Not Every Letter Is Equal

Ursula the Urchin T-Shirt
by candycritic

 Writing some of these beasts is a little more challenging than others.

Check out the whole line of Treats and Beasts merchandise as well as the cool book you can buy.

CC

Raw Dangerous Cookie Dough

I have a question for you, has raw cookie dough always been dangerous? I ask because I've been eating cookie dough for a long time. In fact I can't remember the first time I've ever tried it, and I can safely tell you that I don't think a year of my life has gone by without eating cookie dough. It just seems like in the last few years people have had to make special cookie dough for me to eat. When I was a kid, I would just eat the stuff right out of the bowl, or tube as the case may be. I never thought about raw eggs being dangerous, I guess I figured mixing it in a bowl made it safe?

Check out my fun review featuring very safe cookie dough.

You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook too.

While you're looking for something sweet to do, why not pick up my book called Treats and Beasts?

CC

Buying Snacks Can Be a Challenge

 I feel like the world needs more inconvenience stores.

CC

Is Today The Day?

 Is today the day I get to eat something so strange that my mind shuts down and I just curl up in a ball and weep? Or is today the day I'm disappointed by the fact that my mind is still awake and I have not curled up into a ball?

Check out all my videos on my YouTube channel.

Also make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

While you're at it, pick up my new book called Treats and Beasts.

CC

This Totally Tortoise T-Shirt Is Terrific

Tanya the Tortoise T-Shirt
by candycritic

 I feel like watching a tortoise eat taffy would be very time consuming.

Check out all my other fun merch and even the book.

CC

Mac Tonight?.. With Cheese?

 

There's a lot of attention on social media to rail against "stunt food". I would argue that the originator of stunt food has to be the candy industry. It's been decades that this part of the food industry has dared it's customers to go for really silly food combinations and flavours. Strangely this is also the area where I see very few social media posts railing against it. For the most part it seems that people are okay with weird and over the top candy creations, but when it comes to regular food, and even desserts there seems to be a problem. This makes me very happy because I would have nothing to write about on this site if candy companies didn't try new things, and I for one even enjoy the crazy projects that go horribly wrong.

Check out a fairly strange candy concept, and see if it went the way you thought it would.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to keep up with all the other weird treats I come across.

While you're at it, check out my Patreon page for even more weird content.

CC

Terrifying Japanese Candy Commercial

An odd casting choice was made when making this commercial.

If you like twisted gummy treats, check out these twisted gummy bear t-shirts.

SSSSSSlip Into This T-SSSShhhirt

Stew the Snake T-Shirt
by candycritic

 I'm not sure that snakes like salted anything to be honest.

Check out all my other fun Treats and Beasts merchandise in my store.

CC

Take A Chunk Out

I'm very biased about the shape of candy bars. I've realized that if a candy bar does not fit the common size of candy bar on the store shelf, I'm less likely to buy that bar. There are a few exceptions, but most of the time it has something to do with where I'm buying that chocolate bar. If I'm at a candy specialty shop I tend not to think too much shape of my candy, but if I'm at a pharmacy or grocery store I feel like buying odd shaped candy is weird. Am I the only person that thinks this way? When was the last time you bought an odd shaped candy bar?

Read my latest review and find out why you should pick up an odd shaped bar.

If you want more oddities, follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Pick up my latest book right now, it's called Treats and Beasts.

CC

That's One Expensive Chocolate

 I'm not sure I'd even want to eat it after I paid for it.

If you like chocolate, maybe you'll like this cool chocolate themed t-shirt too.

Making Treats and Beasts - A Few Problems

In past entries in this blog I've mentioned that there were a few problems making this book. The one that people ask me first and foremost every time I tell them about the concept for this book is "how did you mange with the letter X". I won't lie, for the animal in this case I had to do some research. This was probably the only animal in the book that I can't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it exists. The candy however was actually fairly easy, in fact that reason I felt comfortable using candy in this book was because I knew I had a candy for the letter x.

The next problem came about when I started thinking about making this project into a book, or selling it in any way. I realized that I couldn't use brand names for candy without either paying out companies or risking breaking some kind of copyright. Once I started working on these drawings I started to have to update a few pieces in order to make sure the beast was enjoying a generic treat. I actually enjoyed this challenge. I did use some research material for finding generic candies, but thankfully it was almost entirely my own website candycritic.org. I also decided that it would be okay to use the names of candies from outside North America.

