I've been BeAn BOoZLEd!! (Bean Boozled)

For Christmas, Blake's sister Allison gave us a fun candy game!  It's called Bean Boozled, and it's quite clever!  Jellybelly beans are made to look identical, but have different flavors. 

The trick to this game??!?! You need to be completely lucky in both which one you spin, and which one you choose to eat!  Don't be like me.....

 

Just to give you some insight on the high stakes.  The flavors are:

 

 On the back of the box, it sums up the point of the game: "Caution: These jelly beans may look alike but they could not taste more different from each other.  Think you can tell them apart? WE DARE YOU!"

 

And for sure they meant it when they say they don't taste alike.  The bad beans are terrible!!!

 

The regular gameplay goes something like this: everyone would spin and choose a color that corresponded with the space they spun on.  Then, the player will pick a jelly bean of that color. It's either good or bad.

 

My gameplay went something like this:  I spin. I get a color. I pick up the jellybean.  I bite into it as much as I can take and spit the rest into a garbage can. I got a bad one 9 out of the 10 rounds of the game!  agh!

 

So...even though I had to eat tons of rotten flavors of jellybeans, I guess I had fun while everyone was laughing at me.  Here's a classification of the bad ones so you know which ones to avoid:

 

Not that bad:  Babywipes, Pencil Shavings, Toothpaste

EW!!: Skunk Spray, Moldy Cheese, Canned Dog Food

Gonna Lose It:  Barf, Centipede, Booger, Rotten Egg

 

And Rotten Egg was the worse. Everyone at the table almost lost their dinner when that one was first experienced.  :)  :)

 

Conclusion? 

This is a fun game. Just expect to have a not-so-pleasant taste in your mouth! (hopefully not every turn!)

 

 

The newest tic tac flavor!

As I was casually checking on the status of Ferrero's tic tac flavors, I discovered that one lady in Texas had a flavor nobody else did! I still haven't seen it anywhere else! After convincing her to send it to me, I gave this to Blake just a few days after Easter :)

Introducing the first of its kind........BUNNY BURST!

 

 

That's right! :) A tic tac flavor based on Easter! This is something I've never seen before!  I'm quite excited to see the next flavors Ferrero puts out.

 

The flavors?

Can you guess?!

 

drum roll...................................................Green Apple and Grape!

They haven't had a grape tic tac by itself (Grape Liche last summer from Germany was quite good) since tic tacs were first invented! :)  The Grape flavor was pulled off the market in 1976 because of "health concerns about the red dye amaranth (FD&C Red #2)"  Obviously they've fixed this problem and re-launched Grape!

 

Anyway, the combination of these two aren't necessarily my favorite (I don't really like grape flavoring at all), but it's definately a cute idea, and a great addition to Blake's collection!

 

Try it for yourself...if you can find it! You may have to buy it from the same lady in Texas. (Or maybe it will show up in the grocery store 3 months from now) ♥

UK Candy bar cake - Toffee Crisp

Okay, so in one of my earlier posts (containing lion bars and toffee crisps from the UK), I posted a link to a blog containing a recipe and ingredients for a Toffee Crisp Candy bar Cake.

On my birthday, I decided to make it for myself! (That's what happens when you turn 22, you start making your own birthday cakes)  Except, instead of using the ingredients from the blog, I Americanized it to make it easier to locate the ingredients (and cheaper!)

As a reminder of what my previous post said about it:

"Back to the Toffee Crisp, if you're feeling super adventurous, I found a recipe for a giant Toffee Crisp chocolate bar, that could double-function as a cake. In this case, it was a birthday cake somewhere in the UK. Let me translate really quick what ingredients you could use here:

1. 5x200g Tesco value choccy bars = 5 cups chocolate chips

2. 1 box rice snaps= 1 box rice crispies

3. 1 bag of Tesco toffee = 1 bag Brach's Golden Butter toffee candy and 2 bags toffee chips

                                 UPDATE: 1 bag toffee chips, and 1 bag of caramel squares.

**Anytime she says to put in 1 melted choccy bar, that's one cup chocolate chips

Here's the link:

http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/project/212/2
Happy Eating! ♥♥"

Except, I ran into a few problems while making the cake. So, I'd like to ammend the instructions a little bit to make it easier. You can see my update to the ingredients. I'm not trying to stray from what a real Toffee Crisp tastes like, but the melted  toffee candy went right back to being hard as a rock after being melted and then frozen.

