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Confessions of a Novelty Confection Fiend


jhlurie

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Have we covered Pocky yet? I buy every kind I've never tried. Though my current favs are Maple and Butter (This one is from Pretz, actually), Pocky G (both regular and stawberry, less easily found these days), Black Sesame, Almond Crush and the new Strawberry one with bits of freeze-dried strawberry in it.

Mmm.. Pocky.

foodpr0n.com 11/01/17: A map of macarons in Toronto // For free or for a fee - bring your bottle! corkagetoronto.com

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Hershey's has a new ltd ed kiss filled with coconut creme (sorry, no pic). Thinking they might be similar to mounds or almond joy, I picked up a bag for my candy bowl at work. Unfortunately at some point the bag must have melted a bit and smooshed, leaving me with a bowlful of oddly shaped weirdly gritty chocolate/coconut candies. But this is work and people will eat anything you leave out... They ate the cough syrup tasting cherry cordial kisses and I'll bet these will be gone by Monday, too...

http://www.hersheys.com/kisses/home.asp

N.

ps. the drugstore (cvs) also had the dark chocolate almond kisses. I think I should've picked those up instead.

"The main thing to remember about Italian food is that when you put your groceries in the car, the quality of your dinner has already been decided." – Mario Batali
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Limited Edition Hershey's Mocha Almond

gallery_9387_874_13193.jpg

What a great combination...chocolate and coffee flavor.

That is, it sounds like a good combination until you take your first bite of this candy bar.

The mocha flavor is artificial and while it does taste a little like coffee, it's more along the lines of a "fake" coffee as opposed to the real thing. It's very strong in the first bite.

But as you eat the candy bar that very present flavor subsides and then it begins to taste okay. The almond bits are good but I kept wishing for whole almonds like in an Almond Joy.

As I previously commented on another Hershey Bar, the picture on the wrapper is a complete lie. Whole almonds and coffee beans are shown on the front of the wrapper and there are no whole almonds or coffee beans (or coffee for that matter) in this candy bar.

And what was very odd was after I finished the candy bar, there was no lingering chocolate or coffee after-taste in my mouth. It was a completely transitory experience, leaving only the wrapper as proof that I'd even had a mocha almond chocolate candy bar. Weird.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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Hershey's has a new ltd ed kiss filled with coconut creme.  Unfortunately at some point the bag must have melted a bit and smooshed, leaving me with a bowlful of oddly shaped weirdly gritty chocolate/coconut candies.

Even if they're not melted, they're weirdly gritty. I picked them up a couple of weeks ago and both Hubby and I were disconcerted by the mouthfeel. So we stuck them in the freezer to see if that would help. Not really. :blink: They're still sitting there.

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Limited Edition Coffee Kit Kat

gallery_9387_874_12050.jpg

This was a little better than the Mocha Almond bar from Hershey but not by much. Kit Kat is made by the H.B. Reese Candy Co. which is owned by Hershey.

The wrapper states that it's "Crisp Wafers in Artificially Flavored Coffee Milk Chocolate". Sounds yummy, doesn't it?

The biggest difference is olfactory. You really smell the (fake) coffee in the chocolate coating. In fact, that's where the coffee flavor stays...in your sense of smell. When you taste this Kit Kat, it tastes mostly like a regular Kit Kat bar with just a small wisp of coffee flavor. But while you're eating it, you're mostly smelling the coffee flavor emanating from the candy bar itself. It was quite odd. As I scanned it for this post, I noticed the wrapper still had a lingering fake coffee aroma to it.

I don't recommend this version...stick with the original.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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Even if they're not melted, they're weirdly gritty. I picked them up a couple of weeks ago and both Hubby and I were disconcerted by the mouthfeel. So we stuck them in the freezer to see if that would help. Not really.  :blink: They're still sitting there.

Good thing no-one took me up on that bet! As of this afternoon, my candy bowl was still more than half full...definitely a new record. Not sure what to do with that other bag sitting in my desk drawer...

Spotted last night: white chocolate twix. Unfortunately, I had to pass these up but I am going try to pick one up soon. Has anyone already tried these yet?

Toliver - Sorry your recent novelty finds have been so disappointing! Thanks for the warning, I'll have to watch out for (and avoid) those coffee/mocha treats.

N.

"The main thing to remember about Italian food is that when you put your groceries in the car, the quality of your dinner has already been decided." – Mario Batali
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Reese's is on a marshmellow kick now - I tried a Reese's peanut butter cup with marshmellow yesterday. I really like good marshmellow in candies (especially with carmel, yum!), but this disappointed... as someone said earlier about the Reese's caramel-peanut butter cups, the flavor was gone and the candy was almost too sweet. The marshmellow was a very thin layer, so I all I got was kind of a squishy texture before the peanut butter totally overwhelmed any marshmellow flavor. Very disappointing :hmmm: It needs a thicker-textured marshmellow (kind of like what's in the S'mores bars) to make this better, I think.

However, I have a Take 5 bar with marshmellow sitting in the cabinet for tonight's experiment. I'm hoping that will be more interesting!

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Much earlier in the thread (like, 4 years ago), somebody mentioned the delightful Valomilk as being hard to find outside the Kansas City area. I have found that they are sold in all the convenience stores in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, very near Grand Isle. I've never found them elsewhere in Louisiana and I wonder how and why this happened. Though they are a K.C. treat, I will always associate them with driving up and down the Fourchon highway looking for Roseate Spoonbills.

You can also order Valomilk and other old-fashioned candies from Old Time Candy.