I would be lying if I told you that turning these drawings into a book was not filled with some other frustrations. I had to double check spelling and grammar at least a dozen times. I also had to figure out how to format my drawings to they could be printed into a book. I've worked on books and comic books in the past, but frankly someone else almost always did the pre-press work for me. I learned a lot and it actually left me confident enough that I made a second book quickly after (the complete Snack Facts).

I hope you enjoyed my tales of putting together Treats and Beasts. As always, if you want to pick up your own copy, check it out right now on Amazon.

CC

You'll Really Run Rampant With This New R T-Shirt

Rachel the Raccoon T-Shirt
by candycritic

Of all the treat and beast combinations I've done for this series, I feel like there's a possibility that some day I'll see a raccoon eating rhubarb custards in real life.

Check out all of the Treats and Beasts merchandise right here.

CC

The Right Ingredients, But Not

I sometimes feel like the research and development departments of some candy companies don't really understand what makes candy great. I feel like sometimes (this new review is a prime example), these companies "know" what works in a candy bar, but they don't understand why. It's too often that I try a treat that should work on paper, but the design of the bar or the quality of ingredients just makes it a complete failure. With this treat I had my hopes up, but they were dashed on the first bite.

Check out this disappointing review and find out why it failed.

Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too since we have a bonus review going up later this week.

If you've just eaten one of these bars, and you need something to cheer you up, pick up a copy of my book called Treats and Beasts.

CC

What to do if You Chew a Lot of Gum

 I feel like this is the kind of thing I would think of doing when I was a kid, but I'd give up at around the 5th or 6th wrapper.

If you like candy art, check out my book called Treats and Beasts.

CC

Making Treats and Beasts - The Cover

The other piece of art and design I had to think about when I decided to make this a book was the cover. While working on the animal drawings I had zero thought about if this was going to be a book, and less about details like covers. When I started working on colouring the drawings I realized that this book is probably going to need a cover. I'll admit that my first thought was just to collage a few of the drawings together and see if that worked out.

Then I was doodling in a my sketchbook and I decided to start with a circle. I thought that maybe I could make a circle (which is a common shape themed in this book) and randomly scatter a few drawings around it. I thought maybe the drawings could be held up using trees. Then I started thinking about decorating those trees with candy. Finally I thought that maybe instead of just reusing a few of the animal drawings, I could put some nice text in the trees.

Next thing I knew I had a rough concept for the cover. I used some pencil crayons to see how it might work in colour. I made a few mistakes on my rough attempt, but I feel like the overall concept worked. Now that I knew I was going this direction, I knew I had to ink it up and get it under the camera to shoot.

It took a few attempts to ink it up. I'm actually not very confident with my inking, particularly when it comes to letters. I feel like this worked pretty well, and the next phase was to colour it up. Fortunately that wasn't too hard as I already had a rough drawing in colour to reference. I probably should have done that with all the animal drawings, but live and learn.

Next, some of the challenges I had with this book.

If you want to have your own copy of Treats and Beasts, be sure to pick up a copy on Amazon right now.

CC

Junk Fud Drive Around Two Lakes

 In this episode Chris and Allison talk about a drive around two of the great lakes.

Check out all the episode of Junk Fud on the Road right here.

Also be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Don't forget to pick up our amazing new book called Treats and Beasts too.

CC

Quick, Get This Q T-Shirt!

Quinn the Quail T-Shirt
by candycritic

 If you've never had quints candy, I highly recommend it.

Check out all the other fun t-shirts and posters in my Zazzle store.

CC

A Lesson About Heat

 

Throughout my candy and snack eating life, I've tried to expand my horizons. There are two way I feel that people can expand their food horizons. One is to try new foods that they would have never tried before. A great example for me is spiders. I decided to try eating spiders because other people eat them, and it turns out I kind of like them. The second way to expand your horizons is to take a food you don't really like, and try it in different ways over and over again, to see if you can gain a taste for it. That's exactly how I feel about spicy food. Ten years ago I couldn't handle any kind of spice at all, today I'm getting much better and starting to figure out what people love about spicy foods. This new review would have been very different tens years ago, maybe an episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!

Check out this spicy review and marvel at the fact that I didn't cry.

Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see me eat things that occasionally make me cry.

If you want me to be happy, pick up my newest book, Treats and Beasts, it will not make you cry at all.

CC

An Interesting Opinion of Classic Candy Treats

 I do often watch other people review candy, but I've never been so interested in someone else's opinion on the subject than I was watching this video.

