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.
 

Christmas just isn't complete without these soft, chewy bits of pepperminty heaven!

This is another of those candies I remember fondly from my childhood, though back then I never knew them as "Peppermint Christmas Nougats".  (If I had, I might not have liked them so well.  The word "nougat" isn't quite appealing to most children, and honestly, I'm still not crazy about it, though nougat itself is a delightful thing.)  Instead, they were "chewy peppermints", which is at least as fitting as "Christmas Nougat". 

This candy has an even stronger glow of nostalgia than most candies from my childhood, because they are a seasonal treat.  (Ask any child.  Rabbit-shaped chocolate is more fun than a plain candy bar.)

So, by now you've probably figured out that this will be a glowing review, but we won't let that stop us from going through the entire process. 

The Packaging:

The bag is bright and cheerful in the appropriately seasonal red and green, with nice punches of lime green, purple, and violet.  The candy is advertised as "Quality HANDMADE Nougats", which is surprising (not the "quality" part, but the bit about "handmade", I mean).  A good two-thirds of the bag front is clear, so you can see exactly what you're getting (in case yours was a sad childhood devoid of Christmas nougats, leaving you ignorant of their appearance). 

Because these are fairly sticky, soft candies, they are individually wrapped in cellophane with red and green trim.  Removed from the bright outer bag, they look a little old-fashioned-- or maybe "timeless" is a better word. 

The Nougats:

 Each nougat is roughly a 1" x 1.25" oval. 
(I think they're meant to be circles, but they tend to get a bit squoosed.)  A maroon striped edging and a simple Christmas tree shape in dark green and brown go all the way through the candy, which is otherwise white.  

I don't remember the first time I had Runts.  That's not to say that they are not memorable-- simply that they were a part of my earliest childhood training as a lover of candy. As such, I have a certain attachment to them.

When I munched Runts as a child, they came in five flavors:  orange, strawberry, banana, cherry, and lime.   Over time, the mysterious powers-that-be decided to play around with the flavor line-up.  At some point, watermelon and blue raspberry replaced lime.  Though I generally like watermelon-flavored candy, I personally find blue raspberry to be a disgusting crime against humanity-- so to say that I did not approve of its inclusion would be putting it mildly.  Also, I soon realized that, though never my favorite flavor in the box, the powerfully sour lime was an integral part of the Runts experience. 

Unfortunately, that was only the beginning. . .  The next little game the Man decided to play involved taking away not only the watermelon and blue raspberry, but also the cherry-flavored Runts.  (Cherry had been my favorite, as a child.)  In exchange, we got pineapple and mango.  Pineapple- and mango-flavored candy (particularly these versions) could not hope to compare to cherry-- or even the less-beloved watermelon.  The hurt went deep.  (I'm still grieving, actually.)

That was a dark period in the history of Runt.  Most of us prefer not to talk about it. . .

Perhaps Wonka (or Nestle, the brand's owner) took a hit in the pocketbook (or an earful from angry Runts fans), because they soon changed the flavors yet again.  (Any bets on when they'll decide they need to spice things up a little and give us kiwi or grapefruit?)

In their current incarnation, Runts are available in strawberry, orange, banana, green apple, and grape flavors.  While I still feel the absence of cherry and lime, I must admit that the grape and green apple flavors (particularly the latter) are a vast improvement over pineapple and mango (never may they return). 

The Packaging:

The bright orange box stands out and is easily spotted by those of us scouring the candy aisle for an old favorite. 

Cartoon versions of the fruit flavors seem to lead active, energetic lives.  Banana and Strawberry share a surfboard, and orange does a little in-line skating, while the new fruits on the block, grape and green apple, skateboard and kick around a soccer ball.  (I find myself slightly jealous of them.  I do none of those things.  Instead, I spend my spare time blogging about candy. . . Ah well, such is life!) 

One possible complaint about the packaging is that there's no way to see what the actual candy looks like before purchasing and opening the box.  There's also no description of the candy.  Is it sweet or sour?  Is it soft or hard?  True, there is an invitation on the back of the box to try another product called "Chewy Runts", which might be a clue that original Runts are not chewy.  In any case, this is not likely a big problem for a candy that's so well established. 

On the plus side, these resealable boxes are very handy for keeping the candy where it belongs. 

The Runts Themselves:

Presumably they were named  "Runts" because of their diminutive size.  The banana, at nearly 3 cm long, looks the biggest, while the largest dimensions of the others all measure less then 1.5 cm. 

The candies are attractive, with their shiny, brightly colored coatings.  They are hard enough to last a while in the mouth, if you resist the urge to crunch them-- yet they're not so hard that you can't crunch them, if you wish.  If you do bite into them, you'll find that the texture is powdery, but not unpleasantly so. 

Strawberry, orange, and banana are all sweet, while green apple and grape are slightly sour.  Each flavor is distinct-- meaning that the banana doesn't taste like the strawberry, and the orange doesn't taste like the green apple.  I wouldn't go so far as to say that a first-time taster could identify every flavor with no visual clues, but that's not necessary to make this a very pleasant (some might add "addictive") candy. 

The flavors are more powerful when the candy is crunched than if it's allowed to slowly dissolve.  Even so, this is a fairly mild candy.  Perhaps that helps explain its popularity.  There's very little to offend, here, and quite a lot to please-- especially if you grew up loving these sweet little Runts.