Candy

Take the best Gummy Beards ever. Now, mess with them. Add cool flavors. Real juice. Whaddaya get? Absolute SHITE. Just kidding, tee hee!

1. For the first time in… years? I didn’t get rainbow sprinkled cone on vacation. I’M GROWING UP. 2. Remember a few months ago when I talked about wanting these sunglasses and the vast majority of you told me I’d look ridiculous and if I had any fashion sense at all (which I don’t) that I shouldn’t do it? Well… I found them on sale this past week and – did it. 3. I want to go to this lady picnic and be best friends with them. I just hope I don’t really have to be a lady. 4. My brothers, cousins and I have a long running group text that is so atrocious that it gives me anxiety. Like instead of texting one of them back, I’ll accidentally tweet something horrific. This is my only exception to the group text rule as I generally think they are the most annoying things on Earth. Right next to the “reply all” function on email. 5. If Sookie and Eric don’t end up together by the end of the True Blood series (whenever that may be) I will probably hurt someone. I don’t care about ANYTHING else on that show and haven’t for about three years. Can’t it be the anna paquin/alex s show? Yes yes. 6. Spring garlic pancakes: for some reason I cannot stop thinking about these. Maybe it’s the whole pancake thing. 7. So. It’s quite possible that I have exhausted my buffalo chicken pizza obsession. Well – let me clarify. I haven’t exhausted the buffalo-style infatuation but just the specific pizza we have been getting, like, once a week. I can’t be sure though, so check up on me in seven days. 8. One thing that has not died down though is my burger obsession. Dying over these aloha sliders. So freaking cute and delicious. 9. Because I can’t share enough in my Tuesday things, I’ve started sharing some of my current favorite links on the weekend. Things like food and maybe even makeup and general internet crushes. !!!! 10. Oh look, it’s my life: what it’s like shopping at Sephora. 11. The above is a perfect example of why I make a terrible sales associate. Unless I’m selling something I believe in, like sprinkles or shoes – I just can’t push people to buy something. However, I on the other hand am a marketer’s dream. I want to try all the things. 12. This week’s things are brought to you by a rainbow sprinkle-less photo. My husband is concerned at the amount of sprinkled doughnuts and sprinkled ice cream cones I constantly share. Like as if I might be boring you. What is he? The instagram police? ©2012 How Sweet It Is

Jelly Belly didn’t have a totally new candy product to show off at Sweets and Snacks this year (last year was all about Snapple Jelly Bellies), but they did have some fun tweaks on existing products. One especially eye-catching tweak resulted in these Jewel Jelly Bellies (photos without my watermark are from Jelly Belly): They took their blueberry, bubble gum, sour apple, cream soda, berry blue, orange, and very cherry flavors and added a gorgeous pearlescent sheen to them all. The result was incredibly eye-catching, and they look even better in person than they do in these photos. They’re currently only being sold in bulk, so they didn’t have photos of the future official packaging to send me. They did have some example packaging at the Expo, however, as Disney Princess Jelly Bellies, which I thought was great cross-branding.

