This Week In Candy

This week is a very important week for me.  I'm sure all of you American's are saying, "it's the 4th of July week", but that's not what I'm talking about.  For some reason the Canadian leaders of 1867 decided that they would sign the Charlottetown accord (a piece of paper that would separate Canada from the Brits) on July 1st only 4 days away from the American's independence day.  I'm sure our great Canadian Founding Fathers figured that Canada would grow to be a stronger country than the US, and that we wouldn't be bombarded with red, white and blue Facebook and Instagram photos all week.  It can be hard living above such noisy neighbours, but this week on candycritic.org, it's going to be all about just the red and white.

This week on Snack Facts we're going to celebrating some of Canada's most famous treats.  Every day on our Instagram feed we're going to teach you a new fun fact about a classic Canadian snack.  If you don't use Instagram, don't worry, you can learn all about these Canadian treats by following our Facebook page or Twitter feed as well.

Normally on "This Week In Candy" I also tell you what we're working on at Candy Critic, such as writing projects and photo work, but not this week.  This week I'm just going to enjoy being Canadian as much as I can (it's particularly difficult because I'm not actually in Canada right now *tear*).  To start off my, Canada is awesome week, I'm just going to mention that Kinder Eggs are abundant in Canada.

This week's review is also very Canadian.  The story behind it is amazing, small town Canadian boys making it big in the candy business.  OMG's are the next generation of great Canadian treats, and we have some of the best in the world.  Click here to read the OMG's review.

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Candy In The Media

People always ask me how I can review candy, and not look like Jaba the Hut.  The answer is simple, I don't eat like this girl.  The idea of eating 3kg of ramen noodles makes my stomach ache and gives me the sweats.  The sport of competitive eating is really taking off, and while it amazes me, it's not something I've ever aspired to do.

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A Scary Skull Candy Thing

The great thing about silicon molds is the amazing diversity of things you can make with them.  These skull shaped ice molds will make your next drink party pretty awesome, but they'll also make your next batch of cake pops fantastic, and if you're into making your own chocolates you'll have some awesome results.  I think the idea of making a cake pop that's filled with a blood read cherry cream or syrup would be the perfect addition to any macabre party.

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This Week In Candy

I think it's safe to say that summer has arrived.  While I'm far away from my North American roots right now, I'm getting news from home that people are wearing shorts and t-shirts.  This year I'm going to try and tap into my love of summer, particularly since my love of candy is really based on my many summer activities as a child.  When I was a kid my dad used to take us on long walks that would always start with a bag of candy from the local store.  I also used to ride my bike to the local park with a stop at the local store to fill up on treats with all of my friends.  Pretty much all of my summer memories involved some kind of candy I'm sure.

This past week my writing plans suddenly took a bit of a turn.  My agent contacted me to see what I was up to, we exchanged notes and she decided that I should focus on a cookbook, instead of the history of chocolate.  Don't get me wrong, I've dedicated enough time that I'm going to finish the history of chocolate book, but it looks like my focus might turn to baking once again.  That means I'm going to need help from any of you guys that are willing.  Be it technical advice, or just some inspiration, I get the feeling I'll need anything I can get.

Seeing as summer is here, this week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're looking at Kool-Aid.  Why not learn a fun fact about one of the most interesting drinks in the world.  All you have to do is follow us on Instagram right here, and every day this week you'll learn something new about this brightly coloured drink.  If you don't use Instagram, you can also follow Snack Facts on our Twitter feed and Facebook page as well.

Today's new review is from a fairly recent trip I took to Cyprus. I love this small little island country because of the amazing diversity of candy (all foods actually) that you can find there.  While the reasons for this diversity isn't the greatest (occupations and wars) there is no arguing that it's a really fascinating place to visit for any foodie.  Click here to read about an interesting Cypriot treat.

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Candy In The Media

I'm not really a big fan of these modern commercials that use special effects to get old or dead celebrities into their modern commercials.  My biggest problem is I often find myself trying to figure out how they did it, instead of paying attention to the product or the story.  I'm also not too sure how many kids would consider Audrey Hepburn as an influence towards their chocolate bar choices.

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Hagelslaging

Every time I try and explain hagelslag to my friends who have never tasted it before, there's a great misunderstanding.  This misunderstanding comes from the idea that hagelslag and cheap candy sprinkles are the same thing.  Before I even start this article I want to explain one thing, they are two very different things.  A good quality hagelslag may look like sprinkles, but they're much more chocolaty, and much softer.  This is important because if you were to put sprinkles on toast with butter, sprinkles don't melt, however hagelslag does.  Hagelslag also adds a chocolaty flavour to the butter and toast, where as cheap sprinkles do not.

