Skittles Desserts review

Sorry for the long delay in posting. There have been a number of reviews published over on the YouTube Channel. To make sure you're getting all the Candy Aisle has please go over there and Subscribe.

In the meantime though, here is one of my favorite recent reviews, for the newest Skittles sku, Skittles Desserts.


Walking the Candy Aisle rates Skittles Desserts - 2 / 5

Skittles are a Mars product, you can find more from them at - http://skittles.com/ Thanks for watching, please leave me a comment below and let me know what you think of these Skittles. I'll work to be back more often with some newer posts.

Lifesavers Gummies review

Today we've got the gummy sku of a classic candy, its Lifesavers Gummies.


Walking the Candy Aisle rates Lifesavers Gummies - 3 / 5

Lifesavers are a Wrigley (ne Kraft) product; for more on Lifesavers check them out online at - http://www.life-savers.com/

Skittles Wild Berry review

Today we've got a new one for you, Skittles Wild Berry.


Walking the Candy Aisle rates Skittles Wild Berry - 4 / 5

Skittles is a Wrigley brand, which is in turn a Mars company. For more on Skittles please visit - http://www.skittles.com/

Aisle Walking - July

Every day while walking down the candy aisle, or the toy aisle, or the ice cream aisle I see fun and weird things. Some of these I want to mention but lots of them are just so brief that I can't be bothered making a stand alone blog post, so to alleviate that I thought I'd try a new blog monthly series called Aisle Walking. Essentially this will be a mish mash of things seen in the aisles. I'd love it to hear about it you have fun things you've seen. New stuff is always showing up and I'm always interested in strange variants on existing products. Now I'm still planning on posting some things on their own, but for the lots of little items this will be the round up.

So lets have a look and see what we can see for this past month or so :)

I found this out at a Staples of all places (that's an office supply store). I don't know why I am surprised to see this, I mean of course Planters should be competing with Reese I'm just surprised that I've never seen this before.

We all know that Red Velvet is the hippest of all cakes, and in cupcake form it cannot be beat. I'm impressed that this package comes with some frosting packets included.

This is just a small note that all of the formerly named "Dessert Delight" products seem to now be called simply Desserts. I noticed this a while ago with the Lemon Square flavor, but am surprised to see the entire line change it up. Could this be an only in Canada thing???

I've seen these Kit Kat flavors (only available in the 8 packs) out at the local Wal Mart for a while now, but they seem to be expanding their reach. I had assumed that they were just going to be limited editions around for a little while, but maybe they'll actually be staying.

So this exists. It shouldn't really be a surprise since Nestle also owns the Carnation brand, but for some reason seeing chocolate bars in other places always strikes me as interesting.

Lets talk cookies for a sec. Seriously these Chunks Ahoy look great! I am sold :D

Birthday Cake flavor Oreos are back. Seriously does it count as a Limited Edition if its been on shelves for like 4 years?!

Now this is new, and it looks amazing! Chocolate and Mint together in a triple stuff? yes please!

I've seen Rolo ice cream before, but did you know there was Rolo Peanut Butter ice cream? Sounds great.

So that's all I've got for you this month. I'll try to make this a regular feature. Its fun to just touch on all of the quick stuff that's going on in the candy aisle and beyond.

More Desserts Please...

It was back in June and July of last year that I posted about the Extra Desserts gums. I've had some of them and the entire concept fascinates me. While I'm not so sure I want to regularly walk around chewing apple pie flavored gum, I suppose its nice to know that's an actual option.

I was surprised to see a new entry into the Desserts gum scene last week while checking out at Target.

Lemon Squares is a good idea. Not sure why they've dropped the Extra branding in favor of Juicy Fruit, but I'm sure there's some solid marketing behind that... Also hey've changed the name from "Dessert Delights" to "Desserts". Lemon Squares now adds to the already released flavors of Mint Chocolate Chip, Orange Creampop, Apple Pie, Strawberry Shortcake, and Root Beer Float. What other flavors would you like to see them take a crack at? I think Peanut Brittle, Black Forrest Cake, and (if you're Canadian you'll know this one) Nanimo Bars would all be great entries.

Skittles Darkside review

I've got something really fun today. We're looking at the brand new Skittles Darkside!


Walking the Candy Aisle rates Skittles Darkside - 4 / 5

Skittles is a Wrigley (ne Mars) product, please find out more about them and Darkside specifically at http://www.skittles.com/ For more Skittles reviews or any others, please check out our Reviews page. 

