Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

There's something very creepy about many vintage candy (and even other food) advertisements   It occurs only when there's someone in the advertisement doing something that they're supposedly doing as part of their regular day.  It's as if you can see the art director telling this man to just be relax and enjoy his breakfast cocoa.  Then he tells him to look at the camera, smile, and pretend you want to kill the person looking at this advertisement.  I've come across many advertisements that seem to have this same flaw, I'm not sure why companies thought it was appealing, but I think it's just terrifying.

I found this ad here.

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Old Candy Critic Articles - Does size matter?

I've decided to take down several old articles from the candycritic.org and re-post them here on the Candy Critic blog.  This week we look at candy size and how it affects the way a treat might taste.

The other day I saw something really interesting in my local 24-hour convenience store that started to make me think. What I saw, and eventually purchased, was Mars Bar Bits. What did it make me think of is, does size really matter when it comes to chocolate bars? I've come to an interesting conclusion about this, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

Let me break it down for you, some bars work small and some work large. Let's look at my new found discovery Mars Bar Bits. I'm not a huge fan of regular Mars Bars, there not bad but I rare ever crave one. I tried these little bits and you now what? They were a lot better, and I think it was the size that really made the difference. It could have been the extra chocolate (with smaller bits you have more surface area) or it could be that I find the Mars Bar to be a little overwhelming in the nougat department.

This brings us to when bars go big. Why do I like some bars big you might ask? Well that is a much easier question to answer. I'm a pig. Sometimes 4 sticks of a Kit Kat aren't enough, I want 12, so I go for the big bar. The drawbacks are simple, if you eat a gigantic chocolate bar you will be both fat and sick. I guess you could share it with friends, but what's the fun in that. The real mystery is why these giant sizes are most commonly found in theater concession stands. I know I'll be there for at least a couple of hours, but 4 pounds of chocolate covered almonds can still be too much.

So let's review, some bars in their natural state are too much or not balanced properly so a smaller variation can change everything and even make it better. Big bars are great for the average glutton, but if the dosage is too much it can be hazardous to your health. I guess the best way to judge this is simple, on Halloween, instead of giving out small treats, give out large bars, and see how many repeat trick or treaters you get. If you are planning this test please email your home address, and I'll see you on Halloween.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Chakalates - ? - Why wouldn't you want to eat chocolates designed by a 70's pop star? - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Candy Art - Louis CK in Cheeto Form

I love it when people play with their food, I love it even more when the results are beautiful pieces of art.  My favorite feature of this piece is the oil stains, they actually add more depth to the portrait.

I found this portrait here.

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It's National Cheese Doodle Day!!!

I love Cheese Doodles, Cheesies,  Cheetos, or whatever you happen to call them in your neck of the woods.  Up until fairly recently I didn't really know that how these things were made, and what they were made out of.  As it turns out they're made of corn meal mush that is extruded into the fun nuggets we know and love (you can read more about the process here).  It's actually a really simple system, but I'm not sure how anybody managed to come up with this process in the first place.  Was it a factory accident that lead to something great?

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This Week In Candy

I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but we've updated the way our social network sites work.  You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Google+, and coming soon, Instagram.  Each one of these social media platforms allows you to follow what we're doing in a different way.  Our Twitter account has the most up to date and most regular posts.  If we find an interesting article about junk food or candy, that's the first place we'll post it.  Facebook and Tumblr are updated whenever we post a new blog or review, and fairly regularly with fun little day to day musings.  At this point our Google+ account is getting much use.  We continue to post new reviews, and we also post a few musings now and then, but it's proven to be difficult to work with and we're not sure if we'll continue to use it in the future.  Instagram, when and if we get it working properly, will have a daily photograph of us doing something.  I'm not really sure how it's going to work yet, but I've got some ideas.  We don't want to spam you with too much Candy Critic, so pick a social network and let us know what you like and what you don't like.

Beyond trying to figure out how to make Instagram part of our social media world, we're working on a few articles that we hope to have online soon.  First of all I've developed and obsession with trying to make the perfect batch of popcorn.  We've decided to look at ever aspect of making popcorn and build ourselves the perfect recipe.  If anybody has any suggestions I'd greatly appreciate it.

