Candy Blog

Lately in the world of candy, the most exciting news has not been new candies but the reintroduction of discontinued candies. I’m talking about things like Astro Pops and Bonomo’s Turkish Taffy. So it’s not surprising to see a few more favorites coming back. Here are three that we might see later this year:

Name: Regal Crown Sours
Brand: Iconic Candy Brands (Vista Marketing)
Description: Regal Crown is a 9-Piece hard candy roll with individually wrapped pieces which comes in 4 flavors: Sour Cherry, Sour Lemon, Sour Orange and Sour Grape.
Introduction Date: 8/1/2013
Notes: Regal Crown Sours were lovely little candies, thicker than a Life Saver and with no hole. They came in single flavor rolls and each piece was individually wrapped in white waxed paper. I recall purchasing Sour Lemon almost exclusively and even though I was a huge candy fiend, I would always turn down any offer of a Sour Cherry since I didn’t like that flavor.

Name: Reed’s Hard Candies
Brand: Iconic Candy Brands (Vista Marketing)
Description: Reed’s is a 7-Piece hard candy roll with individually wrapped pieces which comes in 4 flavors: Butter Scotch, Root Beer, Cinnamon and Caramel
Introduction Date: 8/1/2013
Notes: Reed’s have not been gone for very long, I still have a few rolls left (not that I would eat them). Cinnamon and Root Beer were always my favorite. They were kettle boiled sweets with virtually no bubbles or voids in them. Like the Regal Crown sours, these are also individually wrapped, though in clear cellophane.

Name: BarNone
Brand: Iconic Candy Brands (Vista Marketing)
Description: BarNone is Back! It is a Chocolate wafer, enrobed in milk chocolate, cascaded with chopped peanuts and finally enrobed in milk chocolate.
Introduction Date: 8/1/2013
Notes: This is one of those lamented candy bars that was ruined before it was discontinued. Hershey’s brought it on the market with great fanfare, and then without any explanation, they changed the wide plank of a candy bar into two sticks and added caramel while taking away the crushed peanuts. Though that was still a candy bar with merit, it wasn’t nearly as spectacular or decadent as the original. My understand is that the original bar had some flaws in the design that made it hard to produce and even harder to get into stores in a sellable condition. The bars were too wide and the filling too soft and slippery; the chocolate coating wasn’t thick enough to give it the structural integrity it needed for its height. Hopefully the new version surmounts those issues while keeping the flavor and texture profile intact. More about the original Hershey’s Bar None here.

Here’s the review of the new Bar None.

What are you waiting to see revived?

Related Candies

1. Astro Pop (Original Flavor)
2. Bonomo’s Turkish Taffy - Chocolate, Vanilla & Strawberry
3. Goodbye Tart n Tinys
4. I Miss: Bar None
5. Goodbye Reed’s
6. Pink Grapefruit Mentos
7. I Miss: Marathon
8. Wonka’s Oompas

Name: Bubble Gum Flavored Peeps Marshmallow
Brand: Just Born
Description: Introducing 10 ct PARTY CAKE Flavored PEEPS® Marshmallow; 10 ct BUBBLE GUM Flavored PEEPS® Marshmallow; 2 ct LEMONADE Flavored PEEPS® Marshmallow and Marshmallow Chick in a Chocolate Egg.
Introduction Date: 04/30/13
Notes: Bubble Gum is a good flavor match for the delicate texture of a marshmallow. I find the whole idea a little odd, but I know myself well enough that I’ll probably be scouring the stores at the end of the month for them. I think the blue Party Cake Peeps have already been spotted in the wild. I’m less interested in Lemonade, but I am curious if they’ll be tangy or sweet like a meringue.

Name: Smarties Gummies
Brand: Smarties
Description: Each chewy piece is two-toned with a creamy white paired with a colorful fruit-themed side. The medley of fruit flavors is inspired by the classic Smarties roll with a few twists! Strawberry, Orange, Lemon, Green Apple, Grape. Smarties Gummies are gluten-free, free of animal products and vegan. However, because they are made in a facility that processes other ingredients, they may contain traces of peanut, milk, wheat and soy.
Introduction Date: 1/1/2013
Note: Since they’re vegan, I have to note that they’re not really gummis, which contain gelatin or some other protein. These use starch as a gelling agent, which is great and all, but creates a different texture.

