Christmas candy is mostly about peppermint and chocolate and shiny colored foil wrapping. Holiday gum is rather unusual, so I was pleased to see Concord Confections part of the Tootsie Roll company has a variety for winter: Dubble Bubble Snow Balls.

I enjoy novelty gums for the same reason I enjoy other candy coated morsels: they’re fun to look at before eating. The Snow Balls are extremely cute. Each is the size of a garbanzo bean and rattle around easily in the theater size box. What I also liked about this particular gum was that they were white ... there was no artificial coloring (though there is titanium dioxide as a whitener), so I didn’t have to worry about anything getting into the flavor except what they intended as the flavor. The gum is made with sugar and corn syrup with no artificial sweeteners.

The pieces are beautiful. They’re rough and white and though spherical, they don’t roll around. The bite was wonderfully soft and easy to chew, but the flavor is ... well, it’s kind of like fabric softener at first. It’s floral - somewhere in the neighborhood of violet and maybe musk. After chewing (two pieces seemed like a good portion), the crunchy shell and gum base were very soft. However, within a minute, the sugar dissipated to the point that the gum was getting quite stiff ... another two minutes and it was an unchewable lump that was less appealing than a wad of paper. My style is to switch out at that point anyway, so I just spit out the first piece and repeat.

Now, since this was bubble gum, I should comment on those qualities. It works. The bubbles can’t get that big, as the gum base is too stiff and unforgiving. But it’s not particularly sticky, which is a plus. But it’s most definitely not bubble gum flavored, and any children you give this to might be turned off by the soapy notes.

After chewing, even a half hour later, I did notice a lingering floral taste in my mouth, rather like jasmine tea.

Dubble Bubble is peanut free and gluten free ... and in this instance is also free from dyes but may contain traces of soy. The gumballs are made in Canada.

Related Candies

1. Bubble Gum Flavored Peeps
2. Dubble Bubble Gum Cigars
3. Musk Beechies Chewing Gum
4. Ball Gum Balls (Football & Tennis)
5. Jumbo Gum Ball Eggs
6. Dubble Bubble Chick Eggs

I feel like there is a perfect gum out there for me, I just haven’t found it yet. So when I saw Simply Gum at the checkout at Lolli & Pops one afternoon, I bought it on impulse just because of the name of the flavor: Fennel Licorice.

Upon further reading I saw that there was more going on here than just the unusual flavor and enticing package. Simply Gum is made with real chicle instead of synthetic gum base along with organic sugar and glycerine.

The packaging is spare and thoughtful. Inside the flip top, there’s a little sleeve that holds “post chew wraps”, so even thought the pieces don’t come in little papers, there are papers to responsibly dispose of your gum when you’re through.

Though the box is square and the nuggets inside fill the package, after I dumped them out for photographing, I found that there was a spacer bit at the bottom. As if they’d either originally specified more gum in the box but later decided for less but didn’t want to change the package, or it’s just intended to mislead the consumer. The box only says 12 pieces (there were actually 18 in my box but they’re not consistently sized), but never says how big each piece is, the weight I came up with in the stats box is from weighing the pieces.

The nuggets are just that, a rope of the brown-sugar hued gum is snipped into pieces. They’re a little smaller than a regular portion of gum, but not by half. When I chewed it, I wanted maybe 1.5 times as much.

The pieces don’t stick together, they have a little rice powder on them (kind of like a corn starch). They smell like fennel, just like sticking your nose in a bottle of fennel seed. The chew releases the sweetness quickly, and instead of becoming more firm, like most gums do, this became thinner. It was too thin really. It’s like riding a bike in the wrong gear, my jaw is going too fast for this gum. I’m just spinning and the gum is squishing around.

Aside from the texture, I love the flavor. It was earthy and substantial. The licorice flavors weren’t overly sweet or metallic. The mineral notes weren’t rusty. Instead it tasted rather of beets. I felt like it freshened my mouth, yet still went well with coffee or tea. The flavor lasted quite long and though the sugar was gone, fennel and licorice have a natural sweetness that lingers. But the gum base was just too squishy.

So, if you’ve been looking for an all natural gum that chews better with a glass of iced tea than hot tea ... well, this is your gum. I might try another flavor, like Maple, just in case the particular batch I got was anomalous. However, it’s pretty expensive, at $3.50 a box.

