Nocilla Spread From Spain - Is It Better Than Nutella Part 2

 

This particular chocolate spread has lead me to a conclusion about chocolate spreads. Some people argue that Nutella is full of sugar, fillers, and generally non-healthy things. The argument is that it's basically icing being sold as a breakfast spread. While I don't disagree that one should probably limit the amount of any chocolate spread one eats particularly in the mornings, I'm starting to think that certain ingredients are key to make a great chocolate spread. I say this arguing that Nocilla is a fine spread, but it's not as good as Nutella. 

Here's what I think is better about Nutella, or at the very least the problems I have with Nocilla using Nutella as the example. First of all, Nocilla as many of the other spreads I've discovered, does not advertise as a hazelnut, or any other kind of nut spread. I'm starting to think that Hazelnuts are a key ingredient in chocolate spread, as if the cocoa powder needs something else to balance out. I don't totally feel that nuts are totally necessary, as my favourite spread in the world contains no nuts, I just think that you really have to have amazing quality chocolate to be able to pull of no nuts.

The second problem is the oil. I believe that choosing the right oil is key, and I feel like many of the secondary brands of chocolate spread that I taste do not pick the right oil or oil combination. I believe this come about because you want a certain texture when room temperature, and palm oil is great for creating that texture. Unfortunately palm oil is a faux pas today, so companies move instead towards coconut oil. Coconut oil has the perfect texture, but the flavour is overpowering. In particular it overpowers anything that doesn't have a strong flavour, even more so if you don't blend it with a nice nutty flavour.

What I'm saying is this spread is good, but I think it pushes the limitations of what can be done when excluding certain ingredients. While I feel many companies, including the fine people who make this spread, want to be different than Nutella, I just don't think it's as good. Maybe it's because I like icing, and I'm generally not fond of coconut oil except in very particular circumstances. Needless to say I do not believe this is better than Nutella, it's fine, but it's just not better.

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I Eat A Crispy Crunch Again

In this episode of In Hindsight I look again at the Crispy Crunch bar. This bar not only has some amazing childhood memories for me, but it's also the reason I don't love Butterfinger bars.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and let me know if you like Butterfingers.

If enough of you follow me on Patreon I promise to do my best to love Butterfinger bars.

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You Really Should Have a Copy of Treats and Beasts in Your Library

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Breaking It Down

 I've always felt like Jaw Breakers have the most descriptive name in all of candy.

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X It Off Your List, and Pick Up Treats and Beasts Right Now

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A Deep Dive Into Banana Candy

 I've always thought I was the only person who thought banana candy doesn't actually taste like any banana I've known.

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Eating in Qatar

I think Qatar has a really interesting food scene. Since it was part two of our trip in the Middle East, it's hard not to compare our time in Qatar to our time in Oman. While these two places have a lot in common, there seems to be some differences as well. If I was to describe the main difference I saw I would say it's about traditionalism. Don't get me wrong, both of these countries are steeped in their traditional culture, but my experience in Qatar was that of a place looking at outside influences a bit more, where Oman is looking more at its traditional roots.

I say all of this with some strong biases. First of all we never left Doha when we went to Qatar, where in Oman we traveled around a lot. Qatar was also just on the end of their World Cup show, and it felt like the city went through a very large transformation to prepare for it. I would say that Doha appears to be a little more modern and bigger than Muscat, we did plan our travel with that thought in mind. This is all to say that during our time in Doha we ate a lot of western food.

We did this because we no longer live in a western country, and when presented with western food it's a treat. I've mentioned this a thousand times on this blog before, but whenever we live overseas (as we are now) we often like to plan some time when we travel to enjoy western treats when we can. Doha offered us more than we expected, and we took advantage as much as we could.

Our hotel even offered us western fair every single morning. They had a waffle maker and an attendant at the waffle iron that couldn't get them out fast enough. It wasn't just me though, I would say that most of the guests at our hotel went for a waffle every single morning. The line actually got so long that I had a few breakfasts without.