We're also working on an article about artificial sweeteners.  I know there's a great deal of controversy about how healthy they may be for you, but we're most interested in how they taste.  We're working on a taste test to try and figure out how well some of these sweeteners compare.

Finally, we received a great deal of Glee gum in the mail recently, I believe we might have a sample from each flavour they offer.  We're going to have a taste test to try and find out which flavour tastes best, freshens your breath best, and lasts the longest.

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New Kiss-y Review

I've seen dozens of candies use the term "Kiss" in their name or description, but frankly I'm not really sure what it means.  Most of us are familiar with Hershey's Kisses, which are basically giant chocolate chips.  I generally notice that candies labeled with the word "kiss" tend to be bite sized, and I guess you kiss and bite with your mouth.  So maybe that's where the connection comes from the idea that a single sweet taste can be likened to a nice kiss from your special someone.

Click here to read our Peanut Butter Kiss review.

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Candy News

It's Girl Scout cookie season again, here's a few facts that you may not have known about these iconic cookies.

Did you know that there are schools specifically for people that want to study the art of making candy, I think I might enroll in the Bonnie Gordon College of Confectionary Arts.

Ever wonder how they make Cheetos? After reading this,  I wondered how they were invented and who came up with this idea.

Popcorn and the movies really go hand in hand, and there's a really interesting history that would make a great movie.

Did you know that Coca-Cola produced a special cola for Gen X?  The man was attempting to stick it back on us.

"Kids These Days (Are Smoking Fun-Dip And Smarties)", I wish this headline wasn't so literal.

You would be amazed at the science behind roasting cocoa beans, every detail, even wind velocity, is taken into account.

Here's a great collection of silly chip storage options, some are strange but clever, others are just strange.

I don't normally like to post recipes on this site, but I have a craving for root beer, and some of these sound really tasty.

Do you really want your gum to help increase the health of your bones?

I'm a big fan of home made food atrocities, including this giant Gushers candy made of Fruit Roll Ups, Fruit by the Food, and regular sized Gushers.

If you want to keep up with all of the daily candy news that we come across as it happens, follow us on Twitter.

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Friday Candy Video

I generally don't understand high art when it comes to performance art.  This particular piece is no exception whatsoever.  I'm not sure if I like it or not, but I can tell you that's it's worth watching, just so you can think about art... and Nutella.

Link Via Boing Boing.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Beer Battered Onion Rings Potato Chips - Ruffles MAX - I'm curious as to what an onion ring would taste like in chip form. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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It's National Peanut Butter Lover's Day!!!

In North America it's just assumed that peanut butter is loved the world over, but that's just not true.  I've met people from all over the world that really don't understand the North American obsession with peanut butter.  They see advertising, cooking shows, and sweet treats that features this sticky spread, and they can't figure out why we like to eat the stuff.  I have to admit that peanut butter is so ingrained into my psyche that I can't figure out what's not to like about the stuff.

Think about this, a great deal of the population of the Western World has never tasted a peanut butter cup, and they have very little interest in trying them either.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Tostitos Artisan Recipes Grilled Red Pepper and Tomato Salsa - Frito-Lay - I don't know if I've ever sampled an "Artisan" tortilla chip before, but it sounds tasty. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

Have you ever noticed that Haribo doesn't really "advertise" gummy bears?  I thought I'd do a search online for gummy bear advertisements  and I came up with virtually nothing.  I found the one above, but I'm not really sure if it's official or not.  Does anybody know if Haribo has ever done a large advertising campaign, outside of social media or the internet?  Have you ever seen a gummy bear commercial?

I found this ad here.

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Shooting Donuts

I'm doing a series of photographs for an art show in Athens opening April 13th at the Finnish Institute at Athens.  It's a group show featuring several artists living in Greece temporarily.  The show's theme is all about taking photographs of things in Greece that remind you of your home country.  I couldn't possibly imagine not mentioning something sweet related for this exhibition, but it took a bit of thinking to come up with the perfect sweet treat that reminded me of home.  After a great deal of thought, it came down to donuts.

