candies&curios
Gummies SMASHED together
0October 4, 2012
Today, we have another new package of flavors with a familiar type of candy, Life Savers Gummies Collisions. Life Savers have of course been around for a long time (the 100 year anniversary was this year), but the Gummies are a relatively new product. I remember back in the early 90′s when they were first introduced. Since then, they have proved to be a main-stay on the shelves of the candy aisle at most grocery stores. A few years ago they started introducing new flavors of Life Savers Gummies and since then, Wild Berry has proven to be the most popular. Let’s see if these Collisions are up to the task of knocking off Wild Berry as the best Life Savers Gummies…
So this candy’s draw is the fact that you get two flavors in each gummie. Not too bad right? Well, let’s see what flavors we’re working with. We’ve got Raspberry-Lemonade, Cherry-Watermelon, and Pineapple-Punch. They all sound pretty good, but how do they taste? I tried Raspberry Lemonade first and have to say I was utterly disappointed. I could barely taste any hint of berry flavoring, much less raspberry. It was citrusy, but not even distinctly lemonade-ish. It tasted like an orange gummy. Underwhelming collision of flavor right there. NEXT. Cherry-Watermelon was pretty awesome, first chew and the artificial cherry flavoring jumps right out and the longer you chew, it starts to taste like a watermelon Blow-Pop. Sweeeet.
The yummiest flavor by far though has to be the Pineapple Punch. Best way I can describe this would be the regular pineapple flavored Gummi bear from Haribo (the clear one) mixed with a splash of really sweet mango-y fruit punch. If you like the clear gummi bears like I do, then this will be your favorite flavor.
Cherry-Watermelon, Pineapple Punch, Raspberry-Lemonade
I figure 2 out of 3 flavors isn’t bad, but Life Savers has GOT to work on that Raspberry Lemonade FO’ REAL. Definitely pick these up if you’re a pineapple fan, otherwise stick with the Wild Berry Gummies. You can check out the Life Savers website at www.Life-Savers.com
How-to: Eat a whole dragon!
2September 25, 2012
Surprise surprise, we have some extra special hand-crafted candy. None of that commercial stuff today! These sweets were made by a place called чоколядка over in the Ukraine. I received two pieces from them, a very large and colorful flat lollipop and a friendly-looking green gumdrop dragon.
I really don’t know too much about чоколядка besides the fact that I believe the shop is located in the Western city of Lviv, and they apparently make really cute little candies. So, the first candy I wanted to try was the lollipop. The colors are bright and and jump out at you, but the design has a sort of classical feel to it. The top is predictably berry flavored and very good. The yellow part of this ‘pop is lemon and has the same flavoring as a Lemonhead. The candy is quite hard and the large size of the lollipop makes it hard to break off any chunks. This one requires a patient tongue and a lot of licks.
The next candy is of course the green gumdrop dragon. This little guy looks fantastic. His body is a dark green gumdrop, with his feet, head, tail, spikes, etc being made out of some sugar mixture. Everything is very detailed and my hat is off to whoever takes the time to create such a unique piece of candy. Now honestly, I didn’t have my hopes too high on this thing tasting very good at all. Similar to fondant cakes, making ingredients that truly look and taste good are hard to create. With that said, this thing was basically inedible. I munched on the tail and spat it out. I figured the gumdrop would at least be good, but that too seemed like it was sprayed with something and then rolled in sugar to get that perfect sparkle.
Final review of the candies from чоколядка: Both of these candies were very good at one thing each. The lollipop tasted good and the dragon looked good! Actually, the lollipop looked pretty cool too. Big thanks to my mom who picked these treats up for me in Ukraine to review. You can check out чоколядка on their website at www.shokoladka.at.ua
HELP! I ate a Swedish CAR and now I can’t feel my tongue!
2September 20, 2012
Today is another awesome day, mainly because I get to try another new type of candy that I’ve never even HEARD of before. Today, we are trying AHLGRENs bilar. These sweets come from Sweden and are apparently one of the most popular candies over there. Underneath the title it says “Sveriges mest köpta bil” which translates to “Sweden’s most popular car”.
Ahlgrens Bilar is defintely one of the oldest candies I’ve reviewed on this site, as this brand originates from 1885. You can see in the window of the packaging, little multi-colored cars, so it lives up to it’s name. The cars themselves come in red, green, and white. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from these, but when I popped the first bilar in my mouth, I was pleasantly surprised. There are not exactly like the typical American gummi worms or bears that we are used to, but these have a more creamy feeling to them. They stretch and chew like gummies, but taste more like a flavored marshmallow.