For the experiment today I've tasted 5 different varieties of hagelslag mady by De Ruyter.  The hagelslag purists will probably argue that only two of the varities I'm tasting today are real hagelslag, however I'm curious about how this treat can be expanded. To taste test each variety I took two slices of bread cut into 6 sections.  One of the slices had been toasted, while the other had not.  I'd put butter on each section, and then quickly added a generous sprinkle of hagel.  I'd also left one piece on each slice with just plain butter, mostly because I only had 5 varieties of hagel to choose from.

The first variety of hagelslag that I sampled was the Melk (or milk chocolate) variety.  If you ask any hagelslag purist, this is really the way to go.  I would tend to agree, as you'll see by the end of this article.  This is a pretty safe place to put the bar when it comes to hagelslag, as it's tasty, and it melts just perfectly on the toasted bread.  I will say that when you compare the toasted bread to the non-toasted bread, toasting is a great improvement.  I'm not sure how the purist stand on this subject, but I don't think I'll be eating much more hagelslag on un-toasted bread in the future.

The next variety I sampled was the Puur (or dark chocolate) variety.  Now you can see from the photo that these hagelslags (?) are much darker than the milk chocolate variety.  Unfortunately this is about the only difference I could really taste.  I was so convinced that there was no difference that I decided to taste test the Melk and Puur hagelslag without the bread, to see if I could find any difference.  As it turns out there is a subtle difference between the two, however with the butter and bread this difference doesn't come through at all.  I will say that I don't dislike the Puur hagelslag, however it's a little disappointing that it's so similar to its cousin.  A nice dark chocolate flavour probably would have worked very well with salty butter and crunchy toast.

The next hagelslag that I sampled was not so much sprinkles as curls of chocolate.  One would think that as a chocolate fan I would have enjoyed this even more, but strangely I didn't.  I found that the quality of the chocolate wasn't that great, it's not bad, but it didn't seem to melt that much on the toasted bread.  Melted chocolate on toasted bread sounds like a great idea, unfortunately this doesn't deliver.  Because it's just curled chocolate, it also doesn't have the same novelty as the traditional hagelslag either.  The chocolate quality just didn't deliver, and the novelty wasn't that impressive.  I think I may save a few of these and put it on the next chocolate sundae I make for myself instead.

Much like the dark chocolate traditional hagelslag, these dark chocolate curls were also a disappointment.  They had a very subtle difference in flavour from their milk chocolate cousins, but again with the toast and butter this difference was totally lost.  I think De Ruyter could have gone for a really dark bitter chocolate instead and that would have worked so well.  I imagine that this dark chocolate is probably in the 50% area at best, where I think a 80% cocoa chocolate would have done wonders.  This also suffered from the same problems as the milk chocolate curls in that they didn't really melt that much on the toast.

This is probably the point of the article where I'm going to lose a whole bunch of you.  Of the five different kinds of hagelslag that I sampled for this article, this was probably my second favorite.  While the chocolate curls, and the dark chocolate hagelslag disappointed me, this didn't.  It surprised me in so many ways that I was actually pretty impressed.  First of all the flavour took me back to my childhood, and that's because these tasted exactly like Fruity Pebbles cereal.  Secondly the creativity to make fruit flavoured hagelslag is pretty daring and out of the box.  Finally the texture and flavour worked really well, particularly on the toasted bread.  I'm sure after writing this I'll never be allowed in the Netherlands again, but what can I say, I love fruity treats.

Hagelslag is probably the least known, and under appreciated treat to come out of the Netherlands.  I'm not really sure why we don't see hagelslag on every store shelf around the world.  It could be because of the deluge of cheap sprinkles sold all over the world, or it could be that the Dutch just don't want to share.

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A Cake Covering Bacon Thing

Does you cake need a little more bacon?  If I wanted to ad bacon to my cake, I'd probably candy bacon and sprinkle it on top, or bake it into my cake.  I'm not sure bacon frosting is really the solution.  Unless you wanted to do a super bacon cake.  You could use bacon fat as your oil, bake in bacon bits into the cake. Then you could frost your cake with bacon icing, and top the cake off with candied bacon bits. Now that would be a heart stopping cake.

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This Week In Candy

So much going on this week, I don't know where to start!

First of all it's Mango season where I am right now.  I love mangoes, but I don't really know how to eat them, and I mean this in two ways.  When I do just sit down and eat one, I often make a huge mess and will inevitably have to clean my shirt afterwards.  I also don't really know how to cook, or make treats out of this yummy fruit.  So I've decided to try out a few recipes, and see how it goes. (I'm sure I'll post pictures on Twitter and Facebook)

I'm also planning my next great adventure, this time we're going to Sri Lanka.  It's my first time visiting this awesome looking island, and I'm not really sure what to expect.  I've heard the food is good, and the tea plantations are supposed to be amazing.  If anybody out there has any must eat places or foods, let me know.

