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Must Read: Field Guide to Candy

YumSugar — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:36:53 -0700

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10 Nostalgic Candies to Remember

YumSugar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:50:31 -0700

This time of year, it's impossible to walk into any office or store without candy bowls full of M&M's, candy corn, or homemade candy begging to be eaten. Skittles and Starburst may dominate doorsteps today, but that wasn't always the case; an entirely different subset of confections were popular in the first half of the 20th century. Although many of them have faded into oblivion, a few old favorites can still be found on candy shelves today. Here are a handful we can't resist reminiscing about.

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Delilicious: Monster Candy Eyeballs

LilSugar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:59:18 -0700

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7 New Candy Favorites For Halloween

YumSugar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:50:42 -0700

As much as I love celebrating Halloween, some parts of it - like haunted houses, trick-or-treating, and even certain kinds of candy - remind me I'm not a kid anymore. That's why I've decided to introduce some alternative, homemade confections that are refined enough for even an adult gourmand such as myself. Curious to know what my new candy favorites are? Keep reading to find out.

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Taste Test: Coconut M&Ms

YumSugar — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:12:00 -0700

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Candy-Off: Fruit & Nut Chocolate Bars

YumSugar — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:04:52 -0700

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Taste Test: Hershey's Extra Dark Chocolates

YumSugar — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:59:55 -0800

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12 Days of Edible Gifts: Candied Citrus Peel

YumSugar — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:16:14 -0800

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12 Days of Edible Gifts: Sweet and Spicy Brittle

YumSugar — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:37:56 -0800

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Product of the Day: Zit Poppers Candy

GiggleSugar — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:05:15 -0700

Eww.

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Taste Test: "New" Candy

partysugar — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:35:21 -0700

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Introducing the One and Only

YumSugar — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:33:02 -0700

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Suck It Up! Get Instant Chocolate Milk From a Straw

YumSugar — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:28:50 -0700

A few months ago, I told you guys about straws that help flavor milk. We finally got our hands on some and wanted to let you know what we thought. The straws come in packs of six and are available in three flavors: banana, strawberry and chocolate. However, because today is National Chocolate Milk Day, we're going to focus on the chocolate.

I started off by taking a pint of milk and dividing into three cups. Then I put one straw into each cup. The straws are rather unique, they're a bit larger than normal straws and have three small openings on each end. The openings are big enough to allow milk to pass through, but small enough that the chocolate "beads" don't escape.

To be honest, I was expecting it to taste overly sweet and weird, but it was surprisingly good and rather interesting. There was no clumping powder or syrupy mess, instead all the chocolate remained in the straw. In fact, you might even say it was like a chocolate filter. As the milk passed through, it slowly dissolved the beads and created a flavor infusion. After several minutes of the straw in my glass, my milk had a very light brown hue, and eventually the beads dissolved completely.

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If you've got kids, or are one at heart, this will make a great afternoon surprise. The product, which is produced by Felfodi, was just announced at the Candy Expo and will hit the shelves soon.

Denise Tassin's Unique Necco Wafers

YumSugar — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 03:37:31 -0700

Some folks like to eat Necco wafers, but Baltimore-based artist Denise Tassin enjoys drawing on them. In a new solo show at San Francisco's Zinc Details gallery, Tassin utilizes an assortment of pens - including fine-tipped Sharpies - to create miniature drawings on Necco wafers. Her drawings have currently taken a scientific route and include carefully detailed inkings similar to those found in biology books. Who would have thought that candy and fetal pig respiratory systems go hand in hand? If that's too odd for your tastes, she also has a series of Christmas related items featuring dolls and Santas, as well as a series of individually re-sealed wafers featuring random sketches.

For those of you who haven't had the joy in experiencing their chalky sweetness, Necco wafers are thin sugar wafers made by the New England Confectionary Company - hence the name Necco. They come in eight flavors and colors and make for an interesting art medium. In fact Tassin likes them so much, she has even been known to carry a pen and pack of Necco wafers with her wherever she goes. "t's like having a little studio in your pocket."

If you're in the San Francisco area, you'll be able to see her wafers up close and personal at Zinc Details from September 9 to October 31.