Don't forget to check out some of my cool candy merch.

CC

Making Treats and Beasts - The Inks Turn Into A Book

As I mentioned before, I really had no direct plan to turn this collection of drawings into a book. In fact I wasn't even sure that I would finish all of the drawings. I figured I might loose interest at some point and just move onto something else. The thing is, I didn't. I really wanted to try and finish each and every drawing in the collection, and near the last few drawings I realized that I think it would make a really fun collection, maybe in a book format.

After deciding this, my next phase was to figure out how the book should look. I decided that I would use a few electronic fonts, however I wanted the letter that was showcased to be my own design. Since I had designed the animals and snacks using a rough circle template, I figured the letters should also fit into this template. I found lots of reference online and starting sketching out some font ideas. Eventually I had each letter drawn and inked.

The other choice I made once I decided to make a book was that I wanted the illustrations to be in colour. I don't own a scanner and I didn't want to buy one for this project. I still wasn't convinced it would actually pan out. Since I am a photographer, I decided that I would photograph each drawing. This turned out to be fairly challenging, particularly getting the light just right. I built a setup and had to shoot each and every drawing on the same day. I wanted to make sure they all matched perfectly.

After that I brough everything into various Adobe editing tools and after a few drawings were done I had a system that worked fairly well. The good thing about taking the photos of the art was the fact that many of the sketchy lines and even the texture of the paper came through just a little bit. I feel it gave the art a really nice natural feeling.

The colouring was probably the hardest part of the process for me. I'm not a great expert on colours, and I found parts of this process to be very hard on the eyes. I do however feel that it worked out fairly well and I'm glad I went beyond black and white.

Next the cover idea.

Make sure to get your very own copy of Treats and Beast right now on Amazon.

CC

Kit Kat Done 5 Ways

In this experiment I taste a Kit Kat bar done 5 ways, room temperature, refrigerated, frozen, microwaved and baked. Find out which one tasted best, and which one changed entirely.

Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with all the behind the scenes stuff at Candy Critic.

Also be sure to check out my Patreon for even more fun content.

CC

This Is A Perfect T-Shirt... with Capital P

Pete the Penguin T-Shirt
by candycritic

 I wonder if the popcorn would get cold?

Check out all the other t-shirts and posters I've got up for sale in my Zazzle store.

CC

My Favourite Candy Of All Times... Only Not

The number 1 candy review of candycritic.org is a milk chocolate Kit Kat bar. The thing is, it's not this milk chocolate Kit Kat bar. When I first started to review candy, people would often ask me if I was worried about running out of candies to review. I never really thought that far in advance, but maybe a sign that I'm starting to run thin on candy ideas is the fact that I've reviewed at least 5 different version of the milk chocolate Kit Kat bar. I guess it would seem pointless, except for the fact that each one of the milk chocolate Kit Kat bars is actually fairly different.

Check out my latest milk chocolate Kit Kat bar review coming from the USA.

Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

If you really want to be extra nice, why not join me on Patreon for a bunch of bonus stuff.

Jaw Killer Is Killed

I feel like they're cheating a little, but I also love looking at a jaw breaker cut in half.

CC

Making Treats and Beasts - Rough, Design and Finished Inks

After finally coming up with a concept for an alphabet book, treats and beasts, I had to draw each and every creature and snack. I started each drawing with a very rough pencil sketch. I referenced the animals a great deal from photos online. I never traced anything, but I would have pages on a Google search open throughout most of the sketching process. I would fixate on a few particular images, but I tried to take bits and pieces from each.

Rather than have to erase all my rough pencil lines, I used animation paper and I would then trace out a cleaner version of my sketch onto another piece of paper. The animation paper would allow me to trace the other image easily since I had animation pegs to keep both drawings lined up. Next I would use a few inking tools, mostly sharpy pens and fine liners, and I would start inking my drawings.

I probably worked on the first two or three drawings at the same time when it came to inking. As I progressed I would add a new detail to one drawing and then go back to the others and add the same kind of detail. I love this stage of making art because it allows me to watch television and movies while working. Eventually I discovered the amount of detail I wanted to add without overworking the drawing.

This was probably the longest process of making this book. It was also the most Zen of them of them all. I could just sit and doodle away while watching television. I should also mention that at this point I had not actually decided that this was going to be an actual printed book. My thoughts were that I would just post these pictures online and share them with my friends.

The next phase is when that changed.

Pick up your own copy of the book Treats and Beasts right now on Amazon.

