Junk Fud and You - Candy and Junk Food Social Media & Why I Don't Like It

 Today I'm talking about social media and in particular the reason I don't follow as many junk food, candy and snacking social media companies as you might think.

Supercakes?

 

On a recent trip to my local grocery store I came across something called a Supercake. The premise is seems simple, they're small cupcakes (this can be argued) themed to superheroes from the DC Universe. I'm not sure if there are any more, but I found 3 different types of cake, one for Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman. Being a comic book nerd and a fan of sweet treats, I couldn't resist. The question that rang into my mind immediately however was what flavour do these characters actually represent. My assumption is that the folks at Bolerio (the people who make these cakes) would have done some research as well as some creative thinking to match the small cupcakes to the characters. 

So I've decided that I'm going to look at each one of these cupcakes and not just judge them by the quality and flavour of the cakes, but also how the cake flavour choice might (or might not) work with the character.

I decided to start with Wonder Woman. 

Her cake is a double chocolate cupcake, and honestly I was kind of stumped right off the bat (pun intended, you'll see later). First of all, let's just get the cake quality/expectations out of the way. The cupcake on its own is kind of disappointing. The package shows a dollop of icing/cream on the top that just doesn't exist on the cake. The amount of cream/icing is also really disappointing. The flavour of the chocolate filling is okay, but honestly the cake was much better. It's not to say that the cake is great, it's just better than the filling.

How this cake works with Wonder Woman is also confusing to me. I would think that two dark ingredients would work better with Batman, since he's the Dark Knight. If I was to choose something for Wonder Woman I might go with a nice vanilla cake with bits of cherry or strawberry, but maybe leave the chocolate filling. Basically that she's feminine, with a slightly dark interior. The yellow cake with bits of red would also reflect her outfit a little too. 

Next I went for the Batman cake.

Batman's cake is a deep chocolate cake with a vanilla cream/icing. Again, like the Wonder Woman cake, the execution of this cake is not great. The picture on the package would suggest that there would be a dollop of icing on the top, but there is not. The amount of icing is also pretty slim. However, both the cake and the icing in this case tasted pretty good. The chocolate cake was the highlight, but the icing wasn't bad either.

As for the theme of the flavours compared to Batman, I'd say it's not bad. It's very possible that Bolerio didn't put any thought towards the flavours and I'm just projecting my own story here, but I feel like it's an easier story to write. What I see here is a dark exterior with a light hearted filling. Batman is a dark brooding characters, but deep down he does have morals and even a bit of heart. I might be grasping at straws for this, but at least it feels like an easier story to write.

Finally the Superman cake.

As a cake goes, this is kind of the opposite of the Batman cake. It's a vanilla cake with a dollop of chocolate icing/cream in the middle. Like the two cakes before, it also disappointed with both the presentation and lack of cream in the cake. Flavour wise the vanilla was kind of boring, but the chocolate was a lot more bold than I expected.

As far as how it compared to Superman as a character, I'm once again going to give the folks at Bolerio the benefit of the doubt and claim that they actually might have thought about how the flavours might go with the characters. In this case Superman, who I consider one of the more boring characters is well suited to a vanilla cake. The interesting thing is that occasionally there's actually a really good Superman story, and I would say that's well represented by the surprisingly bold chocolate filling.

I have to admit, I feel like the folks at Bolerio probably just stuck random cakes to random characters. I would be happy to be proven wrong about this, but I feel like it's unlikely. The idea of creating cake treats that work with famous superheroes would be a really fun exercise, maybe one I could do with my Geek Shop partner. For now I'm just happy to see cool characters on a package and to eat some adequate cupcakes.

Pop Mart Treats... Sort Of

For those unfamiliar, Pop Mart is a toy company that has stores all over the world featuring fun pop art style toys. While the name Pop Mart might not be that familiar to you, I’m willing to bet you’ve heard of Labubu, which is a Pop Mart toy. Their lines of toys reaches way beyond Labubu, and includes some of their own original creations as well as some licensed characters done in their style.  While I’ve seen their toys all over, I’d never actually gone into a Pop Mart store before, until now.

