Bakers Bring It for Halloween

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!  I wound up spending it at a friend's house, so I still have tons of candy I didn't give out.  Dear God.  What about you all?  Any good stories??  Share, share!!!

Okay - this is the last Halloween post.  (If there was election candy, I'd be all over that, but alas, no such luck.) 

Most of the candy makers just repackaged their candy in Halloween wrappers - something you all know bugs the heck out of me and seems like a cop out.  I found these in TJ Maxx:

Halloween packaging and colors, but no real flavor - just sugar coated almonds.  I love their butter pecan and toasted coconut flavored Jordan Almonds, but these were just boring.  Not worth the calories.

Chips Ahoy brought out some new Halloween cookies!  Yay!

I like the new wrapper and the festive orange chips, but they pretty much are the same old cheap chocolate chip cookies.  Big points if you love Chips Ahoy, but nothing to go crazy about.

These, however, are delish:

See all that great orange filling?  These are double stuff thickness - love them!!  And look at the cute designs:

Clockwise from upper left - witch on her broomstick, black cat, ghost, jack-o-lanterns, bats.  I like the creativity, love the color of the filling (and the quantity - yay!), the packaging and the designs.  Woohoo - thank you Oreo!

Even Pop-Tarts came up with a Halloween design:

Although Choc-o-Lantern is a pretty lame name  (Palmer would have called these Bloody Pop Hearts and filled them with cherry.)  These look great on the package, but pretty grim in reality (pretty ugly and terrible actually):

But the flavor isn't bad - like chocolate cookie dough.  So appearance is bad, but taste is great!

I'm not sure if these are special for Halloween or not, but I've never seen them before and there is a mention of a Halloween promotion in the right hand corner:

Now look at them on the box - pretty cool.  Look at them in real life - ewww!

At least they are cream filled, right?  Um - no.  Not good.  Weird taste.  Boo.  (And not in a ghostly way.)

Harry and David comes through with these adorable mini iced cookies:

Aren't they the cutest?  And they taste great too.  Although they are the most expensive of the lot at $9.95 for a bag.

And is that the Salvador Dali pumpkin?  Must be a mustache.

These are in Target - witches' hats, pumpkins, and ghosts:

They are shortbread covered in white icing with orange and black sprinkles.  And they, too, are delicious.  And addictive.  I think they are laced with crack.

I found these in TJ Maxx too.  TJ Maxx has some cool treats, but you have to dig through the chaos.  These are Too Good Gourmet's Candy Shortbread Cookies:

Love the adorable witch and the pumpkin cut out window on the box.  And the cookies?

OMG!  They are GREAT!  Delicious shortbread cookies with loads of candy coated chocolate bits.

So, not only did I eat too much candy this Halloween season, I ate way too many cookies and Pop Tarts.  But what a great adventure!  I am proud of the bakers and candy companies who went to the trouble of bringing us something new - woohoo!  I am saddened by the apparent demise of the mini (70 calorie) Reese's Pumpkin.  But loved the new Hershey's caramel apples Kisses.  When one door closes, another opens.  ; )

Have a great week!! And don't forget to vote!

Cuckoo for Coconut

Ah - summertime! I hope everyone had a great 4th! The weather here was downright amazing for this time of year - temps in the 80s! Unheard of!  I really thought I was in the islands, mon.

I found these crazy things in T.J. Maxx.  You know, I had no idea TJ Maxx carried such a strange array of gourmet treats.  They have candy, chocolate, cookies - but in random weird quantities and, depending on the store, in kind of beat-up condition.  TJ Maxx stores seem to range from okay to kinda ghetto. 

Anyway, these are butter pecan and toasted coconut Jordan Almonds from Maggie Lyon Chocolatiers:
http://www.maggielyon.com/index.html?cart=12755409484409486

Maggie Lyon is a company in Atlanta, Georgia, and if the rest of their candy is as good as these, we should plan a road trip.  Seriously.  These are not rock hard like a lot of Jordan Almonds and have a really meaty almond center.  And the coconut and butter pecan flavors are good - subtle, not overpowering.  A perfect addition to the almond.  VERY well done - I LOVE these!!

Of course, if we're gonna talk coconut we have to cover the classics:

Now, I actually prefer the Almond Joy to the Almond Joy Egg.  And it's the same reason I prefer the Reese's Egg to the Reese's Cup.  I just love peanut butter WAY more than coconut.

