Candy

Today I tried the fourth of five samples sent to us by Kane Candy, this one was the box of six Pastel Chocolate Flower Cups made with 47.3% cocoa mass along with cocoa butter not added oils, but powered and dried milk in case you are allergic to dairy.  This does have artificial colors to make red, green, and peach colors on the flowers.  It comes six to a box with each cup weighing 12 grams. I

Booze and candy have an interesting relationship. Some booze goes well with certain candies, like chocolate and red wine. Other times the candy is just used to mask the flavour of booze, like gummy bears and vodka. There are also occasions where booze and candy just don't mix at all, but I can't think of any off hand. Booze flavoured candies can work as well, and do in the case of today's review, but only if the booze in question actually tastes good, and isn't simply designed to get you sloshed.Thanks again to our friends at sugarfina.com for giving us such a great selection of gummies to sample.Click here to read the boozy tasting review.CC

With this weekend marking the unofficial start of summer (says me), maybe you’re looking for some delicious warm weather treats? Maybe you’re still looking for ideas to make for your Memorial Day picnic that is in 8/24/48 hours? Maybe you’re a super planner and have stockpiled ideas since March? That would not be me. I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, what-sounds-good-right-this-instant type of party food person. We have to talk burgers. Cheeseburgers with mustard aioli are a must. Be untraditional and make some sweet potato burgers or crab cake sliders. Actually, just browse this entire section of sandwiches and burgers and please make me one. Or four. You can make this chicken in the crockpot and be insanely low maintenance. It includes beer. Happy happy joy joy. Don’t forget the hot dogs! Simple, traditional hot dogs may be best for your get together this weekend but promise me you will trash up a dog before September 2013. Pinky swear? What is summer without baked beans? Nothing. That’s what it is. P.S. they are made with bourbon. I have a dip dependency. Last year I consumed this white pizza dip with just a few other humans. Like the entire dip. Blueberry cheddar dip sounds weird but has never been followed up with a complaint. JUST DO IT. Cheesy caramelized corn dip is a food group. And this recent beer cheese queso should be a given. No words needed. If you’re a corn fanatic like I am, you might enjoy some grilled corn cheddar quinoa. If quinoa makes your head spin you may as well just grill your corn then cover it in bacon butter. Yeah I said it. Bacon. Butter. If you want to feel good about yourself, or as I call it “project don’t feel like crap on holidays” (which, by the way, I’m currently completely failing at) then you should probably make this summertime chopped salad. But my one and only vote goes to some roasted tomato caprese panzanella. I ate that at least once a week last summer. Since it’s a salad the bread doesn’t count. #truth Thirsty and hot? Please have a margarita. If tequila frightens you (as it should), this cantaloupe coconut lassi is so fun. I could never choose a favorite summer dessert, but I hope you’ll make some ice cream cupcakes or this gin and tonic cake. Super refreshing. So real. What’s your summer treat of choice? Are you picnicking this weekend? That’s a verb now, you know. Tell me! I like to share. ©2012 How Sweet It Is

Have you ever thought of making your own sprinkles? Well now you can.Taco Bell's new breakfast taco waffle looks like it could take the world by storm.As it turns out, how often you eat candy is not a reason that you may be overweight, but I'm pretty sure how much you eat might do something.The folks at Nutella don't want us to celebrate World Nutella Day, and why would they? It's only a time for us to buy and consume more of their product.The growing trend in Swedish candy "medicated confectionery".Do you know what "theobromine" is? Well if you want to eat more chocolate you should learn more.This past week I got an awesome shipment of treats from Japan, and some of them look pretty fascinating I can only hope they're as cool as this.If I had to learn one new language that I felt would improve my work as a Candy Critic, I think it might be Aztec.If you want to keep up with all of the daily candy news that we come across as it happens, follow us on Twitter.

