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7-Worth ItMonday, July 19, 2010
Goody Good Stuff Sour Mix & Match
I picked up this sample of their Sour Mix & Match at some trade show and have been hanging onto it until it hit the stores. Now here’s the thing, their marketing says that these are vegan gummis. Instead of gelatin, which is made from pigs, cows or fish, Goody Good Stuff is using a new gelling agent called gellan. (I first noticed the ingredient in Halal Mentos.) Gellan is made from bacteria, not vertebrates. It sounds like a great idea, however in practice gellan is closer to agar (that jelly stuff in petri dishes) that’s made from seaweed than gelatin. Gelatin is a protein; gellan is polysaccharide. They’re simply different, they do different things and behave in different ways. At first glance jelly candies and gummis look very similar, but they don’t behave the same way. Gummis tear sharply - you can pull a gummi apart and it will make flat edges where it breaks. Pull apart a jelly and it just, well, pulls. It doesn’t bounce, though sometimes it might jiggle nicely. The great thing is that both carry fruit flavors really well, they create a smooth texture and often a glass-like appearance. So with all that chemistry aside, I’ve got a handful of candy to taste. There are quite a few different pieces in this mix and match, but I could only review three versions because I needed at least three tries to taste the flavors. They’re like little bulbous, rounded planks - about an inch and a half long. Without any clue as to what the flavors are supposed to be, and that these are British (which is always a little different in the fruity flavors), I can only describe what I’ve got. Green & Peach - it tastes like peach. Both ends taste the same as far as I’m concerned, but there’s a weird “ketchup” note to it that I find a little disturbing. The peach is tangy and light with a good sour bite at the start. The jelly center is smooth and doesn’t stick too much. Red & Yellow - tastes like strawberry lemonade. The lemon is strong, sour and zesty with a slight floral note I attribute to strawberry. Orange & Blue - is shocking. The blue is amazing for a natural product. It’s zesty and well rounded and tastes mostly like grapefruit but maybe with some pineapple thrown in. For those who were curious, here’s what’s inside:
I feel like kids or grown ups who have had true gummis before may be disappointed with the texture based on my expectations. They also make a few other products that I’m quite eager to try: Strawberry and Cream, Cola Breeze, Sour Fruit Salad, Tropical Fruit, Koala Gummy Bears while the ones that I found less interesting were Summer Peaches and Cheery Cherries. These should be available in Stop & Shop on the East Coast and Booths and ASDA in the UK. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:31 am All Natural • Candy • Goody Good Stuff • Jelly Candy • Kosher • Sour • 7-Worth It • United Kingdom • Friday, July 16, 2010
Jelly Belly Cocktail ClassicsOne of the most popular new items at the Sweets & Snacks Expo was Jelly Belly’s Cocktail Classics mix. The five flavor mix reminds us that It’s five o’clock somewhere (and has trademarked the phrase, to boot). They’re based on popular fruity cocktails: Pina Colada, Strawberry Daiquiri, Mojito, Peach Bellini and Pomegranate Cosmo. They’re non-alcoholic and available in a variety of packages like 9 ounce bags, 1 pound tubs (best value) and this gift box that actually guarantees that you get the same amount of each flavor. Pina Colada - a Pina Colada is a fruity tropical blend of strained pineapple and coconut cream along with rum. Strawberry Daiquiri - a plain daiquiri is rum, lime juice and sugar (served over ice or chilled). Later it became a slush drink or frozen daiquiri. A strawberry version varies and can be the frozen variety with just a few strawberries thrown into the blender but sometimes strawberry liqueur is added. Mojito - this drink has become very popular lately, it’s a mix of white rum, sugar (preferably cane juice), lime, seltzer water and muddled mint. Peach Bellini - is a mix of peach puree and sparkling wine.