Later this week I'll be posting an interesting article on the many varieties of hagelslag available in the Netherlands.  For those that aren't in the know, hagelslag is basically chocolate sprinkles you put on your buttered toast.  It sounds kind of crappy, but when you use the right toppings the results can be amazing.  The Dutch people take their hagelslag very seriously, and this week I'm looking at a few varieties to see which is the best.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're looking at the raisin.  Probably the most polarizing of all dried fruits.  I've known people that threatened bodily harm if they were even forced to be near one.  However they're also one of the most popular chocolate covered dried fruit in the world. If you want to learn more about these dried grapes, you can follow Snack Facts on our Instagram feed.  If you don't use Instragram, you can also follow Snack Facts on our Twitter Feed and Facebook page as well.

On top of all of this awesome stuff we're working on, this week we're celebrating licorice... well sort of.  Every day for 40 days (except when I forget), I'm eating a single piece of licorice.  The idea is to try and get over my dislike of this very popular candy one piece at a time.  Also, this week we're having a review-a-thon, and you guessed it, the topic is licorice.  Everyday this week we'll post a new licorice review (many are the pieces of licorice I'm tasting every day).  You can click here to read today's new licorice review. And if you want to keep up with the rest of the new licorice reviews, and see what kind of licorice I'm eating every day, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr.

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Candy In The Media

These are probably some of the most memorable songs associated with food and movies.  I've only been to a drive in a few times in my life, and every single time I did, I sung "let's all go to the lobby", and proceeded to get myself a treat.  Who would have thought a dancing hot dog would make me hungry.

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A Blingy Candy Decorating Thing

How would you like a bright gold chocolate cake?  It seems like the worst and best idea ever.  There's something inherently wrong about eating a shinny piece of cake, but it also sounds like something I'd really like to try.  And who says you have to limit your gold edible spray to baked goods, why not cover your dinner in gold, or maybe your bacon and eggs.  There really is no limit to the things you can brighten up with this strange product.

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This Week In Candy

This week at Candy Critic we've got two main goals, writing and taking pictures.  We just finished a fun shoot on the subject of OREO cookies, I'll explain more about why we did that later.  We also have a shoot planned on the subject of dates (the fruit not the social interaction) and sprinkles.  We were hoping to get an article up this week to go with the sprinkle photos, unfortunately it looks like that's going to take a little more time, but it should be up next week instead.  Writing wise it's all about keeping up with this blog, and our social media sites, writing a few travel pieces, and most certainly working on the book.

Last week we also started a new project on our social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr) on the topic of licorice.  As you know I was greatly inspired on my recent trip to Holland, and I decided to try and get myself to like licorice (I normally hate the stuff).  I figured the best way to do this was through repetition.  So until July 4th, I'll be eating one piece of Dutch licorice every day.  I've got a bag with various different salt levels and strengths, and I'll just randomly pick one out and eat it every night.  Every time I do this, I'll post a picture and let you know how I feel, maybe I'll even use emoticons (this is a jump for me).

The OREO cookie shoot today was all for this week's posts on our Intagram feed called Snack Facts.  This week we'll look at the classic cookie with the cream in the middle.  If you're interested in having fun Snack Facts sent to you every day, make sure to follow us on Instagram.  If you don't use Instagram, you can also follow Snack facts on our Twitter feed and Facebook page as well.

This week's new review on candycritic.org is a Japanese candy that lived up to every expectation.  If you like your lemon candies to live up to their sour reputation, you might want to check out this review.  Click here to read the latest super sour Japanese review.

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Candy In the Media

My good friend Mark sent me this video.  While songs about smoking pot and eating junk food are fairly common, I really like the way the Kottonmouth Kings get very specific about the treats they love.  If I had any musical talent I'd probably be producing songs on the same subject... Except I'd probably cut out the drug references.

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A Thirst Quenching Bacon Thing

Every so often I come across a treat that I'm just not sure about. Most of the time when I see a treat that's new to me, I have some kind of idea weather or not I'm going to like it.  My "idea" isn't always right, as I've been known to hate a few things I thought I would like, and like a few things that I thought I would hate.  But once in a while I'm faced with something that I'm not really sure about.  Bacon flavoured soda pop is one of those things.  It could be really nice, it might have a strong maple cured bacon flavour, sweet with just a bit of salt.  It could also be like drinking a cold cup of bacon grease.

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This Week In Candy

Over the last few week's I've become obsessed with Dutch foods.  Until visiting this great place, I'd never really known how great their food traditions were.  Most importantly I'd never known how much they love crazy, and tasty treats.  Last week I posted about my visit to the Netherlands, this week we're posting about licorice on Snack Facts, and next week I'm working on an article about hagelslag.  I also have a Dutch licorice review-a-thon planned for the near future.