The main reason I’d never been into a Pop Mart store before is that it’s not uncommon for their to be a lineup to get it, sometimes the line can be really, really long. Most of their stores also often have a lot of security and bag checks just to go in. However, on a recent trip to Bangkok I came across a Pop Mart store with no line, and I happened to have no bag with me at the time (so I didn’t have to check it or have it searched).

I decided, for the sake of this blog, to check out all of the candy/snack themed treats that I could find and report back.

Since Labubu is what’s hot, I’ll start there. There are dozens of different monster/Labubu toys themed with snacks and food. In fact I would almost say that more than half of the Labubu toy lines have at least one or two characters that have some kind of food tie in, and several that are completely food themed.

Most of the food themed Labubus are pretty general and based on popular Asian foods, however I did come across a series of Coca-Cola themed Labubus, so you know they’re not shy about having official tie ins. Makes me wonder what other food company would pair well with Labubu. I’m thinking and Oreo cookie or Pocky themed Labubu would be kind of cool.

I also came across a series of toys they have called Pino Jelly that seemed to have a sort of gummy theme to them. Some of them seemed more candy branded than others.

I also came across these Mickey Mouse themed toys, many of which had fun candy/snack themes. The vending machine themed Mickey was probably my favourite.

Probably my favourite non-Labubu collection of toys was called “Molly Carb-Lover”. It’s a series of cute little dolls that all have some kind of bread/baked good theme. It’s a really peculiar set and even a weirder name, but I think that’s why I liked it.

The final thing I came across was this dog/hamburger themed toy called Hacipup. It seems like it might serve another function, but I really couldn’t figure it out since I don’t know what a “rolling time machine” does.

Candy and snacks as a theme in toys is common, when it comes to collectible toys like the ones from Pop Mart it seems like having a food tie in is essential. I didn’t buy anything on this trip as I was frankly overwhelmed with choices. Maybe one day I’ll get some kind of key chain/bag charm from Pop Mart, but for now I think I’ll just brows. 

One thing that makes me curious is if Pop Mart will ever go the other direction and start making treats. I feel like their visual style would work great for making fun and very pretty looking candy, and in particular gummies. For now though it appears that nothing at Pop Mart is actually edible, it’s just that half the toys look like they should be.

Corny Review

Sometimes I discover that a candy or snack company has made a version of a treat that just doesn't make any sense. This latest review is a prime example of just that, who would think to ad more corn flavour to a corn chip. It's not the first time I've come across this kind of thing, and I imagine it's not the last either. I just don't understand when there are infinite possibilities out there for flavours, that you would go so weird.

Check out my latest corn flavoured corn chip review.

Ode to Dill Pickle Flavoured Snacks

 I think we could debate for days, weeks or even years about what the best flavour of potato chips might be. I’m standing firm in salt and vinegar world, but maybe you like barbecue more. Picking a “best” flavour for any snack is impossible, since we all have different tastes. I however want to suggest this question, and maybe even suggest an answer. The question is, what’s the surprisingly greatest flavour of potato chip? I’ll even go one step further and say that this flavour I’m thinking about is the surprisingly greatest flavour for just about any salty snack.

The flavour I’m talking about is dill pickle. Just to make this clear, it’s a flavour that objectively seems a little too weird to work, but surprisingly tastes really good. I also want to make it clear that I’m talking about dill pickle flavoured treats, and not just dill or creamy dill flavoured treats (not that those are bad either).

I don’t know when or where dill pickle flavoured salty snacks came to be, but my memory is of them being a popular flavour of potato chip in the early 80s in Canada. I remember talking to an American friend at the time who thought it was crazy to have a chip that tasted like dill pickle, so I feel like it was a Canadian thing before becoming an American thing, but I could be wrong. It didn’t take long for this flavour to really settle in my area either. It seems like it’s been a regular flavour of chip since it first came out.

