Friday Candy Video

Since I'm in a Ritter Sport mood, I thought I'd post this overly fun commercial.  Although I'm not sure, are they dabbing paint on each other at the end, or melted chocolate?

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Polar Bear Gummies Remind Me Of Home

I know it's a cliche to say that polar bears remind me of home, but they do.  Having said that I've never actually seen a polar bear in the wild, and let me assure you that most of Canada does not actually have polar bears wandering.  It's just that polar bears are an important part of our culture, so you see a lot of merchandise and art depicting these awesome bears.  So when I get a little treat that's icy cool and shaped like a polar bear, I get a little nostalgic.

Thanks to sugarfina.com for giving me a little warm feeling with these cool bears.

Click here to read the review.

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The Ritter Sport Museum

Ritter Sport bars are a strangely named square chocolate bar made in Germany.  Most people really don't understand why they're square, or what's with the strange name.  As it turns out both of these questions are related.  The creator of the Ritter Sport wanted to make a chocolate bar for football/soccer fans.  The problem he noticed is that chocolate bars didn't fit into their pockets very well.  The simple solution is to make a square bar that fits in your pocket, so you can enjoy a treat during sporting events.  While a simple idea isn't enough to keep a chocolate bar company in business for so long, making sure these square bars were made with good quality German chocolate, and sometimes filled with tasty fillings, does.  How popular are Ritter Sport bars in their home country?  Popular enough to build a museum, and I decided to pay it a visit.

The Ritter Sport Museum has two floors of chocolate fun.  The first floor is the official Ritter Sport store, and the second floor is the main museum.  The museum has three main sections, the first part is all about where their chocolate comes from.  It looks at the cocoa bean, how it's harvested, and how all of this effects the environment.

The second part of the museum looks at the manufacturing process that goes into each Ritter Sport bar. It's very basic chocolate making information, but I have a feeling that the folks at Ritter Sport go for quality of ingredients over fancy new technologies.

The final section of the museum focuses on the history of the Ritter Sport bar, and is the source of the information I wrote about at the beginning of this post.  It also talks about some pretty staggering statistics in the number of Ritter Sport bars made in a year.

The ground floor of the Ritter Sport museum is purely dedicated to buying Ritter Sport products.

As you can imagine they had every variety of Ritter Sport bars that they make.

And say for example there was a flavour that you imagined, but they didn't have it on the shelves, you don't have to leave empty handed.  They have that covered because they offer a "make your own Ritter Sport bar" section.  Every day, for a pretty hefty cost, they have chocolatiers on hand to help you custom make your own Ritter Sport bar with hundreds of ingredients to choose from.  They offer more ingredient choices than are even available in their line of chocolate bars including pepper corns, chili, and gummy bears.

If you're happy with the flavours they offer on the shelves, you can pretty much get them in any size or quantity you want.  How about an entire meter of Ritter Sport bars?

A tiny little bar for a quick snack?

Or a giant bar to fill you up for days.

But how will you get these bars home on a warm summers day?  Well why not pick up an official Ritter Sport bar cooler.

Or if you're just going for bulk, and you need an extra piece of luggage to carry it all home in, why not pick up the stylish Ritter Sport carry on bag.

It was a fun day at the Ritter Sport museum, but I have one piece of valuable advice.  Don't eat the giant pile of Ritter Sport bars in the middle of the store, they're for display only.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

One of my biggest peeves as a candy writer are candy companies that claim their treats have health benefits. In some cases candy companies will change their treats so they have health benefits, and that often ruins the enjoyment of eating the treat.  Other times candy companies will make silly claims and lead people to believe that they can eat as much junk food as they want.  In both of these cases it's never good, you should know that when you eat junk food and candy that you also have fill up on nutritious foods as well.  That's why I love this ad on the side of an ice cream truck, it pulls no punches and tells me that I'm about to taste something really great, but that I should also eat my vegetables first.

I found this ad here.

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We Eat More Gummies Than Ever This Week in Our Gummy Review-a-Thon!

I usually have trouble writing gummy reviews, because frankly most gummies, taste and texture wise, are pretty much the same.  I end up often writing about how the shape was pleasing, and or difficult to eat.  However the folks at sugarfina.com have changed my mind a little.  They sent me a package full of gummies that are each very different in taste and texture.  I can't say I liked them all, but I was happy to sample them.

