Starburst FaveReds Cotton Candy (Candy Mail) By @Cinabar

I love candy floss, or cotton candy, as the Americans call it. I picked up this bag of Starburst Cotton Candy a while back as I was looking for something to top up an online order I was making, and I think this is one of the flavours I hadn’t tried before. I do keep buying the Dr. Pepper flavour, but this time I was after something different. There are many flavours of Starburst sweets in a bag, so this one is specific to the cherry and strawberry “FaveReds” varieties.

I opened up the bag, and I have to say this Starburst FaveReds Cotton Candy is not the most photogenic item. It looks like the stuffing from a pillow. What you can’t get from the picture is the wonderful, sweet, fruity smell, which is absolutely amazing.

I gave the candy floss a try, and it did not disappoint. The flavour has the perfect base flavour of spun sugar, but mixed with it is the juicy, sweet fruit flavour of red Starbursts. The fruit flavour, in particular the strawberry, works so well as a candy floss flavour; it is like it is meant to be a perfect match. The flavour was super moreish, and with the melt in the mouth texture, I just kept reaching for more. This Starburst FaveReds Cotton Candy is the combination of berry and sugar and all things sweet and fruity. I loved it; this might even replace Dr. Pepper as my go-to.

Cookie Dough Red Velvet Cupcake Bites (Local Shop) By @Cinabar

There is a little shop near us that sells imported candy, and it is one of my favourite places. It is next to the petrol station, and I am now starting to associate buying fuel and a candy treat together. Today’s treat to ourselves, to compensate for the hefty petrol bill, are these Cookie Dough Red Velvet Cupcake Bites. They are little bits of cookie dough in a flavorful coating. I opened up the pack and discovered that they are all red and look rather cool.

I gave one a try, and they have quite a blast of vanilla. I didn’t know you could blast a creamy flavour, but it turns out you can. They are sweet, creamy, and oozing cupcake frosting flavour. They are a moreish delight. The texture is lovely too; the centre is soft to bite, and the coating is a little firmer, giving a nice contrast. Oh gosh, I’m already looking forward to the next box, but not the price of petrol. 

Muddy Bears (Local Petrol Station) By @Cinabar

We have a local petrol station near us that is growing its selection of imported sweets. They do seem to be a surprisingly good place for interesting products; they even stocked Prime at the point when it was impossible to find anywhere (admittedly at a silly price per can). This is the latest addition to their stock: Muddy Bears. Fruity-flavoured gummy bears coated in milk chocolate. This sounds like such a weird idea to me, but they are a popular American candy.

Inside the bag are chocolate-coated gummy bears. They are difficult to identify as bears, but some are clearer than others. There are three varieties in the bag, but there is no way to know which flavour you pick because of the chocolate coating. I gave one a try, and the first thing to note is that the gummy sweet underneath is fairly chewy, which makes the chocolate fall off a bit. The chocolate isn’t the best chocolate in the world, but in combination with the gummy bear underneath, it works well and has a nice flavour.

I did manage to identify all three flavours. The strawberry is quite mild but has a nice flavour, a little like strawberry laces. The pineapple one is sweet but has a gentle flavour. It was juicy, but it could have been stronger. Finally, the apple is lovely and was my favourite. It had a strong flavour, was very fresh and juicy, and went well with the cocoa taste.

These Muddy Bears are a bit of fun, but they made me smile, and I enjoyed munching them after a long day at work. Definitely something I’d pick up again, and a lovely treat or stocking filler for a gift as they are in a cute box.

Hawaiian Punch Cotton Candy (Candy Mail) By @Cinabar

Cotton candy is the American term for candy floss in the United Kingdom. It is easier to find more interesting flavours of candy floss from abroad, so I always keep an eye out when browsing import shops. This particular flavour is labelled as Hawaiian Punch but also as Fruit Juicy Red. I googled it, and Hawaiian Punch is a soft drink, presumably available in different flavours such as Fruit Juicy Red.

I opened up the bag, and the Hawaiian Punch Cotton Candy is light pink in colour, which is actually a traditional UK colour for the sweets. The red fruit flavour adds a unique twist to the traditional sugar flavour, giving it a more fruity and refreshing taste. I could pick up on apple, but I thought cherries too despite them not being pictured. The texture of the cotton candy is light and fluffy, making it easy to eat. The red fruit flavour is also well balanced, not too sweet or overpowering. Overall, it's a fun and delicious treat, and I am already looking forward to finding another flavour. Candy floss is seriously underrated here in the UK, and we need more interesting varieties.