Just off Notting Hill’s bustling Portobello Road lies a small oasis of chocolate. Somewhere to escape the tourists, drink tea and immerse yourself in an extensive selection of chocolate from around the world. Alexeeva & Jones feels like a continental chocolate shop even before you walk through the door. The shop window is elegant and minimal and some carefully placed tables & chairs outside provide a place to stop and watch the world go by. Walk inside and the feeling of relaxed sophistication surrounds you. Loose chocolates are beautifully displayed in marble and glass boxes and the walls are covered in some of the best chocolate bars in the world. It feels stylish and welcoming, without being overly formal. I feel like I could spend a couple of hours here. And that’s exactly what I end up doing. Retail manager Helen greets me as I enter. Helen is a veteran of chocolate retail in the UK, having been store manager at the likes of William Curley, La Maison du Chocolat and Rococo. What she doesn’t know about chocolate isn’t worth knowing, and that’s immediately obvious. She can tell you every detail about each and every chocolate, bringing the stories to life – and unfortunately making me want to buy everything. Loose Chocolate Collections The beautiful displays of loose chocolates are the focal point of the shop. Eight international chocolatiers are featured, some of which you may have heard of, others that might be new to you. Not being reliant on a single chocolatier means that they can vary the collections depending on season and quickly introduce new chocolatiers. Currently, they have a house selection, along with chocolates from Davenport’s, Franck Daubos, Centho, Beschle and British chocolatiers Paul Wayne Gregory, Damian Alsopp and Iain Burnett. It’s a great mix, with something for everyone, from Davenport’s sweet fondants to Damian Allsop’s divine water ganaches with a healthy dose of European sophistication in between. I have to admit, I found the choice a little overwhelming, but I tried a small selection from the Franck Daubos and Centho, two European chocolatiers I hadn’t encountered before and found them impressive. Bars Of The World I’m very much into artisan bars at the moment, so as beautiful as the displays of chocolates are, I was most excited to see a range of bars from some of the world’s best chocolate makers on display along the wall. I don’t know of anywhere else in London – or the UK for that matter – where you can buy the likes of Friis Holm, Åkessons, Pacari and Amano under one roof. Some of my favourite bars like Friis Holm’s Chuno and Amano’s fantastically powerful Morobe are there, along with others like Larent Gerbaud’s beautiful looking bars that I’d not yet had a chance to try. I quickly realised that a single visit to Alexeeva & Jones wasn’t going to be enough. I couldn’t leave without buying a bar of Morobe along with a Laurent Gerbaud yuzu bar and a couple of Damian Allsop’s “Eat London” range. Needless to say, I left satisfied. Notting Hill is fast becoming a chocolate destination in itself, with the likes of Melt and Artisan du Chocolat just around the corner. It has a different vibe from some of London’s more well known chocolateries, but if you’re into artisan chocolate, the area – and Alexeeva & Jones in particular – is well worth a visit. Alexeeva & Jones 297 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill London W11 2QA www.alexeevaandjones.com Information Filed under alexeeva & jones. Tweet This The post Alexeeva & Jones, Notting Hill appeared first on Chocablog.

This week we're starting a new feature on the blog. Every Wednesday we'll be reviewing a new Asian treat graciously donated to us from our friends at oyatsucafe.com. Some might say that our goal is to make sure we have the widest variety of treats reviewed on the site, but I'm pretty sure that the goal is to make sure I eat something really strange on a regular basis. No matter what the reasons, not only will we have a new Asian review every week, but you (our loyal readers) are entitled to a discount from oyatsucafe.com and all you have to do is enter "candy critic" in the discount section of their online form.Last week we also received a whole bunch of South African treats from our friend CJ, and we're going through it and setting up some awesome reviews. I'm thinking a South African review-a-thon might be in our near future.Finally, I've been thinking about classic treats that I have not yet reviewed. I realized recently that I never reviewed original Mike and Ikes (as you can see from this weeks review that has changed), but if you see a classic treat that I've missed, make sure to let me know about it.CC

Pepsi-flavored Cheetos - FritoLay - I'm not 100% sure that these are real, but since it's Japan, I'm no 100% sure that it's not real either. - Click here to learn more about this treat.CC

There are a great deal of "famous" and well known candy in the world. It's a group of candies that most people might call classic candies. These are the staples of any candy fans collection of treats they've sampled. In many ways these are the treats that I try to base my reviews upon. The problem is, sometimes I don't actually get around to reviewing them. Sometimes they slip through the cracks, I've tasted them, I've just never put pen to paper and actually written a review. Mike and Ike's "Original Fruits" is just such a candy, but no more is it un-reviewed.Click here to read this classic review.CC

Just over three years ago (when Dom still liked sugary treats) he reviewed a similar bar to this, made by the same company, Goldkenn, and containing Grand Marnier. Well it’s my turn to test a Goldkenn liqueur bar, and it happens to contain what is possibly my least favourite ‘whiskey’ – Jack Daniel’s. Like Harley Davidson, Jack Daniel’s seems to have been aggressively marketed to the point where the brand can be seen on everything from mouse mats to wallets, so it’s hardly surprising that this bar was conceived. In essence it’s the same chocolate as the Grand Marnier bar – 37% cacao milk chocolate made in the classic Swiss style. It also has the same thick, crunchy sugar shell inside the chocolate to keep the liquid centre from spoiling the chocolate. And the filling? Alas, not Jack Daniel’s, but a “Jack Daniel’s Syrup” – yep, more sugar. The effect of this accumulation of sweetness is fairly obvious. Nothing stands out much at all other than the sugar. There’s a hint of alcohol mixed with sugar, some chocolate mixed with sugar, and a mouthful of sugar pieces to contend with at the finish. Still, I suppose brand loyalty will mean that this sells reasonably well, but as an example of good chocolate it fails miserably. Perhaps one of our artisan chocolate maker friends should have a go at making a ‘proper’ version of this (although I would take one of Paul A Young’s Bourbon truffles over a bar of this sickly stuff any day). Buy it for your Dad/Boyfriend if you can’t think of anything else. Otherwise, why bother? Information Contains milk chocolate (37% cocoa solids). Filed under goldkenn, jack daniels, switzerland, whisky. Tweet This The post Goldkenn Jack Daniel’s Milk Chocolate appeared first on Chocablog.