I chose to use name brand chocolate chips, name brand toffee bits, werthers original, with western family Crisp rice. 'Cause I'm cool like that. (and the chocolate chips were on sale)

 

 So I melted the first batch of chocolate chips with my babycakes chocolatier, because I haven't tried it out yet. And I recommend it. I bought this chocolatier for 2.63 because I had a 5.00 off coupon + 20% off at Kohls! (It was on sale, too! Originally 14.99)

Now, the blog said to paint a layer of wax paper inside a breadpan.  This is way harder than it looks, as the paper does not stay put! I had to tape it down! My coworker Brittany, however, suggests that you paint the paper before putting it in. Great idea!

Next, I melted down the Werther's originals.  They got all bubbly and looked weird, so I was scared I would burn it. But, it melted alright, it was just realllllly sticky. (use caramel next time and save your teeth from the worry of biting into a layer of these!

Then, we added a layer of chocolate,
a layer of melted melted toffee pieces (Heath bits) mixed with Rice Crispies.
and another layer of chocolate

between any layer of melted stuff, stick in freezer for about 10 mins
After those layers, add a layer of chocolate mixed with the Rice Crispies
Freezer
Another layer of chocolate
Freezer

YOU'RE DONE!

Now, when you eat it, it shouldn't be too hard to cut if you thaw it and use the new and improved list of ingredients! It tastes like a toffee crisp! Only HUGE! :)  Blake says it tastes like a Kit Kat, and I can see that, too!

Enjoy!

 

Classic Vintage presents!

This year for my birthday, my family has been giving me candy!  I should have started this blog a few years sooner ;)  A lot of my blog posts this year have been about classic vintage candies, so of course I got some really classic, wonderful vintage treats!

Eric and Brittany gave me some pretty "sweet" vintage candies for my birthday! (In addition to the Choco Treasure from my last post) :)

Charms Sour Balls

These sour balls not only come in super cute packaging, but they are a childhood favorite to many.  We sell them at Blickenstaff's, although I hadn't tried them before! These are not very sour at all.  I'm not surprised, because most sour vintage candies are not extreme like the 90's warheads.  A sour ball has a subtle sour flavor that both looks and tastes like a little sucker. Each color has its own flavor to it.  The yellow ones are pineapple and more sweet than sour, while the red cherry ones are the least sweet. Sweet or sour, these sure are a "wonderful" little treat, like it says in the title! ♥ I think people of all ages would enjoy them. :)

Now and Later


They also gave me some Now and Laters in packages separated by Flavor! There are a few flavors of Now and Laters in this pack I haven't seen before! Those include:

Wildberry, Tropical punch, and Blue Raspberry.

At Blickenstaff's we have all of the common vintage flavors:

Grape 
Cherry
Watermelon
Apple
Strawberry

So I had just assumed that was it! But, I'm very excited to say that my new favorite flavor of Now & Later is Tropical Punch! Although, Wildberry definitely has the strongest flavor, and is very tasty as well. The Blue Raspberry tastes a little bit like the next thing I'm talking about:

Charms Cotton Candy

Is there anything better than cotton candy?! I have to admit that I ate most of this bag in one sitting! :)  I was impressed by the fact that this "fluffy stuff" really filled the whole bag.  It was actually packed in there pretty well, just as you see in the picture. When you pull it apart, it just keeps coming and coming. I really enjoyed this! The 2 flavors mixed in throughout the bag kept it fun. After I got all sugared out, there was about 1/4 of the bag left.  I put it down by the couch, (we were watching a movie, then played a few games), and by the time I went to grab some more, it had dried into a hard clump.  Moral of the story? Put a twist-tie on the bag when you're done!  It does say the serving size includes the whole bag, but I don't think most can! :)

I also celebrated my birthday with my parents.  They gave me a couple of classics as well!

                                                                                     Werthers Original Hard Candies

Original Salt Water Taffy

 This post is a few days after the presents were given to me, because it took me quite a while just to taste them all!  Not to worry though, I'm combating all of the sugar and fattening substances in these candies with a new Zumba Exhilarate DVD set my momma got me for my birthday! With a lot of candy consumption comes the responsibility to work it off! :)

A Birthday Surprise- with a toy inside!