The great thing is dill pickle as a flavour seems to have settled in other parts of the world too. With this flavour of potato chip becoming accepted, it also appears that the flavour has moved onto other salty snacks as well. I’ve seen dill pickle sunflower seeds, peanuts and even crackers. I’ve tasted dill pickle versions of many salty snacks and I have to say that for the most part this flavour has never failed. Sure there are better and worse dill pickle snacks, but I think it has more to do with the seasoning quality than the snack it’s paired up with.

There are only a few potato chip flavours that have really moved on successfully into the great snacking world, and dill pickle is one of them. Most of the other flavours have been around for such a long time, but dill pickle is comparatively the new kid on the block. However, what amazes me more is that there are still people out there afraid to try this flavour, or even some people that don’t know it exists. This is why dill pickle is surprisingly the best flavour of chips or any salty snack in the world (emphasis on the word surprisingly).

This then asks the question, would I want dill pickle to become as common as salt and vinegar or barbecue for salty snacks. Part of me enjoys the niche-ness of this treat, but most of me wants the whole world to truly understand how good this flavour can be. Sure there are going to be some people out there who just don’t like it, heck I’m not a huge barbecue fan. I just want everyone to have at least tried it once.

Potato Chip Flavours

 

I'm wondering if the world is running out of flavours for potato chips. The trend lately has been to try extreme or weird flavours or just copy already existing flavours. I feel like it's been a long time since someone has made a potato chip that was original, but also that made sense. It's not that I mind these weird flavours, it's just been a while since I've eaten a potato chip with a completely original flavour that made me think I'd eat another bag of them.

Check out my latest chip review, of a flavour that I've tried before, but it still tasted pretty good.

Icelandic Adventure

Recently Allison and I went on a pretty epic Icelandic adventure with a couple of friends of ours. Unlike many of the adventures I write about on this site, the focus of this trip had nothing to do with food. The focus was instead exploring the natural beauty of this awesome country. What this basically means is that all of the food we tasted on this trip was focused on road tripping around the amazing island, and not about stopping at every restaurant or candy store.

In fact, stopping at restaurants wasn't that important to us at all, since we were all riding in a camper. Most of our meals were being cooked on a tiny range inside our camper. The meal of choice for this adventure for me and Allison were hamburgers. It's because the local grocery store (called bonus) sold pre-made hamburgers in packages of two. As a side note, Bonus has one of the greatest grocery store logos/mascots ever (pictured above). One thing that was available at Bonus, as well as other grocery stores was a huge selection of pre-made salads and dips. Often a meal for me was a hamburger with a side of one or two salads, and the burger would be covered in some kind of flavoured cream cheese or spread.

Mornings for me consisted of skyr, which is kind of like yogurt. I'm not sure where skyr was invented (maybe Iceland) but it was so abundant on this trip. Most grocery stores had several brands of skyr to choose from, but only a few varieties of yogurt. 

Coffee was also an important part of this trip, for everyone except me because I don't drink coffee. We were traveling with two friends from Finland, so I'm not sure if the excessive amount of coffee came from them, or if Iceland is also really coffee crazy too. It could also be the fact that we were driving a lot, and some nights sleeping very little, so coffee was just important.

While we stopped at many amazing sites, we also stopped at many truck stops as well. The selection of snacks at the truck stops was superb. Always a good collection of chocolate and wafer themed bars, and always an exceptional collection of licorice and gummy treats. Each truck stop had at least one giant wall filled with a huge selection of sweet treats.

Truck stops often had bakeries in them as well, and cinnamon buns seemed to be the treat of choice. Some bakeries/truck stops had more than one variety of cinnamon bun to choose from.

The one thing I found challenging on this trip, snack wise, was trying to find treats that were exclusively Icelandic. While in Reykjavík and even at some truck stops there were advertised Icelandic chocolate bars available, candy wise it was hard to figure out which treats were brought in from other countries and which were local. There seems to be quite an affinity for Northern European treats, in particular treats from Sweden and Denmark.