The Multipack

Well I'm still undecided about what to 'serve' the kiddies on Halloween this year, but I've certainly got a few options. I'm trying to think what we did the past few years in San Francisco... not too much I think. I lived in a condo complex and we really didn't get many (if any) kids to our door. You know I think we may even have headed out and gone to stay with friends in San Jose over Halloween. My kids are only now just getting to trick or treating age, but really next year I think will be the year.

Anyhow, I've got a choice to make since I'm now living in Canada where I think pretty much everyone gives out candy. I'm in a good kid neighborhood now too. So I'd better make my decision wisely...

Looking around the stores though I have to say I'm unimpressed. The candy multipacks seem to be all the rage, and the selling point isn't even about the treats inside; its actually all about number of items. Seems like a very analytical way of seeing things. Wheres the wow factor? Is it just because they know they are already proven candies that they don't have to try?

I'm also pretty disappointed on the graphic design front for pretty much all of this packaging. Makes me want to buy some of that licensed stuff I was talking about instead.


For your edification though here are some of the candy multipacks available in Canada.

Hershey's makes a pretty strong showing with their selection. I like that they've got multiple skus on the bundles and that the one is nut-free. Pretty important with kids these days...Also note the rare Hershey's Caramel bar... have you ever seen that before???

Twizzlers are another Hershey brand candy, and I can't say if I've ever actually talked about them here on the blog before... Well I suppose I don't usually give them much thought. They're decent but I never got hung up on them like some people I know. My favorite is Strawberry pull and peel, and I HATE black licorice. This is another good Halloween option, Twizzlers are always appreciated and mix things up a bit from the standard Nerds and candy bracelets.

So here we have the Nestle multipacks. That's a good mix of very Canadian chocolate bars.

Interestingly I also came across this "American" Nestle multipack. Since Baby Ruth are not sold in Canada normally this may be the only way for lots of Canadians to get one...Although you may want to check out my review before rushing out.

Wonka, another imprint of Nestle, also has its own multipack. Now this is what really sells me on Halloween. All of these treats are exactly the kind of good old standards I want and expect in my candy bag at the end of a night trick or treating. Not as exciting as a chocolate bar, but everyone loves some Nerds. Great stuff.

Mars (ne Wrigley) makes a stong showing with this massive 100 pack! They win for most candy in a single box, and boy is it a good mix. I would be happy to get any of these on a Halloween night. Mini Snickers and mini Mars bars were always the most coveted of the Halloween candy growing up. This is a sure fire winner.

If you did not know, Skittles / Starburst are also part of the Mars (Wrigley) family. This is another good mix pack, although instead of Sour Skittles I wish they had Berry, or Tropical. Hopefully by now you know my feelings on Skittles.

And just look  at what Cadbury has to offer in their multipack. All good solid choices. I don't think we even had fun sized Caramilk when I was a kid. Man I could definitely go for a Wunderbar though. Great mix bag here. The one outlier is the Mr Big. Doesn't a 'fun sized' version of the candy bar reknowned for being big kind of defeat the purpose?

Finally I suppose I wouldn't be back in Canada if there wasn't some Maynards around. This seems like a pretty good mix. I wonder how many pieces you'd actually get in each individual bag...

Well thats all for the Multipacks. I suppose I'm still a bit undecided on what to get. Maybe the Mars pack, or maybe the Wonka one. I wish there were better themed candies around to give out. Well I guess thats just the breaks here. More candy content coming here soon. Until then have a spooky good time and let me know what candy you're giving out this year   :)

Minor Mascots 1

There are a lot of great breakfast cereal mascots but surprisingly few candy related ones. Although considering the makeup of some of those breakfast cereals they could probably be considered candy. Regardless of that, in straight candy there are a few, just not as many as I think there should be,

Sure we all know the M&M crew, and the Nerds, but there are a few other players in the mascot arena that I thought we'd look at today. These guys are not the superstar mascots you may know, lets have a look at some of these minor mascots.

 Ok, so I suppose technically yes I have heard of Big League. But not Gumballs, Big League was always about shredded bubble gun. Amazing that it was ever sold, the gum was (and is) made to look like chewing tobacco, whihc baseball players loved back in the 70s. I've never seen Big League as a gumball before though. I think the brand has slowly faded since people probably don't even get the reference to chewing tabacco anymore. Maybe this gumball form factor is supposed to get them back in the game...