Last week at the Candy Critic offices, we did something that we have to do about 3 times a year, clean out our candy stash.  Somehow candy accumulates around here, I'm not really sure how since we do eat a lot.  When candy accumulates beyond what we can possibly eat, we have to clean out our stash to make room for all the new treats coming in.  The stuff we clean out goes two places, most of it goes to locals and friends, while a small amount gets chucked.  We also take this time to go through the candies we still have to review, and decide when we plan to review them.  It's not a complicated affair, and it can be really fun to see some of the candies we'd forgotten.

As we said above, inspired by our visit to the Netherlands, and in particular by their crazy licorice, Snack Facts is going to be all about the most polarizing candy in the world, licorice.  Some people love the stuff, others hate it, this week though you're going to learn a little bit about it. Follow us on Instagram to learn some fun facts every week day.  If you don't use Instagram, you can also follow Snack Facts on our Facebook page and our Twitter feed.

This week's new review is making things right from last week.  Last week's review was for the Kinder Bueno "Dark", not realizing that we hadn't actually posted a review for the regular Kinder Bueno.  So this week we found a Bueno and now all is right in the Candy Critic universe. Click here to find out how the Bueno fairs compared to it's dark cousin.

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Candy In The Media

It's been a while since I've seen the movie Bloodsport, I think I'll have to pop it in the VCR again.  I meant to say VCR, because I'm pretty sure a VHS tape was the last format that I ever watched Bloodsport.  I love the way that this YouTuber turned a deadly chase scene into a fun filled Mentos advertisement.  It makes me wonder, can you remix Mentos advertisements into deadly chase scenes?

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Dutch?.. Netherlands?.. Holland Adventures, The Candy Critic's Travel Guide

Of the three (and a half) countries we've visited on this trip, the Netherlands is the only one we've never visited before.  Because of this, the only impressions we had about this place was what we'd read, and any stereo types we knew.  Fortunately for us, the stereo types are pretty close to correct, and fortunately for the Netherlands these stereo types are all pretty positive.

Food wise the Netherlands is well known as a place where crafted and fresh made food is very important.  It's not that everything is ultra healthy, it's that the food is well thought out, and comes from the heart.  Specifically, Dutch food has some pretty great additions to the world menu.  Probably the most famous of these foods are licorice, cheese, and pancakes.  That's not to say that this is all that's on offer, but these are some of the best, and most famous contributions.

Probably the most dominant food on the Dutch landscape is cheese.  This could also be because we stopped in both Gouda and Edam.  Having said that, just about every village, town and city in the entire country has several cheese shops.  These shops offer area local cheese, or cheese from the more famous areas of the country.  They also offer many ways to eat cheese, including various cheese specific mustards and chutneys.  This was the first time I'd ever thought about dipping my cheese in a dip before, and after visiting a few of these shops I became addicted to the cheese and Dijon mustard combination.

A close second, when it comes to Dutch treats, is licorice.  Any candy store, or even grocery store in the country has many licorices to choose from.  They go from super strong licorices, to really super strong licorices, there's no room for weak licorice in this country.  Not being a huge licorice fan, I had trouble coming to terms with this, however I dug in a little, and I learnt something, I'm still weak when it comes to strong licorice.  Being the Candy Critic, I'm not going to give up that easily though.  I went to a local candy shop and picked up a huge bag of various varieties.  I'm going to eat this bag until I'm used to it, or my taste buds die trying.

Pancakes are another Dutch treat that are available in many different formats.  You can eat them for any meal, or even just a snack.  They come plain, with syrup, or filled with all kinds of savory ingredients.  While I'm pretty sure the Dutch didn't invent the pancake, they've certainly made it a big part of their diet.

If you want to talk about Dutch treats that haven't really crossed over to the mainstream, there are two things you have to try, stroopwafels and hagelslag.  Stroopwafels are actually fairly common in many stores all over the world, but I'm not sure how many people know that they're Dutch.  They consist of two thin waffle cookies with a thick syrup in between.  I've had stroopwafels in a few countries, but in the Netherlands they take them very seriously.

Hagelslag is another Dutch tradition that's spread around a little bit (mostly just surrounding countries), but I think could take the world by storm.  At first glance, one would say that hagelslag is basically chocolate sprinkles on buttered bread (or toast). The thing that makes these different however is the quality of the sprinkles.  Unlike most sprinkles you find in North America, hagelslag sprinkles are much more chocolaty.  In fact they will even on occasion substitute the sprinkles for curls of pure milk or dark chocolate.  The variety and quality of the hagelslag is really the key, and as the photo shows above, grocery stores have full sections dedicated to this very Dutch treat.

