Confessions of a Novelty Confection Fiend

[Chris Hennes]

My sister returned from Italy a few weeks ago raving about "Hippos". So of course my wife had to get us some so we could see what they were all about (thanks, eBay!):

This taste a lot like Ferrero Rochers, though they come in a much more endearing form. The filling is a bit thinner and the outer layer not quite as thick as the rochers. Overally, pretty tasty.

[sherrid]

I love any liquorice type candy - I also like the dutch salty kind. Not sure if you get them, but black cats liquorice is great - nice and chewy.

I'm like jelly bellys and gummi bears too.

Anything cinnamon (gum, mints etc) is always a friend of mine!

[natasha1270]

My favorite seasonal holiday treat hit the stores a few weeks ago - Mary Sue Pecan Nougat Eggs. I especially like the small 3oz size - perfect nougat to pecan ratio. Have heard they are pretty great if you microwave them 30 seconds but mine never seem to make it that far. I know I should wait until after Lent to indulge but they are so perfect and fresh right now I can't help myself!

My other Easter candy weakness are the insanely expensive Medicis Almonds at Williams-Sonoma. I limited myself to 2 boxes and plan to dole them out sparingly.

Also, recently picked up a carton of Milka Chocolate eggs (sucker for cute packaging!) - they were pretty good.

Any other seasonal confections to be on the lookout for?

ps. Chris - If you have a World Market nearby, they carry the kinder hippos too.

[Toliver]

Twix Java

This is the wrapper from a Twix Java candy bar I consumed and then scanned.

This was a limited edition candy that, I guess, is now part of the Twix family of products.

It's actually pretty good. The coffee flavoring is in the caramel. It's a mild coffee flavor so coffee lovers may be disappointed in it. Because the flavoring is in the caramel, it lingers longer on the tastebuds and so becomes more noticeable as an aftertaste. The chocolate cookie is good, too, and is different than the usual shortbread-type cookie in the regular Twix.

Two thumbs up from me.

[baroness]

The Twix Java are fairly good, but I think they would be better with the standard shortbread base. The 'chocolate' base looks better than it tastes, IMO.

[Beebs]

I like Kinder Surprise eggs. Because there is a toy inside. I like the toy.

I've lately been consuming a lot of Jelly Bellys. Over the last several months I've been trying a bunch of different things for fueling during long endurance running, and Jelly Bellys have worked well and are easy to carry. First they were strictly for running. But now I'm popping them wherever and whenever. There's a snack baggie in the car, another one in my gym bag, and a yesterday I bought a 1 lb bag and they're sitting on my counter.

[heidih]

I like Kinder Surprise eggs. Because there is a toy inside. I like the toy.

My local source just stopped carrying them because of the goofy alleged choking hazard issue. Grrr...

[Toliver]

Hershey's Drops

I'm not sure how new these are.

The bag states on the front: "No candy shell - No mess".

How do they do it...prevent the chocolate from melting in your hand? If you've ever had a Milk Dud, you know the answer. There seems to be some sort of waxy coating on the outside of these drops, very reminiscent of the exterior of a Milk Dud.

The Hershey's Drops are somewhat flat-ish (imagine a squashed Milk Dud) and are 100 percent Hershey's Chocolate. The drops taste just like a Hershey's Chocolate bar. This can either be a good thing (if you like Hershey's Chocolate) or a bad thing (if you prefer the real McCoy).

I am not a fan of the sour-ish taste of Hershey's Chocolate so I would probably pass on these.

[Toliver]

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Minis

This is a picture of a bag I consumed and scanned.

These are a new item. They taste exactly the same as regular Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. The big difference is that these are unwrapped and they are quite small. You can see "actual size" on the front of the packaging.

The bad thing is that they are unwrapped. Why is this bad? Two reasons: 1) They are more likely to to melt in your hands if they linger there too long (who are we kidding? They won't be in our hands that long on the way to our mouths ) and 2)because they are unwrapped, there is no delay in satisfaction. You don't have to unwrap anything. There's no pause between bites. It's eating one after the other until you start to realize "Hey these are kind of salty" and "Hey, the bag's empty...How'd that happen?"

Thumbs up on these.

[judiu]

Oh, dear, those would be hazardous in the extreme to buy! I LOVE Reese's, and hate the waste of the extra packaging. It's a principle of mine NOT to buy individually wrapped candies, unless it's something like the Cella's cherries, or a Chunky (they discontinued the ones I adored ages ago, anyhow. ) I love Basset's Liquorice Allsorts, Canada Mints, gummy peaches with the fine sugar on them and dark chocolate covered Peeps! Halloween and Easter is a bad time for the easily tempted, and I am their Queen! Candy "Harvest Mix" like candy corn, only different, the chocolate and coconut candy nests, with jelly bean eggs, the 'Robin Eggs' malt candy and, though I have not seen them in my adult life ANYWHERE, the eggs my mom used to get me for Easter, with a white sugar candy shell, and a rather decent layer of chocolate inside. You had to crack the 'egg' and then eat the pieces. Has anyone found a source for Raspberry flavored shoestring 'liquorice? NOT the Strawberry ones (yuck) or the blue raspberry flavored Twizzlers, please! I could go on, but you'd think I was terrible (you'd be right, too!)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I'm addicted to Nestle Tango (mentioned above, but which now come in white chocolate around black chocolate cookies with a jam filling, sort of like decadent Jammy Dodgers, and which I can get at the corner store - both the original, jumbo sized ones and the minis), Wafer Mix in Naranjilla Creme flavour, and some small, lumpy Skittles-esque candies called Rocklets, which come in tropical flavours. I'm also a huge sucker for Encocados or Cocos, which aren't commercially produced but which tall, strapping Esmeraldans get on the bus selling, and which I always buy. They're Jamaican-influenced coconut and molasses candies, the best of which also contain little chunks of ginger and crushed peanuts. Kind of like an Eat-More, but better. Oh, so much better.

