Friday, October 07, 2011

Candy Costume Ideas - Me

Halloween is quickly approching, and if you haven't decided what you want to wear, you still have time.  Sure you could go as a spooky goblin, or your favorite serial killer, but why not go a different direction this year?  Why not dress up as your favorite sweet treat?  To help you out with your costume decision making, every day this week I'll be scouring Amazon.com in search of some of the best, and strangest candy related costumes.
For this final installation of the Candy Costume Ideas, I thought I'd go through some costumes that I would consider.  I have to be honest; I didn't really find that many costumes that fit the requirements for me.  I generally hate wearing costumes and more so I hate wearing makeup.  The only candy costume that I found that I was willing to wear was this gingerbread man.  I particularly like the lollipop staff that comes with it.
Other than that I think my only other costumes for me would fall into the primate categories.  If someone could somehow make a costume that was both monkey and candy related I would be so into that.
But until then I think I'll just stick with regular monkeys, or at the very least sock monkeys.

CC

Friday's Candy Links

Optimus cakes are here, I just hope that the only "transforming" they do is into yummy goodness in my tummy.

Learn the basics of chocolate types as well as some chocolate tips.

Fazer changes candy package because some say it's racist.

Canada now has a 180-milligram caffeine cap on drinks, wonder how that will change things.

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Scariest Drink Ever



Do you remember Hi-C Ecto flavoured drink stuff?  The bad news is you can't get it anymore, the hopeful news is that there's rumors of another Ghostbusters movie, so who knows.  The more realistic choice however is this link featuring a group of strange people that give you the recipe.

CC

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Candy Costume Ideas - Strange

Halloween is quickly approching, and if you haven't decided what you want to wear, you still have time.  Sure you could go as a spooky goblin, or your favorite serial killer, but why not go a different direction this year?  Why not dress up as your favorite sweet treat?  To help you out with your costume decision making, every day this week I'll be scouring Amazon.com in search of some of the best, and strangest candy related costumes.
I have to admit that I'm not really a big costume person.  I like the candy on Halloween, but dressing up is just something I'm not that into.  It doesn't help when costume makers create strange costumes that just seem awkward to wear and even more awkward to look at.  This ladies Hershey's Kiss costume does everything in its power to make the wearer appear as un-shapely as possible.  I'm not saying it has to be "sexy" but this is just strange.
Easily the most bizarre candy costume I found.  The idea is creative, but the execution is way off.  I'm thinking that it would work better if you took off the clown head (since clowns pretty much make everything creepy) and just use your own head instead.  As is, it looks like this guys being devoured by a giant clown Pez dispenser.
Nothing says awkward like the men’s and ladies Halloween costume team up.  The lady is sexy the man is dorky.  This pretty much sums up every relationship I've ever been in.

CC

How To Write About Chocolate Shops

So I've decided to start writing about candy stores I encounter all over the world.  In particular the candy stores that feature fine quality chocolates.  The problem I have is I'm not really sure how to go about it.
I'm very familiar with reviewing individual treats, I've been doing it for a few years now.  The thing that always stumps me is when I go into a fine chocolate shop and I'm faced with a million choices of hand made delights.  I often ask for help on picking the "best treat" but that generally gets me a sales pitch and not necessarily the best treat.  I've thought about picking one type of treat to get at these places, but that seems pretty dull.  It also eliminates any creativity score this store might earn.  So without spending a fortune, how should I pick the treats that I'm going to write about at these fine chocolate shops?
The other problem I come across is assessing the looks of the store.  Certain things are easy to asses, such as cleanliness, decorations, and customer service.  But what about variety?  Some shops have a million different treats, while other only have a few.  Sometimes stores with a million choices only have one or two good ones, while the store with only one or two choices has nothing but great treats.  Does one fault a store for not having variety, or does one fault a store for not having great quality?
These are things I really have to think about over the next few weeks.  I'd love to hear what others think, and I think I'll do some research myself (that involves going to lots of fine chocolate shops).

