Jim Bumgardner of KrazyDad put together this completely awesome mosaic of the candy review photos from Candy Blog.

It runs on Flash and shows itty bitty thumbnails of over 1,000 photos I’ve taken over the past two years. Roll over one of them, and a larger one will pop up for closer view (and drool). Then click on the photo and it’ll take you to the Flickr.com page with the photo (and hopefully there will be a link to the review back here if I’ve done my captioning correctly). You can view the photos in a boring static mode here.

The mosaic will be updated periodically with new candy photos, so you’ll always be able to browse the archives in a way more befitting this eye candy.

Note: you’ll have to disable any pop-up blockers on the CoverPop site. Don’t worry, there’s no ads there. Not only that, he’s got a discount coupon code at Old Time Candy if you hafta hafta order something when you’re done. Check out Jim’s other Coverpops while you’re there, too.

So last night on the way home from work I stopped at Walgreen’s and CVS to see what was still around. Both had 50% off sales. Now, this may sound like a good deal, but this is off of the “regular” price, which they don’t usually sell stuff for anyway. (At least I don’t buy stuff at regular price.)

Here’s what I got:

There isn’t much in online sale land. Godiva hasn’t put their stuff on sale yet, there are a few things at Lake Champlain and See’s never seems to have sales. Pop a note here if you see a great deal though.

Deeper discounts come as more time elapses, but then the selection decreases. The trick, I’ve found, is to shop at a store where people don’t usually stock up on candy. I’m not going to tell you where that is until I’ve plundered their selection yet! (I love you, sweet readers, but not that much!) I’m actually looking for stuff like the Lindt bunnies and Easter truffle assortments I saw a few weeks ago, but no luck yet.

I’m going to do a little deeper digging later this week (I have a bunch of deadlines right now and can’t quite devote as much time to candy acquisitions as I’d like). What have you found so far?

Here’s the proposal ... I’m going to do another drawing for some free tasty goodies.

I don’t know what the actual prize is yet, but I can tell you that it will be GOOD chocolate.

How can you get some? You have to help get the word out about the open comment period on the FDA’s proposed changes for the definition of chocolate.

(Don’t worry, I’m not telling you what to say, you can go on there and comment in support of mockolate if you want. I want the FDA to actually hear from the citizens who buy the stuff and not just the industry action groups.)

For each one of the actions below, you can earn a virtual raffle ticket. The more you do, the better your chances:

Here are a few extra rules:

Please do not comment on the FDA site if you’re not in the United States or an American living abroad. That doesn’t mean that folks outside US can’t enter, you just don’t qualify for that particular point. (I could be wrong about foreigners commenting ... someone correct me.)

You are limited to five entries (though you’re free to make greater efforts, but only the first five will count).

You are responsible for calculating your “raffle tickets”. Just come here and leave a list of your deeds (you don’t have to list them all on the same day).

You must comment with a valid email address, don’t worry, no one sees it but me (how else can I tell you that you won?).

Final note, the object of this challenge is not to create a bunch of empty chatter, but to just widen awareness of this issue by engaging you, sweet readers, to pass the info along. So keep in mind that we’ll all win if we Keep It Real.

Deadline for all comments here is April 25th at 11:59 PM PDT.

UPDATE 4/17/2007: The first prize will be a $100 Gift Certificate to Chocosphere

Also, since folks have asked, yes emailing your friends also qualifies. (Just don’t spam them over and over again ... but you wouldn’t do that.)

UPDATE 4/26/2007: Contest entries are now closed. I’ll announce a winner later. Since the comment period has been extended by the FDA I’ll start a new raffle with a new prize.

Folks are obsessed with Peeps around this time of the year. As I’ve stated before, I love the idea of Peeps, I just don’t really enjoy eating them. So I thought I’d try to improve my experience by creating some Peeps Mash-Ups. These aren’t full-blown recipes but more of a “dry fondue” with some items I had lying around:

Peeps Rocks - here I’ve mashed my Peep into some Strawberry Pop Rocks.

First, when mashing a Peep, it helps to pull it apart. This way you have two sticky halves for picking up other candy goodness as well as alleviating the issue of “double dipping” if you’re mashing with a buddy.