Name: Cinnamon Lovers
Brand: Gimbal’s Fine Candies
Description: These shiny red adorable heart-shaped candies are made with Real Cinnamon Oil and absolutely burst with scrumptious cinnamon heat. Cinnamon Lovers fun 9 oz laydown bags come packed 12 bags per convenient ready-to-display case. Founded in 1898, all Gimbal’s candies are free of major food allergens and made with pride in U.S.A.
Introduction Date: 09/15/2013
Notes: Gimbal’s made another awesome product called Lava Balls, I’m wondering how similar these will be. I’m also downright obsessed with the See’s Red Hot Hearts, which I’ve often suspected were made by Gimbal’s, so I’d say with wider distribution they’ll be a hit.

Name: ALERT™ Energy Caffeine Gum
Brand: Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company
Description: A portable and approachable tailored energy solution. Contains: SORBITOL MALTITOL, GUM BASE, GLYCEROL, CAFFEINE LESS THAN 2% OF: NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, ACACIA, SOY LECITHIN, MALIC ACID, ASPARTAME, COLORS (TITANIUM DIOXIDE, BLUE 2 LAKE, RED 40 LAKE), SUCRALOSE, ASPARTAME-ACESULFAME, CITRIC ACID, ACESULFAME K, CONFECTIONER’S GLAZE, BHT (TO MAINTAIN FRESHNESS), CARNAUBA WAX. PHENYLKETONURICS: CONTAINS PHENYLALANINE.
Introduction Date: 4/1/2013
Notes: If you’re looking for a caffeinated gum, this one contains 40 mg per piece, which is about a half of a cup of coffee. It also contains a lot of non-sugar sweeteners, including sugar alcohols like sorbitol and artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose and AceK. Wrigley’s has been making a different version called Stay Alert for the US Military for years, but that one contains 100 mg per piece and doesn’t have such a fussy package.

Name: Cinnamo Sticks
Brand: Atkinson Candy Company
Description: We proudly introduce our brand new 0.7 oz Cinnamo Sticks. This great tasting candy is bursting with cinnamon flavor and has wide appeal to kids of all ages. The clever box design features the Cinnamo Bandit character and the delicious taste will keep you coming back for more!
Introduction Date: 01/01/2013
Notes: I can’t decide if this is a cinnamon version of a Chick-o-Stick or just an aerated stick candy. I game to try it.

All images are courtesy of the respective manufacturers.

The world of candy bars has changed a lot in the past 100 years, since the first mass-produced combination bars appeared in stores. At first local candy companies made bars that were distributed regionally. Eventually, after World War II, candy bars became national brands. You could find a Hershey’s Milk Chocolate, Snickers bar or a Butterfinger at most candy stores though there were still plenty of local brands.

Today the candy landscape is dominated by just a few international brands, and the new upstarts that are found on the fringes fit into a different niche now. They’re special interest bars. These are the bars that incorporate local ingredients, fit into special manufacturing concerns like allergens, or in the case of the Eli’s Earth Bars from Sjaak’s Chocolates, they’re vegan (made without any animal-derived ingredients).

The new line of bars is interesting, because they’re not quite versions of already-popular candy bars. The Celebrate Bar is A delicious coconut caramel topped with whole almonds surrounded by chocolate. That doesn’t sound like any other candy bar on shelves today.

How did they make it vegan? Well, here’s the pretty short list of ingredients:

Dairy free milk chocolate (evaporated cane juice, rice milk powder, cocoa butter, cocoa paste, almond milk, whole vanilla bean), brown rice syrup, coconut, evaporate cane juice, almonds, coconut milk, coconut oil.

I’ve had two of these bars now. The first one I photographed and ate. Then I searched months and months to find them in stores again. Both bars looked the same, a long chewy plank of coconut caramel topped with whole almonds and then covered in a vegan milk chocolate. The milk chocolate is made without any dairy ingredients (but in a shared facility, so not appropriate for those with allergies) but uses real cocoa butter.

The chocolate itself is chalky and has a soft cereal note to it. The cocoa flavor is lacking, but overall it’s a pleasant coating. It’s kind of like how I feel about hot cocoa made with water instead of milk; I’ll drink it but I wouldn’t choose it. The chewy center is quite good, a very dense coconut and caramel combination. The caramelized sugar notes are missing, but the texture is great.

It’s an interesting bar and I had to throw my expectations about the milk chocolate out the window. This is not really a vegan milk chocolate, it’s just a very mild chocolate - the rice milk makes it something different in both intensity (which is what milk does to chocolate) and texture (which is kind of sad). I would probably prefer this bar with a true dark chocolate coating, but I understand the goal here was to make it with a milder chocolate. It still doesn’t match up to the expectations I have for milk chocolate, but if I toss those out and just experience this, I was surprised at how much I liked it. (It’s similar to how much I like Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews, even though they don’t use a real chocolate coating.)

