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.

Giant Banana

 

The number of banana varieties that are out in the world is pretty amazing. Most westerners know one or two types. Occasionally you might see some odd banana at a grocery store that might be really small or maybe even red. For the most part people in the west have a fear of different bananas, that comes mostly from people suggesting that some bananas need to be cooked before they are eaten. As far as I know, there are no bananas that will do you harm if you don’t cook them, but they just taste pretty yucky and are often pretty hard (almost like an apple).

While living in Asia for the last few years, I’ve decided to expand my banana eating experiences and gone out on a limb to taste a pretty good varieties of them. I’ll agree that there are some that I’ve tasted that fit into the description of hard and probably better cooked. There have also been some pretty amazing discoveries as well. For example, if you come across some red bananas, you can eat them but they’re kind of dense, however using them to bake banana bread is a great idea.

Unlike most of my eating habits, my exploration into bananas has remained mostly offline. I don’t share my banana discoveries with the public, that was until today. At a grocery store in Kuala Lumpur, Allison came across what we can only describe as the biggest banana we’ve ever seen. The length is about 12 inches, and that’s the edible part. I don’t know how to describe this banana except to say that it’s obscenely huge.

We were a little nervous about buying it because there’s one fundamental problem, it’s huge. If it’s horrible then we have a lot of banana to eat. Even if it’s good, that’s still way too much banana for anyone to consume. Although we agreed to share one banana between the two of us, it was going to be a full meal.

The other unfortunate part is that this banana is that it wasn’t that great. Even though it appeared to be fairly ripe, it still tasted kind of green. I’m wondering if it even ripens entirely, or if it’s one of those cooking bananas. It wasn’t as green tasting as some other bananas I’ve had and it was softer then some, but it was still pretty rough to get through. As you can imagine, it was even more difficult to get through because it was so huge.

While I did not really enjoy this banana, I’m continuing to enjoy my banana tasting challenge. If anyone knows what kind of banana this is, please let me know so I can add it to my list of bananas I don’t really care for.

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.

Turtle Time

When I was a kid, Turtles were all the rage. I'm not sure when they came out, but I feel like they really hit their stride in the mid 80s. There was even competition from other candy companies making Turtles rip offs, like Armadillos. Interestingly, I don't think that Nestle put out a million different variety of Turtles then, it was just the one kind of Turtle, and they promoted it like crazy. Today the way to promote yourself seems to be about making a million varieties, and changing up the size is certainly a key tool in the candy bar war. I'm not sure it always works (see this new review), but I'm happy it happens. After all, when candy companies are forced to be creative, we all win.

Click here to find out why mini Turtles may not be as good as the classics.

Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with all our fun shenanigans.

Be sure to check the latest issue of Snack Facts too.

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Holy Cow, It's A Special Episode Of Junk Fud And You

On this episode of Junk Fud And You we're not messing around.  We have a real expert to talk with us, she's even got a PHD and real credentials.  Dr. Sarah Wilner talks about her latest paper that looks at the size of candy bars, and how they're marketed.

If you want to keep up with our latest podcasts you can follow us on SoundCloud or YouTube.  You can also check out all of the old episodes here.

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A Really Big Nerdy Candy Thing

I love Nerds candy.  The thing is, Nerds don't come across as a "manly" candy to eat.  So often when I buy a box, I have to eat them at home, behind closed doors.  After all I wouldn't want to embarrass Allison with my weak candy habits would I.  This giant box of Nerds is the perfect solution to my problem.  It will allow me to enjoy one of my favorite retro candies (when I was a kid they weren't retro, but that's another rant for later), and I don't have to worry about thugs around the neighborhood making fun of me.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertisement

The statement on this advertisement is true, but only before I've started to eat any popcorn.  Popcorn is one of those snacks that when you smell it, and when you know you're only minutes away from enjoying it, something in the back of your mind is saying that you can eat unlimited amounts of it.  Then, after about 5 handfuls of popcorn my mind changes, suddenly it was the dumbest idea ever to get the super large popcorn.

I found this ad here.

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Candy News

Here's an interesting suggestion for a new sweetener, it makes sense when you think about it.

I always tried to convince my family to make me cake for breakfast, apparently I was in the right.

Mental Floss has been randomly doling out facts, including what's the most shoplifted thing, and the scientific term for ice cream headaches.

So apparently gum sales are down. Hershey's has decided that to combat this by creating a mint flavoured "chew". In other words, gum that disintegrates in your mouth really fast.

Speaking of chewy candy, apparently the next trend coming is to make your chewy candy really small.

Here's a trend I could get into, apparently the next trend in snacking foods is meat flavours.

Have you ever wanted to make your favorite fast food meal at home, well here's a few recipes to get you started (tray not included).

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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Stuff I Want To Try

Twix Bites - Mars - I like to eat miniature versions of chocolate bars and pretend I'm a giant. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Stuff I Want To Try

M&M's Mega - Mars - I liked these when they came out as a promotion for the movie Shrek, so I'll probably like them now as well. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

There's something about a really tall slice of cake that makes my mouth water.  For some reason, even a really wide slice of cake isn't as appealing as a really tall slice of cake.

