies. I think the only brand that's really done it recently is Goldfish crackers. 

The thing that makes me happy are snacks like this week's new review. In Asia there seems to be a trend in making salty snacks in the shape of chicken parts. Obviously you flavour them with chicken, but I guess that doesn't have to be a rule either. I would just like to see more salty snacks with really unique shapes. I think potato chips should be the next group of salty snacks to take on this challenge. It's not like Pringles are a naturally shaped potato chip, so why not make it fun. I also think more cracker companies should be doing this too.

Click here to read about these chicken shaped salty snacks (and please don't complain about them not being candy).

Also be sure to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, I guess you could complain about them not being candy there.

Don't forget to pick up the latest issue of Snack Facts as well, and don't miss some of the merch at our store either.

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A Prehistoric Cookie Thing

You can pretend to be Indominus rex.

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Friday Candy Video

It's cookie math!

Found this video here.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

Two weeks ago I posted about some fruit flavoured snacks that were associated with a white cat, I was then pointed to a more logical version of the same candy with a black cat.  It's not that I've ever seen a cat eating licorice, in fact most vets say it's a bad idea to feed your cats licorice, but at least the candies resemble cats.  Although I'm not really sure why anybody would want to eat a cat, unless you're ALF.

I found this ad here.

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Wednesday's Japanese Candy Review

I think I've mentioned this before on this blog, but I can't understand what the obsession is with Japan and fish.  I know that they're on an island, and for generations (thousands of years) their diet has been mainly seafood, but I think you can go too far.  Why would you make cakes, cookies, and other sweet treats fish shaped?  I would understand if they had some kind of fish flavour, but when the treat has nothing to do with fish, why market it with a fish?  I'm pretty sure this is just a cultural difference that I don't understand, but I'm sure most people in the Western world probably don't understand it either.

Click here to read our latest Japanese fish shaped, but not fish flavoured, review.

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Candy News

Black licorice, love it or hate it?  The Finnish people love it, and they love it more when it's extreme.

Drunk guy eats popcorn at a football game, hilarity ensues.

Here's a great list of 65 Amazing Facts from Mental Floss, and there are a few candy related ones worth mentioning.

The history of candy, and why you think it's bad for you.  This is a must read for candy fanatics whom are constantly defending the health problems associated with sweet treats.

If you think I don't ever publish articles that are against candy, you can always read this article convincing us that a candy tax is necessary to keep our children safe.

Huffington Post published the "The Best 25 Candy Bars Of All Time", but keep in mind they're all American, and they're missing some pretty great smaller candy companies.

If your name is "Fudge" and you steal ice cream, you're pretty much asking for a headline in the newspaper.

According to a recent study, shape can make you're chocolate taste better.  But it's still no excuse to make it smaller.

The story of how William Wrigley Jr. became a gum super star is pretty impressive.

Here are some facts about the words "Fat Free" that's all over that healthy food you're eating.

Did you know that people still bootleg things other than DVDs?  Say for example... Maple syrup?

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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Part 2 Of Our Gummy Review-A-Thon

One of the keys to the gummy rise to candy greatness is the range of shapes it can take on.  For a while I tried to collect photos of every single shape of gummy that I ever came across, but it was too big a task.  Every time I step into a candy shop I discover a new shape, some are strange, some are pretty boring.  This week's review looks at how shape is really becoming a crutch of gummy producers, and it seems like they may be missing the boat with flavour range.

Again, today's review was provided to us from our great friends at sugarfina.com.

Click here to read the review.

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A Look At Easter Treats

When you think about Easter candy, you generally have two themes that come to mind, eggs and bunnies.  Both of them have their advantages and disadvantages, and both of them are very prolific on the Easter candy shelves.  The question is, is one Easter candy theme better than the other?  Would you rather have a basket full of eggs, or a basket full of bunnies waiting for you on Easter morning?

The most common type of Easter treat has to be chocolate.  Often it's hollow chocolate, but sometimes it's solid or filled with something sweet.  In these cases eggs provide some advantages while bunnies provide others.  The key difference is in the shape (we'll ignore the size variation at this point since both shapes come in many sizes), the egg is a large single cavity with lots of room for filling (or air), the bunny generally has smaller cavities for filling, but it has more variation in cavity size.  When it comes to chocolate filled treats you're faced with either a large amount of filling (the egg) or great varieties of filling.  So which you prefer depends on if you want a lot of filling, or if you want your filling to be tasted in different proportions to the chocolate on each bite.