Click here to read today's spicy gummy review.

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Old Candy Critic Articles - Stick it to the man

I've decided to take down several old articles from the candycritic.org and re-post them here on the Candy Critic blog.  This week I'm posting an article I wrote with some candy lessons I had just learned.  Since then I've learned a few more.

What's the appeal of eating something on a stick? What makes something on a stick better than just eating it? Who thought stick = fun? You could look at the history of food to find out that sticks and food have been around forever. As long as man has been cooking, food sticks have been an important part of life. The problem I have with the idea of putting food on sticks comes from the candy world.

Why in the world do so many candies come on sticks? I think the only candy that has to be on a stick is a Popsicle. Why might you ask does the frozen treat deserve to be on a stick? Go into your freezer, put an ice cube in your mouth and don't take it out. Can't do it can you. You have to pull cold things out of your mouth or it hurts.

 Lollipops are okay with me, but not because I think the stick are necessary. If you think about it the idea of taking a candy out of your mouth half way through eating it is kind of gross. Try spitting out your chewing gum after a few minutes, hold it, and then put it back in your mouth, yuck. The lollipop was originally huge and impossible to stick in your mouth in one shot. So you can understand why a stick might help you keep your fingers clean.  You can still find huge lollipops today, but for the most part lollipops fit comfortably in your mouth whole, so the basic principle doesn’t really make sense.

The problem I have comes from the idea of putting things like chocolate, marshmallows, and gummies on sticks. Chocolate and marshmallows on a stick has been around for a while, but the gummy thing has become a new and very strange trend. Whenever I eat a gummy on a stick, all it does is get all gooey and stringy, and if they decorate it little bits of icing fall and sprinkles fall all over the place. The chocolate on a stick is very often cheap chocolate, I'm not saying it's all cheap but for the most part it is. The other problem is that chocolate cracks and when you’re trying to eat it on a stick, it falls all over the place.

Let's face it; just putting something on a stick is not really that creative an idea. If you need the stick by all means use one, but if you’re doing it because you think it's clever to put something new on a stick, you’re wrong. Try something else, we as candy consumers are finished with the stick thing, I want something new and fun not something pointy and long.

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Another Gummy Review in Our Gummy Review-A-Thon

I would have to say that the popularization of gummies in the 1980's might be the reason I'm writing this blog (and these reviews) right now.  When I was a little kid, gummies hit the market with a huge bang, every kid wanted a bag of gummy bears.  Gummies were the catalyst towards a time in candy when strange and gross treats started to really bloom.  This meant that the world was being creative with the textures and flavours of candy available.  At that very time, I started to really gain a respect for candy, I loved all of the candy variety that was around me.  And now look at me, I'm writing a blog, traveling the world, and tasting flavours I could only imagine.  Thanks gummies, you made my life pretty cool.  And thanks sugarfina.com for reminding me how cool gummies actually still are.

Click here to read the latest gummy review.

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Ich Bin Ein Candy Kritiker

The great thing about visiting any German city is you know you're going to eat well.  If I ask you what Germany was famous for in food, you might have a hard time picking just one thing.  I'm sure many of you reading this site would probably say chocolate is the most important thing to try here in Germany, and you might be right.  But there is so much good food in Germany worth sampling, and a lot of classic treats you may not have thought about.

Since I've visited Germany before, and I've tasted a lot of German chocolate in my life, I was actually keen to start my tasting adventure with something a little more classically German.  Soft pretzels are the kind of thing you may not think about first when you're planning a trip to Germany, but once you get there you're regularly reminded that these folks really know how to twist up their bread.  I got my first soft pretzel from a guy on a bike in the middle of a park.  It seemed right that I start this adventure off with a little street food.

Meal wise, I didn't want to leave Berlin without trying one of their "world famous" Curry Wursts.  The name might sound horrible, but the food itself isn't bad at all.  You're basically treated to a fried sausage/hot dog, covered in a curry ketchup.  In some cases a little extra curry powder is sprinkled on top as well.  Curry and sausage are not really two flavours you think of as going together, but it works really well.  I've heard horror stories from people telling me that they bought some really bad Curry Wurst in the past, but look around for a decent restaurant and give it a try.