The final stop on our Dutch journey was in the big city of Amsterdam.  This city is very different than the other towns and cities of the Netherlands.  While there are lots of great places to see in the city, there's no getting around the fact that marijuana and sex are a big part of this place.  Even the candy reflects this liberal attitude.  Sexy candy was available all over the Red Light District, and all of the local stores offered hemp and marijuana themed and flavoured treats as well.

The coolest candy thing that I saw on this trip? It had to be this very retro candy machine in the hallway of my hotel in Amsterdam. The candy was average, but the machine was awesome.

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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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This Week In Candy

The road to recovery was long, but I'm back, and it appears that I'm almost %100 healthy.  That means this week we'll have a little catching up to do.

Myself, I'm getting back into the writing grove, I'm writing a few travel articles, as well as working on my latest book.  I'm also thinking about finding a way to make finding some of the candies we review a little easier for you.  I was recently inspired to try a link up with a few brick and mortar candy stores to help you guys (candycritic.org readers) find some of the treats you read about at candy stores near you.  The first thing I need to do is find a couple of candy stores that would be willing to try out this experiment.

Last week we should have posted the last installment about our latest European adventure.  Since we missed last week, we're posting it this week instead.  This week's post is about the last stop on our trip, the Netherlands.  Check back on Thursday for a look at what we saw in the land of cheese, licorice, and canals.

This week Snack Facts is also back to normal, with posts on something other than crackers.  Although, I was pretty amazed that crackers had such an interesting history.  Since the weather is getting warmer, we thought we'd look at the perfect cool down treat, ice cream.  Every day this week, on our Instagram feed,  we'll be posting a new fun fact about this cool creamy treat.  If you don't have Instagram, don't worry, you can follow Snack Facts on our Twitter feed and our Facebook page as well.

This week's review is a bit of a mistake.  It appears that I've written a review about a limited edition variations of a treat, without actually writing a review of the original treat.  I've decided that to remedy this error, next week I'll review the regular Kinder Bueno, just so things balance out.  However, you can read this week's Kinder Bueno Dark review right here right now.

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Candy In The Media

This week I've had a bit of a conundrum.  Two videos have peeked my interest, both very different, but both fun and junk food related.  The first one is pretty much what you might expect from the internet, it's a cat, more importantly it's a cat eating ice cream and then getting brain freeze.



The second video is the triumphant return of Colonel Sanders.  Apparently the folks at KFC want to re-live their great history with a new Colonel.  This wouldn't be so creepy except for the fact that Colonel Sanders was a real man.

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A Breaking Bad Candy Thing

I was listening to a podcast a while back and they were talking about movie props.  One of the people on the podcast mentioned that the props from Breaking Bad were in fact often made of candy.  For those unfamiliar with the show, the main "prop" of the show is crystal meth.  I thought it would be interesting to see if anybody has taken the logical step and turned this "prop" into a candy business.  As it turns out there are a few people making official, and I'm sure unofficial Breaking Bad blue crystal candies.

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This Week In Candy... Sort of.

Well my weekend didn't go as planned.  It appears that as a gift for the Victoria Day holiday this year I got food poisoning. And not just a sore tummy,  full on everything doesn't want to stay in my body food poisoning. So that's why everything is a little late this week.  Just because I'm writing this, don't let that send you the wrong message. I'm still extremely sick, over the last few days I've eaten a grand total of 12 crackers, a bowl of yogurt, and 2 bananas. I've decided to take on the "BRAT" school of dietary recovery and so for the next little while it'll be bananas, rice, apple sauce, and toast (although I may go for crackers instead of toast).

So this week is going to be a week of recovery and rest. But fortunately for you we'll still have a few posts that I've previously written going online later this week.  I won't be posting a new review, mostly because I don't want to associate any candy with this very bad week, food wise.

Snack Facts, our Instagram feed will also continue as usual, and this week's theme will be on crackers. Why's that?  Well they're the only food that I can eat regularly right now, so I don't want to push it.  Check our Instagram feed everyday this week (except Monday because I really couldn't do it on Monday) for a fun filled fact about the food that's probably keeping me alive right now.  If you don't have Instagram you can also follow Snack Facts on our Facebook page and our Twitter feed as well.

Now I'm going to go to bed.

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Candy In The Media

On my way home from Europe, I had a stop in Dubai.  While in Dubai I stopped at a candy store, it was a massive candy store with treats from all over the world.  I'm pretty sure I'll be writing about this store in the future.  While at this candy store I was offered a foreign (at least to the local Emirates) treat, an Almond Joy.  They gave me a piece and then went on to explain the bar to me, like I'd never heard of it before.  After describing the Almond Joy, the girl then went on to describe the Mounds Bar to me, just in case I didn't want the almond.  The conversation then went as follows:

Girl in store:  The Almond Joy has an almond in it, and the Mounds Bar does not.

