Rainbow Candies

Who doesn't like a rainbow?  They're pretty, entertaining and have leprechauns with gold at the end of them (or so I have been led to believe).  And when it comes in candy form it a bonus as it's also edible and sweetly tasty!

Both of these candies today were sent to me from overseas, I don't think either are available in Australia but eBay is your friend as they clearly got through customs unscathed.

Melty sweet clouds of colour.

The first is a small bag of Rainbow Drops from Scotland, the name is confusing.  A drop in the candy sense that I grew up with is usually a hard candy, like a boiled sugar sweet.  Eucalyptus drops were very popular at school when I was a kid.  These however are nothing like that, they're nothing like anything I've ever seen or consumed.  They are in fact little puffed grains of rice coated in a gently crunchy sugar shell all coloured like the rainbow.

You little geeks.

If you're currently having flashbacks to bad multi-coloured sweet popcorn then you're not alone I wrote these poor little guys off before opening the package.  But man, was I wrong!  And pleasantly surprised to be wrong.  They're nothing like nasty showbag popcorn but are instead delicate little puffs with a sweet exterior that almost melt in your mouth.  I couldn't say there were any specific flavours other than sugar and the lovely meltiness of it all.

The other morsel of rainbow candy is a very large package of Rainbow Nerds from the United States.  These came in a parcel with a few other items and by far survived the journey the best.  Other tasty things didn't make it so good like the VALOMILK and the Skybar (it was given a burial befitting it's status, it clearly died in transit).

An extremely pretty candy.

My exposure to Nerds goes back to my primary school days so I knew what I was in for with this one, and they were everything I'd hoped for.  The rainbow of flavours included the usual strawberry and grape, with I think green apple, orange and something yellow (maybe lemon) thrown in as well.  These were good, the drawback being with most Nerd candy that the extreme sour coating and big suagr crystal innards equal do equal a fairly sickening treat fairly quickly.  Where the Rainbow Drops disappeared before my eyes, these things seem to multiply and I still have them kicking around my house (to be fair the box was a very large 170g).  On a sidenote, does anyone else remember Dweebs?

The Final Verdict (Rainbow Drops): 4 - Fantastic yummy little treats the even in a larger bag would not evoke any sort of sugar hangover.  Totally recommend if you can find them.

The Final Verdict (Rainbow Nerds): 3 - Really good, however nothing on the box indicates what the flavours are supposed to be.  The size of the box was also a drawback for the Nerds, a smaller box would have equalled less Nerd induced comatose state.

Skittles Fizzl'd Fruits

I remember when I was a kid and Skittles first hit Australia.  It was a revelation to me, these tiny chewy candies bursting with flavour!  Up until then the closest thing that we had were Kool Fruits and they were both bigger and not as juicy.

My love affair with Skittles continued until my last year of highschool when the bastards took away the grape flavour, my favourite, and replaced it with blackcurrant (though it might also be blackberry, I haven't checked in awhile) then to add injury to insult they took away lime and replaced it with green apple!  WTF Mars Inc!  WTF!

Ahem, so upsets aside I still love Skittles, I refuse to eat the nasty Australian variety so instead I shop at Candy Time in Brisbane and buy a large box of American Skittles for $3.99 and thus balance is restored to the universe.

However on occasion Mars Inc decides to play freaky God-like games and brings out limited editions.  Which I love!!  I've tried many a freaky Skittles version over the years, most would get a rating of 1.  Seriously.  Fun times but let's not do that again.

Fizzl'd Fruits though!  Man!  They got something right with these ones.  They've got different flavours to the regular packs, featuring berry punch, melon berry, raspberry, strawberry, and wild cherry, all covered with a fizzy dusted coating.

Oooh, the fizzy coating!

They were all pretty much even covered with the fizzy powder and had a nice crunch to the exterior.  The interior had the usual expected Skittles chew and juicy flavour.  I liked most of the flavours, except the wild cherry and berry punch, nothing cherry flavoured tastes good to me and the berry punch was just... off.

Of the three I enjoyed, raspberry was the best, tangy and sweet and the fizzy coating paired perfectly!  Strawberry and melon berry were a tie after the raspberry, and honestly I did eat the other flavours just to get the fizzy coating.