As with most Jelly Belly flavor mixes, I love the quality of the jelly beans themselves. In this instance there were really only two I cared to eat, the Pomegranate Cosmo and Pina Colada, but given dozen of other great flavors that Jelly Belly makes, I’d still stick with the citrus mix. For me, it wouldn’t make sense to buy this mix. As a theme it’s fun and certainly pretty. The value for the box shown here is pretty bad - it’s 4.5 ounces and costs $5.99 on the Jelly Belly website - that’s over $21 a pound. So if you’ve got to have these, get them in the tub or bulk. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:21 am Candy • Review • Jelly Belly • Jelly Candy • Kosher • 7-Worth It • United States • Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Gimbal’s Scottie Dogs
Their new Scottie Dogs licorice are also all natural. That means real licorice and anise extract and no artificial colors in there to muck up the flavor. The package is classy and kind of European. The description on the front talks about the history of licorice and how the Pontefract Monastery in England spread the popularity of licorice candies. There’s a picture of the English castle, but then there’s some tartan there on the side, you know, for the Scottie dog. A little confusing. But hey, it’s candy, not a documentary. When I got a black dog earlier this year, I resisted the temptation to give her a licorice themed name. Scottie would have been my choice (we had a cat named licorice when I was a kid). Of course she’s not a Scottie dog, nor a male and not even close to looking like James Doohan. Which probably would have been perfect. We named her Maya instead. The pieces are thick and well molded. They’re about 1 inch tall (when they’re standing on their feet) and 1.25 inches from nose to tail. This version of licorice isn’t based on wheat or molasses, so it’s a bit more one note. The base is corn syrup and sugar with a bit of starch for thickener. The texture is quite smooth when they’re dissolved as a lozenge. But they’re soft enough to chew, and soft enough to stick in my teeth. The flavor is mostly anise but there’s a little hint of the woodsy and glycerin smooth licorice. They’re fresh and not filling or bitter. I enjoyed them, but it took several months for me to get through the bag, especially when I had other licorice items to choose from.
On the whole, I think I prefer my licorice with either more texture or more of a meaty bite. It’s purely a preference, but I like molasses with my licorice. These are certainly cute and great for themed parties and favors. They’re also a nice shape and size for snacking at movies (why don’t they come in theater boxes?). Obviously they’re a great choice for folks who like licorice but can’t tolerate the gluten in the more common wheat-based chews like Twizzlers or Red Vines. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:15 am Candy • Gimbal's Candy • Kosher • Licorice Candy • 7-Worth It • United States • Tuesday, July 13, 2010
NewTree Dark Milk
More recently they’ve been doing herbal infusions with alpha omega 3 fatty acids - so going more towards a nutraceutical than a simple decadent indulgence. One of the bars that seemed more mainstream is this NewTree Dark Milk 51% Cocoa I found at Target. It boasts 3x more fiber, a full 51% cacao content and 30% less sugar than regular milk chocolate. I don’t usually expect my chocolate to do anything other than be chocolatey, but I thought I’d give it a try. The box is simple, an easy to open tab top with a thin silver foil around the bar itself. The first thing I noticed was that the bar didn’t look anything like the package image. It doesn’t say New Tree on the pieces. It’s just a generic bar. It’s a thin tablet, six by four. The snap is good, a little softer than a straight dark but not as soft as some fudgier milks I’ve had. The color is between a dark and a milk. There’s a definite dairy scent to it, more than a cocoa note. The texture is smooth for the most part and rather light on the tongue. It’s a little sticky and has a cooling effect as it melts. It’s slightly chalky and every once in a while there’s a little fiber to it, or maybe it’s grit. The cocoa notes are smoky and toasted, a light caramel tone and quite a bit of dairy. The ingredients list is quite long: sugar, cacao mass, pure cacao butter, (inulin & oligofructose, dextrin) added for fiber, whole milk powder, natural vanilla flavor, vanilla bean powder