Candy Blog

When it comes to classic American candies, the fruit slices are right up there at the top. They’re a simple mix of sugar, fruit flavors and a bit of thickener in the form of corn starch. You can even make them at home, but since the ingredients are so inexpensive they’re a great value as a store bought item.

Brach’s is currently updating their line of candies with new packaging and some new formulas. They’re also adding a twist to some old favorites, including the fruit slices with their new Brach’s Mandarin Orange Slices. In this case they’re calling them Mandarin Orange Jellies Made with Real Fruit Juice.

Personally, I’ve always loved Orange Slices, and their companion jelly candy, the Spearmint Leaves. I never really thought they needed much tinkering, though the best version I think I’ve had are the gourmet Gumdrops that Whole Foods sells that are made with all natural flavors and colors along with some more exotic flavors.

These fruit jellies are lovely to look at. They’re about the size of an actual mandarin section in this case, though a bit more stylized in their format with heavy little segments making them rounded and bulbous. The color is quite orange. I even noticed that the sugar sanding on the outside is colored. (Most jelly slices just have a plain, large grain sugar sanding to keep them from sticking together.)

These were obviously fresh, since they’re a new product. They’re soft but still firm enough to have a stiff bite to them. The smell was great, just opening the bag (or even re-opening the bag) was like peeling a fresh orange. As a jelly they’re smooth and dissolve easily in the mouth. (A gelatin based candy would be chewier and have a longer melting process.) The flavor has many different elements. There’s the typical orange juice note which has the distinct orange flavor and a mellow note of tartness. Then there’s a large hit of zest to the whole thing, a slight bitterness that pops in and then disappears. Incredibly there is something rather “mandarin” about the flavor that made it a bit different from the generic orange. The other item of note here is that the sugar sanding has flavor as well, just a hint of the zest.

They’re soothing. They’re not the most exciting candy in the world, but even with all of my choices (and believe me, at any given moment I have at least fifty different things to choose from), I still found myself eating these.

It’s hard to sell folks on a brand name item for a classic candy where there are so many different brands and generics available. I don’t know if I’d always reach for Brach’s when it came to Spearmint Leaves or Orange Slices, but if the price is the same or close enough, these are a step above.

These are the new Haribo Saft Baeren (Juice Bears). They come in a slightly different flavor list than the traditional Haribo Bears, like pear. They’re also made with natural food colorings. 

I’m a bit behind at my day job and won’t be able to update until next week, but I thought I could at least leave you with some tasty eye candy. Starting next week I’ll have copious coverage of the Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago.

It’s just a barley sugar chicken.

Name: Tic Tac Strawberry Fields plus Cherry Cola & Lemon Lime Fizz
Brand: Ferrero USA, Inc
Description: Tic Tac Strawberry Fields is our newest fruit flavor sensation! Tic Tac Strawberry Fields is a blend of sweet and tart strawberry flavored Tic Tac mints, the perfect way to escape into pure sweet indulgence!  Later in the summer try our refreshing, fizzing and electrifying new flavors for Summer 2012; Cherry Cola and Lemon Lime Fizz. Experience them and satisfy your thirst in a new way! 
Introduction Date: 6/1/2011 & 7/1/2011
Notes: Tic Tacs are veering away from mint these days with fruity flavors. Strawberry Fields strikes me as an ideal flavor adaptation, I’m surprised it hasn’t existed up until now. I’m really excited by the soda flavors and hope that maybe we can get a Root Beer someday. (The copy I was given says that the Cherry Cola & Lemon Lime Fizz were to be introduced both July 2011 and Summer 2012, I don’t know if one, both or neither are accurate.)

Name: Gimbal’s SOUR LOVERS
Brand: Gimbal’s Fine Candies
Description: NEW Sour Lovers! Sour Lovers is made with Real Fruit Juice and bursts with Real Sour Flavor. Sour through and through, Sour Lovers is High in Antioxidant Vitamin C with each serving supplying 25% Daily Vitamin C Requirement. Sour Lovers heart shaped candies feature 12 awesome true-to-life flavors! This unique and delicious assortment includes Pomegranate, Strawberry Daiquiri, Sour Blueberry, Mango, Georgia Peach, Fuji Apple, Bing Cherry, Meyer Lemon, Watermelon, Grapefruit, Tangerine and Baja Margarita.
Introduction Date: 03/01/11
Notes: This continues the line of Gimbal’s “Lovers” series of large jelly bean style candies they’ve been introducing over the past three seasons, the first was Cherry Lovers followed by Honey Lovers. I was so intrigued by this one though, since it includes Grapefruit and Tangerine that I ordered some online and I hope to have them next week for review. These appear to be sour sanded candies, not a smooth jelly bean shell, but I won’t know until I get to see them up close. Also of note, Gimbal’s facilities are free of the eight major food allergens and are Kosher, so they’re very inclusive of most folks with food origin/ingredient/manufacturing concerns.

