An Acupuncturist Walks into the Candy Store

My friend Marisa recently went to Japan with her acupuncture class to study with The Master and learn the ancient Chinese secrets of the Order of the Great Tiger. Well, I don't know if the Master part is true, but she did go there to hone her needling skills and, in the process, found some fun Japanese candy for me. I've been just kind of staring at these beauties for a few weeks now, gathering excitement of the fun that awaits.
The first thing I busted into was, of course, the Choco Banana Pocky. It had the classic Pocky crunchy stick, dipped in an incredibly artificial-tasting banana coating and drizzled with chocolate. They were delicious.
The other things I'll be trying over the next few weeks. Apparently Marisa was on a banana kick, because, as you can see in the bottom of the photo, there is a banana candy bar. XL no less. The middle thing is a bunch of little packages of different candies and I have no idea what the thing on the right is. Up top, there are some candy blox. Very cute. I will keep you posted on the mysterious candies. In the meantime, the flu has hit the house of Yum, so please be patient. There really is a lot to report!

Create Your Own Candy Bar! (Or just eat mine, like Mr. Goodbar did)

A while ago, I got to thinking about what my fantasy candy bar would be. If I had any smarts at all, I would've taken this idea one step further and started a create-your-own candy bar business. But I seem to be missing the synapses that take my ideas to finished products. A mental deficiency, probably caused from drinking coffee at age 5.
Enter Chocri, a German company that allows you to pick your chocolate (milk, dark or white) and select your toppings-- everything from nuts and dried fruits to spices and cereals. In January, they'll be offering this service in the U.S.; in the meantime, they've been inviting some bloggers and journalists to try out their goods. What fun! And such decisions to make.
Some things were easy for me to rule out, like rosemary, hemp seeds, flower mix and basil. I have no interest in mixing these things with my chocolate. Others, however, presented quite a challenge. Should I do a really nutty bar with almonds, cashews, pine nuts and pecans? Or maybe a "fun" candy bar with gummy bears, colorful chocolate lentils and mini sugar bananas? It was tough coming up with some final products, but here's what I went with.
Pictured from left: "I Wish I Was Somewhere Tropical" (dark chocolate with coconut flakes, banana chips, pineapple and sea salt); "Candy Yum Yum Fruit Crunch" (milk chocolate with raisins, cranberries, cinnamon cornflakes and roasted almonds); and "The Whole Shebang" (milk chocolate with pretzels, cornflakes, candy lentils, rice crispies and ground coffee beans). I probably should've ordered a white chocolate bar just to cover all the bases, but since I really don't prefer white, I passed on it. Now I wish I had ordered one, because I loved all of these.
They were actually sitting on the "candy shelf" for a while, because we had all the Halloween candy to slog through. So the other night, when I finally decided it was time to break into one of the bars, I went into a panic. The Whole Shebang was open and it appeared as if the label had been nibbled on. I ran downstairs to tell Mr. Goodbar the unfortunate news that we once again had mice in the house.
"Uh, no," he said. "That was me. I opened that."
Oh. Well, he sure did a job on the label.
The milk chocolate was smooth and creamy and the combination of the pretzel and cornflake crunch with the chocolately lentils was perfect. The ground coffee beans gave it a really delicious, complex flavor, although I think the coffee would've been better with simpler ingredients, maybe plain cashews or a dried fruit.
The Candy Yum Yum Fruit Crunch was reminiscent of a Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar, back when they were actually good. The sweet almonds and tart fruit played off each other and the cinnamon cornflakes gave it a fun twist.
I thought I was being clever by putting banana chips in the Tropical bar. Mr. Goodbar hates bananas and I thought they would keep him away. Wrong. This morning I saw that he broke into the bar last night. The dark chocolate is wonderfully balanced-- not too sweet, not too bitter or tannic. The sea salt goes wonderfully with the chocolate and the fruits give it a nice texture combination.
I'm being 100 percent honest in my review when I say I. Love. Chocri. I love the concept and I love the product. My one bone of contention is the label. Since you get to name your own bar, it would be fun to have a fancier, more professional looking label, but the package itself is great, since you get to see what the bar looks like.
Let's get down to business now. The company won't start selling in the U.S. until January, which is too bad, because they'd make great Christmas gifts. The bars start at $8 and the toppings range from 10 cents to over $2. It looks like an average bar would cost somewhere around $10. Pricey, yes. These aren't the type of bars you'd order for your everyday consumption. However, I think a gift certificate for one or two bars would be a fun present or grab bag gift.
The Chocri website in the U.S. isn't up yet, but you can visit their blog for a preview: www.createmychocolate.com/blog. Check it out. What do you think you'd create?
You can check out some of the other bars that bloggers have created at Candy Addict and The Chocolate Review.