extract, soy lecithin. The trick with this bar is that the fiber takes up space that would ordinarily be occupied by sugar, milk or chocolate. The sweetness level of the chocolate is perfect, so the only reason to add more sugar would be because it’s cheaper than chocolate or milk. It doesn’t need more milk and any more chocolate and it wouldn’t really be milk chocolate any longer. For folks watching their sugar intake, this is an impressive fete. There are 13 grams of sugar in a 40 gram serving, but also 2 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber & 14 grams of fat and only 170 calories (about 20 fewer per ounce than standard milk chocolate). It doesn’t taste like a compromise and is actually a nice, less sweet but still rich experience. I ended up eating the whole bar, and not just because I was reviewing it. It’s a bit expensive, but again, for something that’s slightly better for you than the usual candy aisle fare that doesn’t taste like “healthy candy” it would be a nice option. Related Candies
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Snickers Peanut Butter Squared
First, it’s a new product in the Snickers line, not a limited edition. It’ll come out in December, but they’re obviously gearing up for a big push if they were distributing fully packaged samples more than six months in advance. There are a lot of things that are different about this bar. The packaging is a little flatter, shorter and wider than the standard Snickers “log” package. The yellow background reminded me of the recently discontinued Snickers Cruncher. Inside the package are two squares. See, it’s not even a bar, it’s two pieces. They’re 1.25 inches square and about .75 inches high. There’s a nice ripple on the top. They’re nicely made, beautiful to look at when placed on a plate and enjoyed like a fine chocolate. What’s different isn’t just that this is a smaller candy. It’s 1.78 ounces total (.89 ounces per piece) and the package says that you can “twist wrap” to keep the second piece fresh. It might be about portion control. There are only 250 calories in this package compared to the 2.07 ounce classic Snickers that clocks in at 271 calories. So you’re paying more, perhaps gaining the ability to stop halfway. But it’s not just the shape that’s different. Inside is a radical change for Snickers lovers. It’s a base of peanut butter nougat layered with a dry but dense peanut butter layer then a thin layer of caramel all covered in milk chocolate. So the caramel is minimized and the peanut butter portion is upped ... but it feels like there are fewer actual peanuts. It smells just like a Snickers. Biting into it, it’s not as thick and the layers aren’t as distinct. The caramel is just a thin layer that’s a little tougher than the others. The peanut butter and nougat weren’t very distinct. It was a little salty and very peanutty. The chocolate was creamy. But there was something just kind of bland for me. I missed the decadent chew of the caramel, especially because it combined with the other flavors to create something new and wonderful in the mouth. However, there’s a much more intense peanut butter experience; the texture is far smoother than, say, a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, but not quite creamy. I had two of these to try, so I got a pretty good sense of them. If you were a fan of the Snickers Nut ‘n’ Butter Crunch or Snickers Fudge, which I consider drier bars because they don’t have caramel, then this might be a good substitution. I actually prefer the Snickers Xtreme, which goes the other direction. It’s a bar with just caramel and peanuts. It was a limited edition item that will return in September 2010. Other views & reviews on the Snickers Peanut Butter Squared: Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:15 pm Candy • Mars • Caramel • Chocolate • Kosher • Nougat • Peanuts • 7-Worth It • United States • Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Wonka Whipped Wingers Gummies