But check out that mascot. I don't know his name but he looks like what I imagine Dolph Lungren to look like when playing baseball. Speaking of which... why didn't anyone ever do that before? Dolph Lungren in a baseball movie would kill. This guy is all muscle and teeth. God look at those, they're just huge chompers. He probably east bubble gum exclusively, so has built up extra superhuman mouth muscles. And look at the shades. This guy is cool and he knows it. I mean he doesn't even take off his shades to hit the ball. Hey wait a second... is he about to hit the gumball? I just noticed that.Anyhow I love this guy. He's awesome and I want to buy whatever he's selling.

Double Bubble is even more of a classic than Big League Chew, but probably less exciting. Honestly I always thought of them as the poor mans Bazooka Joe. But its a Tootsie product that apparently comes in a variety of flavors. Here though it only comes up as original. At least the bag has 10% more to it. And for FREE no less!

So who is this cool dude on a skateboard, recklessly blowing a humungous bubble? That is Pud. At least I think its Pud. Yup... kind of a dopey name for kind of a dopey kid. I mean he's happy and all, but who could seriously blow bubbles especially huge ones like that while skateboarding. Seriously that is a health hazard. He could easily crash into something!

The one thing I'll give it is that at least this conveys something. At least I know that I'm getting some good gum for bubbles. Oh wait, I suppose "Double Bubble was a tip off there too.If you want to see a few of the Pud comics that they produced back in the day, that came with the gum, here's a link. Not super exciting stuff if you ask me though.I just think Pud is a dud.

I'll have some more Minor Mascots for you another day. Lets leave this for now. Question, would you rather buy gum from Dolph the ballplayer, or "cool kid" Pud the Dud. ? hocked by twins, and sugar crazed kids?

Personally I'd stick with Dolph, that guy is all around awesome.

A Chewy Dessert

So I know I've talked about this before on the blog, but have you guys actually checked out these Extra Dessert Delights gums? They come in  a variety of flavors that you'd honestly only expect Willy Wonka to put into a gum.

And now I've just seen a new flavor at the checkout:

Yes I do love a good rootbeer float, so this is pretty cool. I noticed at the same time I saw the rootbeer float gum though that the mint ice cream and apple pie flavors were on clearance at Target. Does that mean Target is getting rid of them? Are these flavors in trouble?

I picked up a pacl of the mint chip ice cream and am currently chewing away at it. Now I'm not huge gum fan, but it seems ok. Maybe ont something I'd want all the time, but its certainly interesting.

I guess my take on it is that tis a really good effort to try something new, I hope it finds its market. There's something about this idea that at least should grab you for the sake of novelty.

Wearing the Rainbow

I saw these in the local Walgreens and had to investigate...

Yes They are socks. Skittles socks. And at only $1 a pair! Now if you know me, you know I am a big Skittles fan, but do I really want to wear my candy preferences? On my feet?

They also had some M&M socks:

Now I'm a little more used to M&M merch. In fact I one time even went to the M&M store on the strip in Las Vegas to get a peanut M&M keychain for my mother in law (who is a bit obsessed). I still think its a bit weird though. Oh I could see myself sporting a t-shirt, if I really liked a brand or it was like a cool retro logo or something, but these socks are... a bit tacky.

That said, I still picked up a pair of Skittles socks for my wife, Erica. What do you think...

Skittles Blenders - video review

Once again its review time here at WTCA, and today we're taking a look at Skittles Blenders!



Not as great as I was hoping for there... you can read more detail on this in the written review, or check out all of the reviews on the Reviews Page.

Skittles Blenders review

It's review time again and today we're looking at Skittles Blenders!

If you'll recall Skittles original flavor was the first review here on Walking the Candy Aisle, and I'll let it be known that generally speaking Skittles are some of my favorite candies of all time. These Blenders are something of a new phenomenon though and I'm excited to dig in.

The packaging holds with the Skittles look and adds a bit. Yellow background this time, with the wonderful rainbow exploding from the letter I. Here we getour first look at the colors to be found inside, and in light of all my bemoaning the absense of a blue color in the original variety pack, I'm happy to say here we've got Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink, and Red. On the back we see learn more. As you'd expect Blenders are mash ups of flavors, and on the back they informs us about the flavors to expect inside. these include "Watermelon Green Apple Freeze", "Strawberry Lime Blast", "Mango Lemonade Freeze", "Melon Berry Blast", and "Cherry Tropicolada"

Skittles are chewy sugary candies with really strong flavors, so at least to me a mash-up seems like it might be a bad idea. The intense flavors are a signature of the candy and I worry that mixing multiple flavors together might make for a lessening of any one single flavor... And really when you eat regular Skittles you usually eat multiple flavors at once in a handful. Isn't that already a mash-up?