Slo Poke (Candy Mail) By @SpectreUK

I have to admit that when I was asked if I fancied a Slo Poke in the afternoon, I thought my luck was in. However, I think Cinabar just wanted to save her teeth from this Chewy Caramel Candy bar. I haven't been to the dentist for a while, so it may be worth a visit after this snack. There was some suggestion of sucking on a Slo Poke, but there were just too many euphemisms after that.

After reading "An American tradition for more than 80 years. Same great flavor, longer chew" on the packet, I worried a little more for my poor old teeth. To be honest with you, I wasn't sure I wanted to suck on a Slo Poke for an hour and a half. I think I'd prefer a Fast Poke.

On opening the packet you can see from the photograph that it was a fairly featureless flat blob of caramel. Taste wise it was slightly different. I decided to risk my teeth and instead bite and chew rather than suck on my Slo Poke. The chewy bar tasted pretty much exactly like slightly chewier fudge. It was sweet, sugary and gorgeous. So I rather enjoyed my Slo Poke in the afternoon after all.

In fact, I wouldn't mind a Slo Poke every afternoon, if one was on offer.

Information on the packet; The 43g bar had 180 calories, and at 100g it would have 418 calories, with 12g of fat, 47g of sugar, 2.3g of protein, and 0.76g of salt.

Dr Pepper Cotton Candy (Candy Mail) By @Cinabar

I think Dr Pepper might well be the Marmite of the soft drinks world. It is an acquired taste. I’m not even sure I can describe the flavour. I’ve heard haters say ‘like shampoo’, but for me, it has a wonderful candy flavour that is both sweet, almost fruity and refreshing. It is one of those drinks that always makes me smile. I couldn’t wait to taste this candy floss (cotton candy) made with the same flavour.

I opened up the bag, the aroma was sweet and like the drink. Now I’m just going to come straight out and say it, this candy floss is ugly. The colour makes it look like meat and is not in the least bit appetising. It almost looks like meat. If you can get past that, the flavour is mind-blowing good, like Dr Pepper fun but with added sugar. It tastes of childhood sweets, and is just such a fun product. It might not be pretty, but taste wise, it ticks all the boxes.

Maltesers Marshmallow Flavour (GB Gifts) By @Cinabar

These Maltesers Marshmallow Flavour chocolates are an import from Australia. I picked them up because they looked so different and products aren’t usually flavoured with marshmallow. We get tons of orange and mint, but marshmallow is a rarity. Then I started to think about it and I realised that products aren’t usually flavoured with marshmallow because the thing that makes marshmallow fun to eat is the texture not the flavour. Also isn’t the flavour just vanilla? It is at least a mild flavour at best.

I opened the bag and there was a slight change to the aroma from the marshmallow flavour, something sweeter and candy like but it was subtle. Inside the Marshmallow Maltesers also looked exactly like regular ones, the ball of malt and a chocolate coating but nothing else new.

The flavour was a regular Maltesers but with a hint more sugar and a hint more vanilla. These are tasty because all the base flavour are there with the malt and the chocolate but they are just not that different to the regular product. They are a cute idea, they sound fun but in reality just aren’t that special. Tasty yes, but not worth rushing out for.

Vimto Candy Floss (GB Gifts) By @Cinabar

I do like Candy Floss it is something that fills me with nostalgia and makes me think of childhood. I like the way the texture dissolves in the mouth too, it is fun to eat. Vimto is also one of my favourite drinks and we usually have a bottle in the cupboard so I couldn’t wait to try this Vimto Candy Floss when I spotted it.

I know my photography skills aren’t the best but candy floss really doesn’t take a good picture. I have tried before to take a picture of the actual fluff and it just always looks weird. I mean I poured this out and it looked unattractive. In reality it was pale pink and fluffy, but it looks like a broken sand castle in the picture!

The flavour though is gorgeous. It was fruity and had the berry taste of Vimto, almost a strong but sweet version of the drink. You still pick up on the base almost burnt sugar flavour of the candy floss, but the Vimto really worked well with it. These cute tubs of Vimto Candy Floss are something I would buy again, even it isn’t going to be a winner on the Instagram photos.

Fluffy Stuff – Birthday Cake Cotton Candy (GB Gifts) By @Cinabar

There are certain sweets that make me feel like a child, popping candy is one of these but the other is candy floss (or as the Americans say Cotton Candy). I suppose my love of candy floss comes from the memories of being at fun fairs or trips to Wales and having a bag to eat as a treat. I have discovered though that the American’s have gone the extra mile with their candy floss and have all sorts of flavoured versions. I picked up this bag of Fluffy Stuff Birthday Cake Cotton Candy from an import shop.