The flavors are kind of hard to pin down. The easiest flavor to pick up on is the green, it has a very clear citrus taste to it, so I have to guess that it is lime. The hardest one to guess is red. I’ll be honest, I really don’t have a clue as to what flavor this is supposed to be. Cherry or Strawberry are two likely answers, but it doesn’t actually taste like either one of those. The most unique by far has to be the white bilar. At first, it has a fruity taste, but after letting it rest on your tongue for a second, you begin to taste a definite menthol flavor. If you eat a couple in a row, the menthol becomes really strong and your tongue actually starts to feel a little numb. It might not be for everybody, but I thought it was cool for a candy.
I wanted to give a big shout-out to Thomas from Sweden for sending these my way! My recommendation to any body that ever spies Ahlgrens bilar at their local store, is to pick them up! These are unique and yummy! Give them a shot.
You can check out their website at www.ahlgrensbilar.com
Zoinks! We’ve got Zotz!
2August 14, 2012
For those people that have never tried Zotz, go get them. Now. Seriously, go get some, then come back and read this review, I’ll wait. Zotz are a fantastic hard candy that was originally introduced in 1968 by the G.B Ambrosil Company from Ronago, Italy. What separates Zotz from other hard candies is what’s inside! Let’s take a look…
Zotz not only have the industry standard malic acid in the center to give them a sour kick, but what has made them a classic over the decades is the fizzy powder a.k.a. sodium bicarbonate that provides an effervescent, bubbly feeling inside your mouth. The sodium bicarbonate reacts with the saliva in your mouth when you crack open the candy and not only fills your mouth with a candy foam, but it also spreads the sourness throughout to really give it a kick. These things are unique and I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t enjoyed a few. They aren’t exactly a candy that you would sit down and eat a whole package of, but rather munching on a few throughout the day seems to be the way to go.
Zotz are still around in some candy shops and grocery stores, but not as easy to find as they once were. I was lucky that a friend of mine spied these around town and picked them up for me (thanks Julie!). The flavors that Zotz has historically came in are (from Left to right in the picture above): Apple, Lemon, Orange, Watermelon, Grape, and Cherry. My personal favorite flavor was the Green Apple, followed closely by the Grape. The Green Apple hard candy flavor was good and when mixed with sour and the fizzy powder, it just puts it over the top. Zotz are everything a candy should be. Delicious, fun, and with a surprise fizz pop in the middle! If you didn’t take my advice in the beginning of this article, then do so NOW! Go get yourself some ZOTZ!
FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PUT ZOTZ IN YOUR MOUTH!!!
CHECK OUT HOW ZOTZ ARE MADE!
Sour Acid-heads Rejoice!
3August 5, 2012
WOW, do we have something special today here at LikeAKidInACandyStore.com, we recently received a package from The Foreign Candy Co with all sorts of awesome sweets, but the thing that jumped out at me the most was their line of Dare Devils Extreme Sour Candy Sprays. I remember when I was a kid, the sourest of the sour candies were Warheads, and let me tell you, Warheads don’t hold a candle to the sourness that is packed in these DareDevil sprays. Beware!
The packaging on these sprays are actually quite cool. I like the way how each flavor has it’s own character and the stickers on the spray tubes are interesting as well. It doesn’t show up too well in photos, but the stickers that cover each tube are very reflective and almost have a hologram-like feel to them. The five flavors that DareDevils come in are Strawberry, Watermelon, Blue Rasperry, Green Apple, and something called Death Drool. Yeah, if I was a kid and saw this in the store, I would have definitely picked up some Death Drool. Awesome.
Once you twist off the seal on these tubes, they are basically just simple spray bottles that you hold up to your mouth, stick your tongue out and spray sourness on. And how do they taste you ask? These things are SOUR! Watermelon is probably the least sour, with Green Apple and Death Drool being the most sour. All the flavors do really taste like what they say on the label, except I believe Death Drool to actually be some sort of Black Currant flavor. These things are so sour because the three active ingredients that pucker you up are Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, and Malic Acid. These are the standard acids that make most candy sour, but this is just so much more extreme since it’s in liquid form and you spray it directly on to your tongue. I only recommend these to people that REALLY like sour candy, but if you do, then I REALLY recommend them.
You can check out the Foreign Candy Company online at their website at www.foreigncandy.com. Be sure to check out their Facebook and Twitter pages too!
The Seaside Candyman WANTS YOU!
2
Saltwater Taffy is a classic American candy and one of my absolute favorites. Today we are reviewing some saltwater taffy made fresh in Seaside, Oregon by The Seaside Candyman. As a kid, one of my favorite things about candy was getting to try new flavors, and that is exactly what you get you open up a bag of saltwater taffy. It’s always fun to guess what flavor you’re about to bite into based on the color, but you can never really know for sure. I’ve had yellows that I thought for sure were banana end up being lemon, reds that I thought were cherry end up being watermelon, and blues that I thought were blueberry winding up as blue coconut!