When I mashed the Pop Rocks into this fresh Peep, the rocks started snapping immediately. (You can’t see the noise in the photo, but it’s cracklin’ away, trust me.)

The cotton-candy-like flavor of the strawberry goes really well with the flavorless Peep. Light and refreshing. The pops give it a little sizzle.

Peeps Nerds - when you look at it, a Peep is really just a giant spongy Nerd with a pointy nose. Oh, and eyes. Nerds may have eyes in their little cartoon versions on the packaging, but not on the real candies like Peeps do.

I wasn’t really fond of this flavor combination, or the colors. The red and green (cherry & watermelon) looked too Christmasy. The taste combo was pretty good though. The crunch of the Nerds gave the spongy marshmallow a good texture and the zap of tartness also balanced out the sweetness of the Peep.

Peeps & Mini M&Ms - this is a natural combo and the colors couldn’t look better together if I tried. The little M&Ms adhere really well to the Peep’s exposed marshmallow. The sweet chocolate has a good crunch though it might be a little too sweet.

You could probably try mini dark chocolate baking chips for a less sweet experience (though you’d lose the crunch). The little tube they come in is especially easy for mashing on the go, just press the stickiness to the opening and tip the M&Ms Minis into it.

Peep Tarts - I have to admit that I was especially proud of the name for this one. Originally I wanted to use Pixy Stix for the powder, but I couldn’t find any (I try not to keep them in the house, for sanity’s sake). So I took the powder from an extra Topps Baby Bottle Pop. The Citrus Craze powder is already less sweet because it’s also intended to be “mashed up” with the lollipop top, so it adds flavor and tartness without more throat-burning sugar.

I’m not really sold on the combo, but after eating everything pictured here within about 15 minutes I had a stomach ache. Gah, I’m getting another one just typing this up!

So, what are your ideas for Peeps Mash-ups - either theoretical ones, or ones that you actually do?

(See previous Marshmallow Mashing: Marshmallow Mash-ups & More Marshmallow Mash-Ups.)

Related Candies

1. Peeps Mash Ups - Savory
2. Peeps Chocolate Mousse (Bears & Bunnies)
3. Peeps inside a Milk Chocolate Egg
4. Peppermint Peep Stars
5. Peeps Spooky Friends
6. Palmer Nest Eggs
7. Peeps Spooky Cats & Cocoa Bunnies
8. Kinder Egg

I went off to another trade show on Sunday. Luckily it was practically in my own back yard (well about 40 miles away, so my only expense was gas and parking).

It’s called ExpoWest and focuses on Natural Products. This covers a huge range, from nutritional supplements to beauty products to foods & drinks and of course some sweets. While the candy content at this show as rather small, I couldn’t resist going and checking out the products from the chocolatiers and confectioners.

What’s also fun is stumbling across product lines I had no clue about ... and then letting you know about them.

I got to check in with some of the companies I’ve already covered here and see their new products:
Pure Fun  - they have some new hard candies, lollipops and candy canes. I also finally got to try their spicy cinnamon cotton candy ... yum!
New Tree - they have a few new bars since the last time I tried them (and I still haven’t tried the full line), so picked up some.
Sweetriot - they have a “cherry” version of their nibs and from my little taste test, they were pretty tasty, so they gave me a tin for later review. They’re also selling straight cacao beans (not nibs) for the really adventurous.
Terra Nostra/Bon Bona - I already have some of their new single origin truffles to try, and they have some exciting new “candy bars” coming out.
Endangered Species - I picked up their Zebra Bar (orange) and the Eco Rounds (dark chocolate and nibs).
College Farm Organics - they have some nice new hard candies (I really liked the coffee candy!) plus new Halloween packaging for their organic lolliops that should make it shelves this fall.
Scharffen Berger - new Milk Nibby Bar.
CocoaVia - the Mars “healthy chocolate” line. They’ve introduced a few new bars and milk chocolate covered raisins. I actually had a really nice chat with them and got samples of just about everything they’re making right now.
Newman’s Own - they had many of their chocolate items out for sampling and it confirmed for me that their chocolate is very sweet. They also have a new line of mints in tins (ala Altoids) but they weren’t sampling those.

