candy-make-you-go-hmmm

Hotsy Tootsie

2006-03-22T15:53:00.000-05:00

If you like your Tootsie Fruit Rolls hard and stale-like, don't put them in your pants pocket for an afternoon. But if you like them soft, as I do, then go right ahead.

In case you haven't noticed, the delicious little Fruit Rolls have a new shiny packaging. Who knows why, but I think it looks kinda sci-fi. They will be the first candy in space. No mess in zero gravity! In the future, though, at the wishes of CandCCandyFactory, Tootsie should get smart and separate the vanilla rolls from the fruit mix. Maybe they can substitute with a grape or a blue raspberry (gross, but seems obligatory these days), as long as the very different-tasting vanilla is put in its own bag or a vanilla/chocolate bag.

Ow, Owyhee!

2006-03-22T11:17:00.000-05:00

The Idaho Spud is probably one of the most lovable candies in America. It appeals to our need to make our food fun, because GOSH! It looks just like a potato. From Idaho! Idaho Potatoes! Ah ha ha ha.

The Idaho Spud, first concocted in 1918 is one of the top 100 selling candy bars in the Northwest, according to it's manufacturer - The Idaho Candy Company. You can find it in speciality stores and on their website. CandC got ours in our Big Tips box.

The actual candy in the Idaho Spud is weird. The innards are supposedly a chocolate marshmallow, but the flavor is less rich and more like hot cocoa powder. The tan marshmallow is enrobed in chocolate and, to get the full potato effect, is sprinkled with coconut. It is smaller than most bars out there but has a pleasant girth - especially in the middle. The ends are a treat because they have a better ratio of chocolate coating to marshmallow.

A unique product like the Idaho Spud is difficult, I think, to really enjoy because it is so different from the candy that is currently out there - but the little Spud definitely grows on you. I would love to try another. The excellent package design and fun concept make it one of my favorite novelty candies - a great piece of Americana.

The potato above, so fabulously rocking a ten-gallon hat and cowboy boots is the Idaho Candy Company's mascot "Spudman." A little old school graphic design can still go a long way.

March Candy Inventory, Issue #1

2006-03-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

- 11 selections remaining from Valentine's Day purchase of the Big Tips Candy box (including Peanut Chews, Goo Goo Cluster, Idaho Spud, Old Faithful, Big Cherry, Pearson's Bun Maple, Twin Bing, Peanut Butter Mountain, Pearson's Nutroll, U-No, and a Clark Bar)

- One Cadbury Creme Egg (OMG Easter Candy ayayyayyayyaaklsdjfas;ya ayay!)

- One Medium Sized Bag Cadbury Mini Eggs (OMG Easter Candy ayayyayyayyaaklsdjfas;ya ayay!)

- One Medium Sized Bag Hershey's Eggs (OMG Easter Candy ayayyayyayyaaklsdjfas;ya ayay!)

- Multiple sample sized Take 5 candy bars

- 20 or so unknown hard candies (a Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year gift from mom). Yesterday, however, candccandyfactory spotted a girl on the subway eating the exact same candies out of a cute little ziploc baggie. We love a girl who carries her own candy around in a ziploc! Should have asked her where she got hers, so more can be purchased in the future. Mmm, strange little fruity Asian candies.

Biblical Inspiration

2006-03-17T11:37:00.000-05:00

One of the most delightful parts of Steve Almond's informative novel, Candy Freak, is the paragraph where he details the extensive candy stockpiles he has squirrled away throughout his kitchen, dresser drawers and closets - basically anywhere he can find the space.

The excerpt below is from Steve's prologue and lays out just how candy freaky he is. Great inspiration.

1. The author has eaten a piece of candy every day for his entire life.
2. The author thinks about candy at least once an hour.
3. The author has between three to seven pounds of candy at his house at all times. Here is a catalog of all the candy I have in my apartment as of right now, 3:21 p.m., July 6, 2003:

- 2 pounds miniature Clark Bars
- 1.5 pounds dark chocolate-covered mint patties
- 24 bite sized peanut butter cups
- 1 pound Tootsie Roll Midgets
- 4 ounces Altoid-like cinnamon disks
- 6 ounces cherry flavored jellies (think budget Jujyfruits)
- A single gold foiled milk chocolate ball with mysterious butter truffle-type filling
- 2 squares of Valrona semisweet chocolate (on my bedside table)
- 3 pieces Fleer bubblegum

I am not counting the fourteen boxes of Kit Kat Limited Edition Dark, which I have stored in an undisclosed warehouse location, nor whatever candy I might have stashed, squirrel-like, in obscure drawers.

Dang! The man has some willpower.

This brings us to the new weekly column here at Candy Make You Go Hmmm, which, hopefully in vivid detail (and maybe one day with photos) will describe the grostesque amount of candy we have started to compile underneath beds, jacket pockets and freezers. Get ready to get gross!

Road Nuts and Rocky Goodies

2006-03-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

This is the first (and thus far, only,) picture of anything we have eaten out of the Big Tips Candy Box. The Nut Goodie looks like a plop of poop but has delicious maple paste, good chocolate and nuts. It is made by the fine people at Pearson's in Minnesota and is one of America's first candies. The Rocky Road, a creation of the same people who bring us Abba Zabba, is definitely no Abba Zabba. That white stuff you see is a pretty airy Marshmallow. Italso has cashews, but they are hard to detect.

Go get yo'self a Big Tips!

Q and A (or, why are we here?)

2006-01-24T10:52:00.000-05:00

Q. Who do you think you are?
A. candccandyfactory

Q. What the hell are you doing here?
A. candccandyfactory will post photos, reviews, and stories about what happens when you eat too much candy, or not enough, and why you shouldn't mix chocolate covered pretzels and super sour dranks.

Q. When are you going tell us everything we ever wanted to know about candy?
A. Whenever the candy urge strikes.

Q.Why are you doing this?
A. Because one of us doesn't have much to do at work, and because we all like candy - eating candy, squishing candy, and thinking of candy.