Name: PEEPS Chocolate Dipped Chicks in a Caramel Flavor
Brand: Just Born
Description: Chocolate Dipped Chicks for all seasons in a variety of different colors and/or flavors. They are all available in both Milk and Dark Chocolate.
Season Availability:
Easter offers Chocolate Dipped Chicks coated in yellow sugar.
Valentine’s Day offers Chocolate Dipped Chicks in Strawberry Creme Flavor.
Halloween offers Chocolate Dipped Chicks coated in orange sugar.
Christmas offers Chocolate Dipped Chicks in a Caramel Flavor.
Introduction Date: 7/1/2011
Notes: I think the chocolate flavored dark chocolate dipped PEEPS Chicks were the best Peeps ever. The caramel ones sound intriguing, especially if there’s a hint of salt in them. Next they should make an Espresso version. I say should as a suggestion, not a prediction.

Name: Quench Grape
Brand: Mueller Sports Medicine
Description: Best-Selling Sports Gum in America now available in Juicy New Flavor! New Quench Grape will be added to our current assortment of mouthwatering flavors - Original lemon, juicy orange and tangy fruit. In addition, Quench is unveiling a whole new look to its products to coincide with the addition of grape with eye-catching packaging and merchandising displays.
Introduction Date: 06/01/2011
Notes: I did not even know there was a category of “sports gum.” Grape Bubble Yum was one of my favorites as a kid, even though I can’t stand it as an adult ... and I also chewed my fair share of Quench when I was a kid as well. So you can imagine the waves of nostalgia this combination is generating for me. (Of course I expect that would be short lived, I’d chew a few pieces and be satisfied until the next nostalgic kick was engaged some years later ... I’m probably not the target market.)

All images courtesy of the respective manufacturer.

Related Candies

1. Candy Tease: Sweets & Snacks Expo 2011 Part 1
2. Candy Tease: August 2010
3. Candy Tease: Just Born 2010
4. Candy Tease: Sweets & Snacks Expo 2010 - Part 2
5. Candy Tease: Sweets & Snacks Expo 2010

I love the combination of chocolate and cookies. The KitKat bar is a great confectionery combination of the two. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve craved sweets less and come to appreciate texture and taste a bit more. So an ordinary milk chocolate KitKat can be a little sweet for many snacking situations (and there are many snacking situations).

I picked up the KitKat Otonano Amasa, which is the “adult taste” version - a little less sweet and with more cookie texture.

KitKats from Japan come in smart little boxes instead of plain old plastic packaging. I suppose it’s wasteful, but they do protect the contents well. On the back there’s a little “To” and “From” section for gifting.

Inside the box are two individually packaged two-finger pieces. Each is listed as 95 calories each.

The bars are just like any other KitKat, cream filled wafers covered in chocolate. But the chocolate here has little bits of dark chocolate cookies incorporated. The taste is similar to the Oreo Bitter Bar I tried recently. But in this case the texture at the front is is the creaminess of the chocolate. The flavor is slightly bitter like charcoal or, well, Oreos. The crispy wafers are light and flavorless.

It was a great combination, I liked it so much that I bought another bag of the snack sized ones. Which is goofy because they’re ridiculously expensive for KitKats. The package here was $2.25 for 1.19 ounces, the bag was $5.89 for 5.29 ounces. I could get some fine chocolates (well, See’s) for about $16 a pound.

Which is what leads me to the trepidation I have about the bar. The ingredients.

Ingredients: Palm Oil, Sugar, Wheat Flour, Cocoa Powder, Salt, Cacao Mass, Lactose, Powered Skim Milk, Cocoa Butter, Yeast, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Baking Powder, Flavoring, Yeast.

Palm oil. That’s what the bar is. Most of the time I find palm oil candies to be greasy and stiff, but this was really well done for a rainforest destroying confection. Oh, and palm oil is bad for you. Far worse than cocoa butter. So if I’m going for a candy that has a whopping 160 calories per ounce (which is about as high as the scale goes), it’d better be exceptional. So while I enjoyed this candy physically like it was a 10 out of 10, the price and ingredients knock it back to 8 out of 10.

Related Candies

1. Oreo Bitter Bar (Japan)
2. Russell Stover Cookies ‘n Cream Nest
3. Eat with your Eyes: KitKat Cookies Plus (Japan)
4. KitKat Dark
5. Q.Bel Double Dark Chocolate Wafer Bar
6. Cookies ‘n’ Creme Showdown
7. KitKat Bitter & White
8. Twix Dark Chocolate