Me: Cause sometimes you feel like a nut, and sometimes you don't.

Girl in store: *Blank stare*

Me: *Walk away awkwardly*

This just proves that some cultural references don't cross all borders.

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British Adventures, The Candy Critic's Travel Guide

Last week I posted the first entry in our three part series about a recent trip to Europe.  Part one was all about the French leg of our journey, full of pastries, crepes, and Disney stuff.  Today I'm going to write about the British leg of our journey.  Most of this journey took place in England, however we did spend one day in Wales, that provided us with an interesting sweet surprise.

This was by no means our first trip to the UK, in fact the UK tends to be a regular stop for us whenever we travel in Europe.  It might just be a stop over with a day or two in London, or it could be a grand adventure through the British countryside.  This particular trip was more about the grand road trip, and we managed to stop in a few places both in the north and in the south west.

The thing that always appeals to me when I travel to the UK is the fact that the treats are fairly recognizable.  Some British sweets and foods are very common in Canada, so when I travel to the UK it gives us a little taste of home.  Treats that aren't available in Canada are still fairly comfortable to our palettes.  I'm rarely shocked by any British foods, but instead I'm filled with a certain feeling of comfort.  The other great thing about the British palette is their love of sweets and pub food, two of my favorite things.

This trip started out at a friend of ours' wedding.  The great thing about this friend (and his family), is they have the traditional British love of sweets.  The dessert table at this wedding was filled with all kinds of amazing treats, many of them were even homemade.  I could go one for hours about how much I loved this food, but that's not really fair to you since many of treats aren't available to you unless you're friendly with a local British family.  I'll tell you this much, the meringues were fantastic.

The second part of our British experience was all about driving around exploring the countryside.  Food wise the two themes seemed to be cheese and Scones with clotted cream.  In some cases we were lucky enough to experience both at the same time.  One of our great stops was in the beautiful city of Cheddar.  There I learned that real cheddar is not about being orange, but instead it's about being aged in the caves of the Cheddar Gorge.  It's not only a beautiful place naturally, but there are plenty of places in the area to have a cheese sandwich (made with real cheddar) and some scones with clotted cream.

Our obsession with clotted cream comes from a past experience we had in Scotland where we sampled the best scones with clotted cream we've ever had in our entire lives.  It came from a fairly unlikely place, a cafeteria on the shores of Loch Ness.  Since then, every time we go out in the UK countryside, we always get a craving for scones with clotted cream.  This was no different, and I'm sure we managed to fill our cravings at least 6 or 7 times on this journey.

While Cheddar is a great all around place to enjoy some British food in a beautiful setting, on our second day we visited a large ice cream shop in a town with a really strange name, Mumbles, in Wales.  The place has a very simple name "Joe's", but it serves up what might be the best vanilla ice cream I've ever had in my entire life.  If you're not convinced by one Candy Critic's opinion, just check out the Tripadvisor page for this ice cream place.  You can ask just about anybody in the town what to visit, and before they suggest the seaside, or the castle, they'll ask if you've had ice cream at Joe's yet.

If you go, I recommend getting the plain vanilla, if you want you can ad some sprinkles or nuts, but don't go for the flavours.  It's not that the flavours are bad that I know of, it's just the vanilla is so good.  It's smooth, creamy, and has a beautiful texture.  This was one of the best food finds of this trip, and I can't recommend it any more.  After eating Cheddar in Cheddar, and with a belly filled with Joe's ice cream, we headed to London.  London is always a great place for anybody with a sweet tooth, however it's not really perfect.

I've noticed a trend in London of these places selling import candy, most of which is American, Canadian, and Australian.  While I love the fact that they're exposing candies from around the world to the folks in the UK, I do have a beef with their prices and policies.  The shop above in particular is a prime example of this problem.  When I went into this shop I found that the only person to even look my direction was the large security guard.  Most of the staff was either wondering or too busy to talk to anybody.  The prices were extremely high (I can kind of accept that because of shipping costs), but they had many policies about buying a minimal number of each candy.  When I travel I like to sample small amounts of each candy, but this place refused to sell me a candy that I was interested in and told me I had to buy a minimum of 4.  I don't mind big candy stores, and I accept the price increase because of the imports, but I don't accept stupid policies, and I hate it when I find local candies in these stores at jacked up prices (to get the tourists).  Worst of all, the woman I spoke to (who I assume was the manager or owner) was very rude to me, and wore a constant scowl.  There, rant over.

So I don't end this post on a bad note, I wanted to share with you guys something I noticed on one of the Tube trains in London.  It appears that the chair cover design, may have been inspired by one of the UKs more famous candies, Licorice Allsorts. You be the judge.