CC

Stuff I Want To Try

Nathan’s Famous Snacks - Made by: Inventure Foods, Inc. - Why: Because I like to eat hot dogs and I love New York. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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What 5 Cents Could Buy You In The 1950s

While it seems reasonable that 5 cents could get you a pack of life savers, I'm a little disturbed about the price of some of these other items featured in this ad.

Ad from Vintage Ad Browser.

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Thursday's Candy Links

Here's an article in praise of homemade marshmallows.

Wildfires destroy chocolate shop in Texas... they will rebuild.

Traveling to York (in England)?  Well did you know they've got a candy history?  Don't worry, they're opening an attraction to explain more.

Are you in Martha's Vineyard?  Then you might want to check out the Art of Chocolate festival that starts tomorrow.

I think the folks in Buffalo are over reacting just a little on the issue of candy that is shaped like marijuana leaves.

CC

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Two More Days To Enter the Yummy Earth Lollipop Contest

If you like to wait to the last minute, then you're pretty much there.  Only two more days till we pick the best costume idea that will win it's creator a big bag of Yummy Earth lollipops.

You can find out how to enter here.

CC

Candy Costume Ideas - Sexy

Halloween is quickly approching, and if you haven't decided what you want to wear, you still have time.  Sure you could go as a spooky goblin, or your favorite serial killer, but why not go a different direction this year?  Why not dress up as your favorite sweet treat?  To help you out with your costume decision making, every day this week I'll be scouring Amazon.com in search of some of the best, and strangest candy related costumes.
I think this quote from Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother says a lot about sexy Halloween costumes "If a girl dresses up as a witch, she's a slutty witch. If she's a cat, she's a slutty cat. If she's a nurse..."  Even the most innocent (and boring) candy related kids game in the world can be turned into a sexy costume.
I'm not even sure how many of these could be considered costumes.  Most are just branded sexy clothes.  It's a little disappointing if you ask me, where's the creativity, where's... well the costume?

CC

Do You Have a Wall That Needs Art?

You can fill that gap, and help our little site out at the same time.  It's really a win/win situation.

CC

Soccer Chocolate Challenge

Football (or as they call it in North America soccer) is a pretty big deal here in Greece.  They love the sport and the fanaticism for the local teams is overwhelming.  In Athens (where I live) there are three main teams, and the whole city is divided as to which team to root for.  Since arriving I've been pressured by many friends to choose a team, and I better choose correctly.  I've decided that as the Candy Critic, I should let candy make that choice for me.  Each team has an official candy bar, each decorated in team colours.  So I'm going to choose my team based on which bar I prefer.  I'm well aware that these bars might in fact be exactly the same, if that's the case, I'm going to skip the idea of following any team and just cheer on the national basketball team instead.
Olympiacos - Olympiacos is the most successful club in Greek football history, having won 38 League titles, 24 Greek Cups and 4 Greek Super Cups, more titles than any other Greek team and it is one of four teams that have never been relegated from the first division (Wikipedia). Chocolate wise I can't say that Olympiacos couldn't win any candy championships at all. I would like to call this bar a "chocolate" bar, but that's being too kind, it's more like a brown piece of wax that has a slight chocolate flavour.  Unless the other two bars actually make me ill, I can't see this bar winning.
Panathinaikos - Founded in 1908, they play in the Super League Greece and are one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Greek football history (Wikipedia).  This competition is not looking good at all.  I won't say that the Panathinaikos bar is worse than the Olympiacos bar, but it's certainly no better.  Cheap chocolate with no flavour, this is not a good day to be a soccer fan in Greece.
AEK Athlitiki Enosis Konstantinoupoleos (the Athletic Union of Constantinople) - Established in Athens in 1924 by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the wake of the Greco-Turkish War, AEK has grown to become a fairly successful club in Greek football, winning 30 national titles (Wikipedia).  You can say that you learned a few things about Greek soccer today.  You learned a few statistics from three of the most popular soccer teams in Athens, and you also learned that each team allows their names to be associated with very low quality products.  This bar, was exactly like the first two, and all of them were absolutely horrible.  It's a shame that these teams don't take their licencing a little more seriously.  If one of them had worried about quality they would have gained a fan today.  Instead the Greek national basketball team has one a new fan.  That is unless they also produce low quality chocolate treats, in that case I may have to turn to cricket instead.