Valomilk is also available at many Cracker Barrel restaurants (in the cheesy gift shop portion, of course) and at Cost Plus/World Market. They're only available in locations where they can be transported by truck, since shipment by air makes them explode--I live in south Texas, but apparently that's driving distance from Kansas City. I buy Valomilk every time I see them. Love that milky, marshmallowy goodness . . . :wub:

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Has anybody tried the Elite milk chocolate bars with popping candy in them? It's amazing.. .you need to let the chocolate melt slowly in your mouth, and the pop-rocks like candy starts to pop and sizzle. I wish I had a picture for you.

They're like the best childhood treats smashed together.

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Are these from Israel? I'll have to look for them in the Israeli grocery stroes around here. What are they called?

Edited by Jason Perlow (log)

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

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Are these from Israel? I'll have to look for them in the Israeli grocery stroes around here.

Yep. My supplier sent me a box of 'mixed' chocolate bars - and there were only 2 of them in there. Needless to say, they never saw the chocolate shelf - but were demolished by my family and a couple of lucky customers. Next order I got a box. There were also a couple of the orange-filled bars - which were the freshest I have ever had (nice and gooey inside). And another new one is like a white-aero bar with a milk chocolate layer on top.

eta: I think they're just Milk chocolate with popping candy - but I'll check a bar at work tomorrow.

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Has anybody tried the Elite milk chocolate bars with popping candy in them?  It's amazing.. .you need to let the chocolate melt slowly in your mouth, and the pop-rocks like candy starts to pop and sizzle.

I LOVED this when I was in Israel the last time a couple of years ago- I brought it back for my coworkers who thought it was the most amazing stuff. Every time anyone went over they had to bring some back or there was a near riot in the office!

Of course, I hadn't been able to find it anywhere since. Now I think I'll have to start looking for it.

mmmm.....popping chocolate.....

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Has anybody tried the Elite milk chocolate bars with popping candy in them?  It's amazing.. .you need to let the chocolate melt slowly in your mouth, and the pop-rocks like candy starts to pop and sizzle.

I LOVED this when I was in Israel the last time a couple of years ago- I brought it back for my coworkers who thought it was the most amazing stuff. Every time anyone went over they had to bring some back or there was a near riot in the office!

Of course, I hadn't been able to find it anywhere since. Now I think I'll have to start looking for it.

mmmm.....popping chocolate.....

Do you remember what the actual candy bar was called?

I did a Google search and found some Elite candy bars for sale here:

www.IsraelShop1.com

I also found some for sale on Kosher.com. Not sure if they have what you're looking for...

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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Do you remember what the actual candy bar was called?

I did a Google search and found some Elite candy bars for sale here:

www.IsraelShop1.com

I also found some for sale on Kosher.com. Not sure if they have what you're looking for...

I believe the wrappers on the ones I have are completely in Hebrew - I'll take a picture tomorrow if I get a chance.

On my order form they are "Milk Chocolate with popping" :biggrin:

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I apologize if this one has been menitoned before, I tried searching but couldn't find it. 

gallery_11814_2555_2742.jpg

Has anyone tried this before?

Yep, I tried it the first time around, maybe a year ago? There wasn't any detectable cheesecake flavour, so it tasted like lemon cream KitKat. The lemon flavour wasn't tart enough for me but it was still yummy! The box is in much nicer packaging this time.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The tic tac of my youth...

gallery_15459_985_64364.jpg

for good or bad, just as I remembered...

N.

"The main thing to remember about Italian food is that when you put your groceries in the car, the quality of your dinner has already been decided." – Mario Batali
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  • 2 weeks later...

gallery_9387_874_10810.jpg

It's no longer a Limited Edition item. I posted a review of the Limited Edition version in this earlier post.

I guess it's now part of the regular line up.

The problem is, I don't know if it was just this one specific Big Cup that I ate but it was gritty/grainy as if the sugar hadn't completely dissolved. That's quite odd since the LE version wasn't grainy at all.

Anyone else try them?

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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The tic tac of my youth...

gallery_15459_985_64364.jpg

for good or bad, just as I remembered...

N.

My friend got me lemon Tic Tacs from China, and they're actually pretty good. They're not coloured like the above fruit ones are (just white) but are packaged in a fluorescent yellow container.

Edited by chocomoo (log)
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  • 4 months later...

Something new:

gallery_9387_874_5079.jpg

This didn't have the peanut butter flavor that is so present in their peanut butter cups, which I think is a drawback.

It had crunch. It was not as hard or as firm as a Butterfinger candy bar, but it did have flakey, crunchy layers of what is labeled as "crispy peanut butter candy". While this "candy" didn't taste very peanut buttery to me, it did remind me of the toffee-like candy in a Butterfinger. It also reminded me a little of the new Butterfinger Crisps candy bars where those are "lighter" (not as dense but still having that Butterfinger taste) versions of the regular Butterfinger candy bars.

The nuts in the exterior chocolate coating are quite small chunks...think peanut pebbles. They were small enough that I almost thought they were crispy rice like you get with a Million Dollar Bar or a Nestle's Crunch Bar.

Would I buy this again? Probably not since it didn't have the strong peanut butter flavor that usually comes with a Reese's candy product, e.g. their peanut butter cups.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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  • 2 weeks later...

What I'm loving now are spicy lollypops. Everyone else must love them too because the shelves are empty and have been since I bought my first (and only) bag about two months ago. I can find them on the web now but not in my grocery store. They are sweet, tart and have a nice hot finish.

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At my main oncologist's office (SloanKettering in NYC) they offer sour balls everywhere. Not Charms brand. These must be some bulk brand, but although my doc's office were able to tell me the ingredients and that they are Kosher, they don't seem to know the brand! My extreme enjoyment of these sour balls is that there is a sort of pink sour ball... nobody has been able to figure out exactly what the artificial flavor should represent, but it is delicious! Definitely not a flavor found in nature, but sooo yummy! I have to wait until February 1 for my next fix.

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