Lemonheads and Licorice

Have you missed me? I've missed you. It's been non-stop action since Halloween. I'm happy to report that the last of the Halloween candy (as far as the Sugar Baby knows) was eaten today. The rest is stashed in a drawer for No-Nuts.
I got kind of sugared out after Halloween, but I think I've got my appetite back, so let's catch up, shall we? I was very excited to come across these Tropical Chewy Lemon-Head & Friends at the Christmas Tree Shop. You may recall that it was only recently when I tried the traditional Lemonhead & Friends and loved them. Good texture and perfect sour taste.
These, however, were a disappointment. The box says, "Two Flavors in Every Piece!" and they are: Kiwi-Strawberry, Peach-Mango, Berry-Banana, Cherry-Watermelon and Pink Lemonade-Lemonade. (That last one is a cheat, if you ask me.)
The Kiwi-Strawberry was way too sweet; it lacked a sour punch. The Berry-Banana was just weird and fake tasting. Cherry-Watermelon was actually pretty good. The initial taste was cherry and the finish was watermelon. I hate peach-flavored candies, and these were no exception. The best out of the lot were the redundant Pink Lemonade-Lemonade.
Next up, we have this oddity: Walgreens Candy Classics Australian Traditional Black Liquorice Smothered in real milk chocolate. Now that's a mouthful, eh? This is a thick stick of solid licorice. It has a nice aroma to it. The same spicy, piquant smell you get when you first open a bag of black licorice. But the thing is, chocolate just doesn't go well with licorice. I found the combination to be just plain odd. Kind of like when Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were together. They just don't do anything for each other.

Shameless Commerce

It may only be November, but before you know it, Christmas will be here. Check out my new magnets at my Etsy store. At 2 for $3 or a set of 5 for $6, they make a great stocking stuffer.

Halloween Post-Mortem

Oh, the irony that is November. Here I am, with a house stocked full of candy and so much to write about and review, and yet I have so little time. I'm doing NaNoWriMo again, so I'm pretty much a walking zombie.
But here's a few tidbits of what's been going on at the House of Yum:

1) The Sugar Baby has this thing where, when he's eating a group of candies, say a handful of M&M's or a box of Dots, he holds onto the last piece and calls it "the secret candy."
2) Despite the fact that he has (had) about 20 pounds of delicious Halloween candy, he discovered a bowl of nasty old candy up in my painting studio. This is the candy that I use as still lifes for my art work. He became fixated with this candy and 1) ate a bunch of the old Necco Conversation Hearts even though I told him they were gross and old and not to do that and 2) decided he wanted to "Paint candy" like his mommy, only he didn't want to paint pictures of candy, he wanted to paint the actual candy. You know what they say: pick your battles. So I let him paint the Dum Dums and Red Hot Dollars with stinky tempera paint and then we did "candy prints" on paper. The results were less than dramatic, so they won't be shown here.

As far as I'm concerned, I felt like I needed to start working on some of the candy I got during the Great New York Candy Extravaganza, so I opened up the little chocolate square I got at Masthiashop. Here's what I'll say about it: if it was the only candy in the house, I'd eat it. But with the box of truffles from Father John just sitting on my desk, waiting to be devoured, I couldn't bring myself to waste the calories on the Masthia chocolate. I threw out half of it and instead had a dark chocolate orange truffle which was fantastic.

Candy Corn Cordials: The Perfect Pairing with Halloween Candy

My pal Marisa pretending that this is her first drink of the night

We did it! We actually made the Candy Corn Cordials after trick-or-treating. A couple of friends from the old chocolate store days came over and we reminisced about all the good times (stuffing fudge in the toilet, fighting over who got to wait on Nut Bark Man, watching the "new kid" shove cases of candy out the back door to his friends ...) while sipping our cordials.
I let the candy corn soak in vodka in the fridge for about five hours. The candy corn disintegrated, thus turning the vodka a lovely bright orange. I strained out the solids using a coffee filter, then added the Grand Marnier, lemon juice and egg whites. (I'd read a review that said the egg whites were essential for the frothy nature of the drink, but frankly they just grossed us out.) How did they taste? Actually really good, but nothing at all like candy corn. They tasted like an orange/lemon martini. I'm going to experiment with some ideas for Christmas. Chopped up candy canes seem like an obvious winner. Maybe, though, I'll try ribbon candy. Any other ideas?