Can you guess by the title what special birthday surprise I got from Eric and Brittany* for my birthday?!?!

a real CHOCO TREASURE!!! :) :)












I had been looking for these, but didn't know if they were out yet! It turns out that Target and World Market carry them.

Brittany was at Target when she saw this and recognized it from this very blog! It was the only one left that wasn't broken. And, even though her little boy, Ben, thought it was a "BOY" candy, she knew I'd love it!!!

Once I removed the egg out of the box, I took off the chocolate to inspect this so-called "safer" egg inside.  It was really quite evident that it was there, by the ridge coming out of the chocolate. It was also very hard to open, which is good since the egg itself is probably a little big to choke on.

Guess what we found inside?!?! A Lizard puzzle!! (Which is very appropriate for a spiderman egg, since little boys generally love both super heros, and giant lizards!)

 Other toys that could be found in a spiderman egg:  (These are little figures without any detachable parts)

When it came to actually tasting the chocolate, it fell a little bit short of my expectation.  Kinder uses their delicous european chocolate to coat their eggs, (in layers of milk and then white chocolate). Choco Treasure tasted a bit like the Palmer Easter candy, even though their website says it's made with Swiss chocolate. However, most American kids haven't had Kinder Eggs, and won't have anything to compare ChocoTreasure to. I'm sure most any kid would love to get a Choco Treasure for Easter! Especially since they have different themes. (Most of them are directed towards boys):

Baseball
Soccer
Football
Spiderman
Christmas
and
Original

Note: even though the themes seem to be more directed towards boys, some of the original ones contain some cute things like this octopus :) ♥

So, I'll conclude by saying Choco Treasures are here!! And in October, I'm going to try a real Kinder Egg and compare them officially :)


*[Introduction: Eric is Blake's brother, and Brittany is his beautiful wife!]

Sweet Easter Treats + Jellybean Flower Garden

This Easter, Blake and I didn't do very much.  We were both working on Saturday and that's when our families celebrate! So..I decided to hide him a little Easter basket on Sunday morning so that we could still enjoy the sweet treats of Easter-time!

Since I was on a limited budget, I found my basket items from Macey's grocery store (except for the tic tacs):

1/4 pount Palmer's Peanut Butter Cup!
(Because what's better than a regular peanut butter cup? Oh yeah! How about a GIANT one?!)

A container of Mango tic tacs from Hong Kong
(We've had these before, but they are very sweet and tasty.  It was worth getting them back again for the basket)

A bag of Starburst Crazy Beans
 (These were actually better than I expected. You can actually taste the difference between the colors, and there are different flavors inside.  I loved these the best! (besides the Tic Tacs)

A package of Nik-L-Nips
(Super cute little vintage candy.  The outside is made of wax and there's a candy drink inside!)

A Slapstix pop
 (I used to eat these as a kid all the time, it's caramel with veined colors inside. A classic yummy treat for any age)













I also put in those amazing Ferrero Eggs (from a previous post) 
and a few chalk crayons for decorating our porch! :)

...He found the basket within 3 minutes. It was the 2nd place he looked.  But, it made Easter fun!

If we had children, I would have created a JELLYBEAN GARDEN:

What you need:

- A handful of Jellybeans
- A Whirly Pop or Unicorn Pop for each child
- 12 hours

The night before Easter, have the kids plant their jellybean in your garden or yard.  Then, on Easter Morning, replace the jellybean with a giant Whirly Pop, Unicorn Pop, or a
combination of both! :)

 How Adorable is that?! ♥

Kinder Surprise illegal in the US...[cue Choco Treasure]

Kinder Surprise Eggs can be found in many different countries, but you won't see one inside the US. (At least not legally) According to the FDA, the small parts found in the toy hidden inside the chocolate (and also inside a plastic egg) are too dangerous to sell to the general public. The FDA has banned any non-nutritive component inside goods, as they pose a choking hazard.  So, this chocolate-toy combo that many children love around the world is unavailable to American kids! The only way to get them is to eat them while in a different country. 

This has been the case since 1938, until 2 weeks ago when Kevin Gass released Choco Treasure.  This is an Americanized version of the oh-so-magical Kinder Surprise. While it does have a non-nutritive component, the candy-lover worked along with the FDA to create a suprise egg without the choking hazard. On their website: http://www.chocotreasure.com, you will find a section with explanations on how their eggs compare to international chocolate suprise eggs.