The Final Verdict: 3 - I really debated whether to bump this up to a 4 because I did really enjoy them, it's just with two flavours I didn't like there's really only 3/5 of the packet I'm going to eat.  But seriously try these, especially if you like fizzoes.

Mentos Rainbow and Cola

Rainbow Mentos

Mentos have been around for a while now, originally developed in the 1950's in the Netherlands they were originally available in only the minty flavour.  They were originally intended as a breath mint but the hard coating and soft chew proved popular so additional flavours have since been added.

Until recently only three were available in Australia, mint, spearmint, and fruit (strawberry, lemon and orange).  This changed rapidly about 12 months ago when limited edition rolls started cropping up and new permanent flavour rolls appeared.

Cola Mentos

Two of the new flavours recently added are Rainbow, available at all Woolworths service stations and starting to show up in other locations such as confectionery stores, and Cola which is available in all major supermarkets and service stations.

I saw the Rainbow roll at a service station as I was leaving and I was in a hurry so I didn't stop to get one.  I then spent the next two weeks searching every supermarket and candy store to try and find them.  I must have seen them early in the roll out phase because I finally caved and went back to the specific service station to get them, but now see the damn things everywhere!

Fruit images on the roll.

I like this roll because it's pretty!  The rainbow print along the packaging has some nice colours and graphics.  It also displays the flavours well, grape, strawberry, orange, watermelon, pineapple, raspberry and apple.  There's two of each in the package, which is a standard Mentos thing, 14 pieces to a roll.

The candies inside are just as pretty, pastel colours in a complete rainbow spectrum.  The flavours are reasonable as well, strawberry was as expected, as was the orange, due to having tasted them in the regular fruit roll.

Pastel candies.

Of the new flavours raspberry and watermelon were my favourites, both fresh realistic flavours.  Pineapple was good too, but acidic and sharp like real pineapple, green apple was a bit sickly but I'm not really a green apple fan.  The grape was puzzling, I expected it to taste like grape bubble gum that fakey sort of flavour (which I enjoy) but it was far more true to the fruit which threw me.

The Final Verdict: 3 - They were enjoyable and fun but there weren't enough really good flavours to grab me and make me want to buy it again.

Pastel brown candies.

The cola ones were interesting, the packet was as attractive but the candies inside were pleasantly pastel brown, sort of a tan colour, which doesn't normally attract me but for some reason I liked the look of these.

The taste was very true to cola, sweet with a slight bite to it.  Unlike the Hi-Chew there was no fizz sensation.  Like the packet of rainbow there were 14 candies in the roll in total.  While the cola roll was not as good looking as the rainbow I'd almost pick it as the favourite because of the consistency that I would eat all the candies in this roll.

The Final Verdict: 3 - These are tasty, I think I like them more than rainbow but probably not enough to choose it as my go to Mentos flavour, I'd still pick mint if I'm wanting Mentos.

Hi Chew Purin

Mmmmmm..... Hi-Chewy goodness

More Hi Chew!  So in my previous post I discussed how much I enjoy Hi Chew, the tasty chewiness, the weirdness over whether it's a gum or a candy, it's crazy!

This packet was given to me by a friend, the lucky girl lives near a Japanese supermarket so has more readily accesible Hi Chew than I do.  It comes in a nice package, yellow and brown coloured but completely in Japanese!  I don't speak or read Japanese at all, so I'm guessing the flavour here.  I did find the flavour on the Morinaga website, but as it's embbed flash heavy I was unable to use my translation program to understand the website.  It was pretty though.

So based on some research and looking at the graphics on the packet I'm saying this is purin flavour!  Purin is a Japanese custard caramel dessert I imagine, and by Wikipedia's reports, that it's something like Creme Caramel or Flan.  Therefore before even trying a piece I was expecting a sweet caramelly chew which was fine by me.

Does anybody else gt really happy when they get exactly what they were expecting?  I sure do, which made this Hi Chew really nice.  It was sweet and it was caramelly without being sickly or overpowering.  What was a nice addition is little caramelised pieces of sugar, similar to the Toffee Apple and Cotton Candy I tried.  The flavour all round is very pleasant, it doesn't burst out and shout about itself but it also lacked the subtle tastiness of the Cotton Candy.  I was left perplexed, yet not disappointed.