Whenever you move away from home you'll always crave certain foods.  Sometimes you just can't find these foods in the place where you live, and you have to rely on friends and family to deliver them once in a while.  Maple syrup was a big craving I had that I couldn't buy here, as was Shreddies cereal.  Sometimes you come across foods in another country that remind you of home.  Donuts in Greece was, and still is, a great reminder of home for me.  While the donuts here are very different in texture and flavour than the ones I get in Canada, they still make me feel the same way, like I'm home.

It's not even fancy donuts that I crave in Greece, most often it's donuts from a grocery store, or a cheap donut shop that fit the bill for me.  When I'm feeling home sick, a Greek donut reminds me of Canada just a little bit.  Now I have to figure out how to photograph these cheap donuts so people understand what they mean to me.  How do you make a little bit of Canada come across in a pile of cheap Greek donuts?

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Old Candy Critic Articles - Candy in the low Carb zone.

I've decided to take down several old articles from the candycritic.org and re-post them here on the Candy Critic blog.  This week we look at an old article from Allison where she looks at low carb version of popular bars.

As low-carbohydrate lifestyles gain popularity, there are more and more options for low-carb treats available in the marketplace. I have been on the Atkins plan for about a year now, and even within that time, I’ve noticed that low-carb snacks are getting better and and more plentiful.

A year ago, for treats I could get some muffin mixes, Atkins brand protein bars that were kind of chocolatey, and … well … raspberries and strawberries. Now, I can get chocolate bars, cookies, fudge-sicles, pudding, ice cream sandwiches, and even granola bars! (Not that raspberries and strawberries aren’t great.)

At first, I was pretty skeptical. Could you really enjoy sweet deliciousness without sacrificing your health goals? Yes, there are some downsides to the low-carb treat revolution. Expense is one thing. Even the “Atkins Baking Mix”, a flour substitute, is something like $17 in health food stores for a tin of about 4 cups. I found it once in a grocery store for $3.69. They don’t sell it anymore.

And soy flour? Not for making sweet treats. Trust me – I’ve tried.

After I finished Atkins’ “induction” phase and had been in the “ongoing weight loss” phase for about two months, I decided I needed a treat. Atkins “Advantage” bars were all I could really get then. Those and Ketogenics muffin mixes. (I recommend the chocolate chip.) In my opinion, the Atkins muffin mixes are terrible. “Advantage” bars aren’t so tasty either, but when you haven’t had anything sweet for 2-½ months, you take what you can get.

To sweeten these treats (and the new “Endulge” treats they’ve since released), the Atkins people use something called maltitol. Maltitol is a polyol, or sugar alcohol, which is a kind of hydrogenated carbohydrate used as an artificial sweetener. According to www.freedictionary.com some common sugar alcohols are:
· Mannitol
· Sorbitol (Some cell damage may be related to too much sorbitol in the cells of the eyes and nerves.)
· Xylitol (Good for preventing tooth decay.)
· Maltitol
· Lactitol

Polyols are good in that you can sweeten things without the carbohydrates absorbing into the body and making us all fat (or perhaps marathon runners). But what they don’t tell you is that they can have a laxative effect. Most sources claim that you have to ingest large quantities for this to happen, but my experience is quite different.

I’ve never really been a gassy person, but when I started on Atkins I became a next-to-zero emissions person. But then, when I started eating the things sweetened with polyols, I became a veritable methane factory. As for the laxative effect? If I ate treats two days in a row, things would come out like soft-serve ice cream. Anything more than two days in a row, you’re looking at a slushy. Is it really worth the mediocre sweets? At the time, yes.

Then, in the U.S., Hershey’s, Keebler, and Nabisco SnackWells got in on the game with chocolate bars and cookies. Hershey’s even makes low-carb Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. They taste almost exactly the same as the “real” ones although a little dry, and not at all like the Atkins peanut butter cups, which have a bit of a strange taste in them (but again, OK in a pinch, if you don’t mind the soft-serve ice cream effect). The Hershey’s chocolate bars are about 1/3 the size of their regular ones, but they are delicious. I especially like the one with the little rice crisps, which I dip into chunky (peanut-only) peanut butter.