Halloween '09: What Dressing Like a Fly Agaric Mushroom Will Net You

It took me a whole day to recover, but I think it's safe to say that I survived Halloween '09. First stop: Father John's for the difficult decision of which full-size bar to take. (It just occurs to me that Father John looks a lot like Ricky Gervais.)
Actually, the Sugar Baby had no trouble deciding. He went straight for the Almond Joy, which was the same one he picked last year, despite the fact that he has no idea what it is.
I brought Father John a box of Chocorooms; I felt like he needed to experience the sheer bliss of these little delights. I hope he likes them as much as everyone else did.
But check out what he gave me: a box of melt-in-your-mouth truffles from Hauser Chocolatier in Bethel, CT. I mean, seriously, it gets no better than this.
We trick-or-treated around my parents' neighborhood for about an hour (Bazooka Betsy and Uncle Crabby joined us in the fun). I was surprised at how many people offered full-sized bars this year. At first the Sugar Baby was all hesitant to pick a piece of candy, but by the end of the night he was going for the one-two grab.
We've spent the past two days sorting through all the candy, lining them up, mixing and matching. So far he's loved everything he's had. But the most exciting piece to him was the Starlight Mint. "I got a peppermint!" he yelled. This most precious of candies remains uneaten. He simply looks at it.
More details to follow.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Halloween, Phase II: Downtown Trick-or-Treat

I've forgotten how exhausting trick-or-treating can be. Today was the downtown trick-or-treat where all the local stores and politicians hand out candy to the kids and coupons to the parents. Basically about five million people descend upon the town all at the same time, so there's a crush of crowds and everyone is all hot and sweaty in their costumes and tired kids are screaming and teenagers are pushing their way through ... yeah, good times. Fortunately we got there early enough to do some power trick-or-treating before things got too crazy.
The very first piece of candy the Sugar Baby picked out was a miniature Tootsie Roll. Uh oh. I'd forgotten to have "the talk" with him. You know, the talk where I explain that you always go for the Reese's and Snickers over the Tootsie Rolls and lollipops. He did better on the second try when he got-- of course!-- a bag of Sugar Babies.
He seemed to be attracted to the silvery wrappers of 3 Musketeers, and when the offering was Dum Dums, he poked around until he found the rootbeer ones.
On the way home, he fell asleep in the car, clutching his bag o' goodies. I think it weighed more than he does.
After dinner tonight, I told him he could pick out one piece to eat. What did he pick? Go ahead, take a guess. Swedish Fish? Nope. Milky Way? No. Tootsie Roll? No. Out of all the candy-- sooo much candy-- he chose a peppermint LifeSaver. A single, solitary LifeSaver. I can't even pretend to understand.

Wah, Wah, Wah....

Yesterday I promised you the great unveiling of the treats I made for the Sugar Baby's party at school. Fortunately, I made two different things.
First, ghost Jell-O jigglers. Easy, fun, festive.
And then, trying to be all Martha, I decided to make mini caramel apples that I saw in a magazine. Here's what you're supposed to do: use a melon baller to scoop balls of apple. Put a lollipop stick in the apple, then dip in melted butterscotch chips and roll in sprinkles. Voila! A cute mini "caramel" apple.
The Sugar Baby's school is very strict about peanut products. We can't even use ingredients that were made in a peanut facility, so I couldn't use the butterscotch chips. "Well why not caramel then?" I thought. Brach's caramels are nut-free.
I spent all night cutting apple balls, drying them, dipping them, rolling them. They were adorable. I even had little candy corn paper cups to put them in. I put the tray of apples in the fridge and this morning, woke up to find this:Wah, wah, wah. The caramel slipped right off the apples. I guess that's why the recipe said to use butterscotch chips. Bummer. Apple on a stick anyone?