New to me are:

St. Claire - mints and sour pastilles (they gave me a tin of their mints for “tummy upset” which I’ll boat test next weekend)
Seeds of Change - fair trade chocolate
Sjaak’s Organic Chocolate - actually not completely new to me (I’ll get into that in the review), but this is the first time I stopped and talked to them (I did visit their shop in Eureka last summer but it was mobbed and I left).
Tubi Licorice - makers of Tire Tread Licorice

I spent the whole day there and barely covered the whole show floor. As I got to the far corner Scharffen Berger was already closing down, so I didn’t get to chat with them much about their new products, but I did pick up the Milk Chocolate Nibby Bar. I also popped in and sampled some Green & Blacks (I just felt like a little dose of their white chocolate bar at that moment). I completely missed the Theo Chocolate booth, but I have a full set of their bars, so I’m good to go on them anyway.

I also missed the Divine Chocolate booth, which I didn’t realized until I was driving back. I’ve already sampled their bars, but I really wanted to talk to them about their kids bar in the UK, called the Dubble.

Since I was walking the floor anyway, I picked up just about every snack bar that was available ... I have about 20 pounds of them. This morning I ate something called an Attune Bar (Lemon Creme) which features 5 times the probiotics of yogurt. They also have a line of chocolate bars with similar virtues that I’ll review. The only one I missed was Lara Bar - they were all packed up when I got to their corner. Too bad, I think their new Jocolat line might actually qualify for a Candy Blog review (I haven’t seen them in stores yet, but did try some at the Fancy Food Show in January). I also picked up some samples of different fruit snacks (fruit rolls and leathers). I might do a round up review of them just as a sort of “would kids eat this, and should they?” kind of thing.

Here’s the ultimate in surrounding yourself with what you love. Gummi art. And not just any old jelly beans pasted to a canvas, these are dimensional (and sometimes functional) pieces made with gummi bears.

Created by YaYa Chou (click on Sculpture on the right to see the whole gallery of creations). There’s are a couple of three dimensional animals, a bear rug and the chandelier as well as a candelabra.

I’d love to have the chandelier, supposedly you can still eat the bears ... I’m sure they’re great once the bulb has warmed them a little.

Found via Tastespotting.

I spend a lot of time looking a photos of candy on Flickr. It’s a good way to stay in touch with what is enchanting other people. The thing that I’ve noticed lately is that people are often attracted to the same thing, over and over again. In general this would be like people taking photos of common landmarks (lots of photos of the Eiffel Tower that are tagged Paris, a lotta Golden Gate Bridge shots in San Francisco and “cute” has more cats than dogs or babies).

One of the things that pops up with startling regularity in the Candy tag is a candy vendor at the Mercat la Boqueria in Barcelona, Spain. So I did a quick search and found more than a smattering of them (well here are 48 at least):

Has anyone ever shopped at this market or bought anything there? How much are those gummis?

So here’s what’s up for this week (so far):

Ferrero Rocher
Ferrero Mon Cheri
Elmer’s Chocolates - Heart Box (2.4 ounces)
Nestle’s Crunch Dark Chocolate Heart (1 ounce)
Spongebob Squarepants Heart with Yogurt Covered Raisins
Junior Mints Hearts
Russell Stovers’ Heart Box (1.8 ounces)
Dove Jewels
Frankford Marshmallow Hearts
Russell Stovers’ Dark Chocolate Coconut Heart
Chocolove 70% Dark Chocolate Bar
Au’some Candy Beads
SweeTarts Hearts

I’ll also have some brief reviews & photos of these upscale boxed chocolates: CocoaVino, Leonidas, Theo Chocolates, The Chocolate Box Cafe, Christopher Norman, Boule, Fauchon and Richart.

Yes, it looks like there will likely be two reviews per day (otherwise I’ll never get done before Valentine’s Day!).

Here’s a photo preview of what’s to come!

UPDATE: 2/11/07 - Looks like I didn’t make it all the way through the list, but 15 reviews in one week ain’t bad! Maybe I’ll have more this week.