These treats are sweetened with other names of sweeteners that I don’t recognize, but could also very well be polyols. Hershey’s uses erythritol, and Nabisco uses acesulfame potassium in their SnackWells CarbWell cookies. Sounds terrible, tastes great. Also, less soft-serve ice cream effect, and far less methane production. AND, they’re about as expensive as regular chocolate bars, so less gouging at the cash register.

I hope they decide to bring them to Canada soon.

There are lots of other low-carb treats that I’ve tried, and I recommend experimenting around. Some of them are GeniSoy’s Low Carb Crunch, Breyer’s ice cream sandwiches, Sobey’s store-brand low-carb fudge-sicles, Odyssey “Slim Advantage” chocolate bars, and Atkins granola bars. All of these are available in Canada, and I’m sure most of them in the U.S. as well.

The very best treats I’ve found, though? Those little miniature “real” chocolate bars that weigh about 5 grams each. They can’t possibly have more than 5 grams of carbohydrates since that’s they’re weight, and you get to eat the real thing, provided you can stop at just one. I’ve also been known to enjoy the occasional Timbit doughnut hole at Tim Horton’s. They probably have a few more carbohydrates, but I just make sure I walk to the farthest Tim Horton’s possible and burn it off.

So where am I after almost a year? Looking and feeling healthy and happy, and enjoying some of the treats out there.

Allison

Stuff I Want To Try

jcoco - Seattle Chocolate Co. - I think I'm stylish enough to eat a chocolate bar inspired by high fashion... well maybe not. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Candy Art - Gifs

The Huffington Post posted a great collection of food related gifs.

Nothing makes my mouth water like watching food get made, stirred, eaten, or whatever, over and over again.  It's truly mouth wateringly mesmerizing.

Click here to see all of these beautiful gifs.

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This Week In Candy

I know that many of you reading this are still stuck in the cold end of February, wondering if the snow will ever end.  But me, I'm already thinking about spring, warm days, cool treats, and iced tea.  I have had such a craving for iced tea, and I realized something, there really aren't that many iced tea flavoured candies out there.  How could one show "iced tea" in candy form anyways.  I would think that it would always come across as just tea.

It's going to be a bit of a slow week on the Candy Critic blog this week, mostly because we're preparing some new material, and we want it to be just right.  We'll still have our regular posts like Candy Art, Classic/Creative candy advertising, and our Friday Candy videos, we're just going to cut back on some of the extras this week.

Finally, we've opened an Instagram (candycritic76) account recently, but we're not really sure what we're going to do with it.  Do you have any ideas, what do you do with your Instagram photos?

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Mike and Ike Names (A New Review Too)

One of the interesting things I learned while writing this review is the crazy naming convention that some Mike and Ike candies have.  I could be wrong about this, but I believe that "Mike" is represented by either the green or red candy, "Ike" by which ever one Mike is not.  So the candies from today's review are represented by "Cherri" the dark red candy, and "Bubb" the pink candy.  Is this a common trend with the Mike and Ike's family?  I've had a few other Mike and Ike treats, and I don't remember this naming format, is this new?  If it is new, then keep it up Just Born, it's a really good idea.  If it's an old idea, then I need some back story here, because this is really great.

Click here to read the review about Cherri and Bubb.

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It's National Chocolate Covered Nuts Day!!!

This is a pretty vague holiday in my opinion. I have many questions that I need answered before I can go out and celebrate.  For example, do peanuts count as nuts on Chocolate Covered Nut Day, because a peanut is not technically a nut, neither is a Brazil Nut.  And because the word "Nut" is plural, are we required to eat more than one variety of nut today.  This isn't as much a problem as a question since there are many varieties of nuts I enjoy covered in chocolate.  In fact, I can't think of any kind of nut that I wouldn't enjoy covered in chocolate.  I've tried many varieties of nuts in chocolate, except maybe cashews, do people eat them covered chocolate?  Maybe this is a day that I should answer these questions, for myself, and for chocolate covered nut fans all over the world.

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