We finished our trip in the capital Reykjavík, and the food choices seemed very plentiful. We ate some excellent local dishes, and even tried some great Indian food. Outside of the cities it seems like Iceland is really a great place to eat simply as you explore the beautiful countryside. Inside the cities it feels very European, with options from many parts of the world, but also some traditional local foods that are very comfortable for most western pallets.

Did I mention, I also tasted some glacier water from a newly broken iceberg. It was really tasty, but also just a little bit salty.

Googly Revolution

There’s a saying, or at the very least an idea that many people believe to be true, and that’s chocolate will improve any food. I will agree that chocolate can make many desserts, nuts and even some savoury foods pretty good, but I’m pretty sure it can’t improve everything. I’ve pointed out in the past that onions and chocolate seems to be a stumbling block that I’ve seen a few people attempt but never succeed. I’d also argue that there a few desserts that would not be better with chocolate, like strawberry shortcake, carrot cake and trifle. So that made me think, is there anything you can do to a dessert, snack or candy that will always improve it?

My next line of thinking was fruit or a fruit compote. Fruit is a great garnish on so many desserts so it seemed like it should work. I was mostly thinking of a berry coulis, maybe strawberry or raspberry. The problem with coolis is I’m not convinced it would improve any candies, and pretty sure it would wreck some savoury treats, I’m looking at you pretzels.

This basically lead me right back to the beginning, and had me once again sure that there was no unifying single thing one could add to snacks, desserts and candy that would always improve them. That was until I took a trip to my local bulk food store and came across some candy googly eyes.

You could easily argue that these candy googly eyes add nothing when it comes to taste and texture. I would argue back that they do add a little bit of crunch, but would kind of agree that flavour wise they’re just adding some sweet and nothing more. The thing they do add is endless entertainment, and maybe that’s just what desserts, snacks and candies could use. Even if your dessert is fancy or your candy is fun, these googly eyes just seem to add even more fun to them.

My plan is simple, I bought a handful of these googly eyes, and I’ve decided that over the next few weeks/months I’m going to take every opportunity to add them to many of my desserts, snacks and candies that I’m eating to see if it actually makes them better. I’m convinced that there will not be one failure for this experiment, and I challenge any treat to try and be less fun without some slightly wonky eyes attached to them.

Time To Bone Up On Your Snack Facts

If you've ever wanted to know a little more about the treats you love to snack on, make sure to pick up the complete Snack Facts right now.

You can pick up every issue (or the complete large sized edition) right now at candycritic.org/snackfacts/ or on Amazon .

Enjoy Some Snack Facts While You Snack

 If you've ever wondered why they're gummy bears, and not gummy bunnies or gummy anteaters, then check out Snack Facts and learn a little something about your favourite treats.

You can get Snack Facts at candycritic.org/snackfacts/ or on Amazon.

Some Facts About Snacks

 Check out Snack Facts, a fun, illustrated look at the history (as well as some bonus facts) about some of the snacks you love.

You can pick up your very own copy at candycritic.org/snackfacts or on Amazon.

Learn a few Snacking Facts

 Join the adventures of Sir Francis Sweetums and his companion Barbara as they learn all about fun snacks

Pick up the entire collection at candycritic.org/snackfacts/ or on Amazon.

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The Home of the Theme Park

 

It's not commonly known, but Denmark is actually home to at least 3 of the most important historical theme parks in the world. These three parks have amazing history, and two of them are considered part of the reason theme parks are the way they are today. As we all known, theme park food has become very trendy these days, with many theme parks hosting world class restaurants and snack stands. On a recent trip to Denmark, Allison and I visit these three theme parks and sampled some of the delights. There were some highs and some lows with the food, but there were also some interesting trends well worth mentioning.

The 3 theme parks in question are Tivoli Gardens, Bakken, and Legoland. Tivoli Gardens is one of the oldest theme parks in the world, and it's said that it is the theme park that inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland. Bakken is actually the oldest theme park in the world opening in 1583, the current mascot (a creepy white clown) came about over 200 years ago. Legoland might arguably not belong on this list, however it is the first Legoland to ever open, and might be one of the earliest single theme, theme parks ever.