CC

Wednesday's Candy Links

Hot chocolate pairings, I mean really... What doesn't go with chocolate, even in liquid form and hot.

The relationship between bats and cocoa, chocolate saves the world once again.

Mental Floss' collections of strange cookbooks, of note, the Twinkie cookbook.

CC

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Bonus Video This Week


Epic Meal Time posted the greatest s'mores creation ever.  I just thought I would share.

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Candy Website Review - Jelly Belly

I just read that Jelly Belly has updated their site, and I thought why not check it out.  The first thing you'll notice about the site is that they sell Jelly Bellies online.  In fact if you click on the shop tab you'll find yourself stuck in their Jelly Belly store with almost no way of getting out.  The Jelly Belly store is pretty cool, and has a few features worth mentioning.  I really liked the fact that you could pick Jelly Bellies based on colour, as well as flavour categories (like spicy, chocolaty, etc).  They also offer a calculator to estimate how many Jelly Bellies you'll need for your next function.  The regular site is fairly entertaining, but only for a few minutes.  After I browsed the Jelly Belly art galleries and the virtual factory tour I was bored.  The only other section worth checking out is the factory locations, just in case you're planning a vacation.

Click here to check out their site.

CC

Candy Costume Ideas - Candy Corn

Halloween is quickly approching, and if you haven't decided what you want to wear, you still have time.  Sure you could go as a spooky goblin, or your favorite serial killer, but why not go a different direction this year?  Why not dress up as your favorite sweet treat?  To help you out with your costume decision making, every day this week I'll be scouring Amazon.com in search of some of the best, and strangest candy related costumes.
The biggest surprise I found searching out candy costumes, is the sheer number of candy corn related costumes.  You can pretty much find any kind of clothing with a candy corn theme.  This is strange considering how many people I know that really don't like the candy itself.  I'm guessing that the popularity comes from the instant recognizably of the treat and its relation to Halloween.
There also seems to be this running theme of the "Candy Corn Witch".  I'm not sure if this idea comes from a book or movie originally, but it's a very common theme in the costume world.  I would also like to add that the number of dog costumes I found was really disturbing.  I can admit that maybe some dogs might like to wear costumes, but dressing them up for Halloween is kind of cruel because they're not allowed to eat any of the treats.
I also found a number of "costumes" that could also be seen as cheesy clothing options as well.  In fact costumes like this gogo girl outfit could easily be worn all year... Well maybe my fashion sense isn't that great.
Of all of the individual clothing items with a candy corn theme that I found, shoes where the most common.  You can pretty much buy any style of ladies dress shoe with a candy corn theme that you want.  Now if they made a men’s running shoe in a size 13, I might consider it.

CC

Stuff I Want To Try

20 Sided Sucker - Made by: ? - Why: Because I love candy, and I have played Dungeons and Dragons. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

CC

Tuesday's Candy Links

Want to know how to calm down a jail full of criminals?  Insert Popsicles.

Mental Floss has a list of strange flavours of common snacks from around the world.

OCD vegan starts candy business, the name of this place is spectacular, "Obsessive Confection Disorder".

CC

Monday, October 03, 2011

Funny Gummy Bear T-Shirt

If Gummy Bears Could Dream shirt
If Gummy Bears Could Dream by candycritic
View more Gummies T-Shirts
Gummy bears are not only tasty, but they provide for a great concept on a T-shirt.