CC

It's Specifically Orange Taffy

Olga the Opossum T-Shirt
by candycritic

 We all have our favourite flavours of taffy, even opossums.

Check out all the shirts we have and some posters in our store.

CC

Is It Candy?

Every so often I come across a candy that tries to defy reality. It's not rare for candies to play pretend, gummy worms, cream eggs, and many other treats pretend to be other things. The thing is that many of these candies pretend to be other things in a cartoonish way. I don't think one would mistake the average gummy worm for a real worm (although there was one time where that might be different). This week's new review is a treat that pushes the envelope a little bit and tries very hard to too like it might actually be the real thing. I'm kind of glad that not every candy strives for this excellence, but I'm also happy that some candy companies do.

Check out this week's fairly realistic candy treat.

Don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

If you don't mind, consider picking up my new book called Treats and Beasts.

A Kinder To Remember

I don't think I'll ever forget this Kinder Egg commercial, it will haunt me till the day I die.

CC

Making Treats and Beasts - Early Sketches and Concept

 

I've always wanted to draw an alphabet book. I've thought about it for a while, but I've never been able to figure out a theme that would work for me. Monsters where always an early thought, but while I really enjoy the look of monsters, I don't really know much about monster history, or at least not enough to find a monster for each letter of the alphabet. That's the first big problem you get when you're coming up with an alphabet book, figuring out a character or idea for the most obscure letters of the alphabet.

Then one day I was sketching in my sketchbook and a thought crossed my mind, I drew a walrus eating wine gums. The idea suddenly crossed my mind, I love animals and I obviously love candy. While I do care for the wellbeing of animals, my main interest is learning about different kinds of animals, this is why the alphabet concept worked well for me in this case. Candy is also an obsession of mine, and once again it's about the variety of candy that I love.

So after sketching out the walrus eating wine gums, I started to sketch and write out animals and candy for each letter of the alphabet. Fairly quickly I had all the animals and treats sorted out. There were a few challenging letters to deal with, but not as many as I was expecting. The bigger problem I had was trying to find treats for each letter. I didn't want to use brand names in this book, so the challenge was to find non brand names for certain letters of the alphabet. Fortunately I've traveled a fair bit and had treats from many places around the world, so in some cases I used more obscure foreign treats to fill in some of the harder letters of the alphabet.

The next step was to design the book and start the rough drawings.

You can pick up your own copy of Treats and Beast right now on Amazon.

CC

I Love Narwals

Nancy the Narwhal T-Shirt
by candycritic

 I might even love narwals more than I love nougat.

Check out all the other cool Treats and Beasts designs in our store.

CC

Christmas In July? Nope.

You might think it's a little weird to post a review featuring sugar cookies in July. While I could go with the general idea that I wanted to celebrate Christmas in July, it's just not true. Around Christmas time last year I decided to try and plan out my reviews a little better, and at that time I had many treats to review for Christmas. I decided that I would look at one of those national day calendars and that's when I learned that July 9th is National Sugar Cookie Day. I thought it would be fun to save this review for this week, so you can not only remember Christmas, but also celebrate National Sugar Cookie Day.

Check out this sweet sugar cookie treat review.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

If you're thinking of giving someone a gift to celebrate National Sugar Cookie Day, maybe consider picking them up a copy of Treats and Beasts.

CC

Happy Canada Day!

 

May all your candy be red and white and maple flavoured!

CC

Canada Day Candy Commercial

 While Canada has had some amazing commercials for candy, I feel like for me, this is the ultimate piece of Canadian nostalgia. No kid my age could ever forget this song.

CC

My Favourite Videos So Far

I'm always making new videos, but these are my favourite so far. I'm hoping that these might some day become our most popular, but I figure my opinion is fairly biased.

Make sure to follow me on YouTube to see all my new videos.

You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with the fun.

For some extra fun, check out my Patreon.

CC

Munch Some Marshmallows

Marcus the Moose T-Shirt
by candycritic

 I feel like this is a very Canadian t-shirt.

Check out all my other Treats and Beasts merchandise.

CC

Bulk Candies In Supermarket Bulk Bins

One of my biggest fears as a Candy Critic are the strange bulk bins you find in grocery and foreign food stores. It's a fear that I often have to face, but every time I purchase a treat from one of these bulk bins I have little to no idea what I'm getting myself into. There are really three ways this kind of treat can go. It can be a great new discovery, something tasty and unique. It can be something horrible, so bad that I can't understand why people even sell such a treat. Finally it can be really, really boring, and this is actually the most common problem. With something great or something horrible there's plenty to write about, but with something boring, like an average fruity hard candy, I have a hard time filling up space when I write the review. Most of the time I end up filling the review full of explanations about how hard that particular review was to write.

