So Many Pocky

I think Pocky probably ranks as number 2 on my list of candies with the most varieties, number 1 being Kit Kat. You wouldn't imagine that there could be so many varieties of a cookie stick covered in chocolate, but here we are. As of this moment I've reviewed 19 different variety of Pocky, and there are still a few out there I haven't tried, as well as new versions coming out all the time. I can't say that I've loved each and every version, but they have yet to make a real gross out version (like wasabi Kit Kat).

Check out my latest Pock review.

Snow Soon? Snowball Right Now

Both Allison and I agree that it feels like the first snowfall is coming soon. While I don't actually mind the snow, I don't like a lot of the other things that come with winter. Cold nights and dark days are kind of depressing if you ask me. Snow on the other hand is what makes winter awesome. These cakes may celebrate the most wonderful part of winter, but I'm not sure if they really give me the same joy.

Click here to find out how I feel about Hostess Snowballs.

Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with all my winter fun this year.

Also be sure to check out my Patreon page for extra fun stuff.

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A Special Episode Of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!

Happy New Year, here's a special episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! to bring in this new year... and kick 2020 to the curb.

Be sure to thank me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Or even consider buying a copy of my new mini comic called Snack Facts.

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Opening Footage For My Canadian Video

We’re still here in Canada and I’m collecting all kinds of treats, photos and videos. I’m working on a piece about the food in Canada that I feel represents Canada to me, and I found the perfect piece of footage for then start of the video.

Click here to check out this great footage.

Make sure to keep up with all our Canadian adventures on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram too.

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It's Our Christmas Themed Candy Review... Sort Of - Sno Caps

I have to admit that it's a bit of a stretch this year with the Christmas review. I guess I could have reviewed my Reece's Peanut Butter Cup advent calendar, but to be honest I'm still working on it. Sno Caps don't really have any kind of Christmas theme to them, or any kind of nostalgia for me. They do however remind me of snow, and right now I'm living in a place that doesn't have any snow at all, and I miss it a bit.

So here's hoping you're having a white Christmas.

Click here to read the review that isn't cold, but reminded me of it.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with what we're doing over the holidays.

Also, make sure to follow us on YouTube to keep up with all our podcast and vlog stuff (we have a few new  projects starting in the new year).

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It's Time For a New Candy Review! - Choco Kit "Ice Cone!"

I have to be honest, I've been feeling a little bummed out about living in a place that doesn't have a winter. In February it's a fantastic thing to not think about winter and snow, but around the Christmas holidays it's a little depressing. There are a few decorations up, both in our house and around town, but it doesn't feel the way Christmas should without the snow.

Click here to read the review that inspired this funk (only because there are penguins on the package).

You can also find out what I'm doing to cope with this Christmas funk on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

Why not follow us on Pinterest, it'll make you and me happy.

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Winter Candies

There's a huge gap in the winter candy market.  In the wintertime there are plenty of Christmas and Valentine's Day candies, but there are very few, maybe no candies that celebrate winter itself.  Being Canadian, and understanding how great winter can be, I've decided to design a few winter candies on my own.  I've had some help from a few of you guys, as well as friends and family (many of whom don't actually read this blog... disappointment).

As always when I come up with candy ideas, these ideas are free for the taking for any candy company that wants to make them.  All I ask in return is a sample of the treat after they're made. If you do make them, and send me some, I can guarantee a review on candycritic.org and likely guarantee a perfect score when it come to novelty.  Now it's time to warm up with some cool winter candies and snacks.

Mulled Wine Gums

I'd like to take credit for coming up with Mulled Wine Gums, but I can't.  I was working with my new friend Jess, and I asked her for ideas for this article.  She instantly blurted out, "Mulled Wine Gums" and I knew that it was a perfect idea.  I'm not that familiar with regular mulled wine, but I know it's huge in Germany, the place where gummies were invented. I'm not saying that it's a coincidence, but I'm also not saying it isn't either.  I think the variety of flavours you could make of these gummies would be limitless, and you could also ad a touch of various citrus flavours as well.