Birthday Cake is a very much on trend flavour and I was curious to see how it translated to this product given that a substantial part of both flavours is just sugar. Inside the bag there were two colours of cotton candy, pink and white and the colours were not dissimilar looking to bag of cotton wool I have upstairs…. Thankfully this tasted a lot better!

The flavour was surprisingly accurate when it came to birthday cake, it was sweet and creamy with lots of vanilla. The sugary flavour tasted like cake batter and frosting, and I was rather impressed. I hadn’t expected so much depth to the sweet flavour, but it worked, while still maintaining the sugary goodness. The texture was of course melt in the mouth and it was still fun to eat. I will have to investigate what other flavours are available.

Sour Patch Kids Tropical (Amazon) By @SpectreUK

Last time I wrote about Sour Patch Kids, they were the Sour Patch Kids - Heads 2 Flavours in 1. I remember I enjoyed eating them, as they were pretty sour and tasty. These Sour Patch Kids are the Tropical flavours, Soft and Chewy Candy. 

They are artificially flavoured, and are 110 calories per 12 pieces. This seemed like a fairly healthy amount of calories for 12 sweets until I saw the sweets…. 

The sweets are pretty small, unfortunately so much so that the flavours disappear off the palate as quickly as they arrived. There were four colours. Purple was Passionfruit. It had a  passionfruit taste to it, although there was a cherry flavour first and then the passionfruit, which wasn't all that pleasant. This was my least favourite flavour, which is unusual for me, as I usually do like passionfruit flavoured drinks, unless it's mixed with beer!

The next flavour I tried was Orange Tropical Twist, which tasted a little of guava to begin with and then tangy orange. It reminded me a little bit of a Lilt soft drink flavour, and it was refreshing. White was Pineapple, and was a pretty sour pineapple. It tasted of pineapple, and was very flavoursome and tangy. This was my favourite flavour next to the Orange, but it wasn't particularly sour. 

There were far more Pink coloured sweets than any other in the packet. Pink was Paradise Punch, which tasted of red berry and strawberry with a touch of lime maybe, it was certainly very nice indeed. Although I understand that manufacturers very rarely count out equals of flavours in snack packets, and it's probably not possible on a production line, I still would prefer it if they did! There were tonnes of Pink, and tonnes of Purple, which wasn't a favourite flavour of mine. There were smaller amounts of White and yet smaller amounts of Orange, both of which were more preferred. Although I did like the Pinks, I suppose. 

Sadly I wouldn't buy these Sour Patch Kids Tropical soft and chewy sweets again though. I prefer more flavoursome sours that have flavours that last longer on my palate. They ended up more of a waste of calories than anything else!

Rainbow Sherbet Cotton Candy (GB Gifts) By @Cinabar

This bag of Rainbow Sherbet Cotton Candy is imported and I picked it up as the bag was so bright and yes there was a unicorn on the front of the packaging. I may look like a grown up but inside I can’t resist a rainbow unicorn. :-D This Rainbow Sherbet Cotton Candy is candy floss to the UK market in multi-colours and flavours. I opened up the bag and poured out the contents. Gosh I wish candy floss took a better picture, it isn’t a pretty site when it is on the table and has been compressed. There were three colours of the candy floss in the bag, a little less than an actual rainbow.

Pink - this was sweet fruity zingy berry flavour, which worked well. 

Green - again there was a tang of acid that made this green variety citrus zingy but also lovely. 

Orange - the orange wasn’t as sharp and had a softer flavour, sweet but very much nice orange.

This Rainbow Sherbet Cotton Candy is a fun bag of candy floss. I bought it because of the novelty of the packaging but I wasn’t disappointed with the taste test, all the flavours were different and enjoyable. I just wished there had been more colours in the pack.

Sour Patch Kids - Heads 2 Flavours in 1 (Amazon) By @SpectreUK

Sour Patch Kids soft and chewy candy or sour gummy sweets, as they may be known in the UK, were recommended by our friend in America. I have another couple of varieties of Sour Patch Kids packets to try in the future. These Heads 2 Flavours in 1 have three double flavours of sour then sweet chewy candy. Apparently they are twice as big as the original, although I haven't seen the originals, so I wouldn't know. That maybe a hint to Cinabar!