The one thing however that we could not do without each and every day was cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. 

Allison and I are huge fans of this place, and especially their cheesecake.

It really serves us well as they even have a cheesecake that Allison can enjoy.

They also have many different cheesecakes that I can enjoy.

Which is great.

I probably could have written an entire blog about each and every night at the Cheesecake Factory, and our amazing server Chris, who got to know us and knew what we wanted to order each and every night.

At this point I'm just putting filler text between the many pictures of the different cheesecakes that we sampled.

We didn't eat every single meal at Cheesecake Factory, in fact we only ate one (we just always ate dessert at Cheesecake Factory). We also enjoyed meals at Shake Shack, TGI Fridays (which we had an issue with considering the Muslim weekly calendar is different than the western one), and even a few stops at McDonalds (I'll have more on that in a future post).

All was not dedicated to fast food either, we managed to try a few fancier restaurants as well. One such meal we were treated to an amazing view of the city on top of the torch that was built to celebrate the World Cup. The view was amazing and the food was very classy indeed.

Probably our most interesting meal was when we decided to wander to the Katara Cultural Village. We didn't know what to expect at this place but we knew we wanted to get lunch. What we discovered was a love for Armenian food at a restaurant called Mamig. To keep on brand with this blog, we got a couple of desserts that were both beautiful and tasty.

One was a wonderfully creamy pistachio dish the other was cakes filled with silky cream. I cannot tell you how great every part of this meal was, and how much I'm now a fan of Armenian food.

I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that most of our meals on the Qatar leg of our trip weren't from other parts of the world. Maybe much like my home town of Toronto in Canada, part of Doha's culture is other cultures. This part of the world has been a hub of trade for thousands of years, and so there's a certain openess to other cultures, and cultural foods. While we focused on western food while we were there, that's only because we wanted to. There were so many other great places to eat, and fun foods to enjoy. From Fancy treats to simple pleasures, Qatar has some amazing food range.

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Why Don't You Have a Copy of Treats and Beasts Already?

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Easter Time Is Here

 

This latest Easter review is an amazing example of classic candies that have taken me way too long to review. This is particularly interesting because I've actually reviewed many other versions of this treat, but not the original. Without spoiling too much, I feel like there's a reason I haven't reviewed these and it has something to do with how I feel about bland marshmallows. I'm sure there are some people out there however who love these, so feel free to complain in the comments.

Find out why I really didn't love this classic Easter candy treat.

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The Science and Magic of Hard Candy

 This is a really great documentary about how hard candy is made. Watching these experts do their craft is almost as much fun as eating the candy.

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More Questions Answered

This is part two of my video series where I answer the most common questions I get asked as the Candy Critic. If you have a question, drop it in the comments or contact me and I'll be sure to answer you. I might even make a collection of videos featuring questions from our loyal candy fanatics.

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

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Venture Into the World of Treats and Beasts

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On The Subject Of Popcorn Being Candy

Of all the snacks that might or might not be candy, I feel like popcorn blurs the lines more than most snacks. If you've seen my other reviews on this site, you know that I play fast and loose when it comes to defining a candy. Some say that chocolate is not candy, some say that anything that isn't made mostly of sugar isn't candy. I on the other hand run a site called Candy Critic and I feature reviews of potato chips. Popcorn on the other hand feels like it might be the real mixed bag. If you cover a piece of fruit in sugar, you can call it candy, so if you cover a piece of popcorn, then wouldn't it be candy as well. By this definition, caramel corn should totally be candy. Today's featured review blurs that line even further as it's not only a candy popcorn, but it's flavoured/themed to a classic gummy candy.

Check out this interesting candy that really blurs some lines.

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Sprinkle Some On

 I feel like the sprinkle is the unsung hero of ice cream sundaes. Today we should all learn its origins.

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Chris, How Do I Review That?!!