Here's a short summary:

Choco Treasure eggs enclose larger toys without small detachable pieces.  The plastic egg inside has a rounded ridge that indicates it's inside the chocolate. Also, the outer layer of Choco Treasure eggs are made with milk chocolate instead of a mixture of white and milk!



So! Toy-filled eggs are back in town! ... But unfortunately not Kinder ones. :(   (The big question comes when you consider whether or not they are infringing upon Kinder's copyrights?  Not only are they mimicking the actual idea and process of a Kinder Egg, but their advertising and packaging looks just like it. Maybe they worked out a deal with Ferrero, inc.?)

Whether or not they are name brand eggs, I'm sure they are still magical :)

Chocolate Tasting with Amano

I got an email from work a while ago, inviting me to a chocolate tasting. My first thought? "Heck yeah!!!  Free chocolate?!" I was surprised only 2 others came to test out the chocolate. (Oh well, more for me!)

When I got to Blickenstaff's I found out that not only was I going to get free chocolate, but from one of the finest chocolate makers in the world!  Amano, one of the most new and prestigious companies in the chocolate world came right to me to have a tasting!!!

Amano is a bean-to-bar chocolate company.  That means they buy some of the world's purest cocoa beans, bring them back to their headquarters in OREM, UTAH! and then make the chocolates themselves (from scratch)! They create the chocolate out of only 4-5 ingredients (varies on bar). I was so suprised to turn the chocolate bar over and be able to see that they're only made out of very simple, common ingredients. No weird chemicals or anything! One of the bars contains: coacoa bean, sugar, cocoa butter, and vanilla. Though it's only made of a few ingredients, the thing that really makes them stand out is the beans they utilize. One of the locations they get their beans from is Cuyagua, Venezuela.  They purchase newly harvested beans from farmers there. Beans that can apparently create the world's best chocolate bar. (According to some of the prestigious international awards they've won)

Here's the crazy part:

THE CHOCOLATE TASTING PROCESS

I guess I have been eating chocolate wrong my whole life!  We were educated by the presenter (There are only 4 people who work for Amano, and this guy is the only one who presents chocolate tastings)

1. Break off a small piece of the chocolate bar
2. Rub it between your fingers until it is warm (about 5 seconds)
3. Taking your time, inhale the scent of the warmed chocolate through each nostril
4.  Place on your tongue and hold to the top of your palate for a few seconds.
5. Release the chocolate in your mouth and let it melt over all the different places in your mouth (apparently where you place the chocolate in your mouth brings out different undertones.) Try the tip of your tongue, the back of it, each side, etc.
6. Enjoy!

I literally thought this guy was crazy! I mean, inhaling the scent through each nostril??! Why can't you just eat it like a regular candy bar? And then he was telling us about all the flavors that were supposed to naturally come out in the flavors of the cocoa bean, like mountain blueberry, which turns into citrus, and then this and that and almond, and then an earthy flavor. But, really, how can cocoa beans naturally taste like blueberry?!

As skeptical as I was, I did taste the undertones in the chocolate.....and it was pretty cool! Some were fruity, some very bitter or smokey.  It was the craziest thing!  Still, I wasn't convinced Amano could be one of the world's chocolate wonders. Maybe I just don't have refined enough taste buds to tell the difference between "World's Best" and really good chocolate. I just didn't know what to think about it compared to my favorites. That is, until we split a cadbury and it tasted awful! Conclusion: If they can make a cadbury bar taste like a lump of lard, then Amano MUST be amazing!

The wildest of them all was the one that won awards proclaiming it as the best chocolate bar of the year (in the world). It's the Amano Cuyagua bar. (try it...you'll like it!)  But...it was not my favorite bar, tasty as it was.  It was the Ocumare that demanded all my attention. (Because it's their only milk chocolate bar.  It tastes like chocolate with caramel, but there is no caramel added to it...it's the undertone in the beans!):

And so! I experienced my first professional chocolate tasting! ♥

You can learn more about Amano Chocolates at their website:
https://www.amanochocolate.com/

They even have an interesting section on caffeine levels in chocolate, and how to determine how much caffeine is in your chocolate bar (based on ingredients) :)

Candyopolis, "The Show Girl", and a new Ghirardelli flavor!