So to the first double head flavour I tried; Pink Lemonade and Blue Raspberry... There was a Pink lemonade flavour first, and there was a good sourness to here, a little like a sherbet taste and then a fruity sweetness from the raspberry. The Peach and Orange flavour had a mainly peach sourness to it, followed by the orange which offered the sweetness. Nice, very nice. I reckon this was my favourite flavour. The Pineapple and Red Berry worried me a little, as I immediately thought the Red Berry might be cherry flavour. There was a strong flavour of pineapple first, which was quite sour, and yet also very fruity. This gummy sweet tasted mainly of sour pineapple. The Red Berry seemed to be a bit like raspberry flavour too, which was very nice and fruity next to the sour pineapple. I liked those gummies also. In fact all three double flavours were really good indeed, with a good fruity sourness and then followed by a fruitier sweetness. I really like these Sour Patch Kids - Heads 2 Flavours in 1, and would definitely have them again.

Information on the packet;
The 5oz or 141gram bag has 120 calories per 6 pieces. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Sour Patch Kids - Lollipop with Sour Candy Dipping Powder (USA) By @SpectreUK

A friend of our's in the USA sent us these Sour Patch Kids - Lollipop with Sour Candy Dipping Powder as part of a candy swap recently. There are two flavours of lollipops and candy dipping powder, which we would likely call sherbet in the UK. There is Pink Raspberry flavour and also Red Berry flavour. Apparently these are our friend's favourite sweets, which I can understand, as sherbet Dip Dabs are a big favourite of mine in this country.

Pink Raspberry flavour

On tearing open the packet I found that there was a lollipop and some sherbet inside As you can see from the photograph there was a nice pink lollipop with a smiley face and curly moulded hair. I found that you only get enough candy dipping powder to cover the hair of the lollipop. Unless my memory serves me incorrectly you get much more sherbet in a Sherbet Dip Dab. We'll have to send a packet of Dip Dabs in the next candy swap box. 

This Pink Raspberry flavour does taste pretty sour. It tastes of pink raspberries, and is really tasty, not face twistingly sour, but a good sour zing. The lollipop is quite large for the amount of candy dipping powder you get in the pack. Maybe it's to keep the calories down to around 60 calories, but compared to the size of the lollipop, there could have easily been two or three times the amount of sherbet that was provided. It just needs more of the sour dip to cover the size of the lollipop, otherwise this Pink Raspberry flavour Sour Patch Kids - Lollipop with Sour Candy Dipping Powder is perfect for my sour sweet cravings.

Red Berry flavour 

The packets really need an easier way to open them, as I was nibbling and biting away at the corners trying to get purchase like a starving child. I'm not sure what the fruit flavour of the lollipop is supposed to represent exactly, but the red cheerful faced lollipop tastes a little like a blackberry and cherry mix. It's certainly fruity, but once I'd tried the Pink Raspberry flavour I was already hooked on that flavour. There was the same amount of candy dipping powder in the bottom of the packet. This Red Berry flavour is slightly sour, but not as sour as the Pink Raspberry flavoured version. 

I certainly appreciated trying both of these flavours of Sour Patch Kids - Lollipop with Sour Candy Dipping Powder. I have to admit that if I saw these two packets in a shop I'd go straight for the Pink Raspberry flavour every time. However I did like them both, but the addition of a slight cherry flavour to the Red Berry lollipop swayed it for me. I've never been a fan of cherries! 

Dr Pepper Cotton Candy (GB Gifts) By @Cinabar

Disclaimer alert; when we started this blog my sweet tooth was a contributing factor, I have a high sugar tolerance. I buy sweets and enjoy sugary flavours. Sometime I realise that products that make me happy because they are so sweet may be too much for others and this may well fit into this category. ;-)

So candy floss (or cotton candy as the Americans say) is already pretty sweet anyway being basically heated and spun sugar but this product thought it could do with an extra level and this Dr Pepper flavoured Cotton Candy, which I bought online from an import shop. Inside the bag the candy floss came out in a pressed into the shape of the bag. It didn’t look very appetising, something about the pink colour made it a bit off putting. Brains? I broke a piece off though and it was nice a fluffy once torn.

The flavour is super sweet, sugary and all those flavours of zingy Dr Pepper which is similar to cherry coke but somehow sweeter and sharper, I’d forgotten how much I like Dr Pepper. This is such a fun and sweet thing to eat, it reminded me of fairgrounds and was flavoursome and almost fruity and tart all in one. Yes it will be sweet and sickly for some but for I loved it and I want more Dr Pepper Cotton Candy!

Llama Smarties & Golden Hersheys (by @NLi10)

Taking a break from the New Year healthy reviews I've decided to write up a couple of odd novelties I've picked up.

First we have Llama Edition Smarties.  What makes them Llama you ask?

Well - they are very specific colours that are like Llama colours!