One of the things you have to be careful about with saltwater taffy is the texture. If you leave them in your cupboard for too long, these things could turn into rocks and you end up with hard candies. That’s why I was so lucky to receive a fresh batch of taffy from the Seaside Candyman last week when my friend Ann went to visit, thanks Ann!
The Seaside Candyman is a Saltwater taffy specialist and has an astounding 170 flavors! Just in the sampler bag I received, I’ve tasted Dreamsicle, Mocha, Lemon, Kiwi, Strawberry Cheesecake, and whole lot more. These sweets are really good and if you want to get them directly from the source, you can check out The Seaside Candyman at www.SeasideCandyman.com.
Cream-Filled Cow Tales!
1
Today we’re reviewing a chewy candy with a not too appetizing name, Cow Tales. Cow Tales are made by the Goetze’s Candy Co from Baltimore, MD. The original Vanilla flavored Cow Tale is extremely similar to another Goetze’s Candy best-seller, their Caramel Cream chew, which is just a piece of caramel with a cream filled center. The Cow Tales are long thin ropes and today I’ve got Vanilla, Chocolate, and Caramel Apple Cow Tales.
The original Cow Tale is caramel rope pumped full of vanilla cream filling. The caramel flavor didn’t come across very much at all. This is because of the overwhelming flavor of the vanilla cream. This filling seemed more like something that belonged in a donut or a pastry than a piece of candy. It tastes pretty good, but it is very sweet and almost tastes like sweetened condensed milk.
The chocolate rope flavors are much more balanced than the vanilla one. The chocolate-caramel exterior does not get over powered by the cream like the plain caramel exterior did. Just like the other one though, the vanilla cream filling is extremely sweet. It is also worth noting that all three of the Cow Tales came out of the wrapper dusted in a light coat of powder sugar. I like it when companies do this. Not only does it make it easier to get out of the wrapper, but I think it makes the candy look more appetizing as well.
The last flavor is Caramel Apple and was the one I was looking forward to the most. Again, like the first one, the caramel exterior doesn’t pack much flavor besides being slightly sweet. It’s a good chew, but it’s just a delivery device for the filling. In this case, inside we have a bright red “Apple Cream” filling. I like this filling the best because it adds some tartness instead of making it overly sweet. It’s got typical fake-apple flavoring, but it’s got something to make it slightly sour, but it still retains a creamy texture on your tongue. Interesting flavor/texture combo, but pretty good.
If you’ve want to pick one of these up, I suggest you go for Caramel Apple, but if you’ve got a hankering for something really really sugary sweet, try the plain vanilla flavored one. Thanks to my friend Julie for picking these up for the review! You can check out Cow Tales for sale at www.goetzecandy.com
Making BUTTER out of Cookies?!
1June 17, 2012
When Trader Joe’s opened a new location near me, I knew I had to go and check out what sort of sweet things they had for me to try out. One of the more interesting things I found was called Speculoos Cookie Butter. I had tried Speculoos Cookies before over in Germany, but turning them into butter? This was something I had to try.
I was a bit wary, as the front label proclaims this to be a “unusual spread”, but I remembered how tasty the Speculoos cookies were, and figured Trader Joe’s would be hard-pressed to mess up that tasty flavor. The side of the jar recommends to try the Cookie Butter on pancakes, waffles, sandwiches, ice cream, pretzels, and celery. I wonder though, what wouldn’t Cookie Butter be good on? And why do we have to stop a Speculoos Cookie Butter? What about Chocolate Chip Cookie Butter? Oreo Cookie Butter? White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie Butter? Those all sound amazing and would likely cause me to bloat to the size of a blimp, but for now, let’s focus on the Speculoos…
When I got home from Trader Joe’s, this was the first thing I dived into. It sounds intriguing, even though you know it’s going to taste very rich and sweet. Bottom line: This stuff is re-god-dang-diculously delicious. You can definitely taste the gingerbread flavors and a mixture of other spices as well. The overall consistency of the crushed cookies is smooth, while still maintaining some small granules of sugar and cookie for texture. One of my favorite snacks that this really reminds me of is graham crackers and milk. You know when you dip a graham cracker into milk and then take a bite, how the graham cracker kind of melts in your mouth? Well, this is kind of like that, only much smoother and a lot richer because of the different vegetable fats that are in this spread.
If you’re ever at a Trader Joe’s, pick up a jar of this stuff. For an 11oz jar, it was under $4 and a pretty good deal. You can eat this stuff with almost anything. While this does not explicitly taste like hazelnuts or peanuts, if you’re a fan of Nutella or peanut butter, than I can almost assure you, you will be a fan of this.
