Take out last month’s holiday searches and this month’s search strings are remarkably similar. Folks are looking for info abou Reese’s, Kissables, Butterfingers and Rockaleta.

1. reeses
2. butterfinger
3. kissables
4. razzles
5. choxie
6. lemonheads
7. bonkers candy
8. japanese candy
9. pecan log roll
10. rockaleta

I think the biggest surprise after being Farked over the weekend is that KitKat isn’t on the list (and hasn’t even made it into the top 20 before).

That’s right, for the first full week of February it’ll be all Valentines all the time. I’ll even have profiles of at least a half a dozen upscale chocolatiers to add to the Chocolate Gift Guide.

Holy Moly! I just found this awesome post from last week about some truly inventive Limited Edition candy bars. Go see what Stephen at Cotton & Sand has been up to.

(There’s a world where I could actually believe a Snickers with Bacon and a Crunch with Ketchup.)

If you like that, you really need to order one of his tees ...

So it looks like you want more of the regular old stuff and less of the artisans & chocolatiers.

Your wish is my command! I do have some chocolatiers to get through (because of gifts) but I’ll try to limit that to twice a month (or provide them as bonus weekend reviews). That leaves you with approximately 20 other limited edition, mass market, regionally manufactured, limited edition items each month!

I also have a HUGE backlog of candies, you can browse the ones that I’ve taken photos of here.

Here are a few links for the long holiday weekend:

Missed Manners did more than just a gingerbread house for the holidays. He and his family recreated the seige on Helm Deep from Lord of the Rings book Two Towers in gummis, licorice and even catapults made from Tootsie Pops.

Pretty inventive stuff. If I had to do a diorama for a book report, I’d definitely tackle it in candy like they did!

Second - if you haven’t read it yet, there was an interesting expose by Scott at DallasFood.org about a super-expensive chocolate called Noka. If you read through all of it, including the comments in the forums you’ll find out that Noka later engaged one of the defenders of Noka in the comments. It’s a very odd story. I have nothing against expensive chocolate. I highly doubt that any chocolate is worth that much, but as has been pointed out in the newest press release since this whole thing broke, you get a really nice collectible box! (I’ve never tried Noka but now I’m curious to try Bonnat.)

Powell’s Sweet Shoppe has opened in Boise, Idaho. I mention this because people have been visiting Candy Blog looking for info about this. I did email Powell’s corporate headquarters for more info, but my request went unanswered. Luckily KTVB did a story on it and gave me the scoop.  The new store (only the second outside of California) is off Parkcenter in Bown Crossing.

I’ll use this as my opportunity to rant about the Powell’s website, which has NEVER listed the locations of the other stores besides the one in Windsor.

UPDATE 1/16/07 - I found the Boise location:

Powell’s Sweet Shoppe
3064 S. Bown Way
Boise, ID

(208) 424-6099

Hours:
Mon-Sat 10AM to 9PM
Sun 10AM to 8PM

Finally, if you’re planning a wedding, there’s a great article about the new trend in Candy Bars for a make your own wedding favor area at the reception. What’s really great about it is that people get to pick. It’s great when a wedding recognizes that the people who attend are individuals and might not like the little chocolate truffles and might prefer some jordan almonds. And let’s face it, a huge table of candy can be drop dead gorgeous. You can adapt this idea for all sorts of occasions like birthday parties, corporate thingies, baby showers, engagements, retirements and anniversaries.

I found a new feature on Feedburner (the same service that takes care of Candy Blog subscription feeds) ... it’s a daily email digest of posts!

So, if you’d like to have your Candy Blog in your email box every evening around 6PM then feel free to sign up.

Once you enter your email address and click, you’ll get a confirmation to confirm. Then every day there’s something new on Candy Blog, you’ll get the whole thing right in your email box. What could be sweeter?

A couple of notes: if you use an email client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) the images from the post should display okay. If you view the posts in a web-based email program they might not be available. But the text will all be there.

If you ever decide that you don’t like gettin’ all that email, then feel free to unsubscribe, there will be a link at the bottom of every email.

I’m not going to do anything else with the email addresses you submit, so don’t worry.

This feature will be available over there in the left area, so you don’t have to make a decision right this moment.

How did new visitors find Candy Blog in December?

1. merry christmas
2. christmas candy
3. choxie
4. reeses
5. kissables
6. butterfinger
7. razzles
8. lemonheads
9. max brenner
10. rockaleta

Nothing suprising there, Christmas was higher on people’s minds in December than in November.

The continued appearance of Rockaleta does suprise me though, not that people come here (I’m the first result) but that the candy company (Sonric) that makes them doesn’t make more of an effort to get their web page higher.

M&Ms did not even make the list this time (that doesn’t mean people aren’t looking online for M&Ms, they’re just not coming to Candy Blog for their M&M content).

Here you go, oodles of things to do with those leftover candy canes. (Or maybe you want to pick some up on sale.)

Use them whole:
1. Stir your hot cocoa
2. Stir your hot tea
3. Stir your coffee (works for lattes & cappuccinos, too)
4. Stir your cocktail
5. Stir your milkshake
6. Snap off the hooked end and dip the straight piece in the chocolate of your choice for homemade “reception sticks”
7. Candy Kebabs (spear marshmallows and roll them in sprinkles or other crushed candies)
8. Valentine’s Heart (I’ll try to kitchen test this over the weekend)
9. Edible Fondue Sticks (best for marshmallows)

Crush them lightly:
10. Ice Cream Sprinkles
11. Cake Sprinkles
12. Cupcake Sprinkle
13. Frosted Cookie Sprinkles
14. On top of Whipped Cream in your Hot Cocoa
15. Roll marshmallows in them and eat them whole, toast them in the microwave or drop them in hot cocoa

Make Candy Cane Sugar:
16. Sweeten your Hot Tea
17. Sweeten your Iced Tea
18. Sweeten your Hot Cocoa
19. Sweeten your Coffee or Mocha
20. Use to rim your Cocktails (or this one)

Use them in recipes:
21. White Chocolate Candy Cane Fudge
22. Peppermint Four Layer Cake
23. Chocolate Mint Layer Cake
24. Chocolate Peppermint Bark (I like to pour mine into candy cups instead of making a bark.)
25. Make vanilla ice cream into Peppermint Ice Cream
26. Make your own Peppermint Ice Cream Sandwiches
27. Chocolate Candy Cane Sandwich Cookies
28. Candy Cane Chocolate Chunk Cookies
29. Candy Cane Brownies (these are vegan!)
30. Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels
31. Peppermint Meringues
32. Add to Rice Krispies Treats
33. Candy Cane Cheesecake

So, what can you add to the list?