The hook here is that the texture of the candies, they’re “whipped” like the base of the Squishy Sploshberries and some other Haribo and Katje gummis that I’ve had from Europe. Like the other Wonka Gummies, these are free of artificial colors and flavors and are made with fruit juice (apple juice). They come in four shapes and four flavors: Watermelon, Orange, Pineapple and Tropical Punch. The gummis come in four shapes: hornet, beetle, butterfly and midget dragonflies. Okay, I made those names up, I’m not an entomologist - I’m a candy reviewer. The foamy texture is like a dense marshmallow, not quite fluffy but with a bouncy latex quality. This made them a little lighter than expected, so while the package had only 5.5 ounces in it, they definitely looked like “more” than a comparable non-fluffed product. (The standard packages for the Sluggles and Puckerooms come in 6.5 ounce peg bags.) The candies were matte, soft and pillowy. They didn’t stick, which was nice for just setting them around on my keyboard. Orange was perfectly ordinary. Tangy and juicy, but with a very bland flavor that reminded me of flavored drink powder. Watermelon was pink and quite a surprise. I enjoyed it because there was no artificial metallic chemical note. It wasn’t quite like real watermelon, it was actually somewhere between a generic punch flavor and green apple but with a light floral note. Tropical Punch was the soft purple one. The flavor was just like punch, a soft and non-distinct sort of thing with a little berry tang to it and a citrus note. It wasn’t my favorite of the set, but I also on got four of them in the bag. Pineapple was yellow and the one I was looking forward to the most. It’s floral and tropical but the tartness is more along the lines of canned pineapple. Mild and merely pleasant in the whole scheme of things. I enjoyed the chewy foamy texture (up until the point it gave me the burps). It seemed to give it a creamy texture without any actual dairy products in it. It was an odd sensation though, because they were squishy and pliable, it was like chewing on boneless baby toes (which I know is pretty tempting most of the time anyway). I loved the shapes and the colors plus the fact that Wonka is making an effort to create candies with kid and tween appeal without artificial ingredients. The flavors weren’t as intense as I would have wanted, but the novelty of the texture kind of made up for that. Though the other Wonka Gummies are made in the Czech Republic, these appear to be American. It’d be nice if Wonka could also make their products in less allergy-laden facilities. This one was made on shared equipment with wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, soy and eggs. It also contains gelatin (since it’s a gummi) so it’s not vegetarian. One of the natural colors is cochineal, for those who avoid that (but I though it was kind of funny to have an insect shaped candy made with insects!). Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:55 pm All Natural • Candy • Nestle • Gummi Candy • 7-Worth It • United States • Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Old Dominion Peanut Bar
The Old Dominion Peanut Bar keeps it simple. There are only four ingredients: Peanuts, Sugar, Corn Syrup and Salt. That’s it, no preservatives ... not even any butter or cream, so it’s good for vegans. It’s a huge bar as well, 2.25 ounces for only 80 cents or so. Since it’s mostly peanuts there’s a lot of protein in there - 10 grams. Of course nuts also come with some fat, 8 grams in this case, but the sugar is actually pretty low for candy coming in at 20 grams ... and while we’re at it, 4 grams of fiber. Technically I don’t consider this bar to be a brittle. A nut brittle has a little baking soda in it that makes the candy part bubble a little bit to create a foamy texture, easy crunch and lightly salty flavor. It’s different from a toffee coated nut as well, as toffee uses milk, butter and/or cream. So this is just a hard candy - a boiled sugar mixture that hardens and holds the nuts together while adding a sweet toasted sugar flavor. As I’ve already mentioned, it’s dead simple. So the slab doesn’t necessarily look all that appealing. Unless you love peanuts. Then you’ll not only love the glossy abundance, but the wonderful fresh roasted scent. The peanuts are also big. The crunch is very nutty, but the sugary coating has a nice toasted and salty flavor of its own. The fatty peanuts give it all a bit of a creamy toffee note even though there’s no dairy in there. The light color of the candy and nuts is a little deceptive, I though it’d be rather flavorless, but it’s quite deep. There’s a mix of the roasted notes of the peanuts which is sometimes grassy and sometimes quite dark like coffee. The bar is very filling. I honestly thought half of it was plenty for a little pick me up. While it tastes rather salty, it’s only 157 mg for the whole bar.
