Candy Blog

Candy and toys are a classic combination. It’s surprising that there hasn’t been a candy version of the Plastic Green Army Guys before Albanese introduced them in the early 2000s. These guys, you know these guys, right? They were sold by the pound and featured all sorts of pre-posed soldiers doing soldier-like things.

This version of the candy features all opaque green candies in four different poses. They’ve even assigned names: “Bazooka” Bob, “Forrest Fight” Steve, “GI” Johnny, “Sniper” Scott, and “Rifleman” Rich! They’re green apple flavored.

I got this 4.5 ounce bag for $1.99 at Powell’s Sweet Shoppe in Paso Robles. It was the first store I saw them in and was a little surprised at the price, considering the fact that I can buy a half pound of Albanese other gummi products at the 99 Cent Store for a buck. But hey, these were cute and unique.

I don’t have much else to say beside the fact that they’re in fact green, look exactly like plastic army guys (except they’re only about 2 1/2 D instead of 3D because they have a flat back). They’re green apple flavored, soft and chewy. Above is Sniper Scott.

So enjoy the photos of the Gummy Army Guys. This is Rifleman Rich.

I’m guessing this is Forrest Fight Steve. I thought maybe he was Grenade Gary. Or maybe Shotput Sheldon.

Apparently Albanese also makes a smaller version of these in red and green - but they’re transparent instead of the opaque army green. Albanese makes a lot of other fun shapes in their gummis, including fighter jets, snakes, butterflies, bears, rings and fish.

And that brings us to the last one: Bazooka Bob.

On the whole, a quality product. A little more expensive than the other really well priced Albanese gummis, but still a good deal, especially when you need a themed item. I’m not as keen on the green apple flavor - I prefer their citrus and pineapple.

Related Candies

1. Grave Grabber Gummy Candy
2. All Gummies Gourmet Fruity Fish (Swedish Fish knock-off)
3. Albanese Gummi Butterflies
4. Gummy Fishies
5. Krunchy Bears
6. Gummi Lightning Bugs

The world of gummis is filled with candy that looks like other things: soda bottles, centipedes, spiders, body parts (brains, whole hands, eyeballs, lips), dinosaurs, rabbits, birds, flowers, butterflies, toads, frogs, sharks, fast food, fruits, vegetables, cracked eggs,  and of course bears.

Sour Gummy Pop Corn from Flix Candy looks like popcorn. But they go one further, instead of making it popcorn flavored, or some other yellow themed flavor they’ve made them apple, strawberry, popcorn & watermelon. You don’t know until you eat them.

The package is cute, it looks like the tall box of popcorn that they used to sell at the fair and probably at the movies before people starting consuming it by the bucketful.

Here’s the first thing: a caramel corn flavored gummi sounds fabulous to me. It wouldn’t have a year ago, but after the caramel gummis I reviewed last week I truly believe you could make a great Cracker Jack flavored gummi with real molasses, caramelized sugar and milk.

This isn’t that ... so I’ll have to adjust my expectations.

I thought maybe I could tell the difference between them by smelling them, but they all smelled like Bed, Bath and Beyond (a mixture of watermelon, strawberry and carpeting).

Watermelon (yellow) was tart and fresh, though more sour than I actually like my watermelon to be. The bounce of the gummi was satisfying and fresh.

Strawberry (yellow) was sweeter at first and had a good berry flavor but then descended into sour.

Apple (yellow) if that’s what I tasted, this one was the most sizzling of the, it was an odd sort of burnt note along with that chemical green apple flavor of Jolly Ranchers.

The Pop Corn gummi was either elusive or so similarly flavored that I couldn’t tell. After finding the first three flavors in about 8 tries, I ended up just biting the rest of the pieces in the package. Something smelled vaguely like artificial butter flavor, but nothing tasted like it (but who wants sour buttered pop corn?).

These weren’t that good for me, but I get that when watching a movie the look of the candy isn’t that important since I can’t see it anyway. But the flavor mix with apple and watermelon wasn’t high on my list either.

Related Candies

1. Au’some Easter 3-Dees Gummy
2. Trolli Little Green Men
3. Puffy Candy Corn
4. Wonka Puckerooms
5. Big Bite Gummy Bear
6. Albanese Gummi Butterflies
7. Krunchy Bears

Nobel  is not a brand of Japanese candy I know well, though I immediately have affection for them because they make the Super Lemon sour candies that have the charming packages.

A couple of years ago I picked up a package of Puccho that was creme brulee flavored (technically I think it was called Baked Puccho - Custard Cream). I love it so much and though I know it was a limited edition flavor, I’ve been looking for something like it. A chewy, milky and caramelized sort of thing.

When I saw this little package in Little Tokyo I thought I’d give it a go. It’s called simply Nama Carmel Gummy. I could palpate the pieces within the bag and could tell that they were firm but distinct pieces, like tiny little fleshy bricks.

It smells sweet and rather woodsy, like brown sugar and milk. The texture is soft and bouncy but quite firm. There’s a light dusting of what I’m guessing is corn starch, so they’re not shiny.

Honestly, they don’t look like much, but they’re quite dreamy. Instead of being caramel flavored, they’re actually made with milk and cream ... that’s not zinc oxide making it look milky, it is milky. It’s a toasty flavor, not too sweet. The texture is bouncy and chewy more like a Haribo than a Trolli. They’re crazy good though I admit they’re strange. It’s really like eating something that’s a cross between butterscotch pudding and jello. I would definitely buy these again if I can find them.

Of course I can’t find them online.