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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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This Week In Candy

Welcome to another week of candy good times here at Candy Critic.  This week around the Candy Critic office we're going to be writing.  As you may or may not know I'm working on a book about the history of chocolate.  It's been a long time in the research, but I'm finally starting to piece things together and the writing is going to be flowing like crazy this week... I hope.  If you have any fun tidbits of information that interest you on the history of chocolate, please share, as any information or encouragement helps.

On the blog later this week we're going to have our second in a series of posts about our recent trip through Europe.  This week we're going to look at our stops in the UK... Or is it Britain?  Well it was England and Wales, so it might be both.  We had a really great time touring around and sampled some pretty awesome foods along the way.

This week on our Instagram feed Snack Facts we're going to look at a classic American treat, the Charleston Chew.  In the past we've compared the best temperature to eat your Charleston Chew, and now we'll look at a few other fun facts about this great American snack.  Make sure to follow us on Instagram to have our fun Snack Facts delivered to you every day.  If you don't have Instagram, you can also follow Snack Facts on our Twitter feed and our Facebook page as well.

Our new review this week is a twist on one of our favourite chocolate bars, the Chunky Kit Kat.  These "twists" can sometimes be great, but they can also be failures as well.  This week I feel as though it's more of a fail than a win.  But we have to give them credit, they just keep trying don't they.  Click here to read about the latest Kit Kat we've tasted.

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Candy In the Media

This very popular video has inspired me.  I think I might try something similar, only instead of feeding strange candies to others, I'm going to eat them myself.  I had this concept a few years back, but seeing how simple it can be shot, though this video, I think I might try to start it up again.  Stay tuned.

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French Adventures, The Candy Critic's Travel Guide

On our recent trip to Europe, we stopped in three and half countries, France, England (and Wales for a day), and the Netherlands.  Today we're going to look at the French leg of our journey, and what kind of fun snacks, junk food, and treats we sampled.  This was my third or fourth visit to France (Allison has been here at least a dozen times), and we've traveled all around the country in the past, but mostly in the North.  On this trip we stuck around the Paris area,  and the only thing we did outside of Paris was a stop in Versailles, and a few days in Paris Disney.

And what better way to start this look at Paris than our time in Paris Disney.  For the most part Paris Disney has a pretty bad reputation when it comes to their food.  Unfortunately for some part I have to agree with this, but it wasn't all bad.  Since we were visiting France not from North America but from Asia, we were craving some good old fashion North American food. This really worked in our favour as almost all of the food available at Disney Paris is North American(ish).  Many travelers visiting Disney from North America seem to be disappointed by the fact that most of the food at Disney Paris is North American, and not French.  I think there's good reason for Disney to shy away from french food, because Paris Disney is a huge tourist attraction for Europeans, and Europeans don't want European food, they want something exotic (in this case North American food).

While many of the North American food choices were pretty good to us, we did have a problem with a few places and the quality of food that was delivered.  Our worst experience was at The Steak House at the Disney Village area.  It was a pretty low quality steak, the service was pretty terrible as well, and it wasn't cheap.  We did however find another place in the Disney Village that turned out to be our favorite place in all of Disney Paris, an all you can eat Tex-Mex place on the top floor of Billy Bobs Country Western Saloon.  While the Tex-Mex wasn't authentic, it was the first time I've ever been to a Tex-Mex buffet, and I think it's a great idea.  The buffet also offered some very European options, including the treats pictured above, I'm not sure what a "Paris Brest" is, but it certainly wasn't what I thought.

Disney Paris also had many carnival and theme park standards including this awesome hot dog with cheese and deep fried onions.  It wasn't the highest quality hot dog ever, but it hit the spot and certainly reminded us of classic carnival food. The candy selection was probably the biggest disappointment of all at Paris Disney.  They have such a huge opportunity to sell themed, fun candy, but all I really found was Haribo and other standard candies packaged with Disney characters on the label. I don't even think I saw one gummy version of any Disney character.  There were a few lollipops shaped like Mickey, but that's about it. While the food at Disney certainly wasn't the highlight of our Paris trip, it wasn't as bad as the internet claims.  We also got to meet Goofy, so that was pretty awesome too.

The city of Paris itself is dotted with all kinds of restaurants and a few street food options.  The price of restaurant seems to depend greatly on how close you are to a tourist attraction.  This is made even more difficult since tourist attractions seem to be all over the place (in other words everything is expensive).  You can take advantage of the fact that Paris is having a huge number of people migrating from other countries for your food options. While this does create a population problem, it also creates a huge range cuisine options.  In some cases you'll find places run by African or Asian immigrants that are just out of this world.  Don't think that just because you're in France, you have to eat French.