If your chocolate bunny or egg happens to be hollow, I think the decision is a lot easier to make.  I think the bunny is the best way to eat a hollowed out Easter treat.  The egg has way too much air, and often shatters into a million pieces too easily.  If you happen to be eating a solid chocolate bunny or egg, I think bunny is really the only choice.  Unless the egg is really small, I don't think anybody would have a good time trying to eat it. The solid chocolate bunny allows for more bite choices without breaking your jaw.

The other area of thought is in the non-chocolate Easter related treats.  These are generally far and few between compared to their chocolate comrades  particularly in egg department.  There are a few egg treats, but most of them are similar to Jelly beans.  They're candy coated egg shaped treats filled with something either jelly like or marshmallow like.  While I do eat these if offered, I generally don't prefer these eggs.  Bunnies on the other hand seem to dominate the gummy world.  I've seen a few varieties of gummy bunnies, some are great, some are kind of gross, but that's par for the course with gummies.

While there are certainly other shapes of Easter treats available, in my experience bunnies and eggs tend to work best.  With an egg or a bunny you're instantly able to identify it with Easter.  Other attempts I've sampled either lose the Easter feeling, or in some cases they're just flat out weird.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising - Party Patties For New Years Eve?

It's not a party until you crack open the party patties...  Maybe a bag of these would be great for New Years Eve.

I found this ad on Vintage Ad Browser.

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Driving Away Today's Review

I once started a list to try and name every single shape of gummy ever created, then I realized that I would have and easier time naming things that are not yet available as gummies.  Gummy cars, as is today's review, are pretty common, although I haven't seen them done with great detail yet.  What I would love to see are gummy people, real people, with real flesh tones.  They don't have to be naked or anything, but I think it might be creepy and fun to chew on a real person.  If there's a problem finding people that would be willing to have their likeness made into a gummy, I would like to be the first to volunteer.  I'd love to bite my own head off.

Click here to read our latest gummy review.

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Old Candy Critic Articles - Candy Peelin'

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, I'm re-publishing an article written by contributing candy writer Tamara Klein.  She gives us some great examples of how to take apart your favorite treat.

How to eat a peanut butter M&M the "candy peeler's" way: Crack outer shell with teeth, peel off remains of candy coated shell with fingers, remove intact peanut butter oval (must be intact) and set aside...repeat four times, stack all five peanut butter circles together and eat whole.

Sound strange to you? If so, maybe you've never had the neurotic pleasure of eating your candy as a slow dissection experiment, piece by piece, layer by layer, or peel by peel, thus stretching out your experience and truly knowing your candy inside and out. Come on - admit there's something out there you get a twisted pleasure from taking apart and eating.

I've been a self-titled "candy peeler" for as long as I can remember. I simply refuse to eat my candy by biting it whole, swallowing, and then forgetting the whole affair. Nothing can deter me from my strange ways. Messy fingers? So you wash them. Strange looks? I'm used to them. I can remember the raised eyebrows in my 8th grade Literature class when I used to cut my Starbursts into four pieces with a sharp compass and eat one one piece every 15 minutes - turning my fruit chew delight into an hour long process. And as the years have passed, I've gone from bad to worse, and the taunts of "freak" and "starburst girl" have graduated into, "Does she do this with all foods?" (yes, some) and "Does she have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?" (no, not last time I checked) But hey, I've learned to just smile, continue to examine my candy's innards, and retort that I'm just sensitive with my candy. I like to examine every part of it and consume it with appreciation and respect, not reckless abandon.

Now maybe you're wondering if I'm insane to put so much effort into simply eating candy....or maybe you're thinking, "Hey, I kinda relate..what treats do YOU find best to peel?" This is, of course, a personal and subjective journey,finding where your strange need to play with your food lies. There are some hints though: Things that pull and peel, layered wafers, candy fillings, chewy centers - I've always found that the term "candy center" is of particular intrigue to us candy peelers because it presents a definitive fruity, chewy, nutty, or peanut buttery goal for us to explore our ways to.

Some examples of my common methods:

KitKats - They have layers. I need not say more.

Combos - Eat surrounding cracker or pretzel and produce intact center cheese victory.

A Smartie - Crack shell in your mouth and peel it off with tongue, suck on naked chocolate oval.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup or Twix Bar - Bite off chocolate edges, scrape off top layer with teeth, finish with remaining naked cookie or peanut butter mound.

Ahh, nothing like the tasty, fresh remains of dissected candy.