Related Candies

1. PUR Sugarless Gum - Coolmint & Cinnamon
2. Glee Sugar Free Gum
3. Fruit Stripe Gum
4. Hollywood Chewing Gum
5. Wee Glee Gum
6. Classic Gums: Black Jack, Clove, Beemans & Teaberry
7. Sugar Coated Fennel
8. Short & Sweet: Gums

Bourbon, a Japanese snack company, has been making Everyburger for at least 11 years (previews review). They’re an ingenious little snack ... a sesame cracker that looks like a bun filled with a chocolate cream (to look like the burger patty) and a vanilla cream (to look like the cheese). The cookie part is quite savory with a strong sesame flavor and the cream filling is sweet.

The Everyburger is similar to Pocky, a combination of a less-sweet cookie or more European-style digestive combined with a creamy coating.

I bought my package of Everyburger Black Cocoa & Vanilla in Little Tokyo at Nijiya Market, which has a good selection of Japanese candies (if you’re in Los Angeles). The package was, however, priced at $2.99 for only 64 grams. Kind of steep for what are sandwich cookies. Bourbon has introduced a “bitter” version before (photo evidence)

The box is quite enticing, it’s very dark brown with a friendly Everyburger logo on the front and enough images that non-Japanese readers can figure out what’s inside.

Part of what prompted me to buy this, aside from my love of Japanese candy, was the internet tizzy generated earlier this fall when Burger King released their Black Burger in Japan. This burger, if you don’t want to look at the photos in that link has a black bun and black cheese.

One thing I noticed I have not been saying is “I wish Oreos were more like burgers.” If I was saying that, I would think that Everyburger is the answer to that request.

The black cocoa flavors, which are very similar to the Oreo cookie, are wonderful. It’s crisp, it has some bitterness and a rich sort of brownie flavor. The center is another story. The texture of the creams is fantastic, it’s like a white chocolate truffle ... but then there was a plastic outgassing note. I thought maybe it was me, but I saw other comments on the internet that mentioned the same thing with all the Everyburger varieties. If I ate them quickly, one after the other, it wasn’t noticeable. But with only eight of them in the package, that can’t go on very long. The other differentiating factor are the little “sesame seeds” on top, which do taste like sesame and add a smoky, nutty note.

They’re cute ... but I’ll probably just stick with Oreos.

Related Candies

1. Glico Pocky Cookie Crush
2. KitKat Otonano Amasa (Adult Taste)
3. Oreo Bitter Bar (Japan)
4. Hershey’s Drops: Milk Chocolate & Cookies n Creme
5. Cookies ‘n’ Creme Showdown
6. Trader Joe’s Mint Joe Joe’s versus Mint Oreos
7. EveryBurger
8. Short & Sweet: Japanese Goodies

New this year for the holidays is Brach’s Candy Cane Candy Corn. I’ve never seen a product that uses the word candy so much in its name.

Now, there’s nothing new about Christmas-themed candy corn, Reindeer Corn has been around at least since 1997, probably longer though perhaps by a different name. What I was intrigued by when I saw this on the shelf was that it’s called Candy Cane Candy Corn. Though the package doesn’t actually describe what’s inside, I was left to hope that it was peppermint flavored until I read the ingredients which list peppermint oil.

It was expensive, for candy corn, at $2.99 for the bag, but it is 15 ounces, which is just shy of a pound ... and more candy corn than I actually needed.

The pieces are actually different from Reindeer Corn, the current Jelly Belly version features a red base, green middle and white tip. These have a red base, white middle and green tip. Honestly, if I was making this, I’d make them in two colors only - red base with white tip and white base with red tip ... the effect of the randomized pieces would be much more candy-cane-ish than the inclusion of green.

The red base, however, uses Red #40 to color it. Which I don’t like. Which disappoints me.

In the package the candies smell pleasantly minty, but not overwhelming.

The pieces are beautifully formed and very nicely made. There were very few broken or incomplete pieces. I always like how Brach’s balances the slender look of their candy corn with a tender bite. They’re soft but not crumbly or sticky.

The mint flavor is like the fondant filling of a peppermint patty. So basically, if you like peppermint patties without the chocolate (and maybe a little food coloring) then you’ll find these refreshing. I compared the minty flavor to the center of a Pearson’s Peppermint Pattie (because that’s what I had sitting around in inventory) and found that the fondant inside the patty is a little fluffier, but otherwise has the same smooth texture and mint density.

I think this is a great idea. It’s a great little after dinner mint that looks great in a bowl but isn’t chalky or messy or too sensitive to heat. I’m shocked that I’m not only giving these a positive review, but going further to recommend them. Often I end a review by “wanting” something else out of the product, like a different flavor version, but this is good the way it is.

(Okay, I still kind of want root beer float candy corn.)