Most people think that JFK called himself a donut when he made his famous speech at the Berlin Wall.  From what I understand the people of Germany understood that he wasn't calling himself a donut, but I do know why this rumour has come up.  In Berlin they have a donut they call a Berliner, but it's just named after the region, and that's all.  It's like me saying "I love New York", and thinking that I must be talking about New York style cheesecake.  The Berliner itself is pretty much a standard powder coated jelly donut, but it was worth it for the experience.

While sampling the many fine foods of Berlin, I came across two amazing surprises about this city.  First of all, Germans love cakes.  I'm sure that wherever you live, you're probably saying that you love cake too.  But in Germany, and in particular Berlin, every restaurant, every street festival, and every bakery has an amazing selection of cakes to choose from.  Frankly any country would love cakes too if they had such a great selection.

The other surprise that I came across in Berlin was something called Spargel.  As it turns out I was visiting Berlin during Spargel season. Spargel is basically giant stalks of white asparagus.  When this stuff is in season, people go nuts over it, and I didn't want to be left out.  On this trip I took every opportunity to sample this tasty vegetable in as many ways as I could.  All I can tell you is my pee was pretty stinky for days after we left.

I guess I couldn't visit Germany without trying a little bit of chocolate, in fact I don't think I could visit Germany without trying a whole lot of chocolate.  There are plenty of great places all over Berlin to sample chocolate, shops, stores, and even a museum (I'll have more about that late), full of sweet chocolate heaven.  While I'd argue that German chocolate is the best in the world, it's certainly in my top 5 places to get the stuff.

These are just a few highlights of my fun trip to Berlin, a place I would highly recommend to any foodie with a sweet tooth.  I have a few more photos from this trip posted on our Facebook page as well.

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Part 2 Of Our Gummy Review-A-Thon

One of the keys to the gummy rise to candy greatness is the range of shapes it can take on.  For a while I tried to collect photos of every single shape of gummy that I ever came across, but it was too big a task.  Every time I step into a candy shop I discover a new shape, some are strange, some are pretty boring.  This week's review looks at how shape is really becoming a crutch of gummy producers, and it seems like they may be missing the boat with flavour range.

Again, today's review was provided to us from our great friends at sugarfina.com.

Click here to read the review.

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Mark Gets Some Treats

Our friend, and regular follower Mark, mentioned to me that he'd never tried Turkis (or Greek) delight before.  I couldn't let this stand, and promptly sent him a package in the mail.  Mark offered a great insight into his candy experience, and agreed to let us share his tale:

I knew the mail lady was here by the exclamation, "Oh yuck! you got a bird".
Instantly the thought crossed my mind," the cats are at it again, fearless hunters of birds, snakes, squirrels, groundhogs, and the like!

I spoke with our mail carrier and we discussed the cats and their inclination to hunt and drag their catch to our doorstep.

Turning around I spied our mailbox, typical mail? Nope, not today!

I saw a package that was very neutral to natural in color.

"What is this?" I think.

I read the senders name and see a familiar C. Stewart.

Now I am excited! What could it be? I think.

Very intrigued with the surprise that is hidden between the layers of envelope. I remember a conversation about candy and junk food, and I realize; this could be the famed and hard to find Turkish delight we spoke about!

After trying to open the bulky envelope with my bare hands, I come to the realization that I require the help of my trusty scissors!

I cut through one layer of envelope to be greeted with a second durable delivery device!

y anticipation is growing as I snip, snip, snip to find concealed a bar of one of my favorite treats, sesame seed candy! Oh wow! My grin proceeds to travel laterally yet slightly longitudinally at the ends. I pull out a second container the reads" Greek Traditional Delight; Lokoum with Rose" Now I am feeling like, well, a kid in a candy store.

I am perplexed, which should I open first, the old favorite or the never before experienced Lokoum?

Decisions, decisions!

I break down and realize, I can only open one at a time, which should it be?

I decide based on kid logic that I shall open the old favorite first and while enjoying it, I will open the second.

I delicately tear open the sesame candy bar and pause, what would a Candy Critic likely do at this point. I look over the slightly thin bar noticing what looks to be a purposeful mixing of light beige, oak, flesh colored sesame seeds.

I take a deep inhalation of the candy and savor the slightly smokey, slightly vanilla, toasted oat like smell.