And remember, the fresher the candy, the better the peel. Imagine ripping off grayed chocolate to reveal old, crumbly peanut butter, or trying to break a hard cold Starburst into four neurotic pieces. It's enough to make you want to eat whole and not dissect. Maybe you can think of more, but I've only found ONE exception to the fresh rule after years of strip searching candy - Easter marshmallow peeps. Cause let's face it - whether they're soft and new or hard and older, starting your candy adventure by biting off a chicken or bunny head never gets old.

I often wonder if more people are like me in my candy eating ways or not. If I ask friends, most will have an example or knowing smile. Perhaps they're just being polite? And if there are many of you out there, you are probably the same people who poured Elmer's glue on your hands as a child, let it dry, then peeled it off, just because.

But obviously it's considered strange because I'm always asked why I feel the need to waste my time with it and why didn't I outgrow this habit after age nine like most people. And I always ask back, "Why eat your candy whole and with haste? It was put on this planet for you to enjoy any way you want. Now give me another tasty wafer, you boring conformist."

If you want your candy eating experience to be a truly memorable, inside out experience that truly stands the test of time, peel, break, examine, savor.

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Fruity Mushroom Review

I think I could make a good gummy designer.  It takes a dash of flavour, a dribble of colour, and a handful of random to make gummies.  If you look at so many gummies objectively you'll find that many of the most popular shapes of gummies are really strange and random.  The most popular, gummy bears, is a perfect example of this, so is today's review.

Click here to read the latest strange shaped gummy review.

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Monday's Candy Links

Kraft claims it can make a chocolate that is low calorie, great texture, and a long shelf life... wait a minute, does it taste good?

I can't tell you how many times I've seen inappropriate sweets tied into certain movies.  Cadbury India is doing a tie in with the new Batman movie, and all I want to say is congrats on using dark chocolate to represent the "Dark Knight", very clever.

According to a new scientific study, shape can affect the way things taste, but I don't know if I can buy that.  If that's the case, explain the poopularity of the Baby Ruth or the Oh Henry bar.

See's Candy is going to try and make the worlds largest 7000 lb lollipop. On that note, last week I posted about lindt trying to break a record as well, and apparently it worked.

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Monday's Candy Links

Cupcakewurst... yup it's as strange and visually disgusting a way to make a cupcake ever.

In the past I've written about people making chocolates in the shape of brains, but how about making chocolates in the shape of your brain?

Worlds largest chocolate sculpture depicts and ancient Mayan temple, a historically accurate tribute in my opinion.

Mars is opening its doors to teenagers, and showing them how things work at Mars... I wonder if I could pull off 13 years old?

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French Desserts At 20 Thousand Feet

Flying  back from Canada we chose to fly air France, instead of Alitalia, it was a price thing.  As soon as we were in the air we got offered two sweet treats.  A bag of cookies and a chocolate.  The cookies were nice little short bread type cookies in fun flower shapes.  The chocolate on the other hand...

Was really strange.  It was made by Valrhona, a french chocolate company.  The chocolate was OK, the quality wasn't spectacular, but the nice dark chocolate taste was yummy.  The strange thing about this chocolate was its shape.  It was just over one inch long, triangular at one end, and flat on the other.  The best way I could describe this shape was to say that it was like eating a little door stop.  I'm not sure why they shaped their chocolate like this, and I can't see how it might have improved the chocolates texture or flavour.  If anybody knows the science of this chocolate shape, let me know.

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It's National Chocolate Chip Day!!!

Why do they call them chocolate chips.  I imagine at one point it actually made sense, maybe these little chocolate bits were chipped off of larger blocks of chocolate.  Today if we see irregularly shaped chips of chocolate we tend to call them chunks.  The things we call chips today appear to be small little squirts, rather than something I'd define as a chip.

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An Egg Shaped Holiday

Advice for candy makers this time of year: All you have to do to make your candy an Easter candy is shape it like an egg.  No one will complain, and you'll sell more treats this time of year.

Ad found on Vintage Ad Browser

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A Question About Today's New Review

Why are candies, and sweets, in the shape of a tire so appealing?  I think candies and sweets that have this "donut" shape are the best example of candy "Ma".  Ma, is a form of Japanese art that understands the importance of the negative space as much as the positive space. In this case the negative space is the hole in the middle, and for some reason it makes some treats really great.  I don't know why this works, but I do know it does.

Click Here to read today's hole in the center review.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Moshi Monsters Gummies - Made by: Haribo - Why: Because internet trends are often tasty. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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