This past week Blake and I went on a trip to Omaha, Nebraska!  While we were there we decided to check out the local candy!

We saw this in the mall and there was no way we could just walk by!!!

 

Candyopolis was a super cute little candy store! They had a lot of the old fashioned candies that we have back home at Blickenstaff's, plus M&M's separated by color, and chocolate truffles! Just as we were leaving, Blake got me a special treat to remember Omaha by!

This white chocolate truffle is called a "Show Girl", and boy was it everything he said it'd be! The center is filled with a strawberry-raspberry mixture, and it tasted sort of like a strawberry truffle that you'd find in a box of chocolates, (except it was coated in white and regular chocolate, and the filling was much creamier).

Here's the filling:

Needless to say, it made the trip to the mall very tasty and fun! Next time you're in Nebraska, check out their Show Girl!

We also went to Party City while we were there.  Our little nephew had his 3rd birthday so we went shopping for party favors there! They really have a cool thing going on.  The candy that are in these bins are little mini versions of larger packages of candies! I got a little mini pack of mentos for $0.20 and it was just the right amount to keep me happy.

This little mini pack had a cherry, orange, strawberry, pineapple, and lime in it. They were great, just as mentos always are.

The last and final treat we had on our trip was bought on a military base. (no tax!) My brother in law is an officer in the air force and we got to visit his base in Omaha. While we were there, I saw a new flavor of Ghirardelli there and thought it sounded like bliss.

Ghirardelli's dark and sea salt caramel chocolate:

The chocolate and caramel compliment eachother so well, it makes the dark chocolate taste milky.  Regularly I don't like dark chocolate. (I know, I'm sorry to all those who love it!) But, the flavors in this chocolate bar had the perfect amount of salt/creamy caramel/cocoa. I'm going to say: I really enjoyed it. There, I just complimented dark chocolate! I didn't think there would be a day, but that day was saturday. ♥ 

I actually bought it on base in Omaha, but ate it in Iowa.  We walked across a bridge that took us to the state line. We straddled it. We took jumping for joy pictures. We even ate a chocolate square in Omaha, and one in Iowa. Everyone agreed they were tasty.

 

It was a "sweet" trip!!

Just a girl and her tic tac boy...♥

Thought I'd update you so far on the tic tac hunt so that I don't have to backtrack later.  When I was in college, I met a special boy.  This boy collects tic tacs.  So I became his tic tac girl.



This is us! :)  Photo based on one from tictac uk facebook page!

Once I became his girl (And now his wife!) I got to start tic tac hunting to suprise him! ♥ Here are a few of my favorites that he has so far:

 



Watermelon (Italy)

Papaya Lime (Italy)

Peach Passionfruit (Germany)

Mango (Hong Kong)

Grape Lychee (Equador)

Lemon Honey (Germany)

Strawberry Fields (US)

Green Apple (US)

and Pink Grapefruit (US)

 

One day I'll have to make a list of his collection (Which is getting huge!), but these are my favorites so far :)

 

Do you know what the cutest discovery was, while tic tac hunting?!?!  I now have given Blake many of these little sweet things:

 

MINI TIC TACS!!!!! :) These tiny little containers can each hold around 8 tic tacs! They are oh-so-cute!!!!!! These can be found in Italy, but I've yet to see them anywhere else.  I just wish they were actually 30 cents each.....;)

 

Now the question is....where in the world can I get one of those GIANT packs!?!?!

 

 

What's cookin', Ferrero?

Things seem to be a bit silent in the tic tac world right now.....what is coming?!?!  I know that they must be working really hard down there at Ferrero, so it leaves me wondering when we'll have a new flavor? There's not a peep out of anyone who usually knows ahead of time....

Ferrero, Inc. must have little Oompa-Loompas, who else could make candy THAT good?
 

The last flavor that made its debut was Cinnamon Spice, which is really just a reproduction of an older idea, Cinnamon tic tacs, which have been around for quite a while!




So, Ferrero, I know you just came out with the Ferrero Eggs not too long ago, but what is coming?  This summer, they released a Watermelon flavor tic tac, which was sweet and fruity, and last summer: Strawberry Fields, which is both sweet and savory.  But, I'm looking for something new! Blake's birthday is just around the corner (2 months away!!) What will their new summer flavors be?

What would your dream flavor be?