Fortunately this treat was a a little more interesting than usual, not sure I loved it though.

Don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see some of the other treats I've recently discovered.

If you like reading about treats and snacks, make sure to pick up my comic called Snack Facts.

CC

Making Chocolate

Eater takes a look at how candy bars are being made, and it's fascinating.

CC

Love This Lizard T-Shirt

Lucy the Lizard T-Shirt
by candycritic

 I feel like this could actually happen.

Check out all the other Treats and Beasts t-shirts at our store.

CC

Gummy Art

This week's review features gummy creations that are some of the most beautiful and creative designs I've ever seen. It makes me wonder if anyone is making artisanal gummies. I've been to thousands of candy shops in my life, but I've never seen anyone making super high end gummies. You would figure that there would be a market for beautiful gummies that are so detailed and so fancy that they belong in a museum. The folks at Amos have come pretty close to making this high end gummy, but I feel like there's an artist out there that could change the world.

Check out my review of these very beautiful gummies.

Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as well.

If you want some nice art to look at that isn't gummy related, make sure to pick up my book called Treats and Beasts.

CC

Retro 3 Musketeers

 I'm just glad that my candy bar has never yelled at me.

CC

Mountain Dew Has Run Amuck

 I often wonder why I eat or drink things, but sometimes I also wonder why people even make certain treats. This Flamin' Hot Mountain Dew is a prime example.

If you want to see more silly candy related things, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

If you want to be really nice to me, pick up my new book called Treats and Beasts.

CC

Jump Around For Some Karinto

Kimberley the Kangaroo T-Shirt
by candycritic

 Some might not know what Karinto is, but I assure you kangaroos love them... I assume.

Check out all the Treats and Beast merch.

CC

Why Do Cups Work So Well

 

While writing this review a thought came across my mind, why does the cup work so well with peanut butter and chocolate? More importantly, why don't more companies make treats in a cup shape? I feel like a Snickers or Oh Henry cup would be pretty tasty and unique. You might even try to make some gummy cups? It's just really weird how one company makes almost all of the cup shaped treats, and it's almost always just peanut butter and chocolate.

Check out the latest cup treat by Reese's

Don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram too.

If you want even more snack fun in your life, pick up the brand new collection in the complete Snack Facts.

CC

Making Mochi

 I don't think I've ever seen someone make mochi on such a big scale.

CC

Jumping T-shirts!

Jennifer the Jackrabbit T-Shirt
by candycritic

While I love all of my designs for Treats and Beasts, I might just love this one a little more.

Maybe you'll love another one even more, check them all out here.

CC

Cookies and Pretzels

Sometimes I think pretzels could qualify as the perfect cookies. I feel like you can do just about anything to a pretzel that you can do to a cookie, in some cases even more. Dip a pretzel in icing, no problem. Cover a pretzel in peanut butter, yup. Cover a pretzel in chocolate, an excellent idea. The thing that makes pretzels unique is that you can also dip them in mustard and it works great too. Pretzels really are the ultimate cookie, and they're not even really cookies. This week's new candy review is proof that the pretzel needs to be reclassified.

Find out why the pretzel needs to a fresh designation.

Also make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

If you have a bit more time, check out my Patreon as well.

CC

I Would Lose

 I feel like the kids who win these candy challenges are beyond anything I could handle.

CC

Itty Bitty Inchworm

Ian the Inchworm T-Shirt
by candycritic

This cute little shirt celebrates how awesome inchworms and ice cream are.

Check out all my other Treats and Beasts merch.

CC

Weird Shapes Sometimes Mean Science

Whenever I see a really strange snack or candy that has a very peculiar shape that doesn't represent anything in particular, my first assumption is that science invented that snack. In some cases it could be an artistic decision, but even artists do a lot of research when it comes to designing things like snacks. These new Lay's Layers are the perfect example of a snack that's so weird, the only reason I figure they would make them is because someone did some kind of research to study the perfect shape for a crunchy snack. If this isn't true, I beg of those at Fritos-Lay's, please explain this weird shaped snack to me.

Check out the full review of this very strange salty snack.

You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter if you want a photo of how weird this snack is.

If you like weird things, check out my fun book called Treats and Beasts.