Related Candies

1. Brach’s Candy Corn Nougats
2. Brach’s Carrot Cake Candy Corn
3. Hershey’s Candy Cane Bar
4. Brach’s S’mores Candy Corn
5. Toffee Flavored Chocolate Covered Candy Corn
6. Hershey’s York Pieces
7. Candy Cane Tootsie Pops
8. Spangler Candy Canes

Mars made an exciting announcement earlier this fall that they’re bringing M&Ms Crispy back to American stores starting January 2015.

Some folks at Mars were good enough to send me some samples (though not in the final packaging, so I included the press release version of the package design for reference).

You can read more on Crispy M&Ms in this write up I did a few years ago when I reviewed the European version. Basically, the American version of Crispy M&Ms came out in 1998 and were discontinued in 2005. They had their fans, and current social media allowed them to speak directly with Mars to voice their enthusiasm for the return of the candy.

The Crispy M&M, if you’ve never heard of them, are described as feature a unique, crispy center covered in creamy milk chocolate, enclosed in a colorful candy shell. The center is like a little cereal puff.

The new package will hold only 1.35 ounces, which is more than the Pretzel M&Ms which are only 1.14 ounces but less than the standard Milk Chocolate M&Ms which is 1.69 ounces.

The new version comes in the same color array as regular M&Ms: red, orange, yellow, blue, green and brown.

The pieces are much smaller than I expected, since I’ve had the European versions, which are closer to the size of a Peanut M&M. These are a similar diameter to a Milk Chocolate M&M, but puffy. But they’re also quite irregular. They’re lumpy and sometimes close to spherical, while others are long or pointy in spots.

They’re easy to bite and crunch, and extremely light. The center crunch is kind of like the flavor of a corn flake ... very mild with only a hint of salt and malt. But for the most part they’re neutral. The chocolate is sweet, but otherwise generic. The crunchy shell provides a different sweetness compared to the chocolate and a different more brittle crunchy compared to the centers.

Overall, it’s a pleasant snack that I have no trouble scooping by the handful. But it made me wish for something else ... I wanted a Malted Milk M&M. This is not so hard for Mars to manage, they’d just take the Maltesers they make in the UK and give them a colorful candy shell.

Canadian Crispy M&Ms circa 2006

The earlier versions of Crispy M&Ms used a blue wrapper, but that has since been usurped by the Pretzel M&Ms, so the 2015 version will be in lime green packages. I can’t say for certain that these are better or similar to the originals, as it’s been a long time since I’ve had them. They definitely fit into a niche that’s not well served in the chocolate market right now, which is the crossover with snacks. Here’s what the Crispy M&Ms announcement said about it:

Consumers’ desire for new textures has resulted in the creation of a new Crispy Crunchy Segment within the Chocolate Category. This segment is growing 1.8x the rate of the Chocolate Category and 1.7x the rate of the Non-Chocolate Snack Category with an average of 9.2 percent per year increase in category sales.3 Approximately 40 percent of the Crispy Crunchy Segment growth has been driven by the bite-sized format, of which M&M’S® Brand is the market leader.

M&Ms briefly had Mint Crispy M&Ms as a limited edition.

Crispy M&Ms made in France and purchased in Germany circa 2012

The European Crispy M&Ms featured mostly natural colors for the shells, which meant a slightly muted palette. Natural colors can sometimes bring their own flavors, though, so some folks can tell the difference between the colors (I can usually pick out the yellows and oranges by taste). It would have been interesting, though, for Mars to make this revival of Crispy M&Ms with the European colors, just to see if that would catch in the US.

I’m curious to see how Crispy M&Ms do this time around. The survival rate for revived candies isn’t great, but the success rates for completely new candies aren’t any better. I have no stats for that, just personal experience paging through the blog at home many candies I’ve reviewed over the past 9 years that don’t exist any longer. Maybe read about M&Ms Premiums or compare the early Mega M&Ms that were discontinued, and the new version. 

UPDATE December 19, 2014: Yesterday I was in CVS and found the Crispy M&Ms at the checkout stand.

They are far more consistent (less bumpy) than the samples I used for this review. Though they weren’t any smaller than the smallest from my sample, they were all small pieces. This could just be the way that they were packaged, that the weight difference means that the like sized pieces end up on the bagging platform together. I would need to buy more bags to be sure, but it’s something I’ll keep my eye out for in other reviews. I did eat a whole bag and though it’s not very much at 1.35 ounces, it was filling enough.

Related Candies

1. Trader Joe’s Crispy Rice Milk Chocolate
2. Peanut M&Ms Intense 65% Cacao
3. Ghirardelli Milk & Crisp Chocolate Eggs
4. Crispy M&Ms
5. Pretzel M&Ms
6. M&Ms Premiums
7. Mint Crisp M&Ms (Indiana Jones)
8. M&Ms Line