It is a very pleasant fragrance. I can wait no longer and I take a bite.

The flavor is a wonderful mix of toasted sesame, toasted oats (even though I know there are none in the candy) and a very mild and not over sweet glucose product and the tell tale slight bitterness of sesame in it's varied stages of toasting.

Ah yes, a wonderful and honestly, not so typically sweet, treat from a world away.

Now that being said, I want to find out what this Turkish/Greek delight thing is all about. I stop and look over the package and ingredients. Not only is this Turkish/Greek delight, it is rose flavored!

My family and friends know that I have a unique palate. I enjoy treats that are not your everyday run of the mill snack/junk food. I enjoy a floral breath mint (that contains no mint or minty flavor at all) called C. Howard's Violet mints.

I open the package and am greeted by the sight of a clear tray the size of a compact disc case, with four chambers that are about an inch in depth.

I remove the plastic wrap and cautiously smell the treat, caution solely based on the fact that whatever lies in the recesses of this package is covered with a fine heaping of powdered sugar and should my wife see me with white powder on my nasal area, I believe she would suspect me of shady behavior!

Picking up one of the powder white treats the size of a half melted ice cube, I slightly squeeze to check firmness. This treat is pretty durable even for it's small size.

With anticipation I take a bite of the treat and instantly, as if someone painted my palette with flowers, the taste of rose fills my olfactory senses. There is no mistaking the rose, it is vibrant yet soft in aroma, a delightful edible incense that is very reminiscent of the many roses that I experienced as a child at my grandmother's, where roses seemed to be a frequent sight and smell.

I wonder a question in my mind as I enjoy a second rose delight, "I wonder if the people who eat this on a regular basis use a tapping method to remove the powdered sugar", which is in no short supply.

The very fact that this package arrived with a bit of disgust from the mail lady is an ironic thing.

"Oh yuck a bird" turned into "Awesome Friday Afternoon"

Mark

This Week In Candy

Well I'm back, I had a few days between my Berlin adventure and Cretan fun times, but now I'm back for a while.  While both of these places are very different, from a food standpoint, they both had some of the greatest food I've ever eaten.  Most importantly both of them had some really good sweet treats that you must try.  This week I'll be posting all about the Berlin portion of my trip, including a special piece about my visit to the Ritter Sport museum.  Next week I'll post about some of the great treats I found on Crete, I can tell you now that it will include a lot of dairy products.

Also, all this week we're celebrating with a Gummy Review-A-Thon, brought to us by our lovely friends at sugarfina.com.  They sent us a great collection of high class gummies to sample, and every day this week we'll be posting a new review to celebrate.  This morning we posted our first of many chewy fun reviews.

Last week a package I sent to our good friend Mark finally made it to him.  It was full of Greek delights, and Mark wrote a brilliant piece about getting these treats, he even included his own reviews.  See, if you befriend a Candy Critic, free candy might come in the mail.  I don't have that many contest (but I do have a few) instead I'd rather deal on a customer appreciation angle.

So now I'm back to full strength, and working on a whole bunch of new ideas.

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It's Time For Another Review-A-Thon, This Time With Gummies

All this week we're going to be sampling a great collection of gummy treats, brought to us from our good friends at sugarfina.com.  They told us that they have one of the most original collections of gummy treats in the world, we told them to prove it, they did.  So sit back, and enjoy some fun gummy reviews.  Our first review might seem like a basic gummy bear review, but it's not.  Why not mix your favorite drink with your favorite gummy, what could possibly go wrong.

Click here to read our Champagne gummy bear review.

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Friday Candy Video

This commercial for Jello Pudding staring Bill Cosby is more far fetched than many of the silly impersonations and parody sketches I've seen done of Bill Cosby selling Jelly Pudding.  I liked Bill Cosby when he was weird, I think he should be weird more often.  I also think I should probably make myself a batch of chocolate Jello pudding as well.

Click here to see a few more of these classic commercials.

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Classic/Creative Candy Advertising

Now this is just downright disturbing.  I know babies are supposed to be cute and all, but the idea of a little baby sitting in the cocoa pod were my chocolate comes from is just gross.  I know what babies do, and I don't want a little baby doing it in my cocoa pod.  Chocolate already has enough problems being associated with poop, this isn't helping at all.

I found this ad here.

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