The Planters bar is 1.6 ounces and the same price at the Rite Aid. They’re distributed by Kraft, which now owns Planters nuts. The ingredients are a little more complex for a product where you get less: Peanuts, sugar, corn syrup, salt, peanut oil, TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness. Aside from the size difference, they looked rather similar. The Planters bar had a bit more of a honey tone to the candy portion. The taste of the Planters bar was a little more roasted and didn’t seem as fresh and crunchy as the Old Dominion. But it also had some darker toasted and charcoal notes that some folks might prefer. The size difference and the fact that the Old Dominion doesn’t need any preservatives has me on their side for this one. The salt was more forward in the flavor profile, even though the salt concentration was similar. But in a pinch, I’d buy the Planters again. These sort of nut bars are an excellent summer candy, they do well in the heat but still provide a powerful and satisfying mix of nuts with a sugary crunch and just the right hint of salt. They’re easy to carry around and even break up to share. They, however, don’t fare as well in damp conditions like high humidity unless consumed immediately. So far I’ve been very pleased with the Old Dominion products I’ve been getting at the drug store. Very fresh and the fact that there are so few ingredients is actually refreshing. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:53 pm All Natural • Candy • Hard Candy & Lollipops • Kosher • Peanuts • 7-Worth It • United States • Rite Aid • Monday, June 28, 2010
Au’some All Natural 3-Dees
The back of the box has fun facts about each of the animals. Not the ordinary stuff like “elephants are big” instead I found them interesting for all ages, like “An elephant’s ears can be used to cool the body on a hot day.” and “Polar bears paddle with their front feet and steer with their hind feet when swimming.” The box is pretty big, bigger than it probably needs to be, but formatted more like the fruit snack boxes in the breakfast cereal aisle than the candy packages.
They’re called fruit snacks, but from the ingredients (and having eaten them) they’re gummis, just with a little bit nicer list of ingredients than the standard Trolli or Haribo available here. There are eight little packets that hold about a 1/2 ounce (.56 ounces) portion - which is 50 calories. This portion is two gummis. Sounds kind of stingy, but they’re quite beefy. The flavors are Strawberry, Blueberry, Orange and Apple. They random colors and come in four shapes: Tiger, Polar Bear, Elephant and Chimpazee. The gummis are amazingly crafted. They’re large, easy to handle and of course nicely detailed on all sides. Most stand up, like little pliable & edible statues. Orange is quite tangy and juicy. It’s not quite zesty. The texture is soft and more like eating a very firm Jell-O than a German-style gummi. It’s moist and squishy and has a kind of crumbly bite ... not soft enough to liquefy through the teeth though. Blueberry was red, rather like the strawberry one, but the taste is distinctive. The flavor is immediately a believable blueberry, a little like iced tea and a little like blueberry jam or pie. There’s a boiled sugar note to it, which I enjoyed. It’s a little tangy, but sweeter than the orange. There’s a little bitter note in there, like tea or sometimes the skins of blueberries can be. The big difference between these and the Easter or Valentines ones, besides the ingredients is that they don’t come in little molds. The naturals ones get a little squished up, so for some of them I had to kind of help the trunk of the elephant or the chimpanzee had bad posture. Apple was also an amber color, which makes sense because that’s what apple juice looks like. The flavor was a combination of the tangy “green apple” from Jolly Rancher and the more sedate and syrupy flavor of apple juice. There was an almost-fizzy bite to it that I liked. It was one of those candies that didn’t taste like an all natural compromise - completely mainstream in every way. Strawberry was also reddish like the blueberry. I know the chimp is orange ... so pretend. It’s like a middle of the road strawberry jam. No seeds but a definite berry/floral vibe. It’s not as intense as the others, but just as pleasant. The packaging didn’t wow me, but I’m guessing since children are the target here. The fact that they’re already in pouches in respectable portions is an attractive option for parents. I liked all of the shapes except for the Chimp. Of course I’d want a dolphin or sea lion or something, but maybe they’ll do a marine mammal version of them.
While these are natural and sold as fruit snacks, there’s another version that’s not all natural that are sold in move theater style boxes. Inside they were individually wrapped. (I didn’t take a photo of them for review - but I found them at Walgreen’s, so they’re easier to come by.) Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:31 pm All Natural • Candy • Au'some Candy • Gummi Candy • 7-Worth It • China •
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Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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