"candies" news and stories

Altoids fans will be pleased to learn that the company has launched several Altoids Curious and Original Chocolate Shoppes in the spirit of Valentine's Day. Actually, they're anti-Valentine's Day. Each of the three temporary "pop-up stores" is billing itself as a "sanctuary from all the romantic overtures" for the "lovesick, lovelorn and Cupid-wary."

The stores are located in Chicago, Miami and New York, and each has free activities, such as "Therapeutic Crafts for the Broken-Hearted" and "Love Stinks" needlepoint kits. They also stock samples of Altoids' new Dark Chocolate Dipped Mints and are passing them out with free lattes. Chicagoist stopped by their local store and reported that it also stocked "cupcakes from Angel Food Bakery, anti-Valentine's Day cards and a variety of other Altoids and V-Day related schwag."

Everything in the stores, in case you haven't gotten the picture yet, is free, so it's definitely worth a stop by if you live in one of the three cities mentioned

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Just over six months ago, Cadbury went through a major recall of some of their best selling products in the UK because the bars tested positive for traces of salmonella. In Canada, at about this time last year, the company had to recall some Cadbury Easter eggs because "pieces of hard plastic" were found in them. Now, the company is faced with yet another recall. This time, thousands of Easter eggs and chocolates were shipped out with no nut-allergy warning on the packaging, which puts those with such allergies at serious risk.

Since many of the chocolates have already been distributed, Cadbury is not only recalling them from stores, but chose to run ads in the newspapers to try to draw consumers' attention to the potential risk. A Cadbury spokesman could not give an estimate as to the exact number of products involved in the recall, but he speculated that the number of candies - primarily Easter-themed Cadbury Creme Eggs - would be in the thousands not the millions. The real danger for the company in this third recall comes from decreasing consumer confidence in their brand and whether the love of Creme Eggs (properly labeled ones) is enough to make consumers stay with them.

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Ask almost any kid what the lowest candy on the totem pole is and they will tell you wafer candies - assuming that they can even come up with the name of the category. These candies, which include the US Smarties (not the chocolate UK kind) and Necco Wafers, are made of pressed sugar and don't have nearly as much to recommend them as some of the chocolate, peanut butter and caramel candies that they have to compete with. That being said, however, they have been around for a long time and even if they are not the most popular candies, they always get eaten.

It's possible that the flavors have something to do with their inevitable consumption. One of the unusual things about these candies is that the coloring does not necessarily correspond to flavoring and that there are few cross-brand parallels. Lis of Riba's Ramblings put together a flavor vs. color comparison chart for four types of "popular" wafer candies - SweeTarts, Smarties, Necco Wafers and Sweethearts - so you'll know what it is that you're eating. Pink candies could be cherry or wintergreen. White wafers could be orange cream, cinnamon or mint. Green could be strawberry, lemon, lime or apple. The only color/flavor that was the same across the board was orange. Check out the rest of the table for a full breakdown.

All it takes to enjoy caramel is a sweet tooth and, fortunately, I happen to have a large one. I say fortunately, because that sweet tooth is what prompted me to try Caramoo caramels at the SF Winter Fancy Foods Show this weekend. The all-natural caramels are loaded with European butter and full-cream milk, hand made in small batches and individually wrapped. They have the unusual property of being delicate and crumbly, so that with each bite the candies almost seem to dissolve on your tongue. It is a sharp contrast to the very commonly found chewy caramels, but a welcome one, as each buttery candy is incredibly satisfying. They come in original and honey flavors. The latter clearly tastes like honey, but I happened to have a slight preference for the classically flavored original.

The company also stocks Caramoo Creme Fudge in Chocolate, Vanilla and Mocha, each of which starts with the same caramel base as the original caramels and ends with a product that is light, creamy and delicious.

Most of the candies seem to be heading towards wholesalers at the moment, but you can easily place an individual order on the company's website.

I think that Cybele, who writes Candy Blog, gets a lot of her candy samples from convenience stores, which are more likely to stock the limited edition varieties of bars than the average grocery store. It just so happened that, while on a little bit of a road trip, I spotted this Limited Edition Triple Chocolate Twix in such a store.

The bar had the same milky, sweet chocolate covering that most Twix bars do, but also had a layer of chocolate caramel on top of a chocolate cookie. The cookie went wonderfully in the bar. It had a good chocolate flavor and was very light and tender, especially when compared to the much firmer cookie that is usually included in the candy bar. The caramel did not seem all that chocolaty when eaten alone, but it really tied the chocolate coating in to the chocolate cookie. When taken as a whole, the bar was excellent. It was lighter and more addictive than the standard Twix, with a good balance of chocolate and sweetness. It's hard to say how long a limited edition bar will stick around once it has been released, but this flavor is clearly a winner, so let's hope it is available for more than a couple of weeks.