I found this ad here.

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Tic Tac Syndrome

Tic Tac Syndrome is what I call it when you can't eat just one of a particular type of candy.  Actually it's a little more serious than that, the Tic Tac Syndrome is what happens when you can't help but dump an entire package of candy in your mouth all at once.  The name comes from the candy (Tic Tac) that consists of a package of small mints that are simply unsatisfying to eat individually.

While Tic Tac’s are the best example of a candy you can't eat slowly, there are many others.  Pixie Sticks, (Canadian and UK) Smarties, and Chiclets gum, are a few other examples of candies that cause people to down an entire package in one go.  These treats just have a certain flavour and texture that is satisfying when it fills up your mouth.

While I believe that I suffer from this syndrome in a fairly bad way, I'm not the only one.  I've spoken to many candy fanatics all over the world that have had problems with the Tic Tac Syndrome.  These people have told me tails of stuffing their faces with all kinds of bite-sized treats.  Some are proud of how many of a particular treats they can shove in their mouths; while others are ashamed at how quickly they go through an entire package of candy.

For those that want to defeat the Tic Tac Syndrome, it can be a great challenge.  The best way to regulate the problem is with novelty candy dispenser, such as a PEZ dispenser.  These can slow down your face stuffing habits, but they're not perfect.  First of all, most of these dispensers are cumbersome to fill.  There's also nothing to stop you from just emptying the entire contents of these dispensers into your hand and simply eating all the candy in one gulp.

The only other cure I've heard of is an unplanned accident.  Say for example your tasting a new mint, and each mint is made up of a tiny mouth pleasing little round ball.  Many people suffering from the Tic Tac Syndrome would have a hard time just eating one or two.  Now if these mints were super-powerful, or spicy, this would leave you in a great deal of discomfort.  Having this happen enough times, or having a serious enough trauma, might kick you of the habit.  But it doesn't always work, and I'm proof of that.

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Wednesday's Japanese Candy Review

What a rainy day it's turned into, nothing makes me happier than to flick on a cartoon, sit on the couch, and munch on a handful of snacks.  Today's review is absolutely perfect for a rainy day snack.  I find that small bite sized treats work best as rainy day snacks, but I'm not sure why.  There's just something appealing about stuffing your face with a lot of little things that seems to brighten up any rainy day.  Sure I don't mind eating a chocolate bar now and then, but today little cookies seem just perfect.

Click here to read today's new review.

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Cadbury Is Choosing Style Over Substance

On February 15th 2010 I made a prediction of sorts.  More than a prediction, I gave a warning to Kraft; the new owners of Cadbury, that they shouldn't mess with these perfect products.  When I wrote the piece, I gave Kraft the benefit of the doubt, but I warned them not to change the Dairy Milk Bar, the flagship bar of the Cadbury line.  It's been a few years since I wrote that post on this blog, and now they've done it.

Cadbury recently changed the shape of the Dairy Milk Bar from squares to bubble-like shapes.  You may be thinking that this is only an aesthetic change, and doesn't really affect the bar that much at all.  But it's not true; with the change in shape, they've shaved 4 grams off the weight of the bar.  Now that might not seem like much to you, but when you're a company selling millions of bars a year it adds up.

According to some statistics, over 350 million Dairy Milk bars are sold a year. When you do the math, Cadbury is saving almost 1.5 billion grams of chocolate a year.  That totals more than 31 million bars worth of chocolate saved. At 59p per bar they're saving more than 18 million British pounds a year (29 million US dollars).  These little bubbles no longer seem so much of an aesthetic choice.  After sampling the bar myself, I can't say that the lack of corners improved my experience at all. If anything, I found that the new shape made it harder to break the bar apart.

Dairy Milk isn't the only bar that seems to be going this direction.  There's a trend in bars and other chocolate treats coming in new shapes, or filled with bubbles.  I'm not convinced that this is really what people want. I'm sure people don't want to pay the same amount for less chocolate per bar.  The reason I think the candy companies are doing this is the fact that cocoa and sugar prices have been fluctuating a lot lately.  The best way to keep the price of a chocolate bar down is to make it smaller. If you reduce the cocoa it can affect the taste, but a few grams shaved off is hardly noticeable.  I don't object to making bars smaller at all; I object to making them smaller and disguising it as a "fun" new promotion.

The best way for candy companies to deal with this problem is to ask the people what they want to eat.  If they want less cocoa in their bar with a cheap price tag, make a new bar that can fill this need.  If they want a better quality chocolate but smaller to keep the price down, make mini Dairy Milk bars.  I love the candy industry because of the variety available.  I like that there are big bars, little bars, cheap chocolate, fine chocolate, and everything in between.  If you make every bar the same by reducing the sizes and changing the recipes, you'll eventually put people like me out of business - all my reviews would just be exactly the same.

