Entries for 'Donald'

I love the great deals you can get on candy after the big holidays, and I was excited to find a half-off sale at a local store.

I felt sure that even my wife, who is an expert bargain-shopper, would be impressed by this deal – A large bag of something called Jet-Puffed Holiday Mallows for only 62 cents.
“That’s not candy” was not exactly the reaction I was expecting. Apparently not everyone thinks marshmallows should really count as candy. However, judging from the rate with which these have disappeared, I’d say she likes to eat them even if she doesn’t think they are candy.

The marshmallows come in two colors and shapes, green trees and pink stars. The two colors taste identical, as far as I can tell.
The taste is just general sweet, as you would expect form a marshmallow. But they are strangely addictive, and because they are so soft and fast to eat you can easily eat dozens of them before you even realize what you’ve done. Just remember, only eat one at a time - The bag comes with dire warnings:
“CHOKING WARNING Eat one at a time. Children should always be seated and supervised while eating.”
 

I’ve always been a fan of caramel, and a candy bar called caramello simply has to be good. Or at least that was my reasoning when I picked this up in the grocery store.

Cadbury is of course the well-known British chocolate manufacturer, famous for their Cadbury eggs. They have licensed Hershey’s to manufacture their candy for the US market.

The Caramello King Size bar consists of six squares filled with liquid caramel. Each square has the word Caramello imprinted on it, and it all looks very appetizing. It can be a bit messy to eat, unless you can break the squares apart in the exact right spots. The suggested serving size is 1 bar, so I suppose you could pop the whole thing in your mouth, for a whopping 360 calorie treat.

The caramel filling is soft and runny and sweet. Very sweet. It doesn’t really have much of a caramel favor at all. This is definitely my biggest gripe about the Caramello – It doesn’t taste like caramel. And that’s really the whole point with a name like Caramello.
The milk chocolate shell is ok. lt seems a bit more creamy and chocolatey than your standard Hershey’s chocolate bar, but it doesn’t really stand out. And like the caramel, it too is very sweet.

Overall, the Caramello is a bit of a let-down. The sweetness is almost overbearing. The filling is creamy and has a mild pleasant taste, but the lack of true caramel flavor is disappointing.
 

It takes a certain kind of daring to even pick up a bag of candy that sports a blatant error in the very name-- if they can’t even spell check the name of their product, how much care did they put into the product itself?
But that’s just the certain kind of daring person that I am—nothing shall ever come between me and my candies. Maybe I was also swayed by the assurance that these are in fact the world’s best “12 flavor gummi’s”.

Despite the lack of command of the English language, these gummies are actually made in the US. The are made by the Albanese Confectionary Group in Indiana, to be more precise.

The packaging is ok, but somewhat uninspired. The golden color is an obvious rip off of Haribo Gold-Bears. The ring of bears pictured at the top looks dull and waxy, and the purple one in the middle look like he might be possessed by something evil. The bottom half of the bag is transparent, which we always like as it lets us see the bears inside. It is interesting to note that nowhere on the bag does it say that these are actually gummy bears we are dealing with here. I suppose that’s just understood.

The aroma that hits you as the bag is opened is rather chemical, but not too unpleasant. Kind of what you would expect from any bag of gummy candy. These bears are made with “NATURAL and artificial FLAVORS”

These bears’ biggest claim to fame is that there are, in fact, 12 flavors. Never before has so many flavors of gummies been stuffed in one bag. And these are not just any old flavors—that just won’t do. That will not make you the “World’s Best”. Here we have tempting creations such as Bodacious Banana, Rockin’ Raspberry and Groovy Grapefruit.

The bears themselves are slightly larger than your average gummy bear. They are unusually detailed with easily distinguishable eyes, mouth, paws and claws. They also sport a large A on their chest. There are some odd coloring, with a pale teal bear that looks unusually unappetizing, but I imagine it is not so easy to produce 12 different colors of gummies. The bag boasts “Softer, bursting with flavor!” and these bears do feel softer than many other gummy bears. They are much softer than your Haribo and Black Forest bears, for sure.

Ok, time for the tasting. I pop a random sample of a few bears in my mouth not expecting too much, only to be pleasantly surprised. These are actually quite tasty! They have the right softness to give you some chewing resistance, but yet yield when you bite down a bit harder. They are in fact ‘bursting with flavors!’ just like the bag promised.

With so many different flavors, there are bound to be some that you have probably never encountered in a gummy candy before. Or at least I never had much grapefruit, banana or pineapple gummies. Let’s go through the flavors:

 

Ornery Orange Ornery? I understand that they wanted an alliterative word, but ornery? Why not just call it Obstinate Orange or Offensive Orange while you’re at it? Name aside, the orange bears is a definite hit. It has plenty of flavors and the bright orange color is inviting. 5/5
Poppin’ Pineapple These do tastes like pineapple, and like real pineapple it has a bit of a sour and tart element to it. I think I would tire of these if I ate several in a row, but mixed in with the other flavors, they are good. 4/5
Granny Smith Apple Lots of flavor in these, and an inviting green color as well. I can see why the manufacturer is selling these separately 5/5
RRRipe Watermelon These poor bears are stuck with a very unappetizing color. The pale teal color makes them look like something that is (shudder) good for you masquerading as a candy. Of course that’s not the case, as these are just as bad for you as all the others. But not only are they an assault on your physique, but also your taste buds. In all fairness, I have never been a big fan of watermelons or watermelon candies, but these are bad even as far as watermelon flavors go. 2/5
Lickin’ Lemon Surprisingly, the lemon bears are not all that flavorful. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as lemon candies can often be a bit overpowering. The bright yellow color is appetizing as well. 4/5
Wild Cherry Very good. Cherry candies can sometime have a bit of bitterness to them. These are just tasty and sweet, and the bright red color is inviting too. 4/5
Bodacious Banana Bodacious? Ok, if you say so. I had my doubts about this one, I must admit, and rightly so. They are rather harmless, I suppose, and the taste is mostly sweet with just a hint of banana flavor. 3/5
Luscious Lime Just as the lemon, these are not all that flavorful. Nothing bad, but nothing that makes them stand out either. The light green color is unusual for gummies, but pretty inviting. 3/5
Freshhh Strawberry I usually like strawberry flavors, and these are no exception. But they did not quite meet my high expectations. 4/5
Rockin’ Raspberry Raspberry is another of those flavors that can have a tendency to be overpowering. But these are pretty good. The bright blue color makes them look a bit poisonous, but that seems to be par for the course for most blue raspberry candy. 3/5
Groovy Grapefruit Grapefruit? In a gummy? Actually, they are not bad. It’s a generic citrusy flavor that I would not have been able to identify as grapefruit if it hadn’t been printed on the bag. 3/5
Concord Grape Not a whole lot of flavor in these and what flavor is there taste rather chemical. The purple bears are fun, but I really could have done without these. 2/5

So, the verdict? I give these a solid 4 of 5. Their weakest point is really the 12 flavors—with so many different flavors, there are bound to be some that are not quite up to par. Sure, a banana flavored gummy might sound like fun, but after a few of them you are really ready to go back to your classic strawberry, orange and apple flavors.

I picked up this bag in a local Freds for only one buck! Sure, it’s only a 5 oz bag, but that’s still a great deal in my book.