Potato Snowshoes

This is probably the silliest of all of these ideas, but I think it would be really fun too.  I wanted to make sure to include a salty snack with this list, and potato strips in the shape of snowshoes seems perfect.  It could be like those Hickory Stick snacks, only larger, and the shape of snowshoes. You could make all kinds of flavours that remind you of winter, like cool ranch, or BBQ... OK those flavours aren't really winter themed, can you think of a winter themed flavour that would work with a salty snack?

Keep Me Warm Candies

Of all the winter themed treats on this list, this is the one that I think would be the greatest of all. I call them Keep Me Warm Candies, but you can change that if you want.  The premise is really simple, make a candy that warms you up.  The important thing is that the candy isn't "hot", it's just warm.  Also, get away from using normal hot flavours like cinnamon, and use fruit or spice flavours instead. The point is that you could eat these candies, and on a cold day they would warm up your mouth just a little bit, not enough to burn, just a little bit warm.  It's like the anti mint gum.

Winter is here, and we need candy to hold us over until the spring/summer, when there appears to be limitless numbers of treats.  All you candy makers out there have officially been challenged, but if you already have a winter candy let us know. We'd be happy to review it on candycritic.org.

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This Week In Candy

Winter is in full force, and here in Ottawa (where I'm living right now) Winterlude is on.  Winterlude is a celebration of snow and ice, or as I like to call it a desperate attempt to make the cold weather fun.  The good thing is that Ottawa does a great job at making it fun, and after a day of walking around town bundled up, I almost forgot about the fact that I couldn't feel my fingers. One thing that I came across on our Winterlude adventure was a treat that truly represents the cold days of winter, and has no relation to Christmas or Valentine's Day, and that's tire d'érable. Tire d'érable is boiled maple syrup pored on snow and frozen into a tasty treat. I'm not sure if this is a thing anywhere else in the world (Vermont maybe?), but to me it represents winter in Canada perfectly.

Speaking of winter treats, this week we'll be releasing our three winter themed candies we'd like to see.  Check back later this week for our ideas on treats with a winter theme, one of them might even help you out on these cold days.  Today we're going to go through all of those Superbowl commercials, and tomorrow we'll post our favorite candy/snack themed ones.  So far it looks like it's all the regular Superbowl advertisers, and frankly I haven't seen anything that's blown me away, but I have a few more to go through still.

This week's new review is from our friends at Weaver Nut, Sweets, and Snacks. They sent us a box full of interesting treats, but we thought these Pure Milk Chocolate Buttercrunch With Almonds squares looked the most interesting. Check out our review here.

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This Week In Candy

I've been working on the article all about winter themed candy ideas, and it lead to a new idea.  I was asking my friend Jess about some winter themed candy ideas when she started to get into the idea of Canadian candy ideas.  Since Canada is turning 150 years old this year, it sounds like designing some special edition Canadian candies would be a good idea.  I'm still at the early stages of this idea, however if you can think of some good ingredients, flavours or themes for Canadian candies, let me know.

Speaking of Canadian candies, not too many people seem to be interested in my campaign to get Tim Horton's to make a Beavertail style doughnut.  I'm still going to keep pushing it, but I really need your help too.  Call your local MP, write to the Prime Minister, at the very least make sure to post our fun little graphic (found here) on Facebook or Twitter.

This week on candycritic.org, we should be posting the latest episode of Junk Fud On The Road, all about the UK.  Hopefully we'll also post the special article all about winter themed candies that we've designed (as we mentioned above). We're also starting to think of fun future adventures later in the year, and gearing up for a big one (but we'll talk more about that later).

As for this week's review, it's a "new" variety of Sour Patch Kids, that I hope sticks around for a little while.  In fact I hope they keep trying new varieties as I think these gummies work really well with alternative flavours.  Click here to read the review.