As you can see, the Almond Joy egg has only one almond and more coconut than the standard Almond Joy bar.  I prefer two almonds and less coconut (more chocolate).  The Reese's Egg has a higher peanut butter to chocolate ration than the Cup and I like that!  Peanut butter is way better than coconut in my book.  But again, it's all a matter of taste.

This is the Bounty Bar made by Mars in the UK.  I got this one at World Market.

It's okay.  I found the coconut a little dry.  And no almonds.  I really like the coconut almond combo.

Another classic - Kris - I know you love these!!

Me?  Not so much.  I like milk chocolate better in this case - don't know why.  Like the dark chocolate better with the Godiva Truffles.  I have no explanation.  Maybe it's the almonds.  Maybe it's childhood memories.  Maybe I'm insane.  Another chocolate mystery.

Anastasia Confectioners in Florida specializes in coconut.  They have some crazy flavor combinations - some of which I've reviewed before.  Here's Key Lime:

Regular coconut:

And those two naked with almond at the far right:

I'm not a big key lime person (heresy to some, I know) but in the world of candy, lime just doesn't fall anywhere near the top for me.  But, as I've said before, if you like it, that's all that matters for you.  You can have all my Key Lime pie, cookies and candy from here on out.  Unless that's all there is, then we'll have to negotiate.

My favorite is the regular old coconut.  And you know what, if you are a die-hard coconut fan - this is the "bar" for you.  It is all about the coconut - serious chunks of coconut with chocolate only as an accent.  Kris - you have got to try these - I think you'd LOVE them!  The back of the "slice" is coated in chocolate as well.

Almond is actually pretty good.  The flavor is less overpowering than the lime and the mango and works great with the coconut (IMHO anyway).  In fact, it's pretty hard to choose between this and the plain coconut.  I just love that almond coconut combo!!

I recently found a box of the mango and I didn't like these:

The mango just tastes kind of funky.  I'd much rather have just plain coconut.

Are you enjoying our island excursion?  We have more coconut to come!!! 

Tips for having a great life:

Just remember - what you like best is the best for you.  Your opinion is the most important for you.

Try a lot of different things - the thing you thought was the best might not be that great at all!

Try it even if you think you won't like it - sometimes you will be wrong.  (I find I'm wrong all the time.)

Stay open to new flavors, new experiences, new people - the best is yet to come!

Easter Jordan Almonds

I like Jordan Almonds. Mostly because I love almonds. And hey, a candy coating can only make things better in my book! I didn't realize they were a big Easter/springtime treat until this year. Not that I've been laying awake at night contemplating this. But anyway.....

Here are all the ones I could find and unlike the malted milk balls, every assortment has slightly different colors:

Harry and David had the weirdest colors, but all these were slightly different. And here is what I think of all the different offerings:

These are by CVS:

I think they have them all the time as part of their candy collection. They were hard as rocks. No good.

These are by Target:

These tasted more like sugar than almonds and were the smallest of the bunch. I guess there are some almonds in there. Maybe.

These were from The Chocolate Bear:

These had delicious, big almonds with a great, light coating. Much softer than the CVS rocks. YUM!

These are by Jelly Belly:

And they were the only ones that seemed to have some kind of flavor in the candy coating. I didn't care for that - it was like a weird aftertaste. Yuck!

These are Harry and David's:

and they have a great almond taste. These are enhanced by the candy coating, not overwhelmed by it. But they are not quite as soft and good as those from The Chocolate Bear.

These Medicis are truly in a league of their own:

I bought them at Williams-Sonoma and they are amazing. The sugar coating is very thin and they have GIANT almonds. The back of the box reads: "When Catherine de Medicis married the future King Henry II of France in 1533, her chefs dazzled wedding guests with these sweet, crunchy confections. They are slender Lerida almonds from Spain enclosed in a very thin sugar shell. The classic assortment in pastel colors (made at Easter - every other time I've gotten them, they have been white) is made at the family-owned Confiserie de Medicis, a French confectionery named for the legendary queen."

How cool is that?

This was really interesting to me - I had no idea there would be that much difference among the different offerings:

And you know what? Once you have the Medicis the others really pale in comparison. (Hell, they've been working on those things for 477 years - they outta be good!) The ones from The Chocolate Bear were second best and were MUCH better than all the others, but the Medicis are truly amazing. If you love Jordan Almonds, you owe it to yourself to try these. Wow!!!