 

Some treats don't come with instructions, and I have no idea what I'm doing at the best of times. The first plan with this blog post was to highlight a few of the treats that I've picked up lately where I had no idea how to eat them. It's funny because occasionally I'll post pictures of these treats on social media and explain that I have no idea how to review these treats. The most common "smart" answer I get is "eat them". Sometimes that's not as easy as it appears.

Some treats require a certain amount of interactivity to eat them. For people from North America the best suggestion I can say is take a package of Lik-M-Aid and imagine what it might be like if you've never seen it before and couldn't read the language on the package. Would you be able to figure out that you're supposed to open the envelopes from the top, take out the sticks, and then use the candy stick and a candy paddle to take out all the sugar flavour? Also think about fortune cookies, could you explain to someone why there's a piece of paper in that cookie, particularly if they couldn't read the fortune?

So I decided to write a blog post to explain that sometimes I don't really know how to eat certain candies. Then I realized that maybe I should start video taping my first attempts at eating candy that I just don't understand, make a series on my YouTube channel all about this regular struggle that I have. I invite those who actually know what I'm supposed to do to comment, but I imagine that there will also be those who think I'm over thinking these problems. To them I say I probably am, but it's fun that way.

So make sure to follow me on YouTube to watch me really try hard to figure out weird candy. I'll also be posting reviews of each of these treats too. Here's the first episode, so enjoy watching me get very confused about weird candy concepts:

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Under No Circumstances Would I Suggest You Don't Get Treats and Beasts

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E. Wedel A Classic Candy Company

E. Wedel is a a great example of a candy company that's very well known in certain parts of the world, but almost unknown in other parts of the world. This is something I'm very privileged to notice, as I get to travel a lot, and when I do I taste candy from all over the place. I also talk to people from many parts of the world and try to learn about candy and snack culture in different places. When I do, people often mention brands or candies that they feel must be well known or at least well loved all over the world, and they're often surprised to know that I'd never heard about them. Don't get me wrong, it goes both ways. I've fed grown adults their first Twinkies, and talked to people who had never tried Peanut Butter Cups (and the thought of them actually grosses some of these people out). So I'm really lucky to taste, and learn about snacks and candy all over the world, and I'm happy to share information about some of these amazing brands that may or may not be well known to you.

Check out my latest (of many) E. Wedel treat reviews.

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I'd Play This Kirby Game

 I don't play many video games, but this one interests me.

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Peeps 5 Ways

 I just ate Peeps prepared 5 different ways, and I'm blown away at the results. It's amazing how different the results were each and every way I prepared them. I should note that I'm not a huge fan of Peeps, but maybe if they offered them with cooking or cooling instructions I might like them a little more. Here's the results and how I felt:

Regular - You can read all my Peeps reviews, but one thing you'll notice about many of them is that I find the flavour is just way too bland. The only Peeps I regularly enjoy are the variety that are flavoured, particularly with chocolate. This was no exception.

Refrigerated - This was probably the most surprising of all the Peeps preparations. I'm finding that most candy items that I put in a refrigerator just get cold. There are a few chocolate bar exceptions, but more often than not I'm very disappointed with refrigerated candy. This was one of the few exceptions where the texture was totally changed for the better, and that's important because I'm not a huge fan of marshmallow's texture.

Frozen - This was also a surprise, but I don't think it went as well as the refrigerated. I would say that this is an improvement, but it was almost so weird that I'm not sure if I really liked it or not. The frozen centre was fun, but not enough to really make me fall in love with these.

Microwaved - The greatest part about this preparation is how the candy coating got hard. The inside of the marshmallow also got very gooey, but the powder coating turned into a hard candy coating that I really liked. I would also suggest that anyone with some Peeps and a microwave throw a few in there just for fun, as watching them expand is really cool.

Baked - This was not surprising, but it was by far my favourite. I don't really like marshmallows, unless they're roasted. This totally worked because it gave me the nice toasted marshmallow flavour and included the hard candy shell. One day I hope to have a box of Peeps on a camping trip and I may attempt to make these into s'mores.