However, if you can't make it to the show, be sure to check out more of her artwork after the jump, just read more

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San Francisco's New Candy Store

YumSugar — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:23:18 -0700

June is almost over, but I couldn't let National Candy Month pass by without telling you guys about one of my favorite new places. In the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, Diane Campbell and her hubby Brian have opened a new shop simply called, "The Candy Store." Based on the name you'd assume that the store sells candy - which it does - but it's not like the kind of Sweet World type stores you see in the mall. If that's what you're envisioning, just stop right there: This place is better than that. It's a bright white space sprinkled with walls of clear candy jars, mountains of delicious chocolates, bins of crystal fruit slices and more.

Although it was a dreary gray day when I visited, the inside of The Candy Store was as bright and beautiful as a lovely spring morning - a lovely spring morning in candyland! To find out more about The Candy Store, including lots of pictures, read more

As a kid, owner Diane Campbell wasn't allowed candy and would sneak it from her mom. However like most vices, candy's something you end up craving the more you can't have it. So naturally, as an adult, Diane is now the proud owner of a beautiful store. The store is filled with handpicked items that really cover the candy gamut. From inexpensive candy lipsticks (50¢ each) to pricey imported chocolates, there is something for everyone. She even carries hard to find candy bars like Valomilk, Idaho Spuds, and Sky Bars, as well as the intriguingly flavored Zotter bars (plum bacon anyone?!). My personal favorite is the wide array of of by the pound (around $10-12 per pound) candies including mango chile gumballs, assorted gummi candies (including one that looks like an egg), peanut butter malt balls, green & black "olives" (which are candies that happen to look like olives), black licorice (which apparently sells like mad) and many, many more.

When I asked Diane what she liked best about being the neighborhood candy pusher, she earnestly gushed that it was the customers smiles.

"I'm going to be that candy store in people's memories. That's so freaking cool to me. To be part of that memory is thrilling."

Personally I think the thrilling part is to have this candy store in your memory. So if you're ever in San Francisco, be sure to stop by and tell Diane we said hello! If you're nice she might even hook you up with a sample.

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TV Dinners: South Park - Microwaved Peeps

YumSugar — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 11:51:42 -0700

Last night the bf was flipping through the channels and landed on a new episode of South Park. The episode itself poked fun at Easter in a Da Vinci Code style. The weirdest thing is I was actually writing a post about how we microwaved Peeps when, what? What is that? They are microwaving Peeps on South Park?!?

Sometimes the universe is wild like that.

So, for today's TV Dinner, I present microwaved Peeps. However, unlike the ones on South Park, ours did not expand to the point where they took over the building and burst out all the windows - but they did expand. We ran three tests and then tried a Peep joust (we didn't have toothpicks so we improvised). Unfortunately, the microwave in our office has a weird screen in front of the window, so we really couldn't see in. This meant no fun video for us (we tried, it looked terrible), so we'll have to show you what happened with still photographs instead.

We put the first Peep in for 15 seconds, it puffed up a tiny bit and deflated into a pile of sticky goo. I preferred the 15 second taste to the 0 second taste. It was warm and a tiny bit more flavorful. I was also surprised because it somehow still managed to look like a bird.

Our tests also ran at 30 seconds, 45 seconds and then a jousting event:

To see the rest of our microwaved Peep adventure (Peep jousting!), and a clip from South Park (while it lasts), read more

Next we tried upping the time to 30. It puffed up in the middle, got crispy on the sides, and then became golden in the back (note: our microwave's rotating tray thing, doesn't actually rotate). The taste reminded us a bit of roasted marshmallows, which surprised me since where was the roasting?

After seeing a slight burn and only a small puff (it was hard to see through the grate, but we tried our best), we upped the time to 45 seconds. At 45 seconds our Peep more than doubled in size (they deflate immediately after you open the door), became charred on the edges and made the office smell like burnt toast.

We were going to go for 1 minute, but decided that the last two Peeps would be better spent jousting. Unfortunately we didn't have any toothpicks in the office, so we broke off some tines off of a plastic fork and set them up that way. I was expecting one of the tines to pop the other (I think that's the point of Peep jousting), however instead of hating each other, they just merged into one big giant lovefest Peep. I guess our Peeps were lovers, not fighters...

Check out a larger image by clicking on one below, or scroll down for the South Park clip (the exploding Peeps are at the end - and I'm not sure how long til the clip gets yanked from YouTube).

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