Here’s the plan. You only have to get through a few hours of the day before you can go home and make pizza. I want pizza Mondays to be real in my house. I think I said that a few weeks ago about tacos… but I mean I’m incredibly fickle to begin with so how can you be surprised. Regardless, nearly my entire life revolves around pizza and tacos. This is so very true that I even dedicated a portion of my book to such delicacies. Well, they are delicacies to me. I’m simple. ANYhoo. I was shocked to find fresh figs in my local grocery store because they are only available here for about 3.6 seconds every year. Luckily, I can get dried figs every day of my life and consume those suckers like candy, but the fresh ones?… what a treat. I bought 12 of them for … 12 freaking dollars. Yes, like $12. One, two, dollar sign. One dollar per fig. You people with a fig tree are probably laughing in my face right now. I can’t help it though. I love them so much.  The majority were sliced for this pizza (hi dinner) and I enjoyed the rest of them fresh and simple like a freak. That’s how it should be. People always ask me how I come up with the flavor combinations that I do. Well, I don’t really know? I just put together flavors that I like. I’d love to say that I have a much more sophisticated palette and can taste undertones (are those a thing?) in certain foods and put things together because they universally belong and match, but that is not the case. In fact, the way I combine flavors is exactly the way I obnoxiously sing Justin Timberlake’s Mirrors: skeptically and quite often – wrong. Let me just get this out of the way: I have no idea what the heck the lyrics of that song are but I sure act like I do. And as a sidebar, I just googled the lyrics (which I probably haven’t done since my Napster days) and I still stand by my argument that those are TOUGH lines. How is anyone supposed to decipher those? I don’t care that JT’s voice is like angels singing in my ears. I’ll happily make up my own song. So the moral of this story is that I just really adore figs, cheese and – obviously – bacon. And pizza. And even… arugula. If I love all of those things, how could they steer me in the wrong direction? Exactly. That’s why I ate all this pizza by myself. WORTH IT. Fresh Fig, Bacon + Blue Cheese Pizza Yield: makes 1 pizza, serves 2-4 Prep Time: 2 hours Cook Time: 30 minutes Ingredients: dough 1 1/8 cups warm water 3 teaspoons active dry yeast 1 tablespoon honey 1 tablespoon olive oil 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 garlic cloves, minced 8 fresh figs, sliced 4 slices thick-cut bacon, cooked until slightly crispy and fat is rendered 8 ounces fontina cheese, freshly grated 4 ounces gorgonzola cheese, crumbled 2 cups fresh arugula 1 tablespoon olive oil a pinch of salt and pepper Directions: dough In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, honey and olive oil. Mix with a spoon, then let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes. Add in 2 1/2 cups flour and salt, stirring with a spoon until the dough comes together but it still sticky. Using your hands, form the dough into a ball and work in the additional 1/2 cup flour, kneading it on a floured surface for a few minutes. Rub the same bowl with olive oil then place the dough inside, turning to coat. Cover with a towel and place in a warm place to rise for about 1-1 1/2 hours. After the dough has risen, punch it down and place it back on the floured surface. Using a rolling pin or your hands, form it into your desired shape (sometimes I use baking sheets and do rectangles or free form pizzas - this specific dough will yield one pizza large enough to feed about 3-4 people) and place on a baking sheet or pizza peel. Place the towel back over the dough and let sit in the warm place for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (I actually used a pizza stone and heated my oven to 450 degrees, and b

this awesome letter to her blogging self eight years ago. eight years?! these oatmeal brownies. face meet chocolate. this grilled mexican street corn salad. i think we all know about my obsession. this summer reading list. oh… and this one too. these (vegan + gluten free) peanut butter cup pancakes. what? this strawberry coconut cream pie. and the best story ever. this limemade cake. helloooooo margaritas. this berry crumble ice cream. just stop it. this salted honey ice cream. also: stop. this strawberry meyer lemon marmalade. do i have the patience? this brow school q + a. if you’re a makeup freak like me. [I'm going to be sharing these posts once a week or every other week because I have so many things to freak out over. Leave any current links you're loving!] ©2012 How Sweet It Is