Related Candies

1. Meiji Pokka Coffee Caramel
2. Meiji Gummy Choco
3. UHA Puccho Custard
4. Das French Salted Caramels
5. Fran’s Gray Salt Caramels

You’ve probably noticed by now that I’m not a big gum chewer. But I’ve had to do a lot of thinking at work lately, and there have been studies that show that chewing gum enhances learning and reduces stress.

I found this bag of 75 pieces of Mike and Ike Fruit Flavored Bubblegum in my package of samples from the National Confectioners Association that arrived in advance of the Sweets & Snacks Expo later this month. I’ve seen these on store shelves already. They’re little bubble gum pieces in the same five flavors as Mike and Ike: strawberry, lime, lemon, orange and cherry.

The bag is an odd portion, it’s 4.25 ounces but a serving size is 2 pieces. Of course that’s just a recommendation. My mode of gum consumption is to chew it quickly until it loses its flavor, toss and start with a new piece/pieces. A portion for me is about 20 pieces for a session. (There are 5 calories per rod.)

The gum itself is made by Ford Gum under license from Just Born, makers of Mike and Ike, Hot Tamales and Marshmallow Peeps.

The rods are just about the same size as the classic Mike and Ike. The only differences are that they’re opaque and more regularly shaped. The outer coating was a light candy shell, not completely crunchy but it had a satisfying grain that created a good texture at the start of the chew and it also released a lot of flavor into the mix.

Orange was better than I expected. I was afraid it would be too tangy and reminiscent of Aspergum. It is a nice citrus flavor, tart at first but then a sweet orange flavor. It hangs onto the zest notes the longest, though it’s not as though it’s a long time at all.

Lemon started out sweet, then got a nice tangy lemonade vibe going on, then all the flavor just up and left.

Lime is all the things I love and hate about lime. It’s metallic and bitter but also zesty and tangy. The lime flavor is rather realistic but part of me is wondering why I’d want to chew lime gum.

Strawberry is fun because it’s sweet and a little like lemon with its tart bite. It seemed to be the one with the best bubble blowing, but that might have been because I chewed it the longest.

Cherry looked a lot like Strawberry much of the time, just a smidge darker. It was like a LifeSavers Wild Cherry gum rod. I liked it, even though it was medicinal, syrupy and rather bitter towards the end. It was also thin and soupy in parts and never really made good bubbles.

I liked chewing mine in pairs. Two pieces made a perfect portion for later bubble blowing. I was mostly a purist, but occasionally mixed the flavors together. Of course all citrus go together and strawberry with lemon is good.

I’d say I liked these better than actual Mike and Ike, but that’s not saying much as a I find the jelly rods a bit bland. Fruit flavored gum made with actual sugar isn’t that easy to find.

They also make a Hot Tamales version of the gum, but it’s made with artificial sweeteners, so I gave it away for a cinnamon gum fan.

Related Candies

1. Dubble Bubble Chewola Bubble Gum Crayons
2. Classic Gums: Black Jack, Clove, Beemans & Teaberry
3. Mike and Ike Alex’s Lemonade Stand
4. Tiny Size Chiclets
5. Gold Mine Gum
6. Short & Sweet: Gums
7. Mike and Ike Tangy Twister

For over eighty years folks enjoyed a simply little candy called Flicks. They were disks of chocolate (or mockolate) like large chocolate chips sold in foil wrapped tubes. Great for munching at the movies or sharing with the kids.

They were originally made by Ghirardelli starting in 1904 and over those decades they never changed. Seriously, never altered the manufacturing equipment at all. So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that eventually the machines broke down and couldn’t be easily repaired. Instead of developing a new process Ghirardelli simply stopped making them. But folks missed them, so after sitting idle, in 2004 the Tjerrild family bought the trademark and rights to the candy and set about repairing the old machines. Though the actual machinery is no longer in Racine, Wisconsin, but now in Fresno, California - they still use the same Ghirardelli mockolate formula.

The package is simple. It’s a cardboard tube covered in foil that wraps around and into the ends to close them up. Then they’re covered in plastic wrap to protect the freshness. (I believe they’re change it this year and putting the candies inside into a plastic baggy and getting rid of the overwrap.) The tube is about 5.25 inches long and about 1 inch in diameter, about the same as half of a paper towel core. The foil comes in four colors, for no particular reason I guess: red, blue, gold and green.

Sugar, fractionated palm kernel oil, non fat milk, milk, cocoa, partially hydrogenated palm oil., cocoa processed with alkali, sorbitan tristearate, soy lecithin, salt, artificial flavors.

I admit that I’ve been hesitant to review these. I’ve had Flicks before, probably 30 years ago and recall them being cheap tasting (even then I knew the difference between real chocolate and substitutes). But enough people were pining for them that they were brought back after 15 years out of production, so the narrative of something being brought back from the dead is compelling.

The disks are between 1/2 and 3/4 of an inch in diameter.

The pieces don’t smell like much at all and look rather waxy. The texture at first isn’t very encouraging, it’s waxy and immediately gives off sweet and powder milk notes. But then it gets a little creamier as it melts, it’s a little malty, a little bit of salt in there. It’s very sweet. They’re not so much a chocolate as a simple kind of mockolate tablet. I can’t say that I love them, but didn’t mind eating them as much as I thought.

Overall, I have very little interest eating these when there are so many better things I can do with 220 calories and $1.39 that don’t contain palm oil. Ghirardelli makes such nice baking chips, it’s a shame these can’t just be those.

Here’s a little factory video, which is so utterly charming that I forgot I didn’t like them that much.

Related Candies

1. Go Max Go Jokerz Candy Bar
2. R.M. Palmer Quax - The Yummy Ducky
3. Goldie’s Premium Carob Bar
4. Kissables (Reformulated)
5. Smooth n Melty
6. Sixlets & Limited Edition Dark Chocolate Flavored Sixlets