The Final Verdict: 3 - I think it tasted to me like an element was missing, it was very similar to the Cotton Candy but just didn't hit that same mark and I can't even really say why.  If it had maybe a deeper caramel flavour or some richer buttery notes similar to toffee I think I'd be more satisfied.

Valomilk

As many know I will try anything once.  Candy related that is.  I'll also often go on a bit of a hunt, an epic journey if you will.  Almost Lord of the Rings style, to find a certain candy I may have heard about.  One such candy is VALOMILK (which is how the company writes it), I stumbled upon these a few years ago after watching an episode of Martha Stewart where they were discussing retro and nostalgic candy.

According to the company website for Sifers, the makers of Valomilk, the candy was invented by accident around 1931 by essentially a drunk employee.  The employee in question was making marshmallow but as he drank the vanilla essence in the process (which has an extremely high alcohol content) he stuffed something up and the marshmallow didn't firm up.  So instead of firing the alcoholic worker they decided to make a profit instead and scooped the runny marshamllow into chocolate cups.  The candy has been made ever since by the same family and now remains as the only product they make.

Valomilk as a chocolate has a bit of a cult status, produced in the United States in the state of Kansas, it is not available nationwide.  Every batch is still made by hand and the company website actually features a section that links fans to location where the product can be purchased.

So, you can imagine that with such an elusive nature surrounding it, Valomilk was definitely a candy I wanted to get my hands on!  And thankfully I did.  They were shipped to me in a parcel from the U.S.  And survived surprisingly well.

One of the key features of a Valomilk chocolate cup is the runny and often leaky middle.  The packet I received had two cups in it, given I was expecting a sticky leaky chocolate treat I wasn't disappointed.  One cup had haemorrhaged it's filling everywhere, but the cardboard tray the pair sat on held the marshmallow in a sort of resevoir that was easily eaten with a spoon.

The second cup was intact, a little dry in the middle which I suspect was due to heat and time spent in mailing transit.  It was delicious though, cocoay chocolate and the sticky vanilla middle is satisfying.  I have seen recently a competitor called "Mallow Cups" but I don't really know all that much about them so couldn't really say whether they are a superior product or not.

I'd really like to try these when they haven't travelled through the U.S. Postal service and then through Australia Post to reach me, however realistically I think I'll have to travel to the Valomilk next rather than the other way around.

The Final Verdict: 3 - I was really excited to receive these and sample them, what let them down was the condition they were in and how messy they were to eat.  They tasted great!  And I think that if I got the chance to sample them fresher and in better condition then I'd probably rate higher.

Sweetcorn KitKat

I love KitKats! In Australia we have the regular four fingered ones and the KitKat chunky, the latter comes in a few different flavours like caramel, cookies and cream, and cookie dough. Nestle who produce the local KitKats often bring out limited edition flavours there used to be a dark chocolate mint flavour which was awesome!

As many candy lovers know the Japanese have some fabulous candy options, and their KitKats are no exception featuring rotational flavours they come as delicious as Blueberry Cheesecake to as weird as Wasabi or Soy Sauce.

My first introduction the the funky world of Japanese KitKats was a four fingered variety brought back for me on a whim by a friend. I had asked for Lindt 99% Cocoa which I had heard about for someone else. Not only did I get two blocks of the Lindt (which by the way is not for the faint hearted!) but I was also given a carrot and apple juice KitKat. It was odd. But spurred me on to try more!

Fastforward another 12 months and another friend was travelling to Japan, I mentioned the KitKats as more of a recommendation that he should try some over there but to my delight he also brought back a packet for me!

This packet is the style often sold to students to give to one another to wish good luck on exams, it's something to do with what KitKat translates to in Japanese, something like 'surely you will win' maybe someone who knows more Japanese than me could help?

Anyway I'm burbling again. The KitKat! It was Sweetcorn flavour, and like the one I had previously it's totally.... odd. It's a white chocolate KitKat with vanilla wafers and a sweetcorn creme sandwiched between. It tastes very distinctly of sweetcorn with a strong buttery aftertaste of the white chocolate.