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Today is The Best Day to Get Treats and Beasts

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Flavours Of Gummies

I feel like there's a bias when it comes to flavours of gummies. The first bias is fruit, and while it seems normal because fruit gummies have been around so long, it's a little strange when you think about a gummy textured candy being fruit flavoured. The second bias within fruit is that many gummies seem to be certain flavours. For example, a cherry flavoured gummy is extremely common, but a mango, or lychee flavoured gummy is very rare. There's most definitely a spectrum of popular and unpopular flavours for fruit gummies. This week I tasted a fine strawberry gummy, I'd place that in the middle to middle rare for being a common flavour amongst fruit flavoured gummies.

See my full review of this slightly uncommon gummy flavour.

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Pop Rocks Rock!

This is probably the first candy I every discovered that had a science heavy component. Before this I thought candy was simple.

If you want to read something a little less complicated than Pop Rocks, pick up my book called Treats and Beasts.

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Eating In Oman

 Recently Allison and I went on a two week adventure to Oman and Qatar. Today I'm going to go over a few of the fun food discoveries that we came across while in Oman. We're both big fans of Middle Eastern cooking, but we also like that many Middle Eastern countries enjoy having western food available too. This is good for us because we often visit Middle Eastern countries while we're living in other parts of the world that may not have a lot of western foods to choose from. This allows us to enjoy a nice trip some place different, but also get a little taste of home while we're there. 

The one thing we learned about the local food in Oman is that the date is king. Dates not only play a role in the cuisine, but in the social customs as well. Traditionally dates were used a way of starting meals, as well as greeting newcomers. When people would travel through the country, they would stop in villages and forts as they traveled, and one of the ways people would welcome you is with a date. For important guests it would be a large platter of dates extravagantly displayed on a giant platter, but it could also be a simple offering as well.

The great thing is that this tradition lives on. At many of the local restaurants we would be offered dates as we came in or at the end of our meal. On one occasion we visited a small museum, we started up a conversation with the one person who worked there. At one point he mentioned the tradition of offering dates and his eyes opened wide. Suddenly he whisked away only to return with a bowl of dates. He offered us one and they were fantastic. He insisted we take a handful to enjoy for the rest of that day's adventure. It was such a kind gesture and really gave me an idea of what it was like for the travelers in the past being greeted by warm hospitality and dates.

Dates are also very common in the desserts found in Oman. One day we visited a traditional Omani restaurant, and as luck would have it they had a mixed sweets option for dessert. I'm always happy when traveling to find this kind of dessert because it gives us a nice variety of local flavours to try. Very often I'm stuck trying to pick just one local dessert that I have to hope is good, but in this case we were able to sample many locally made sweets, and they were all so different, but also very yummy.

The meal at this restaurant were pretty fascinating too. I tried an interesting porridge, and best of all the sauce was made with date syrup. After learning that date syrup was a thing, the first thing we did was headed to the grocery store and picked up a bottle. I don't know what I'll use my date syrup for, but I can't imagine that I would come up with something so creative as to use it with a vegetable porridge.

While I did enjoy my porridge, and the date addition made it work, the highlight at this meal was an eggplant dish made with a very garlic filled cream. The cream was light and the flavour was serious garlic. We've had other Middle Eastern dishes similar to this, but the coolness of the cream really made this version spectacular.

While we did enjoy a few more local delicacies, including many wraps and shawarmas, we also got our fix of western treats as well. One tradition we have when we travel is to try and sample the local McDonald's pies. Not everyone knows that McDonalds will often tailor their pie flavours to local palettes, and apparently in the Middle East they love having custard in their McDonald's pies. Fortunately so does Allison, and she was sure to pick up a few of these strawberry custard pies on this trip. One unique thing we found about the pies in Oman is that they seem to make them made to order, unlike other parts of the world where they're ready to go. This means you're always getting a fresh pie, a scorching hot fresh pie that is. The thing is, it was strawberry custard, and it was yummy. Eventually we learned to let them sit for a few minutes before eating them to avoid burning our mouths.