One of our regular foods we eat every time we visit Paris is a crepe.  In my opinion this is one of the only foods that the French still hold as their own.  We managed to enjoy both dessert and savory crepes several times on this trip.  I recommend going to a sit down crepe place for a lunch, we tried a place called Crêperies Framboise near the Louvre and it was perfect.  Sit down and order a crepe filled with all kinds of savory delights including their awesome creamed spinach.  Then, walk around a while, and find a crepe stand selling sweet crepes.  You'll find some of the best near the Tuileries gardens.  A safe and tasty order is a crepe with Nutella, or you could go a little more traditional and get marron cream instead.

After a few days in Paris, we decided to make a quick stop in Versailles for a day.  Versailles is probably one of the most beautiful park areas anywhere around Paris.  The food is pretty standard (sandwiches, and simple French foods), and very expensive.  Although the price may be high, I really think this is a great place to have a meal.  If the day is nice I'd recommend any of the many outdoor cafes around the garden.  Pick up a sandwich and sit where royalty once sat to eat their lunch.  Inside the main palace there's a cute little sandwich counter with limited seating.  While it's not the most glamorous of places, it does give you the opportunity to eat cake in Versailles, and that's just so perfect.

Paris is often considered to be one of the food Meccas of the world, but I have a big problem with that statement.  The problem I think stems from the fact that places all over the world have taken French cuisine and made it their own.  In many cases these places have even improved on it.  While there are many nice snack and pastries to enjoy, I'm rarely blown away with the innovation coming out of Paris today.  The classics are always there, but in many cases I've tried better version in other parts of the world.  The best Mont Blanch I've ever had was in Japan, I've had some amazing Macarons in Greece, and Allison claims that the best croissant she's ever eaten was in Vietnam.

While visiting Paris you are certainly seeing where many of the most famous chefs and foods were created, however I've not really seen much advancement recently.  The food created here is some of the most famous in the world, and it's all fine and good, however other countries are starting to perfect the French classics as well.  I'm not saying that this isn't a great place to eat at all, I'm just wondering if Paris is due for a renaissance in food.  I'm hoping that this influx of migrants coming into Paris might be the key to this great new era of French cooking.  This city could turn into one of the best places to sample foods from all over the globe.

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A Donut or Doughnut Candy Thing

Simple Donut Tees by candycritic
Browse Donut T-Shirts

I've discovered a design flaw in this designy donut shirt from our awesome line of candy themed t-shirts.  The problem is that it's white.  While many donuts are safe to eat in white shirts, there are plenty that are very drippy and gooey, and would stain the heck out of this shirt.  I think for a future design I'm going to make a shirt specifically designed for people that want to eat donuts.  It'll eliminated any embarrassment that might come up after eating a chocolate cream filled donut.

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This Week In Candy

Now that things are unpacked, and our world is organized, it's time to get back to our regular work.  Over the next three weeks we're going to look at the snacking and junk food fun we had in the three (and a half) countries we visited on our latest trip to Europe.  We'll call them "travel tips for the candy fan", and we're checking out some great places worth visiting in this great continent.  We'll start this week with a look at France (including a stop at Disney Paris), a place that's known for being a mecca for all foodies, candy and junk food fans are not forgotten.  Next week we'll look at British/Welsh treats, and finally in two weeks we'll look at Dutch treats.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're going to look at one of the most famous desserts to come out of Turkey, Turkish Delight.  When I was a kid Turkish Delight was something that you really had to travel to taste, but today it's available all over the world.  It's a treat that has many flavours, textures, and a great history.  So tune into our Instagram feed and learn a little something about this soft chewy treat.  If you don't use Instagram, you can also check out our Snack Facts on our Twitter feed and our Facebook page as well.

If you want to keep up with all the candy news and trends, make sure to follow our Facebook or Twitter feeds.  We post the latest news as it happens about junk food, candy, sweets, baking, or anything else that catches our interest.  You'll also get to see some behind the scenes stuff that goes on at Candy Critic.

All of this traveling and sampling of foreign treats has made me a little homesick.  So this week's new review is a treat from my "home and native land", Canada.  Unfortunately this treat didn't really do very well in the review, but I'm still happy to have a bite of home now and then.  Click here to read this Canadian review.

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Candy In The Media

In this, our last post about how sex is used to sell candy, I thought I'd go with the most blatant use of sex to sell candy I could find.  I would even go so far as to say that this commercial is probably selling sex more than it's candy.  You're pretty much in the last 10 seconds of this commercial until you realize they're even selling a Snickers bar. I guess the Snickers folks felt that those wanting a bikini car wash would also enjoy a chocolate bar filled with nuts, nougat and caramel.  Having said that, I'm pretty sure just about anybody would enjoy a bar filled with nuts, nougat and caramel, so I guess this works.

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