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.

Hi-Chew - video review

Another fun review for you today, here we've got a look at Hi-Chew!


For more on this please check out the full written review or all our reviews on the reviews page.

Hi-Chew review

Welcome all to yet another awesome review from the Candy Aisle. Today we are looking at Hi-Chew.

I'll be reviewing multiple flavors of Hi-Chew here, so if that bothers you... get over it. We're talking general terms about how good or bad this candy is, hopefully you can draw larger conclusions about specific flavors for yourself. Today I've got the flavors Grape, and Mango.

According to the wiki page Hi-Chew was developed in the 30s and 40s in Japan as a bubble gum that could be swallowed. You see, in Japanese culture its rude to be seen taking something out of your mouth after its been chewed, so traditional western gum wouldn't work. So what we get now is a cross between gum, and a Starburst. I'm definitely excited to get my teeth into this one. I see it in the stores all the time but just never get it.


Each piece of Hi-Chew comes individually wrapped. This seems to be a standard Eastern tradition with candies (or cookies), but man its sure a waste of wrapping paper. As for these specific ones, I like the design work, Both the grape and mango wrappers have nice pictures of the fruit in question, and I really like the logo. Its fun, and kind of cartoony, but being all caps its got an impact as well. Its almost like some kind of superhero font.

Getting into the "fruit chew" itself, there's a few small things to note. While a bit bigger than a Starburst, the candy has the same tackiness to the surface. Again according to the wiki all Hi-Chew (barring a few exceptions) have a colored flavored center surrounded by a white outer layer. Apparently the white layer does not have any flavoring in it. Why is it included if its got no flavoring? I just don't know.

Here's a good look at the end though and you can see obvious where the flavoring is and get a  sense of size. It looks, and smells very good. In fact the smell is almost too much. Very strong and fruity.

A number of people have noted that this candy is very reminiscent of the 80s and 90s powerhouse Bonkers. Well it certainly looks the same, and people are incredibly nostalgic for that (I expect a revival any day now). I personally can't remember the taste of Bonkers, but I thought the comparison should be mentioned :)

 

Biting into a Hi-Chew is quite an experience. The first thing to note is that this is just packed with flavor. Its intense, and fruity; I'd say even more so than Skittles or a Starburst, but along those same sweet and fruity lines. The next thing you'll notice is that this really is much more gum-like than a Starburst. While a Starburst will dissolve in your mouth after say 4 or 5 bites, a Hi-Chew will last around 10 bites. Its a weird, but not unpleasant experience. I'm trying to put my finger on exactly what it is... but its tricky.

So you know how even though a Starburst will last for 4 or 5 bites its really just dissolving right away, and the 4 or 5 bites are actually just getting through the volume of the candy. Well Hi-Chew doesn't feel like that. This actually feels like gum in that it stays solid and whole in your mouth for a number of bites before even starting to dissolve.

I like this candy, its strongly flavored and may be too much for some, but I am a huge fan of Skittles and other strongly flavored fruit snacks so this is definitely up my alley. I like the fact that some of the flavors are more unusual in the western market. Even mango isn't too common, and we all know grape is a dying candy flavor. I like how bold this is. It doesn't pull any punches and should be commended for that. While it may not be for everyone, I can definitely recommend Hi-Chew.

Walking the Candy Aisle rates Hi-Chew - 4 / 5

Hi-Chew is a product of Morinaga and Company, you can find out more official stuff about Hi-Chew at http://www.hi-chew.com/

Old Ads Gum

We've got yet another fun series of posts planned for this month. Don;'t expect this to impact either the Xmas reviews, or the regular ones. But today we kick off another look at some fun old candy ads!

Welcome to the advertising of yesteryear. Before we knew any better, when times were simpler and people thought giving kids all the candy they could eat was totally ok... So maybe that's a stretch, but candy advertising has certainly changed over the years. One thing that hasn't changed though, appeal to the kids and they will force their parents to buy it for them.

Lets start things out with a few ads for bubble gum :)

We all know Bubblicious is the Ultimate...well unless you're a Hubba Bubba fan, but this ad clearly states that this is a "taste that towers above the rest". I find it interesting that the Bubblicious skyscraper is Orange flavored, but then down below the package that's meant to sell you on it is original flavored. I'm not a huge gum person but I hardly ever bought straight 'bubble gum' flavored gum.

I'm thinking probably this building would be the Bubblicious headquarters if it existed... how I wish we lived in a world where buildings were made out of gum. The workers would of course have to eat their offices, carving something nice and functional. Sure it'd probably be pretty gross after a while...but you know the trick, just add a tiny bit of sugar and it'll all get its flavor back again.

Ok, now I'm going to try not to make \any inappropriate jokes about this ad. So we probably shouldn't mention the graphic explosion of juice from the gum.... Kids, that's what you should expect here though. Juice explosions in your mouth. How about the odd fact that this gum obviously is named after Punch & Judy, the abusive puppets you may have seen as a child. Remember when spousal violence was ok for kids??? I wish the mascot for Punch & Juicy was the characters Punch and Judy. That would be awesome. Instead we get a wobbly bubble, who is obviously way too happy about the situation. 

These are spme pretty awesome flavor names too, "Oozin' Fruit", "Burstin' Regular". But they seem to have lost their nerve with the new flavors "Very Cherry", and "Great Grape".. Come on guys... this gum is just begging for a "Poppin' Cherry"and "Gushin' Grape" .... maybe next time :)

These ads are from Marvel's Magik limited series issue #1, and  The Amazing Spider-Man limited Canadian PSA series #4 respectively. Look for another post on old ads next week right here on the blog!

More Halloween Candy!

We  I know I posted pics about a lot of the Halloween candy in my previous posts on A Very Licensed Halloween, and The Mulitpack, but as we've gotten closer to Halloween I've found a bunch more candy to share. Honestly I was a bit disappointed before with the state of Halloween candy here in Canada compared to the States, and although I don't think the single bars and treats are exactly up to the American standard there does seem to be a decent selection in the larger grab bag packs.  Check out some more of great Halloween Candy below and for pics of everything Halloween 2012 you can always head over to The Candy Aisle Facebook page!

Body parts and eyeballs are always a favorite.

Finally found the Palmer chocolate and candy! I was wondering if it was here in Canada.

I call this mix pack, the lame candy.

A Halloween classic, here in Canada these are Rockets, in the States they are Smarties.

Scary picture.

Cute picture.

More eyeballs.

Did you have that family that gave out full chocolate bars on Halloween to? that family rocked!

Neilson Jersey Milk. This is another one that was super prevalent when I was a kid.

Yum.

Is it warty gum?

Bleeding eyes, yuck :(

Her are the actual body parts. Even as a kid I hated these. Just gross.

Ferrara Pan represent!

Did these guys just have leftovers from their Oscar themed mix bag of candy?! Look at a calendar!

Chips are always a great change up for Halloween, but almost no one ever gave them out.

Nice Halloween themed packaging here.

Not so Halloweeny but its definitely... something.

Man I remember these one. Very crunchy.

Looks juicy.

A classic with the Smarties.

Anyhow, that's A LOT of photos, So I'll leave you there. Looks like there are a whole heap of choices for candy this Halloween. What are you excited to try?