We got a few more western meals on this trip including a stop at Chillies, a cheesesteak, and some fried chicken. We also stopped at IKEA (it was literally attached to our hotel) and picked up meatballs one evening. I believe that the meatballs might be a little different than the ones you get in western countries since I believe (and you can correct me if I'm wrong) that IKEA meatballs normally contain pork. It's funny because this aversion to pork comes across many different ways, in particular I found that many gummy brands only sold their vegetarian versions, due to the use of gelatin.

This trip was not just about food. We decided for this first Omani leg of the trip that we would rent a car and drive out to some of the sites outside of Muscat. We visited many forts, wadi's and other natural wonders. This meant that we had to be sure to have plenty of snacks for these road trips. Nuts were a staple, but I also really got into the various nut bars or chikki available as well. I made sure to have a handful of these with me at all times, and they were great for traveling. They didn't melt in the heat, and there was such a variety that I had a new treat every day.

We had a pretty amazing trip, and tasted some great local and comfortable western foods. While many of the meals were amazing, I feel like the generosity of the people giving us the food made it even better. From the nice man that gave me a band-aid at a rooftop coffee shop at an oasis in the middle of nowhere, or the amazing people that handed me a date just to say hello.

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The Return of the 10 Second Kitchen

 A while back I decided that whenever I had the opportunity to watch someone make food for others, I would make a short video and post it on the Candy Critic map. When Covid hit, things slowed down on this project, but now that things are getting back to normal I think I'll bring it back. This is the world famous Tiny Tom Donuts making their tiny doughnuts.

Check out the Candy Critic map for all of the cool locations of the 10 Second Kitchens.

Seriously, You Need To Get Treats and Beasts Right Now

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Chips, Chips, Chips All Week

I've decided to have yet another review-a-thon and it's going to be all about chips. All this week I'll be posting all kinds of bonus potato chip reviews for you to enjoy. When I was a kid growing up in Canada, I was always intrigued by the sheer number of different flavoured potato chips were available. Now as an adult seeing the world, I'm even more impressed. Of all of the snacking categories, I really feel like the chip manufacturers have been on the ball creating amazing flavours to choose from. Sure some of them are better than others, but you have to give them credit for trying just about anything.

Check out the first flavour of this week's potato chip review-a-thon.

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54321 Is a Name?

 This might be the oddest name I've ever heard for a candy bar. I'm assuming it gets its name because there are 5 different components to the bar?

Pick up issue 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 of Snack Facts if you like, you can pick up all 13 if you choose.

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Read Treats and Beasts Right Now!

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A Candy Factor I'd Never Thought Of

When I designed candycritic.org, I thought that the main things I should examine are taste and texture. I added novelty because candy is fun, and it's a good catchall for elements that I maybe didn't think about. However, occasionally I feel like sound can also be an important part of enjoying candy. It could be an actual musical candy, it could be the satisfying crunch of a potato chip, or it could be the amazing sound that this newest candy review offers.  For now I'll include any rankings for sound in the novelty section, but maybe I'll make a list in the future of best sounding candies.

Check out this awesome, and very satisfying soundings candy right now.

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Cool Off And Watch This Video

 Who know that Andes Mints have been around so long?

My book Treats and Beasts hasn't been around nearly as long, but it is still a classic as well.

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Airport and Airplane Food To Oman, Qatar and Back

How do I put this, the food I ate while traveling to and from the Middle East was both very interesting and not at the same time. To be clear, we flew business class. While it seems like we've been doing this a lot lately, it has more to do with the current situation with airlines than it does with us being particularly fancy. First of all we found a really good deal with these business class flights, like really good. Secondly we had one overnight flight and several long waits in airports. This means we would get comfortable sleeping arrangements on the flight and lounge access in the airports. So it almost became worth the small amount extra to get business class... well sort of.