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This Week In Candy

Boy is it cold out there. It's our first winter in six years (we've been living overseas) and it's been pretty extreme, in Canada where I live we've had more than 150 cm of snow, and as I write this the temperature is around -15 degrees. It got me thinking about winter candy, or the lack of it. Sure there are a huge range of candies for Christmas, but the day after Christmas Valentine's day and Easter candies start to appear on the shelf. What about January, and half of February, what are we supposed to eat then?

A great deal of candy in this world is really designed for summer. Anything you eat with your fingers can be cumbersome while wearing gloves or mitts. Mint flavours make your insides freeze along with your outsides. Most fruit flavours just remind me of warmer days, and that's depressing. And ice cream is just out of the question. So what kind of candy can we eat in the winter? Maybe I'll think about it and try and design some specialty winter treats. If you have any ideas, let me know on Facebook, Twitter, or comment below.

This week on Candy Critic we're going to post our latest episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! featuring a special guest, my nephew Feroner. We shot a two (maybe three) part candy tasting series over the holidays. The first episode is online at Feroner's YouTube channel right now, make sure to check it out here. Part two is going up on our YouTube channel later this week. It was a pretty intense episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! but we both survived.

To help me think about warmer days, I decided to review a classic African candy bar.  I figure that since it's summer there right now, maybe it'll make me feel better (nope). While this bar has brought back fond memories of the time I visited Africa, it really wasn't that impressive itself.  Click here to find out why.

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This Week In Candy

Winter has officially hit us here in Canada.  Actually winter has been hitting us pretty hard (for someone who hasn't seen snow in 6 years) for the last six weeks, but today we got a serious cover of the white stuff.  I both hate and love the snow, it's soft and fun to play in, but cold and hard to get off my walkway.  I both want the snow to stay, to make it a white Christmas. But I also want it to go away, so I don't have to deal with my pants getting wet anymore.

This week we're putting together a lot of content for Candy Critic.  We're finally going to post Junk Fud News for the month of November.  We're also going to be editing, and maybe posting, a special episode of Junk Fud And You featuring an actual academic that knows a lot about candy.  Finally, we're going to be recording a special Christmas episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! where I eat fruitcake.  It took me a while to figure out what to eat for a Christmas episode of CWWYET, but fruitcake seemed to be the best idea.  I haven't eaten fruitcake in probably 10 years or more, and fruitcake has the distinction of being one of the most hated of all Christmas desserts.  So we'll see how this goes later this week.

I'm also officially announcing the return of our Instagram feed, but with a twist.  We're going to continue Snack Facts on our Instagram feed, but we're only going to post randomly (before we posted every day).  In addition, on our feed we're also going to be starting the doughnut project.  My goal is simple, to taste every doughnut Tim Horton's has to offer.  This isn't an all at once project, it's going to happen over time.  Every time I taste a new doughnut, I'll post it on Instagram.  Then, every so often, I'll add the donuts to our Candy Critic Google Map, so you can see where I ate that particular doughnut. Our return to Snack Facts is going up today, and the doughnut project will be going online in the next few weeks.

This week's new review was a gift from a very nice Icelandic man.  I was talking to him and I mentioned that I wasn't familiar with any Icelandic candy.  As fortune would have it, he had a giant bag of Icelandic candy with him.  Click here to read my first Icelandic candy review.

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A Spicy Christmas Candy Thing

I probably should have waited until Christmas to post this Spicy Candy Thing, but I just couldn't wait.  I have to be honest, I don't know if I've ever tasted Sriracha, but it's pretty trendy right now, so I thought these candy canes were pretty neat.  Since Sriracha is also a pretty popular BBQ addition, I guess these candy canes could really be an all year treat if you wanted them to.  Come to think of it, why aren't candy canes popular all year round, and why don't they come in more flavours?  The hook shape makes them handy for storage all the time, and even the traditional mint flavour would be great for cooling you down on a hot summer's day.  When I first posted this, I thought it was silly to post about candy canes this time of year, now I think it's silly not to eat candy canes all year long.