Related Candies

1. Six Kilos of Felchlin Arriba 72% Chocolate
2. Sweet Earth Bittersweet Chocolate Drops & Coffee Caramels
3. Dark Angell Organic Candy Bar
4. Go Max Go Mahalo Candy Bar
5. Sunspire Coconut Bars
6. Sweet Earth Chocolate Cups
7. Sjaak’s Vegan Chocolate Assortment

I went to Hawaii last month on vacation and picked up a few locally made candies.

There aren’t many candies made on the Hawaiian Islands, but I found a few, including a set of four of the chocolate bars made by Wow-Wee “Maui’s Candy Bar”. All of the bars are made on the island of Maui by hand and include flavors and inclusions that reflect the flavors of Hawaii. The bars weren’t that expensive, I think I paid $2.50 each for them. They’re 1.75 ounces each. My bars were:
Wow-Wee Dark Chocolate - Hawaiian Coconut
Wow-Wee Milk Chocolate - Hawaiian Macadamia Nuts
Wow-Wee Chocolate - Kona Coffee - Caramel
Wow-Wee Maui Kitch’n Cook’d Potato Chip & Milk Chocolate

The packaging is simple, a foil wrapper with a paper sleeve over that. The bar molding includes a nice version of their logo. They’re not scored to break into specific portions, but breaking the thin and long bar was easy. Folding the foil back up and resealing the bar was also pretty simple (a lot easier than the plastic wrap that comes on most bars these days).

The Wow-Wee Dark Chocolate - Hawaiian Coconut is a simple bar that’s a very easy to eat treat. The dark chocolate is mild, on the semi-sweet level, like some nice chocolate chips. I found it a bit sweet, but it had a nice texture. The coconut flavor dominated the chocolate and the coconut shreds were quite dense. The coconut flavor was tropical but had a fresh grassy note to it that I enjoyed. It tasted real, instead of like it had been soaked in sugar.

The dark chocolate does contain some dairy products and the coconut has the preservative sodium metabisulfite in it. So it’s not appropriate for people with allergies to milk, soy, coconut (obviously) or sulfites.

The Wow-Wee Milk Chocolate - Hawaiian Macadamia Nuts is very simple, it’s just milk chocolate with chips of macadamias in it. The macadamia nuts are dry roasted, and though the ingredients don’t say they’re salted, I detected a little hint of salt in this bar (and the label confirms that there’s 48mg).

The milk chocolate is slightly grainy but pleasant in a fudgy way. It has a woodsy note to it that goes well with the sharp nutty flavor of the macs. It’s a tried and true combination and I can see this being a local favorite over the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Almonds.

The Wow-Wee Chocolate - Kona Coffee - Caramel was the most interesting bar for me just by the listing. It contains real Kona coffee, which is always rich and flavorful. It also contains a different twist, with the addition of caramel.

Again, this is the semi-sweet chocolate, which has a bit of milk in it. The bar smells dark and buttery and whole lot like coffee, kind of like walking into a Starbucks in the morning at the height of the rush. The chocolate has bits of coffee beans mixed in. They’re crunchy and not at all fibery, but still bitter and a little on the oily side. Then scattered throughout the bar are long strips of caramel. The caramel is chewy and stringy and has a distinct toffee note to it. There wasn’t quite enough of it, for my tastes, but I loved the texture.

I’m not usually keen on the coffee beans being mixed into my chocolate, and this bar was no exception. I couldn’t eat much of it in the afternoon or evening because of the caffeine effects, but the balance of flavors and textures was good. It could benefit from darker chocolate, but sometimes you really want something sweet.

The Wow-Wee Maui Kitch’n Cook’d Potato Chip & Milk Chocolate is the last bar and a bit of comfort food. You can see from that cross section that the potato chips are thick crinkle cuts. The potato chips are made in cottonseed oil and have a little touch of salt on them (only 42 mg per serving). The bar does have that chip smell to it, kind of earthy.

The chips are crunchy and have a lot of potato flavor to them. The milk chocolate is very sweet but smooth and well balanced to the chip flavors and textures. I wanted more chips in my bar, but I think that’s how I am with inclusions. They definitely lend a lot of flavor to the bar even when you might not get a bit in every bite.