While each one of these parks had some unique foods and snacks, there were a few things that really seemed to happen across all boards. Beer and coffee was one thing that seems to loom large at all of these parks. All of them had places where you could buy both of these drinks, and all of the places selling these drinks had huge lines all day long. I felt like the Danish way to enjoy theme parks is to balance your coffee and beer intake to allow for the perfect buzz all day long.

Another thing that seemed to be very popular at all of these theme parks is betting for candy/chocolate. Each of these parks offered the opportunity to place a bet in various games, and first prize would be a giant (and I mean giant) chocolate bar or candy. We're talking Toblerone or Daim bars that weighed several pounds. While they did have a few games offering classic carnival stuffed toys, I saw many people walking around with giant candy prizes too.

All of these parks also offered mostly classic theme park food. There was lots of popcorn, cotton candy, and ice cream available at every single park. There were sit down restaurants as well at each park, and at least one buffet available as well. I feel like Denmark really likes buffets a lot. While these are some of the similarities, it's time to look at some of the highlights from each park, starting with Tivoli Gardens.

The theming at Tivoli Gardens was pretty amazing, particularly when you realize how small this theme park actually is. We happened to be visiting during the 180th anniversary of the park, and I picked up their special limited edition ice cream treat to celebrate this anniversary. One thing I'll say about the theme park food at Tivoli Gardens is that they make it with such care, almost all of the snacks are a piece of art.

Meal wise we made two stops, for lunch we ate a place called Gasoline Grill. It wasn't really themed to anything except minimalist trendy burger shop. I believe that they're a chain with more locations in Denmark. This was a bit of a theme with many restaurants in Tivoli, including their adjacent food court that's exclusively trendy foods and chain restaurants.

For dinner we ate at a more traditional Denmark theme park style restaurant, it was their German beer garden. The thing we noticed about beer gardens in almost all the theme parks is that the point was not just to sell you beer, but sell you amazing German food to eat with your beer. Most beer gardens in North America are just fenced off bars, but here it's a German culinary experience, with beer.

Our next theme park is Bakken. I should note that we didn't spend nearly as much time in Bakken as we did at Tivoli and Legoland. Frankly there just isn't as much to do at this park. Most of the rides are your standard state fair or carnival rides. Our ultimate goal was to check out the oldest theme park in the world, and ride one ride. It also rained for a good deal of the time we were at Bakken. Food wise the choice was kind of slim.

There are several restaurants located in one section of the park. We considered getting a buffet meal while at Bakken, but we checked out the buffet and it was kind of disappointing. Most of the snacks were just things like ice cream, cotton candy and popcorn. While the setting was pretty fun, the snacks themselves did not impress too much.

The final stop was Legoland. This was obviously the most unique of these parks, and also the newest. I was actually surprised at how much of the food at Legoland was similar to that of the other two theme parks. Both of our meals at Legoland were buffets. The first was the most important stop for me food wise, as it had the "famous" Lego french fries. They were fun, but they did highlight one thing about this park that surprised me.

There were very few food options themed to Lego itself. In our entire time at the park I found two treats that were themed to Lego. There was the french fries, and one coffee shop offered Lego shaped chocolates for around 10 dollars each block. We even stopped in the candy store, and they did not offer one candy in the shape of a Lego brick. They would use Lego characters to promote treats, but the lack of Lego themed food was a little disappointing.

We did make one more stop, and while not technically a theme park, it is theme park adjacent (almost literally). Lego House is a museum located a few minutes walk from Legoland. While they also lacked any food that looked like Lego, they did offer a few fun treats. My favourite being the overpriced coffee from the Lego movie (all proceeds went to charity). The museum also offered a look at how food was represented in Lego, as well as some amazing pieces of Lego art with food themes.

Being a theme park fan, I really enjoyed all our adventures in Denmark. I had never thought about Denmark's relation to theme park history, but it's truly an important place. While they haven't really adapted to the amazing food selections available at some of the more modern theme parks around the world, there are some amazing examples of classic carnival food done right.

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