Trader Joe's PB&J Bar: Chocolate + Potato Chips

Knock on wood-- we're doing better here at the House of Yum. Wait until you see what I made for the Sugar Baby's party at school tomorrow. I'm just waiting for it to set up.
In the meantime, let's talk about this here Trader Joe's PB&J candy bar. I've looked at this numerous times, but it never really sounded very good to me. PB&J just says sandwich, not sweet. But then, on a whim, I decided to get one a few weeks ago, and just yesterday got around to trying it.
Sweet Caesar's Ghost! What a fantastic bar. The chocolate is creamy, the peanut butter rich (with crunchies in it) and the jelly firm and fruity. This was a candy bar that made me say "Wow." It shouldn't have come as a surprise, really, since I loved the Trader Joe's Lumpy Bumpy Bar.
It wasn't until after I ate it that I read the box. Here's the description:

"PB&J are sandwiched between milk and dark chocolate then sprinkled with crushed potato chips. Potato chips? Yes, crisp, delicious potato chips. This means you have it all-- sweet and salty, smooth and crunchy. Lucky you!"

Lucky me, indeed. Potato chips! No wonder it tasted so good. The mention of milk and dark chocolate is perplexing, however. It seemed like it was all dark chocolate to me. Maybe if I'd read the box I would've paid closer attention.
At around $2 a bar, this isn't every day eating. And at a whopping 300 calories, it's more like a once a year treat. But this, my friends, just may be a contender against Chocorooms for the candy of the year. We'll have to see.

Halloween Cannot Be Contained

We're in a state of emergency here in the House of Yum. Both the Sugar Baby and I have caught some nasty bug and we're both hacking away. Fortunately, it's not the flu, swine or avian or platypus or any other kind. But THIS IS HALLOWEEN WEEK! We have plans! Starting Wednesday, the craziness begins. Tomorrow will be a day of total rest and fluids. Nothing but chicken soup and Sesame Street all day.
Today, while trying unsuccessfully to nap (isn't it amazing how kids can be dripping with snot and phlegm, yet still have the energy to bounce around screaming, "Froggy's on my head!"), I had a deep existential moment. This is the truth that was revealed to me: No one is in charge of Halloween. Here's what I mean. There are some holidays that are dependent upon the weather. Fourth of July, Memorial Day, summer birthdays. If the weather is bad, the celebrations are either moved indoors or to another day. Some holidays, like Christmas and Easter, are held rain or shine. But Halloween is tricky. If it rains, there is no moving the fun indoors. There is no rain date. If the weather is bad on Halloween, all is lost. There is no King of Halloween to decree that trick-or-treating will be held on the next nice evening. Announcements are not broadcast through the streets explaining a contingency plan. Nope, Halloween is free of government and political bondage. There's no controlling it. It either happens or it doesn't. No make-up dates, no rain checks. And people all over the land will be stuck with the one or two kinds of candy they bought to give out and the bountiful harvest that is brought forth on Halloween is but a sugar famine. With Halloween, it's all the luck of the draw.
Yep, that's what happens when you have too little sleep, a generous spoonful of cough syrup and a crazed toddler.

Countdown to Halloween '09: Father John is on the Scene

Verily, I say unto thee ... who's cooler than Father John? Seriously folks, this is what I'm talking about. As you know from previous years, the Sugar Baby and I have a rigid Halloween schedule. There's the trick-or-treat downtown during the day and then neighborhood trick-or-treating at night. This year there's the library party and the preschool parade, too. (Yes, of course I signed up to bring in the Halloween snack.)
But the holiday just wouldn't be the same without a visit to Father John. (For an update, here's 2008, and 2007 and more 2007.) So as I was planning this year's schedule, it occurred to me: Halloween is on a Saturday night. But Mass is also said on Saturday night. Panic struck! Would Father John be giving out candy this year? If so, would it only be after Mass (too late for us to stop by)? Would we miss our annual visit to Father John and his basket o' full-sized candy bars?
As fate would have it, my mother told me to go to the church's website and read this week's bulletin. Here you go:

"On a completely different note, next Saturday is
the Eve of All Saint's Day, Halloween! Sometimes
you read an article that condemns this holiday as a
glorification of the darker aspects of the pagan realm.
To be honest, I really don't think most people take
that route. From my side of the trick-or-treat door, I
see a lot of fun family activity as Moms and Dads
prowl the nighttime streets with the kids of their
neighborhood in search of that key element of the
Halloween experience: CANDYBARS!
Candybars---full size, top tier---are what will
given out from the rectory door next Saturday. Last
year we broke a record with over 160 kids (....and
one dog.....or someone in a really good dog costume....).
With Halloween falling on a Saturday, I
hope we can smash that record like an old pumpkin!
Let's try for 200! Spread the word, bring your
friends! A giant basket of candy awaits the ghastly
and ghoulish and masked and marvelous!"