Our first flight was actually not business class, that's because the flight we took was a pretty short haul (prop plane), and they didn't even offer business class. This was also the most "interesting" meal we ate the entire journey. The photo does not give it justice because it just looks like a nice plate of butter chicken. The problem is that it was cold. When I say it was cold I don't mean it was heated up and then it didn't stay warm once it was delivered to me. This butter chicken was delivered to me as if it was a salad. Is this a thing?

Once we landed in Thailand (our first stop) we headed straight to the lounge... no we didn't. We headed straight to McDonalds. We went to McDonalds because the current place we live does not have a McDonalds. We seem to have a gift for living in countries that do not have the Golden Arches. Some might consider that a blessing, but I find that when I live in a place that doesn't have a McDonalds, I crave McDonalds all the time. So the first thing we did when we landed in an airport with a McDonalds is stop and get burgers.

We did eventually get to the lounge as we had a long layover and I picked up these absolutely beautiful desserts. The rose shaped tart was a mango tart and it was amazing. The cup dessert was the most fancy apple crumble I've ever seen in my life. It had blueberries and gold leaf added, which are both equally weird additions to apple crumble for completely different reasons. I'm starting to believe that apple desserts are considered fancy in South East Asia, even the ones we consider in North America to be very simple.

Somehow, after our first layover all we ate on the rest of our flights was breakfast. I think it had something to do with the long flights and how we were crossing over time zones. I'll be honest it was all a bit of a blur. We got onto our second flight of this adventure and prepared to sleep, which I didn't because I can't sleep on planes. I will however say, in good Candy Critic style, all of the breakfasts I selected were pretty much just desserts. It started with what I thought would be a couple of slices of banana bread (my favourite of all breads). I thought it would be a nice little snack to wake up to, instead it was probably the most over the top banana bread I've ever seen in my life.

It also came with a puck of butter. When I say puck, I mean the most perfectly round slab of butter ever created. I believe mathematicians could use this puck to calibrate their instruments.

I have a curiosity when it comes to sweets, so before getting off this flight I saw on the menu that as a snack they offered chocolate. There was no description of what kind of chocolate and how it would be delivered. At some point in the middle of the night the flight attendant saw that I was awake and asked if I wanted anything. Bleary eyed and confused I remembered that I saw the words chocolate on the menu, so I said "chocolate". She brought me back these, and they were pretty good. I mention this because it will come up again in the future. I also should mention that even though I wasn't hungry I ate both of these chocolates and while they tasted good, I don't think it was doing much for my health.

The third and final flight of this leg I decided to order waffles... and they gave me pancakes. I'm not sure where this breakdown happened, but everyone on the flight who ordered this got the same thing. I think it might be a language barrier or a simple mistake on the menu. As always my carbs came with a side of carbs and plenty of syrup and jam. Needless to say I was not feeling great after this.

We finally arrived in Muscat Oman, and had a wonderful time (I'll be posting about that later). After that portion of our trip it was time to head to Doha Qatar. This was a fairly short flight, but there were two things worth mentioning food wise about this leg. First of all I tried something in the lounge at the airport that I never thought about before, pineapple and mint juice. Adding mint to juice is a big thing in Oman, and I drank plenty of iced tea with mint throughout our trip, but pineapple juice? It strangely worked, really well. I would actually recommend giving it a try, but don't be stingy with the mint.

The flight offered a nice fancy meal, but the dessert (that round puck in the upper left hand) was amazing. It was some kind of custard treat that I could have eaten for the rest of my life. We arrived in Doha and also had a wonderful time (and once again I'll have more about that in its own post). 

After our great stop in Qatar we headed home (two flights). We left Doha at 1 am, so we decided to get to the airport around 9 and have a late dinner. Frankly the dinner in the lounge was okay, but kind of complicated. It was most complicated when the wifi didn't work for us at the airport and it turns out that if you want to see the menu of items at the lounge you "have" to scan a QR code. Fortunately they had a buffet with a few less items but it suited us well enough. While the food was fine, they had a few special items for the Chinese New Year including this beautiful and tasty orange dessert. I asked the person manning the dessert table which was the best, he said the chocolate cake was the most popular, but these orange desserts where a special for the New Year. I decided to go special over popular and I was not disappointed.