The candies themselves have the distinctive "S" emblazoned on them (perhaps so we won't get them mixed up with M&Ms), although I'll say that at least in my bag the lettering seems to be somewhat faded overall. I'm excited to 'taste the rainbow' and opening the bag gives a huge waft of the distinctive fruit smell Skittles are famous for.

The candies have a great consistency, hard shell with a nice chew to them after you bite it a few times. But what you're really here for is to talk about the flavors. These are definitely mash ups but as I feared the mix is off. And really how could it not be, Strawberry Lime tastes way more like strawberry and I'm not really getting any lime off of it. Watermelon Green Apple tastes a lot like green apple, maybe with a subtle hint of watermelon but neither of them are flavors I really like so I'm probably bias on this one.The Mango Lemonade is actually the first mash up that kid of works. I can tastes both flavors and the tart Lemon, mixed with the mango tang is pretty decent.  The Melon Berry as well has a pretty good mix, although I'm not sure what the berry flavor actually is. Finally for the Cherry Tropicolada, the mix is off again and I'm surprised to say it tastes much more like tropicolada than cherry. With all of these I'm not sold that these are really complimentary flavors. Or if they are the mix isn't even enough for my tastes. Also and more importantly the candy isn't as bold as I'm used to with Skittles, I think they're trying for subtlety but I'm honestly not a fan. Sure these are alright, but they're not what I want out of my Skittles.

If you want tropical Skittles flavors I'd say go get a bag of Skittles tropical, or if you want berry, go get Skittles berry, but I don't think you should bother to get Skittles Blenders. Its not really bad, but in terms of an actual flavor blend I feel like this is really a mixed bag. So I suppose that's the bottom line, they're not by any means terrible, but they just aren't flavorful in the way that I'm looking for in my Skittles, and I'd rather go with another Skittles variety over this.

Walking the Candy Aisle rates Skittles Blenders - 3 / 5
 

Taste the Rainbow!

Skittles Blenders are copyright WM Wrigley Jr Company - find them online http://www.skittles.com/

Skittles original - video review

As promised, here is the video review of Skittles original flavor.


For the written review, please check here, and head over to our YouTube channel for more videos!

Skittles review

Welcome to the very first review for Walking the Candy Aisle! woohoo!

Today I've got a real treat, a review of Skittles original flavor.

One thing to note before I dive into the review though, I have a personal bias here since Skittles have been one of, if not my top most absolute favorite candy forever. So you can probably expect how this review will shake out :)

If you've never had Skittles before they are a small chewy candy with a hard outer shell. They are known for their very strong fruit flavor and bright colors even using the commercial tagline "Taste the Rainbow".

So first off the packaging. I have to say I love it. Bright red, with a stark white Skittles written across it, this is definitely eye catching while walking down the candy aisle. The rainbow erupting out of the letter I is great showcasing the colors of the candy. And the description on the packaging read: "Bite Size Candies - Natural and Artificial flavors"

And as for those flavors? Well Skittles original variety has five: Strawberry, Orange, Lemon, Lime. and Grape. If you're following the rainbow logic now you may be asking why no Blue? You could do Blueberry, or even Blue Raspberry (a la Kool-Aid). Then we'd have all the base colors for an actual rainbow... oh well. We'll probably never know.



I really love opening a package of Skittles, the smell is just amazing and really strongly fruity. Definitely makes me hungry right away.


The candies themselves are nice and brightly colored, with the trademark S emblazoned on them, presumably so people don't think they're M&Ms.

(L to R) Strawberry, Orange, Lemon, Lime, Grape

 And now for the taste, each skittle flavor on its own is really strong. once you break through the harder outer shell its nice and chewy inside but has a slight sugary dissolving quality in your mouth. This is a candy to chew though, its not like an M&M (or a Canadian Smarties). Although I think the intense juicy fruit flavor is what turns some people off from Skittles I seriously love it. You can have two or three of a single flavor and just relish in your mouth bursting with flavor. Or you can mix and match. Skittles are great for combinations since each candy piece is so flavorful.

So many combinations!

Strawberry-Lemon-Orange is one of my favorites.

Overall, Skittles are pretty top notch.If you are a person who likes very strong fruit flavors then this is definitely a candy you should go for.

Skittles original flavor rates: 5 / 5

Taste the Rainbow!

 Skittles are copyright WM Wrigley Jr Company - find them online http://www.skittles.com/