Hooray! Halloween is saved! But on a more serious note, I really like what he said. Some religious groups condemn Halloween as an evening of evil, but honestly, look at it for what it is. Just like Father John said, it's a night for parents to be with their kids and bond over a candy-plundering adventure. Halloween should be heralded for bringing families and neighborhoods together. How often during this day and age do you ever ring your neighbor's doorbell to say hi? (Well, in our case, quite often, especially when there are martinis involved.) But otherwise, most of us just stay locked up in our houses and only walk from the front door to the car. For one night a year, we all break that habit and actually get out there and stroll the streets, greeting people we just usually wave to. (I really think Father John should write an op-ed piece on this. It bears much more weight coming from a member of the clergy.)
Anyhow, just to be safe, I e-mailed Father John and asked him when he planned on manning the big basket of candy. He said he was trying to get another priest to fill in for him so he wouldn't miss any trick-or-treaters. (I didn't know priests could switch shifts like that. I suppose it makes sense.) So I am READY for Halloween! Well, almost anyway. My costume isn't quite finished and-- yikes!-- the Sugar Baby appears to be coming down with a cold. He has six days to recover. Cross your fingers and say a prayer because I will not miss out on Halloween.

Yummy Earth: Organic Candy That Tastes Good

One of the moms at the Sugar Baby's new school found out I had a blog. Not only does she have a 3-year-old, but she also just gave birth to a brand new baby just a few weeks ago. I figured if anyone needed a special treat, it was her. So I shared some of the candy love that was sent to me from Yummy Earth. I like this company, because it was created by two dads who wanted their kids to have a natural candy that tasted good. All of their products are USDA and EU Certified Organic and are gluten-free, peanut-free and tree-nut free and don't contain any type of corn syrup. And yet amazingly, their candy still tastes really, really good. Honestly!
While the gummy bears and worms may not be as bright and colorful as traditional brands, they taste really good. The other mom commented on how juicy they were. Yep, they have a nice, fresh fruit flavor with a good sweet/sour balance. What I particularly like is that these have the same dense chew as a regular gummy. Oftentimes, gummy products can be too soft or gumdrop-like. These were definitely chewy.
As for their hard candies, I tried the Roadside Root Beer drops which were just as tasty as an old-fashioned root beer barrel, only drop-shaped, which I like better since it didn't slice up my tongue. I plan on giving out their Organic Lollipops for Halloween, so if you're in the neighborhood, stop by!
I tip my hat to this company because I know a lot of parents out there who are concerned about artificial colors and flavors. These prove that you can make a great tasting candy from nature's own delicious sources.

Revisiting M&M's Premiums

I try not to use the self-checkout at the grocery store because 1) I want to create jobs for people, not reduce them and 2) Something always goes wrong and I have to wait for the wasteoid stoned teenager with the scraggly goatee to come help. I didn't have much choice the other day though when I was buying the incredibly stereotypical milk, eggs and bread. It was either wait in a ridiculously long line for a human check-out person, or do the self-serve. As I was trying to scan my card, I noticed a box top popping out from the other side of the impulse purchase rack. It was a small box of M&M's Premiums in Triple Chocolate.
I've written about the Premiums before. Here I was shocked at the price. In this post, the Baroness bought some mint ones and I decided they tasted like a peppermint patty. Then the Baron shocked us all with his review, and then Liesl set the record straight and said she really liked them.
Frankly, I couldn't remember what I thought of them, so I grabbed a box. (Very impulsive of me.)
Here it is, my final decision: these are wrong.
To be labeled an M&M, in my book anyway, you must have a hard candy shell. I was taken aback by the waxy soft coating on these. It was shocking, kind of like if you guzzle a glass of water only to find out that it was pure vodka, as a certain guitar store owner's three-year-old daughter did recently.
These are fine as stand-alone candies, but as "M&M's," they just don't work. You need that combination of crunchy slick shell with creamy milk chocolate.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.