Screme Egg design

A few weeks ago I posted about the very awesome Cadbury Screme Eggs. A great idea from a company full of them. Well upon closer inspection I noticed something even cooler about them, there are actually 3 different package designs for the Screme Eggs. All spooky and all great. Check these out.

A Monster Mouth, a Mummy, and a Brain. Awesome stuff. My favorite is definitely the brain. Very classy move here, its not like Cadbury really had to do anything. Certainly they didn't have to do more than one design. II'm already loving these.

Look forward to my review of the Screme Egg tomorrow on this very blog!

The Halloween Edition

Wow, I can't believe its this close to Halloween and I haven't even really mentioned it here except in passing. Sure I've been busy moving thousands of miles and literally to another country, but that's no excuse to ignore one of the biggest candy holidays of the year! So this is a situation I hope to rectify starting right now.

I've still been feeling around, figuring out what my best locations are for candy, and finding my way through the mire of new - yet oddly familiar - Canadian candy and chocolate, but I have to say when I saw these first 'Halloween edition' bars I had to check them out.

Nestlé is certainly on the case with a bunch of their classics re-branded to fit a spooky theme. Not any actual change in flavors but this is just a fun way to keep the products relevant and interesting. I give them real props for these designs.

 My favorite has to be Coffin Crisp. That's awesome. Of course if you don't know these bars are usually called Kit Kat, Smarties, Coffee Crisp, and Aero respectively.

A few weeks ago I mentioned the awesome Cadbury Screme Eggs, but now I find that they come in mini as well :) Love that green goop inside...Expect a review of this one very soon.

Not to be outdone though the fine folks at Lindt are getting into the spirit of Halloween with some thematic packing of their amazing chocolates and truffles.

Wile the mini pumpkins above are great, it does seem odd to me that a Swiss company is celebrating Halloween. When did the holiday make it over there? Or is this just for the US market. The Lindors below make a bit more sense, the Halloween touches are pretty subtle.

Very nice. Now none of these companies so far have changed their actual candy flavor, these changes are just cosmetic, even to the creme egg. I'll be interested to get my hands on some of the more specific Halloween themed chocolates that are flavored like pumpkin and what not.

While not strictly speaking candy these Pillsbury Halloween cookies sure look good! Here's a thought though, that Doughboy really needs a better costume. I can totally still tell who he is with that eye mask on... 

These Hershey Drops have very cute Halloween designs on them. I give any company props for making actual changes to the candy itself for the holiday, even if like the creme egg its just cosmetic. These are pretty spooky fun. I don't think I've ever actually had tHershey Drops before.... maybe I'll have to pick some up.

And finally Twizzlers have issued these ghost shaped cherry licorice bites for Halloween. They're pretty cool, if you like Twizzlers. My worry would be that they're closer to Nibs than regular Twizzlers. I am not a Nibs fan. Also Cherry is definitely not my favorite candy flavor. I'll probably pass on these, but nice try Twizzlers :)

Expect more Halloween coverage including a bunch of reviews to roll into full swing in the next few days. I know I'm looking forward to this year. Let me know what you're most excited to try.

Mini Eggs all year!

With yet another win in the  string of victories for Canadian candy I now come to find out that Cadbury mini eggs are available here all year round! Am I crazy? These things are only available at Easter in the States right? I know they tried the full on Cream Eggs all year and it flopped so they went back to them being limited time, but I thought the same was true of the Mini Eggs. Am I right?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my review from last Easter right here.

Cadbury snack cakes

Walking around the Canadian grocery store is a very different proposition now than it was the 10 plus years ago when I left the country. There are so many strange little nuances that have changed. Its all kind of different yet so oddly the same as I remember it.

Today I managed to stumble across something very new though. Alongside the likes of Little Debbie, and Hostess snack cakes I found some Cadbury cakes! Man I wish these were around when I was 10, they look delicious.

I hope you recall the Caramilk and Mr. Big chocolate bars. They are both excellent and I hope to review them here soon.

As for these cakes. I had a brief but intense period of my life when I ate these kind of cakes all the time. I mean every single day. I was in grade 8 and for some reason they allowed a food truck to come onto the school property. So lunchtime meant readily available candy, assuming you had the cash. I made sure to have enough for something pretty much all the time though. For my part I always had an internal struggle between the popular Jos Louis, and the less known but equally awesome May West cake.

Let me know if you had a favorite snack cake in the comments below. Suffice it to say these cakes here sure look great.

Video fail :(

I've got some rather lame news for you today. I'm having some technical difficulties getting the Candy Aisle videos up onto YouTube. We're not quite in our new house yet and Internet is simply not what it should be. These uploads are just killing me...

So for now you're going to have to go without. I'm still recording video reviews and will post as soon as possible, but for the next little while you may be looking at written reviews for the most part.

Sorry for the inconvienience. I know everyone likes the videos :(

Coffee Crisp review

Well here we are finally, a new country and a whole new candy aisle to explore. Today I thought we should start with a true Canadian classic, Spoiler warning, this is one of my favorites. In terms of originality, this one is just tops. Lets have a look at Nestlé's Coffee Crisp.