CC

Bazooka Stuff Is Here

Two weeks ago I posted about the folks at Bazooka tweeting me a photo of what they were going to send.  Well I got the package and the treats are even better in person.  But I guess that doesn't really work in your case, does it?

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Monday's Candy Links

So you've heard so much about these 3D food printers.  You haven't?  Well read this then.

Did you know that Milton Hershey had a ticket for the Titanic?

Chocolate maker does well, and then is "asked by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help gather cocoa tree samples for a project in which government is trying to determine what kind of cacao beans make the best chocolate."

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Cool Ice Cream Advertising Art

I'm not sure who made this piece of art (but if you know let me know), or if it was ever used by Electrolux in a real advertisement, but I figured it would be a fine contribution to the Monday candy art thing I've been doing lately.

Do you make candy related art?  Let me know.

CC

Yogurt Instead of Ice Cream

A new dessert place has opened up in Athens and I think it's one of those brilliant ideas that I'm suprised hasn't been around for a long time already.  The place is called "Fresko", and their specialty is Greek yogurt.  Right now, all over Athens, you can find gelato and ice cream places, but as far as I know this is the only yogurt place.  Sure ice cream is great, but most of these places aren't that different or better than one another.  More importantly, although Greek ice cream is tasty, it's not really a great representation of the country.
Fresko takes something that is truly Greek and gives it a tourist/modern twist.  The best way to describe this place is to say it's like an ice cream sundae bar, but with yogurt instead.  They have several varieties of yogurt, to choose from, I went with the tradition Greek yogurt and it was spectacular.  If you've never tried Greek yogurt in Greece, you're in for a pleasant surprise.
The topping slection is also worth note.  They have several different types of honey, preserved fruits, nuts, and a few sweet choices as well.  I suggest the pine honey and walnuts.
If you want to sample a real Greek food experience, yogurt is a must.  Fresko allows you to taste the high quality yogurt, with traditional flavours, but in a modern way.

CC

Candy Costume Ideas - Kids

Halloween is quickly approching, and if you haven't decided what you want to wear, you still have time.  Sure you could go as a spooky goblin, or your favorite serial killer, but why not go a different direction this year?  Why not dress up as your favorite sweet treat?  To help you out with your costume decision making, every day this week I'll be scouring Amazon.com in search of some of the best, and strangest candy related costumes.

To start off I thought I would focus on the kids.  After all, when you grow up they stop giving you candy when you go knocking on doors, so the best way to get around this is to have kids so you can just take some of their candy.  This little Hershey's Kiss costume would be sure to rack in the candy this year.  I think it would also make sure that you get lots of Hershey's Kisses.  I figure that if anybody saw this little tot in your hands and they happened to be giving out Hershey's Kisses, you'd probably get extra.
This one might score you a few extra M&M's this year.  I particularly like the fact that they got a blond kid to wear this costume.  For the perfect effect it's good to think about these kinds of details.

Don't think this plan of sending your kids out for Halloween to score you candy is just for really little kids.  Older kids owe you a dept of gratitude for letting them live under your roof, nothing a few choice treats couldn't pay for.  And if you're into M&M's peanuts this costume will serve you well.
I went through a lot of kids candy costumes and I realized something.  The younger you dress your kid as a candy treat, the creepier it is.  I think it kind of reminds me of a Hansel and Gretel type theme.  You really don't want your kid looking appetizing, do you?

CC

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Awww... FIG!!! Is That An Insult?

Today's review comes from a new found love affair I have with a kind of gross looking fruit with a very sketchy story.  I was told that part of the pollination process of a fig involves a wasp digging inside the fruit, dying, and eventually being absorbed by the fruit.  Thus, eating a fig means you're eating a wasp.  Fortunately I pretty much hate wasps, so I don't feel any regret, however some people do feel a little squeamishness about the idea of eating bugs.

Click here to read this fig-tastic review.

CC