Getting tipsy on Wine Gums
0June 9, 2012
First with the Cheerwine, now with Wine Gums, you would think this was turning into a Vino blog. Fear not my sweet toothed friends, today we are reviewing a sweet gummy with the alcoholic name of MAYNARD’S WINE GUMS. These were another awesome treat sent to us from our friends at The Sweet Spot.
The Wine Gums basically come in a bright red twist-tied tube with a trippy looking swirl on front. I had never tried Wine Gums before, but I do vaguely remember hearing about these before. Wine Gums are from the U.K. and have been around a long time, since 1905. There is not much else on the wrapper beside the name, ingredient list and nutritional info, so there’s not much else left to do but open this sucker up.
In doing some research, I have found that Cadbury (the parent company of Maynard’s Wine Gums) says that the black and red flavors are the most popular. In this package of Wine Gums I received 4 blacks, 3 reds, 2 yellows, 2 greens, and 1 orange. I couldn’t find any official flavor guide, but general consensus around the interwebs seems to be Black = Currant, Yellow = Lemon, Green = Lime, Orange = Orange, but Red is a little tougher to pin down. I’ve seen some say Cherry or Strawberry, but my personal opinion is Raspberry, so who knows? The red one is quite tasty though.
The Wine Gums are a quite a bit thicker and more gelatinous than common America gummies like gummy worms or gummy bears. Texture wise, I would compare these more to Jujy Fruits than anything else. The three citrus flavors in Wine Gums are fairly run of the mill candy flavors. Lemon, Lime, and Orange…they taste like typical your typical Lemon, Lime and Orange gummies. Ho Hum.
When it comes to the other two flavors though…I can see why Cadbury says that Black and Red are the most popular. They are definitely the most unique flavors. Not only are they unique they taste FREAKIN’ GOOD. The red I’ve already covered and could easily be a hybrid of “red fruit” flavors. My personal favorite however has to be the black Wine Gum. It has got a great flavor and I’ve never really tasted Currant flavor in any American candy before. If you ever run across a pack of Wine Gums, TRY THEM! These things are REALLY good and have some different flavors to them than the same old gummies we get over here in the U.S. Check them out!
Do Italians really do it better?
1June 7, 2012
When it comes to European Chocolates, no one does it better than the Italians. Don’t believe me? Just ask them, they’ll tell you. They might even tell you if you don’t ask ‘em, but nevertheless, today we have got Baci chocolates made by Perugina. I was lucky enough to receive these samples of Italian chocolate from one of the best places on the web to find interesting and unique candies, The Sweet Spot from Philadelphia, PA.
Let’s see how Italy really does it…
Baci is the signature candy made by Perugina, a candy company from Perugia, Italy. They are most well-known for the Baci chocolate, which is Italian for “kisses”. Inside each one of these Baci chocolates is a “love note”. These love notes come in three categories, “Love”, “Friendship” and “Mother’s Love”. Inside this 5 oz bag there were 10 pieces of chocolate wrapped in silver foil with a strange hump on each chocolate. The hump is of course the whole hazelnut which is on top of each chocolate. Let’s unwrap these little kisses and see what they look like…
Well, the first thing that you get when you unwrap the foil is the “love note” that I mentioned earlier. They’re about the same length as a fortune from a chinese fortune cookie, but twice as wide. This is to provide space for the different translations from the many languages they have on each love note. Looks like to me, the languages in order are: Italian, English, Spanish, French, and German. Each love note is numbered in the lower left hand corner and the person the quote is attributed to in the lower right hand corner. Some of the love notes I’ve gotten in this package are: “Love me when I deserve it least, as that is when I’ll need it most”, “The more I love you, the more you flee from me, my darling”, and, ”Sweet is the dawn wich breaks upon the lovers”. And yes, they spelled it “wich”. The idea of these love notes is a fun thing to throw in and definitely adds some uniqueness to these chocolates. Let’s see how the chocolates taste though.
If you love hazelnuts like I do, then you will go crazy over these things. Not only is there a whole hazelnut on top, but you see that filling at the bottom? Yeah, that is chopped hazelnuts mixed with a chocolate filling. The dark chocolate is quite good, but the real star of this show is hazelnut. One of the more popular candies in the US that I could compare this too would be Toffifay. They taste similar of course because of the hazelnut, but the Baci has a more pronounced chocolate flavor because of the dark chocolate.
You can check out Perugina’s Official website at www.Perugina.it and order Baci chocolates from The Sweet Spot! You can contact The Sweet Spot on Facebook and Twitter to see if they have your favorite international sweets!
