Spooooooooooooonnnn!!! Sweets - Walnuts?

Every day this week I'm going to sample a different spoon sweet and let you know what I think.  For those unfamiliar with spoon sweets, they're pretty much fruit preserved in a syrup.  It's kind of like jam, only it's much juicier and the fruit is most often whole, or only sliced in half.

I was just as surprised as you probably are when I discovered that they make walnuts in a spoon sweet.  I was even more surprised when I bit into it and fell in love with this flavour.  This particular spoon sweet is heavily flavoured with cinnamon as well, but it doesn't stop the nutty flavour at all.  Best of all, this wonderful nutty flavour is accompanied by a beautiful subtle crunch.  Before having tasted this, I thought the idea of having a nut spoon sweet was really strange, now I'm starting to think it's the best way to have them.

And just in case you're wondering, you do in fact eat the whole walnut, shell and all.  Here's a picture after I took my first bite.


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Spooooooooooooonnnn!!! Sweets - Figs

Every day this week I'm going to sample a different spoon sweet and let you know what I think.  For those unfamiliar with spoon sweets, they're pretty much fruit preserved in a syrup.  It's kind of like jam, only it's much juicier and the fruit is most often whole, or only sliced in half.

This is very, very sweet.  Figs are pretty much one of sweetest fruits that I know.  Put them in a syrup and they get even sweeter.  This variety of fig spoon sweet uses unripened figs instead of the mature figs, so maybe it makes it a little less sweet.  The texture is kind of chewy, but the sweet flavour just overpowers.  In fact because of the subtle flavour of the fig, all you pretty much taste is sweet.  Don't get me wrong, I love the sweet flavour, I just like something else to accompany it.


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Spooooooooooooonnnn!!! Sweets - Niranzi (Bitter Orange)

Every day this week I'm going to sample a different spoon sweet and let you know what I think.  For those unfamiliar with spoon sweets, they're pretty much fruit preserved in a syrup.  It's kind of like jam, only it's much juicier and the fruit is most often whole, or only sliced in half.

Niranzi (sp?), on its own is the worst tasting fruit I've ever eaten in my entire life.  Imagine the most bitter orange in the whole world, then double it, then triple it.  The first time I ever tried one of these, I touched my tong to it, and it went numb for about 20 minutes. This fruit is so bad your taste buds shut down upon contact. So does it make a good spoon sweet?  Well I can tell you that boiling this fruit in sugar does improve it.  The bitterness is much less, although it's not gone.  It basically tastes like a sweet/bitter orange.  Since I've never tried regular orange spoon sweets, I'm not sure how this would compare. Maybe oranges can't be preserved, and this is the only way to get that orange flavour in a spoon sweet.  It could also be that no one really knows what else to do with these horrid fruits, and this is the only way to make them palatable.

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Spooooooooooooonnnn!!! Sweets - Kumquat

Every day this week I'm going to sample a different spoon sweet and let you know what I think.  For those unfamiliar with spoon sweets, they're pretty much fruit preserved in a syrup.  It's kind of like jam, only it's much juicier and the fruit is most often whole, or only sliced in half.

The kumquat, all I can say about this fruit is that the name is really fun to say.  If you've ever sampled a fresh kumquat before, you probably wondered why in the world people sell them in the first place.  I've heard that kumquats are OK for cooking, and occasionally as a garnish, but frankly I've never seen a good use for them yet (at least as anything an orange couldn't do).  So I guess you're wondering what I thought of them as a spoon sweet.  I think they're a little better as a spoon sweet, but they're not something I'd rush out to buy.  The bitterness of the kumquat is greatly reduced, but not eliminated in this spoon sweet form.  The texture is kind of like a slimy semi-hard candy.  When you bite into it, an explosion of sticky juice fills your mouth and you have a kind of orange like flavour on your palette.  I really think that the only reason people like to use (or eat) this fruit at all, is so they can claim they've tasted a kumquat.

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This Week In Candy

Candy News - It appears that the worlds chocolate supply is not certain right now.  I know this is the last thing you want to hear at Easter, but there appears to be both environmental and political uncertainties that could lead to even higher priced chocolate in the future.  Savor that chocolate bunny, you may not get too many more of them in the future.

What's Happening At Candy Critic -  While continuing on our top secret project this week, we're also posting a special series of posts about spoon sweets.  Some people know them better as preserves, but spoon sweets sounds so cool.  We hope to post a photo and a little information about 5 different spoon sweets, one each day this week.  I know that we also owe you guys another review-a-thon, but it's just been very busy with other projects and we don't want to go halfway on a review-a-thon.

Rant -  I wish Tupperware would invent a chocolate saver.  They have products to keep just about anything else in the world fresh, except chocolate.

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