Our first flight home was another overnight flight that offered some kind of dinner at 1 am and then breakfast... again. I skipped dinner as we had just eaten in the airport, but opted to have breakfast. I thought I should get something sensible until I saw that they had a Nutella donut available. The thing about this donut is the menu said it was a "freshly made donut". I immediately assumed that they had a deep fryer on the plane and would be making them piping hot. I also assumed it wouldn't be gigantic. I was wrong on both accounts. While it looks very fancy, it was pretty average and cold in the middle.

I should also mention, on our flight back home that I ordered the mystery chocolate again, and once again it had no description. I had fond memories of the other chocolate I got on the earlier flight and I thought I would maybe get it again. I also should mention that I wanted some popcorn thinking it would be made fresh for some reason. This time however they gave me a Dairymilk bar instead of their fancy chocolates. I'd like to believe it's because they ran out of their fancy chocolates, but it also could have been how dirty and tired I looked on this last leg of our trip and the flight attendant just thought I wasn't fancy enough. The popcorn was also in bags and not fresh, but I did get both salted and caramel corn.

Our last leg we ate something that I don't really remember and I didn't get a picture. I was way too tired and just looking forward to going into my own bed. All in all the food we got while traveling on this journey was very fancy and tasty. We also got a pair of pyjamas to take home which is both weird but also amazing.

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The Questions I Get Part 1

I always enjoy talking to people about candy, and I can assure you that once anyone finds out that I do a website all about candy they have questions. While I do always enjoy these conversations, there are a few questions that come up again and again. I've decided to answer these questions here, most certainly not for the first time. I'm also pretty sure it's not the last time I'll hear these questions either.

Make sure to follow me on YouTube to keep up with all my new videos.

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Quality Literature is Treats and Beasts

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Middle East Treats All Week!

I just got back from a fun adventure in the Middle East (Oman and Qatar to be exact). While there I ate a lot of great food, and found lots of candy to review. I thought I'd start off with a full week of special Middle Eastern treats in a fun review-a-thon. That means you'll find a new review every single day this week (assuming I don't sleep in) when you wake up in the morning. For this first review-a-thon I found a group of these candies that were actually somewhat similar, but also different.

Check out the current instalment in my Middle East candy review-a-thon right here, and check back (on candycritic.org or on my social media) every day for new reviews.

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Milkshake Candy Bar

 Of the many discontinued candy bars that I hear about, this is one I'd really like to try myself. The concept makes a lot of sense, and it seems like it would be popular today.

My comic book called Snack Facts might not be around forever as well, so why not pick up a copy right now.

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What To Do If You Run Out Of Salsa And Sour Cream.

When you're someone like me you do a taste test where you take every topping you have in your fridge and see if they work with corn chips. Fortunately the corn chip is a very versatile snack.

You can keep up with all my video adventure on YouTube.

You can also see what I'm up to every day on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

Why not just follow me on every possible medium and join me on Patreon too.

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Perfect For Everyone, Treats and Beasts

 Make sure to pick up your own copy of Treats and Beasts.

You can also get all kinds of fun Treats and Beasts merch.

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For The Love of Sweets

Does anyone out there give their loved ones candy that is not Valentine's Day themed for Valentine's Day? I read an article recently that talked about the best places to get sweet gifts for those you love on Valentine's Day. The only difference is that this article suggested that people are more interested in getting regular candy, instead of the Valentine's Day candy. As it may surprise you, I don't actually give Allison candy too often for Valentine's Day, but that's because she can't really eat sweet treats. If I did give her candy I'd likely go for some chocolates or at the very least some cinnamon hearts. I just don't know if a Dairymilk bar is as romantic.

Check out my latest Valentine's Day review, I assure you it's on brand.

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Cotton Candy, Candy Floss, Fairy Floss

 I think we've all seen cotton candy getting made before, but maybe not on an industrial level.

If you want to see something I made, pick up my book called Treats and Beasts.

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