I desperately miss liquorice, both the salty and sweet kinds - they just don't do it down here.

[natasha1270]

Stopped by World market this week-end and was sad they had a sign up on the barren cadbury shelves that imports have been halted due to the recent Cadbury/Kraft sale

Today's treat: KitKat Chunky - hazelnut cream.

Edited March 19, 2012 by natasha1270 (log)

[Toliver]

Limited Edition Nestle Crunch Girl Scout Cookie flavored candy bars, based upon Thin Mint cookies and Samoa cookies.

There's a third flavor, Peanut Butter, based upon the Tagalog Girl Scout peanut butter cookies but I couldn't find it in the store

.

The Mint flavored candy bar was good but not great. I kept missing the shortbread that is part of the Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies. I was surprised that I could miss that simple shortbread base. But it makes a difference.

The Samoa flavored candy bars were very good. It had that nice caramel-ly coconut-ty flavor that make the Girl Scout Samoa cookies so good. I thought they did a great job of replicating the cookie's flavor in the candy bar.

Of course, now I'm jonesing for the cookies themselves which are a half a year away.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Cream-filled vanilla (?) cookies, covered in chocolate. Mmmmm.

I missed this the first time around. Those are Alfajores, sounds like Alfajores Clasicos if coconut wasn't involved.

[Toliver]

I finally stumbled upon the third flavor of Nestlé's Limited Edition candy bars...Peanut Butter Creme based upon the Girl Scout cookie flavors.

At first I was disappointed in the flavor. It reminded me of those sugar wafer cookies. Just a lot of sweetness and the thin crunchiness of the wafer layers. Then the peanut butter flavor really kicked in. It tasted more like the Girl Scout's Do Si Do peanut butter sandwich cookies than the Girl Scout peanut butter Tagalong cookies. There was a salty sweetness to the candy bar that I enjoyed.

This candy bar gets a definite thumbs up.

[DianaB]

If anyone feels nostalgic for difficult to find sweets/chocolate with a British origin, try http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/faq.php

They will deliver world wide.

Having said that, brands that I thought were British seem to be available in far more varieties in the States. For us Marathon,now renamed Snickers, has never had almonds, we just get peanuts. Kit Kat is largely just milk 'chocolate' in either four wafers or one larger bar. Occasionally there are orange flavoured variations. Twix is just Twix, 2 bars in one pack but no variations.

The Quarter Pound Of site does offer a good range of stuff long gone from high street sellers.

Diana

[DianaB]

If anyone feels nostalgic for difficult to find sweets/chocolate with a British origin, try http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/faq.php

They will deliver world wide.

Having said that, brands that I thought were British seem to be available in far more varieties in the States. For us Marathon,now renamed Snickers, has never had almonds, we just get peanuts. Kit Kat is largely just milk 'chocolate' in either four wafers or one larger bar. Occasionally there are orange flavoured variations. Twix is just Twix, 2 bars in one pack but no variations.

The Quarter Pound Of site does offer a good range of stuff long gone from high street sellers.

Diana

[christine007]

Those Hippos are almost too cute to eat....

I found the new coconut flavored three musketeers bar, and while it tasted okay, much to my surprise and dissapointment, it was artificially flavored with no real coconut at all. oh well.

[Toliver]

M&M's Chocoate Bar

I haven't seen this candy bar before. I don't know if it comes in different flavors. This is the wrapper of a candy bar that I consumed and then scanned on my office scanner.

It's exactly what you think it is. It's a chocolate bar...the same chocolate found inside the M&M's candies...with a sprinkling of teeny tiny M&M candies embedded in the bar. The tiny M&M's candy shell provides a little crispy crunch to the bar as you eat it.

What's not to like in this candy bar? Two thumbs up!

[Mjx]

My boyfriend brought these back for me, from a trip to Sweden (in case this seems totally lame, from here this the equivalent of going to VT from NY, if people in VT spoke Frisian or something):

The name somehow says it all. It tasted vaguely of chocolate and... things, which the labels enabled me to convince myself were not unlike the flavours of caramel and something red. My guess is that if you grew up with this, it has significant nostalgia value.

[Toliver]

Rumored to be coming this July:

Reese's Pieces inside Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

 

Edited to add something about the Department of Redundancy Department 

Edited May 11, 2016 by Toliver (log)

[Toliver]

I don't have a scan of the wrapper but I just belatedly tried a Snickers Xtreme (belatedly because it's been around for a while).

It's basically a Snickers bar without the nougat. So it's just more nuts and caramel, all covered in chocolate.

It's not a memorable candy bar. I think I miss the nougat. Go figure...

[natasha1270]

Saw these interesting m&m flavors at target & cvs recently:

 

chili nut, honey nut & white 'boo'terscotch

 

I didn't buy any but might try the white boo-tterscotch if I see it in a smaller size.

 

there was another coffee-nut flavor also.

[blue_dolphin]

29 minutes ago, natasha1270 said:

Saw these interesting m&m flavors at target & cvs recently:

 

There was a mention of the M&M flavors over in this thread where @BeeZee had the chance to taste and report back.  

I often look for them if I'm waiting in check-out lines but haven't seen any of the special flavors.  I think I'd like the coffee version and the butterscotch would be fun to put in Halloween cookies.  Perhaps a more thorough search is warranted in my area !

[Toliver]

An early Christmas (really, an early Valentine's Day) present: "Christmas Has Come Early: Red Velvet Kit Kats Are Here"