Wow-Wee Maui makes nine bars in total and all sound like they fit in well with the flavors of the islands. I think they’re a great, inexpensive gift for a friend and a nice treat to eat while you’re visiting.

Related Candies

1. Hershey’s Kisses with Macadamia Nuts
2. Madre Chocolate: Dominican, Jaguar & Rosita de Cacao
3. Hawaiian Host MacNut Crunch
4. Hawaiian Host Maui Caramacs
5. Malie Kai: Waialua Estate Chocolate
6. Big Island Chocolates
7. Mauna Loa Macadamia Kona Coffee Bar

I have a few more Easter items I wanted to include before Sunday. They’re not extraordinary products, but I didn’t want to pass them up.

This year was, I felt, the best we’ve had so far this decade for Easter candy diversity. It was a nice mix of classic products, new flavor twists on existing items and then some exciting new diversions. The stores seemed well stocked, better than I saw them two years ago, for example. It’s an encouraging sign for the economy and for our tummies.

Just Born is celebrating 60 years of their iconic Peeps marshmallow candies. They’ve come a long way from the early years when they came in plain yellow. Now they’re available in all the colors of the rainbow and special flavors.

To mark the anniversary, they’ve created a 60th Anniversary version in Vanilla Creme flavor. They’re the individual Peeps (not a conjoined row) and feature little sparkly flecks of multi colored candies, like edible confetti.

I prefer an uncolored Peep, as I think the artificial colorings get in the way of the pure sugary flavor. (Ghost Peeps, for that reason, are the best.)

The Vanilla Creme is a soft flavor, artificial and lacking in the complexity of a nice Tahitian vanilla pod, but still it has a soft and comforting flavor that cuts a bit of the sugary sweetness. They’re bouncy and fluffy and grainy. The little confetti add a little bit of a crunch, but mostly they dissolve quickly on the tongue.

These would be a fun version available all year round. I also heard that they’re releasing Birthday Cake Peeps which are a turquoise blue and yellow cake flavored. (Which is also a great idea for a year-round Peep.)

Rating: 7 out of 10

I admit that I bought these because of the package.

They’re just egg shaped gumballs.

Smarties Bubble Gum Eggs are made by Ford Gum in the USA with real sugar, there are no artificial sweeteners in there. I bought them for $1.49 at Cost Plus World Market, but then I saw them at the 99 Cent Only Store for a dollar.

They’re passably good. They come in different colors, but I really didn’t get a sense that they were different flavors, all vaguely and pleasantly fruity. They were soft enough to bite but have a satisfyingly crunchy shell. Each piece is a good size for chewing, two make for a little too much. The sugar takes a while to be dissolved, so there’s no bubble blowing right away. Even after the sugar is gone, they’re a little too stiff and snappy to blow a good bubble with.

At other times of the year, they’re also available as plain old gumballs. I bought them before and feel the same way about them. They’re okay. Mostly I like them because they’re pretty. I just chew the sugar out, spit out the gum and start up with a new piece.

Rating: 5 out of 10

I noticed this new Hershey’s chocolate bunny introduced in 2011 called Snapsy Snap-Apart Bunny.

The concept is that the bunny is flat instead of dimensional, and pre-sectioned to break apart easily. The version I purchased, for a buck, is 2 ounces, or about the size of a King Size bar. It comes apart into five pieces. Each is a good size for dipping into peanut butter, which was always my favorite way to eat my Easter Rabbit.

This is one of those products that solves a problem you didn’t know you had. I’m sure if this were sold on infomercials, the first part would demonstrate all the frustrating things about a sumptuous solid chocolate bunny and how hard it is to eat, how children fight over it and what it should be named.

I don’t have much to say except that it’s a rabbit shaped Hershey’s bar. It’s made from Hershey’s marginally satisfying chocolate, the same stuff in Hershey’s Kisses, Hershey’s Miniatures and those addictive little Hershey’s Candy Coated Eggs. While I don’t think Hershey’s Milk Chocolate is good chocolate, it’s mighty fine candy. It’s fudgy, grainy and tangy and comforting.

It’s also made in Mexico. (The Candy Professor had a bit of a rant about Snapsy.)

Rating: 5 out of 10

Related Candies

1. Short and Sweet: Easter Bites
2. Easter Candy Spotting 2013
3. Twix Egg
4. Ferrero Eggs: Hazelnut & Cocoa
5. Wonka SweeTarts Chicks, Ducks & Bunnies (2012)
6. Milka L’il Scoops