Easter is a candy lover's dream, and Jelly Belly has certainly risen to the occasion. Cybele, the candy goddess at Candy Blog, just reviewed the "Deluxe Easter Mix" which contains an assortment of pastel Jelly Bellys, bunny corn, mellocremes, gummi eggs and malted chocolate eggs. Retail price is $4.99 for a 9oz. bag, and though she managed to source a package for much less, she rated the item at 6/10 on her infamous candy scale.

If you are looking for a mixture of gifts, Jelly Belly offers pre-made Easter baskets including "The Ideal Easter Basket" ($50) which contains almost three pounds of assorted candy, as well as "The Cute Little Easter Bundle" ($34.99) which is about half the size but has a lot of variety. (Though for $35, I would really hope so.)

By ordering either of those on their website, you can expect to get some freebies along with your baskets - which may help to ease the pain of spending that much money on candy in the first place. In addition, the "Fruit Fantasy Basket", as pictured above, sells for $39.99, but comes free with any order of $250 or more.

"It's chocolate, it's peppermint, it's delicious!" Or so says Kramer. Cybele, the candy guru at CandyBlog, would probably agree with this theory normally, but she doesn't seem to be a big fan of the red-filled variety Junion Mints have included in their Valentine's edition. A box of these includes the regular chocolate mints as well as a number of the red filled ones, but they're all heart-shaped so it is impossible to tell which one you are going to get before biting into it.

Though Cybele believes the red ones have a bitter aftertaste due to the red dye, she still rates the candy as 7/10 overall. I'm fairly certain that woman has supersonic taste buds though, so they may be alright for mere mortals such as myself. Have you tried them? Can you tell the difference between the regular mint and the red?

Never let it be said that I'm not jealous of Cybele over at Candy Blog. Not that I envy whatever dental issues that may arise from her chosen avocation. Of course, I could be wrong, perhaps she brushes early and often and enjoys all the sweets she samples with nary a cavity.

In any case, I think it's way cool that Candy Blog reviewed a Malaysian KitKat. And not just any run-of-the-mill Malaysian KitKat, but KitKat Limited Edition XI - Cappuccino Flavour. Who am I kidding, I've never even heard of Malay KitKats, but I'm really curious to know what the previous 10 tasted like.

As for Cappucino KitKat, Cybele says it has an aroma of maple and yogurt, not coffee. It doesn't taste like cappucino either. She says it's more like a flan. Either way, I'm still jealous!

When a company changes the packaging on a product, it is usually because they are hoping to increase sales by having a more-eyecatching design, whether that means that they add color, simplify the layout or increase the size of the font they use. In the case of the Snicker's Almond, the new bar was labeled as "Now More Satisfying!" Bob tried one a while back, but couldn't find a difference. Cybele from the Candyblog was able to get a hold of both the new and old bars to see if she could determine what the difference really was.

As it turns out, the difference is that the new bar has peanuts as a main ingredient and a bit more caramel/less nougat than the previous version. Cybele says that it tastes more like the regular peanut-laden Snickers bar than anything else. It also has five more calories per ounce than the old almond bar.

It's up to your own personal tastes to say whether this makes it more satisfying than before, but going on looks alone, the old Snickers Almond, which used to promise the "maximum amount of almonds," looks more substantial.

Cybele, at Candyblog.net, was lucky enough to get her hands on some official Olympic candy, straight from Torino, Italy, courtesy of a friend. The candy is gianduia chocolate, which means that it is a combination of chocolate and ground hazelnuts. It has a slightly chewy, sticky texture that lingers on the tongue. Check out her site for a full review, but I definitely wouldn't mind if these bite-sized chocolates made their way over to the US. I'm willing to have a piece of chocolate (or two) to support the athletes!

 In this week's food section, the LA Times managed to do put together a very respectable piece on some very specific food blogs, such as candyblog and DeepEndDining, both of which happen to be Los Angeles based. I'm a fan of many of the sites that were mentioned.

Unfortunately for other bloggers, they managed to insult the interest, effort content and sincerity of most, if not all other food bloggers. The first few lines say it all:
"It was fun to pore over the gastronomic musings at the Accidental Hedonist or I Was Just Really Very Hungry.... But quicker than you could say blogosphere, the world of blogs-by-dedicated-foodies got crowded, repetitive, overly precious and just plain dull."