Me Want Cookie!

The first version of Cookie Monster was truly disturbing.

CC

Time For More Travels, This Time The Ukraine

In this episode of Junk Fud on the Road, Allison talks about her solo trip to the Ukraine. She was only there for a few days, but she did get to try the world famous salo. (Note - This episode was recorded before the current situation in Ukraine)

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

You can listen to every single past episode of Junk Fud on the Road as well.

CC

I Hope You Don't Hate Honeycomb

Harriet the Hyena T-Shirt
by candycritic

 The perfect shirt if you love the letter h, or honeycomb... or hyenas.

Check out the full Treats and Beasts line of merch.

CC

A Purple Package With a Fun Story

 

While posting this review I learned something really interesting about this candy. Apparently the name of this candy can be directly translated into the words "African violet". My Ukrainian isn't that great, but I'm going to assume that this is no accident. If you look at the package you can clearly see that there is some visual similarities. I'm not sure if I can give a candy a better review because of this, but I really think it's neat, and worth mentioning here at least.

Check out the full review right now.

Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

While you're at it, check out the brand new full sized, collected version of Snack Facts, my comic about snacks and treats.

CC

Kitty Cat Ice Cream?

I'm not sure why they made a connection with these amazing looking cat toys and ice cream, but I don't always understand marketing.

CC

It's Time To Eat Gum, And Regret It Almost Instantly

In this episode of Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!!, I eat a piece of Dubble Bubble that's more than 20 years old. I don't really know why I have such an old piece of gum, but I should mention that I have more, if you're interested in having a piece for yourself.

If you're interested in a piece of really old gum, make a case for yourself on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

If you follow me on Patreon your chances will drastically improve.

CC

Gobble Up This Goose T-shirt

Godfrey the Goose T-Shirt
by candycritic

Tell the world how much you love geese and gum!

Check out all the other Treats and Beast merch.

CC

The Package Matters

Whenever I review a candy, I never know if I should talk about the package. I do post a photo of the package with each review, but I wonder if I should talk about the way the package influences me. The honest truth is that package design has a great deal of influence on the candy I buy. More often than not I buy candy that I don't know anything about. At this point there are very few candies that I know about that I haven't tried. So when I'm faced with a wall of candy, the package is often the only thing I have to judge. This is even more true if I'm in a country where I can't read the language or the description of the candy in the package. This basically means that if you're showing a picture of a cow on your candy package, there better be something creamy inside... or maybe beefy?

Check out this cow themed candy review.

While you're at it, make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see what other cool candy packages I come across.

Don't forget to pick up my latest book as well, it's called Treats and Beasts.

CC

Japanese Candy Movie

This movie is an interesting look at the candy industry in Japan, maybe not today, but I'm sure it's still pretty competitive.

CC

A Foxy T-Shirt

Ferdinand the Fox T-Shirt
by candycritic

This is perfect for anyone who loves the letter F.

CC

A Thick Cookie

The search is over for me. I've actually been looking for these cookies for several months without any indication that they actually existed. My main search took place in Canada, since that's where I live, and right now I'm convinced they've never been sold here. I figure there's some kind of health and safety guideline that does not allow for that much icing on a cookie. I've also previously searched in upstate New York with no luck. I had to explore a bizarre chain of truck stops in the mid western United States to find the Oreo cookie that feel too thick to be real. Strangely however, I didn't mind it that much and even found a little bit of balance.

Check out my full super thick Oreo review right now.

You can see some of the other fun things I found on a recent trip to the USA by following me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

If you're looking for something to educate and entertain, why not check out my new book called Treats and Beasts.

CC

When You Love Nachos...

... And you happen to be in a punk band.

CC

Elephants Are Awesome

Eddie the Elephant T-Shirt
by candycritic

I like them particularly when they're eating Easter Eggs.

Check out the full line of Treats and Beasts stuff on my zazzle store.

CC

Is Xylitol Perfect?

I'm often very pessimistic about sugar substitutes. I find that they often fit into one of two categories, they either have some kind of awful aftertaste, or they turn out to be really bad for you. Xylitol is one of the newer sweet substitutes out there and so far it seems like in certain uses it really works, taste wise. The thing I hope never happens is that we find out that it's actually not very good for you.

Check out this interesting Xylitol based gum that I reviewed.

Make sure to check out Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as I just got back from an adventure and found some interesting treats.

You can also check out my new book called Treats and Beasts, pick up a copy for yourself or someone you know who love sweet treats.