I think these should have been Pinata Edition instead but Llamas are cooler.  Or Maybe Unicorn?

They taste like Smarties so it's not a total waste of time, but you know, it's just a gimmick really.

Then we get to Hershey's Gold - Peanuts & Pretzels.  Importantly this isn't chocolate.

Cocoa solids? Nope - just environmentally unsound palm oil, genetically modified sugar, and 15% of the stuff you bought it for - pretzels and peanuts.  The only way the word Chocolate made it onto the wrapper was it's in their address!

It looks a bit odd on inspection too - like solidified oil - but it does taste of the desired items.  Part of me wishes I'd spent the £1 on actual Pretzels, but as a one off novelty it's not too bad.  It's different - I'll give it that!

So not things I'll be buying again, but still quite interesting oddities.

Poundland Roundup - Twin Peaks 2020 and weird skittles (@NLi10) #TwinPeaks

Since 2017 I have sought out and reviewed a new version of the Poundland Toblerone they call Twin Peaks every year.  First it was normal, then white and this year I'd expected to review a dark version but - well - they kind went overboard!

So -  to summarise - Cookies & Cream, Dark, Popping Candy, Honeycomb Crisp AND Fruit & Nut are all new to the range this year.  This is a landmark in the Poundland confectionery aisle.

I bought Fruit & Nut for my Dad (he approved) and popping candy for me - presuming due to the wrapper colour that it would be white choc.

This was not the case.  Luckily the Yorkie style Poundland milk choc is great so the bar is perfectly good.  The little explosions mingle with the existing almond and nougat (which again I'd just assumed they'd leave out) and work really well.  Not overwhelmingly childish like regular exploding candy, not just ordinary chocolate.  A win.

If I hadn't been acutely aware that everyone gets a snack blogger food for Christmas I'd have stocked up on more.  Maybe I'll head back before next Christmas.

Also on offer were some Skittles that were new-to-me, Skittles Dips and Skittles Winter Fruits (not pictured as I gave those away - and I suspect now she knows of their existence Cinabar will be getting those).

These dips are basically yogurt coated raisins, but with the normal skittles inside instead of the horrible raisins.

I thought it'd be too weird but it makes them a lot less acidic and actually enables you to eat more of them than usual.  This is probably a bad thing.

The Poundland I visited was very busy due to Christmas so I rushed in and out, but I was pleasantly surprised to find so many exciting things to eat a few of and then donate to the snack table.

Candy Crush Chocolate Mountain Ice Cream (Ocado) By @Cinabar

This brightly packaged and fun looking ice cream is based on the popular app game Candy Crush, and I spotted it on the Ocado website. I think it says something about technology that an app has influenced an ice cream flavour, and shows how many of us spend time playing phone games etc. My biggest problem with the ice cream is that whenever I look at the tub I inexplicably get an ear-worm and the song “I want candy” stuck in my head. Even now as I come to write this, “I want candy”. Oh well,
I’ll try and focus on the ice cream, it is called Chocolate Mountain and consists of a chocolate ice cream with white chocolate pieces and candy coated chocolate drops, which is handy because… “I want candy”.

I opened up the tub and was a little surprised to not see any candy, just ripples of chocolate ice cream. I scooped some to serve and could start to see a few of the goodies inside but there weren't many. As this is a Candy Crush ice cream I would have expected it to be more fun packed with all the extras, but there weren’t that many. I tasted the chocolate ice cream and that too didn’t feel very luxurious, it felt thin and watery, the chocolate flavour was quite dark and rich but not overly sweet. The problem is that this Candy Crush ice cream’s packaging sells fun and it ends of being a more adult grown up flavour, almost like a gelato. The chocolate drops and white chocolate pieces were nice, but I would have preferred more candy. I just don’t think the contents met my expectations, I was hoping for a little more luxury, something more thick and creamy and packed with candy extras. Did I mention this song thats still going round my head.... anyone have a remedy for ear-worms???

Limited Edition White Skittles #Pride (Tesco) by @NLi10 #OneRainbow

I think we were a bit late to the party on these as they are for Pride - you see Skittles have removed their rainbow so that the only one visible is on the Pride flag!

One of our group thought that it was a really good idea because you got to colour your own Skittles in - while there are non-toxic pens available I don't advise this.

The flavours are the same as usual, just identifying them is a bit harder.  It's basically like you are eating the Skittles in the cinema!

They still have a little S on them, so I think that counts as the one artificial colour listed on the bag!  They taste the same, probably are slightly better for you with no colours, and are for a good cause AND we got 350g for £1.50 which is great!

Hopefully we spy these again.