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?CC

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.CC

Today I’m solving all problems with chips. Don’t they say that foods that crunch relieve stress? I don’t know who “they” are and unfortunately they probably suggest eating a carrot to solve the issue, but I vote chips. All day, every day. Lately I’ve run across the predicament of developing recipes that solely revolve around tex-mex situations or burgers or sandwiches. I’m sure you’ve noticed. Just when I think I’ve got a handle on it, I deal with that full force and combine the two. I sit down and make these giant lists of recipes to make for my invisible internet friends and then instead decide that weirdly flavored enchiladas are appropriate or that I can attempt to turn anything – I mean, anything – into a taco and margarita fest. Today I’m just giving you something you can eat with your burgers. Or with your beer. Or your hot dogs! Or with your emotions. You know. Whatever works. Oh… and if we’re being reeeeeal honest… something to put on top of your burgers. Or inside your sandwiches. You know it’s the best. I’ve never been a giant chip eater unless salt ‘n vinegar or bbq kettle cooked chips were staring me in the face. Sometimes I love the crunch for a sandwich-type lunch but for once in my lifetime, one of those itty bitty single sized, fairly appropriate portioned bags often does the trick. So weird. The only place I really get wacky about chips is Target because they have omgthebestflavorsever and I just cannot get enough. I usually end up buying three or four bags and opening them all at once and having a chip tasting party in my car. So trashy. It happens. And the only time I get wacky about chips in restaurants is when they are freshly homemade and served with blue cheese. Like, lots of blue cheese. Ugh. Love that. The deal? Homemade potato chips are sort of high maintenance, especially of the sweet potato variety. They just take a while. In hindsight, they are still easy to make – you simply have to be willing to stand in front of a hot pot of oil for a long while, tossing and turning and draining and seasoning. It is 100% COMPLETELY WORTH IT. Say it with me. Worth it. Maybe not worth it for a giant group of people, like a gigantic gaggle of adolescent males who will eat you out of house and home. But for one person, like maybe a husband that does the same? Or a small group? These are so fun and delicious. Or just for yourself. You deserve it. This little seasoning mix I throw on top of the chips is my go-to “bbq flavor” that I’ve perfected to our liking since first making my crockpot bbq beer chicken. I encourage you to play around with it a little if you like – use regular paprika if you don’t want smoky or add a little extra cayenne for some kick – whatever you want. This is a spice rub that I use multiple times per week in our house and I have no qualms in saying that it has taken me a year to feel like I realllllly got it right. And we are talking about me: Miss No Patience. Anyhoo, go getcha some chips this weekend. Make ‘em! You will not regret it. Even when you eat them all in on sitting… you will not regret it. Homemade BBQ Sweet Potato Chips Yield: serves 4 appropriately, 2 obnoxiously Total Time: 1 hour Ingredients: 2 large sweet potatoes, ends chopped off canola oil for frying 1 tablespoon smoked paprika 1 tablespoon onion powder 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar 1/2 tablespoon garlic salt 1/2 teaspoon chili powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper Directions: Add about 4 inches of canola oil to a large pot and heat over medium high heat, fitting the pot with a candy thermometer. You want the oil to be at 350 degrees F, so if it continues to rise, turn down the heat a bit underneath. Cover a large cutting board with paper towels. In a bowl, combine paprika, onion powder, brown sugar, garlic salt, chili powder, salt and pepper. Scrub

I’m a bit of a sucker for Rococo Chocolates, so despite not being a big white chocolate fan, I thought I’d give this a try. I do like a bit of cardamom in my chocolate, after all. One of the things that drew me to this bar was the packaging, something Rococo do so well. It’s actually just a simple paper and foil wrapper, but Chantal Coady’s designs are simple but eye catching. It feels like you’re unwrapping a quality product. As you might expect from a white chocolate, sugar is the main ingredient, but it’s a healthy 30% cocoa solids (cocoa butter), so it’s not overly sweet. The chocolate has a nice creamy edge to it, but as you might expect, the overwhelming flavour is from the cardamom. It’s deliciously warm and works surprisingly well with the white chocolate. In fact, it’s so good that it’s quite difficult to stop eating. You don’t notice yourself eating each individual piece, but before you know it the bar is almost gone and you feel just a little bit guilty. But you shouldn’t feel too guilty. This may be a sweet treat, but it’s a quality treat. It’s certified organic with no nasty additives, so if you’re into white chocolate and want to try something a little bit different, then this is certainly worth trying. Information Buy it online from: RococoChocolates.com Amazon.co.uk (UK) Contains white chocolate (30% cocoa solids). Filed under cardamom, organic, rococo, uk. Tweet This The post Rococo White Chocolate With Cardamom appeared first on Chocablog.

How many fish is too many fish? Turns out: 7!

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.CC