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A Cool Candy Thing

I consider this to be more novelty than candy, only because the candy itself doesn't change, just the ridiculous size of the box it comes in, and the quantity of candy you receive.  I'm not sure who or why anybody would need such a larger quantity of Nerds candy, unless you where really popular at retro 80's nights at your local night club.  It's funny, I don't think I would ever want to eat this many Nerds, however I think the giant box would be kind of cool to have.  I'm sure I could use it to decorate our living room.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

The idea that someone might make candy the perfect size for my action figures gives me the biggest smile you could possible imagine.  It's strange because you'd think that I would be disappointed with the idea of smaller sized candy, but sometimes I really think I like it more than the regular size.

I found this ad here.

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Friday Candy Video

Once again the guys at Epic Meal Time have impressed me.  This ultimate chocolate bar made me want to go spend a couple of hundred dollars on chocolate bars and make myself an atrocity like these guys do.

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Stuff I Want To Try

The Big One Jaffa Cake  - McVitie’s - Since Jaffa cakes are normally really small, wouldn't a big one just be like a normal sized cake? - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Old Candy Critic Articles - Does size matter?

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 we look at candy size and how it affects the way a treat might taste.

The other day I saw something really interesting in my local 24-hour convenience store that started to make me think. What I saw, and eventually purchased, was Mars Bar Bits. What did it make me think of is, does size really matter when it comes to chocolate bars? I've come to an interesting conclusion about this, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

Let me break it down for you, some bars work small and some work large. Let's look at my new found discovery Mars Bar Bits. I'm not a huge fan of regular Mars Bars, there not bad but I rare ever crave one. I tried these little bits and you now what? They were a lot better, and I think it was the size that really made the difference. It could have been the extra chocolate (with smaller bits you have more surface area) or it could be that I find the Mars Bar to be a little overwhelming in the nougat department.

This brings us to when bars go big. Why do I like some bars big you might ask? Well that is a much easier question to answer. I'm a pig. Sometimes 4 sticks of a Kit Kat aren't enough, I want 12, so I go for the big bar. The drawbacks are simple, if you eat a gigantic chocolate bar you will be both fat and sick. I guess you could share it with friends, but what's the fun in that. The real mystery is why these giant sizes are most commonly found in theater concession stands. I know I'll be there for at least a couple of hours, but 4 pounds of chocolate covered almonds can still be too much.

So let's review, some bars in their natural state are too much or not balanced properly so a smaller variation can change everything and even make it better. Big bars are great for the average glutton, but if the dosage is too much it can be hazardous to your health. I guess the best way to judge this is simple, on Halloween, instead of giving out small treats, give out large bars, and see how many repeat trick or treaters you get. If you are planning this test please email your home address, and I'll see you on Halloween.

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Chocolate Cake Experiments - Smallest Cake Possible

Over the next three days, I want to learn something about cake.  In fact I have some specific questions about cake that I want answered.  Sure it's easy enough to search online and read about the answers, but I've always liked to experiment for myself as well.  So over these three days I'm going to answer 3 questions that I've had about cake.  I won't be looking at icings, fillings, or any other cake additions, these questions will focus on the cake itself.  I've decided to use chocolate cake for these experiments because it's my favorite, and I have a great recipe for chocolate cake (from my Mother in law) that's almost fool proof.  

 My first cake question is about size.  I've seen some pretty big cakes in my day, in fact I was witness to the making of the worlds largest Chinese Moon Cake a few years back.  What I want to know is, how small can one make a cake, while still keeping it's cake like consistency and taste.  For this experiment I decided to start with a standard ramekin (about the same size and a muffin or cup cake) and work my way down.  Since I didn't have any kind of baking trays smaller, I made my own out of tin foil.

Making the baking trays was actually very easy.  For the middle size I used a small container and placed it on a square of tin foil.  I wrapped the tin foil around the container leaver the top uncovered.  I pulled out the container and it seemed to hold up.  For the smallest baking tray I used the same technique only instead of a container I used a 1 euro (about 2 cm across) coin.  This seem like a good sample of a small cake range.  I figured that the ramekin had a very good shot of working, but anything smaller was a bit of a guess.

I was very careful about keeping an eye on these cakes, because over cooking them would certainly make them hard.  The smallest cake took only 5 minutes to bake, I made sure it was baked by using the age old toothpick test.  After another 5 minutes the middle cake's toothpick came clean, and about 5 minutes after that the ramekin cake's toothpick came clean.  I had buttered and floured the containers so the cakes came out effortlessly.  I let them cool for a few minutes, but I wasn't too worried about them cooling completely, since I had no plans of icing them.

What I discovered shocked me a little.  Each one of these cakes were pretty similar.  All of them were moist, light, and tasty.  The only difference had to do with the ratio of crunchy top, that cakes often have, to soft interior.  As you would expect the small cake had slightly less soft interior, but about the same depth of crunchy top as the other two.  It made for a slightly crunchy cake, but for the most part it was soft and light.  I'm guessing that there would be a finite size of cake one could bake while still keeping it's soft texture, but I'm thinking you could still go much smaller than a 1 Euro coin before you achieve it.  I couldn't imagine why anyone would ever need a cake any smaller in the real world anyways.

Tomorrow I'll answer another cake question that's been burning up in my mind for a while, can you make pancakes out of cake batter?

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