Why on earth aren't there more coffee flavored things in the world?! People LOVE coffee. All over the world people are just crazy for it. Why is it I can only find a coffee flavored ice cream from Haagen Dazs, and chocolate bars in the organic fair trade section of Whole Foods?! this is absurd. I want coffee flavored stuff all over the place. It just makes good sense. Where is my coffee flavored potato chips? My coffee flavored breakfast cereal? My coffee flavored energy drink? (all awesome ideas BTW). For now I'll just have to settle for the biggest and certainly most commercially available coffee flavored chocolate bar (in Canada at least) the Coffee Crisp.

The package tells us that this "Makes a nice light snack". And the logo has a steaming cuppa joe brewing right out of the O in Coffee. I like the design work here, Maybe more than that though, this has a nostalgic place in my heart. As a Canadian and a long time ex-pat I have personally, and have heard others, profess their love for coffee crisp abroad on many occasions. If there was one singular chocolate bar that Canadians seem to want to share with the world it would be this. Maybe its because the mixture of coffee and chocolate is so original, or at least it was for many many years, but whatever the reason Canadians have a special spot for this particular chocolate bar and I'm glad to finally share my love for it with you.

The bar itself is based around the wafer cookie. You know the kind. Often now you see it in Chinese candy and cookie aisles, but it had a definite western hey day in the mid 80s. Light wafers pressed together with a flavored cream or frosting, in this case chocolate form a kind of layer cake of goodness. Its not gooey, but there is a smooth quality to it once you get through the crisp wafers that would sometimes just dissolve in our mouth. So with Coffee Crisp specifically these wafers are held together with chocolate and coffee, then the whole thing is surrounded in a thin coat of more chocolate.

The bar smells great when opened, definitely like coffee with just a hint of chocolate. This is what I want from my coffee chocolate bar, a bold choice. 

 Biting into the bar reveals those wafer layers I was talking about, and you'll see the middle layer shown above is actually made of a coffee, or perhaps chocolate / coffee mixture. The texture is wafer, it snaps subtly as you bite, but the flavor is all sweet coffee and chocolate. Eating this bar is an original experience, and one I always remember fondly.The aftertaste is great, lingering just the right amount.

Despite it being a bit warm and the outer chocolate layer melting off a bit on my fingers I think this is really a fantastic chocolate bar. If you can get it, please do. This is an excellent choice, a real Canadian classic, and I highly recommend it.

Walking the Candy Aisle rates Coffee Crisp - 5 / 5

This is of course a Nestlé product, and is available in Canada, some parts of the US (I believe in limited capacity), as well as some parts of England and Australia. Let me know if you've found it in your other random part of the world. Canadian travelers have done a pretty great word of mouth job on this candy and I expect many specialty stores all over the world will have it in some small quantity. For more on this delectable chocolate check out the Nestle Canada page on it here.

Later.

Today's review will be posted late. Sorry all. Expect it here by tomorrow at the latest. Thanks for the patience. New equipment, new set up, new everything :)

Corn Pops for Real

Have you ever had Corn Pops cereal? Well if you've had it in the States you have been missing out. Corn Pops, is a breakfast cereal made by Kellogs, its corn, its sugar, its really not that good for you. But I just love it.

Oddly the cereal has a number of different versions around the globe. The most notable differnce is between the American and Canadian / French versions of the cereal. They're really totally different. If you're Canadian reading this you can think of American Corn Pops as closer to Sugar Crisp / Golden Crisp cereal (only corn not wheat), and if your American reading this, Canadian Corn Pops are much closer to Kix cereal. Pretty weird right?!

I'm very glad to have these once again in my life :) I'll definitely have to try these new Cinnamon Pops they've just put out.

If like me, you really dig cereal you might want to wander over to the WTCA Facebook page for some pics of a few choice cereals. While you're there why not like the Candy Aisle. You'll be happy you did I swear.

Viva Forever!

One of the first delicacies I had to search out upon returning to Canada was the classic puffed marshmallow and chocolate cookie, Viva Puffs.

If you're not familiar with these cookies you are sorely missing out. These are the jelly doughnut of cookies. Not something you're always looking for but man, when it comes along you can't help yourself... These cookies are available in Canada and some parts of the US. They come in Fudge, Raspberry, Strawberry, Caramel, and Fieldberry flavors. Get your hands on them if you possibly can.

Oh Canada

So here we are... Canada.

It's a bit odd being back here after so much time away but I'm pretty excited too. Hopefully you've all been enjoying the road reviews. It seemed like the easiest way to keep the content coming while traveling.

Since I'm here now though you can expect more regular posts to start back up again shortly. I'll be rolling into some fun Halloween coverage next week and making sure to give you all the info on the new and exciting candy here in the Great White North.

For a preview of whats to come you can check out a post I wrote last time I was up north on Walking the Canadian Candy Aisle... 

Looking forward to more candy, more review, and a whole new candy aisle. If you've got any comments or thoughts please feel free to send me an email at walkingthecandyaisle@gmail.com

I'll be talking with you all again very soon :)