It was very fresh and this was even after travelling from Japan to Australia and then hanging out in my brother's apartment for a few weeks as the friend passed it to him to pass to me.

The Final Verdict: 3 - It was actually tasty, but just weird. Tastes just like sweetcorn but the texture was wrong. Having said that I'm not sorry I tried it and it seriously encourages me to try others.

Hi-Chew 6 Flavours

I am a recent Hi-Chew convert. Until about a month ago I did not even understand the joy that is Hi-Chew, since this moment of enlightenment I have discovered something essential to the eating of Hi-Chew. Either you like Hi-Chew or you don't. Upon giving a piece to a male friend I was rewarded with a screwed up face and spitting motion as he tried to get it out of his mouth.

Admittedly for the uninitiated Hi-Chew can be odd, it has the texture and consistency of a gum crossed with a chew. Sometimes it can be difficult to know whether to swallow the damn thing or not.

So desperate was I to try the Cotton Candy Hi-Chew variety that I ordered a packet from Japan through eBay, I have since oh joy of joys, found a small stash available at the Lucky 7 store at South Bank and am waiting to see if the one at Lutwyche has them too. I know that Go Go Mart on the Gold Coast has a huge range but being an hour from my house makes shopping there somewhat prohibitive.

Anyway I burble, the flavours I got were Cotton Candy, Lemon Soda, White Soda, Juicy Pineapple, Sweet Peach, and Candy Apple. As there's a bunch I've written a little blurb about each one.

Cotton Candy: This was the whole reason I got into Hi-Chew, I read an amazing review about it at CandyBlog.net and I was determined as a Cotton Candy (or Fairy Floss for Aussies)fan to get my hands on it. And oh boy, I was not disappointed!

It's creamy and sugary at the same time with gorgeous burnt sugar flavour, and the little sugar crystals add interest and texture. I really like the bounce the chew has and the simple flavour behind it, not at all flashy like say Starburst fruit chews.

The Final Verdict: 5 - Completely amazing, I've gone through two more packets since and plan to buy up next time I'm down the coast.

Lemon Soda: Interesting to say the least, it's quite a sunny yellow colour with the same bouncy feel and nice chew. No extra texture in this one and it has a very lemon flavour, but the thing that ruins this one is the strange bitter aftertaste. It almost tastes like carbonation, like the effervesence you get in a fizzy drink but at the same time it isn't fizzy.... perplexing.

The Final Verdict: 3 - These were borderline on the ratings, almost a 2 but I did enjoy trying them, just probably won't buy them again.

White Soda: I assume this to be Lemonade, kinda like Sprite I guess just not as sweet. It has a very true lemonade flavour but the same bittery aftertase as the lemon soda and that's about all I could really say, this one was kinda non.

The Final Verdict: 2 - more because it was just boring, I mean a Lemon Soda AND a Lemonade? The Lemon Soda tasted better.

Juicy Pineapple: This is one of the Hi-Chew Jr range, supposedly geared towards children's tastes. I don't really know what this means, because isn't ALL candy aimed at children? Anyway, I liked this one quite a bit, it had a pretty colour and lovely flavour pineappley but not sharp or acidic very much tasted like pineapple juice, for some reason Golden Circle brand....

The Final Verdict: 4 - very enjoyable and I'm sure I will buy it again.

Sweet Peach: I'm not a person who is into peach flavoured things, I dislike peaches so why would I like something flavoured like a thing I hate? Well I was surprised, I really liked this one, it was floral and fruity and nicely sweet. It is again from the Jr range so perhaps that's why I liked it so much, it's flavour overall was softer than most peach flavoured things.

The Final Verdict: 4 - again this was really nice, I'll buy it again if I can find it.

Candy Apple: I was intrigued to see this one as it's a partner flavour for the Cotton Candy, both festival themed. When I was little we used to get these lollipops called Rosy Apples and they were red and green and supposedly toffee apple flavoured. My senses always thought they were tasty. My senses were wrong. This candy gives a whole new meaning to 'toffee apple flavour' it's mild on the apple but definitive, has tasty little sugar morsels throughout and a subtle burnt sugar flavour, heaven!

The Final Verdict: 5 - or maybe 4.5, almost as good as Cotton Candy but not quite, definitely up there.