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A Cool Candy Thing

With the cold weather here, it's about time to think about how to keep warm.  Why not drape the most important part of your body in a stylish M&M's hat (or as they call it in my home town a "toque").  I'd never thought about how well these characters work as hats, after all they're round and colourful, and heads are round and look good when covered in colourful fabrics.  So what candy would make for good mittens or scarfs?

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

I think this advertisement deserves the award for "the most unlikely to be actually shot on a ski hill".  While little clues like the cheesy background, and the strange way the snow is sticking to them, is a bit of a give-away.  I think the most convincing thing that tells me that they're not really on a ski hill is their form.  I haven't gone skiing in a few years, but I'm pretty sure I didn't look like this.  I find it pretty amazing that an art director at an advertising agency actually took this picture and said "this is what I believe represents winter".

I found this ad here.

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This Week In Candy

From what I can tell, much of the Eastern Seaboard of US and Canada are going to have a white Christmas this year.  I'm sad that I'm not there to enjoy it, and I'm envious of all the photos people have been posting of backyards filled with snow.  I have not really seen a good snowfall in 4 years, but not for a lack of trying.  Two years ago I went to Vienna in hopes of having an awesome Christmas adventure.  I did have a really good time, and I saw lots of great Christmas markets, but no snow.  But for those of you that are covered in snow, my friend Michelle sent me this super simple recipe to make your own soft serve ice cream out of snow.  It's very simple, take 12 cups of snow, and pour on one can of condensed milk, stir and enjoy.  I can assure you that this is exactly what I'm going to be doing the next time I see a massive snowfall... Well I might make a snow angel first.

As for the blog this week, I think it's going to be a little slow.  I think a nice quite holiday season is just what I need to recharge myself and get back into gear.  I will still post many of the regular blog entries this week, but I don't think there will be too much more happening.

I should tell you that in the new year we have a lot ready to go.  I'm hoping to roll out some new T-shirts, a podcast or two, and possibly a new YouTube series.  Also our sister site, bewarethecheese.com, is going to be having a candy themed release of photos in the new year.  We'll let you know when the photos are up.

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Cool Candy "Christmas" Thing

Does your pooping reindeer need a friend?  Last week I posted about the wonderful pooping reindeer candy dispenser, and today I thought I'd follow up with a pooping snow man.  Yes the world is a jollier place knowing that snow men poop tasty white jelly beans.  I always thought that they would poop snow balls, but it looks like I'm wrong.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

When it's the dead of winter and you see a advertisement full of summer fun and summer fruit, does it make you feel better or worse?  Do you look at this and remember last summer, the warm days outside eating fresh fruits?  Or do you pine for the warm, wishing the bitter cold would just end already?  I guess depending on which way you feel affects the possibility that you might ever want to try Spangles.

I found this ad here, but I'm not even sure if Spangles still exist.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

I'm not sure if this photo is real, or Photoshopped.  Either way it reminds me of a nice cool winter, enjoying all of the winter activities, and makes me miss the cold weather.  This year in particular I've been "lucky" to avoid winter almost entirely, but it's started to mess with my Canadian spirit.  I think any Canadian needs to suffer, even a little each winter, and if you don't you start to go crazy.  So if this is a true contraption, I invite the folks at Orbit gum to bring it over to my house so I can enjoy a taste of winter. I'll turn it on every day and dance around the snow like a little kid on Christmas morning.

I found this ad here.

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It's National Cocoa Day!!!

It's time to curl up next to a fire place and enjoy cocoa in one of it's more tasty forms.

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Today is National Whipped Cream Day!

I just found out that today is "National Whipped Cream Day" and at first I was really pumped about it.  Then I started to think a little about whipped cream, and how much it looks like snow.  Then I started to remember snow, and how much I kind of miss snow (I know that sounds a little crazy).  So now whipped cream kind of makes me a little sad.

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