There's a fun shop in the UK called Cybercandy. It has candy, chocolate, and other sweets and snacks from around the world. It's a good place to go to buy Milk Duds, Twinkies, Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, Cadbury's Cherry Ripe, the very-much-an-aquired-taste salty liquorice, Swedish Fish (hooray, no gelatine!), or - should you wish - Double Choco Collons (disturbing on many levels). Or ant chocolate, scorpion lollipops - all that novelty crap that gets bought for gifts and that no one ever actually eats (surely?).
I've drawn a few conclusions from this place:
- Australian chocolate manufacturers come up with some great novelty ideas that actually taste nice (Pods! How great are they?).
- Japanese sweets seem to consist entirely of Pockys and Hello Kitty.
- American candy and fizzy drinks are great, but their chocolate sucks.
- Squirrel Nut Zippers are mysterious and wonderful, but unfortunately never in stock.
- No one in their right mind wants to drink coffee that's been previously digested by weasels. However, tea that's been hand-picked by trained monkeys... yes.
I went there this weekend, and was thrilled to find the Lava Bar: the world's first liquid chocolate bar. Ooh! Bought one immediately. Sat down to enjoy. And realised that a) it's chocolate sauce in a packet, b) it's therefore hugely overpriced (£1.99 for 75g), and c) to add insult to injury, it's not even all that nice. I have eaten better chocolate sauce. Hell, I have made better - and could again, right now, with ingredients in my kitchen at this very moment (good chocolate, cream, sugar). D'oh.
Still - liquid chocolate bar. I'm still slightly excited by the idea.
(I'm off sick today, so please forgive me if I'm talking nonsense.)
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chasethestars
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I completely agree with you on the American chocolate thang - Hersheys tastes very odd in comparison to the loverly Cadbury (which in turn sucks compared to the heaven that is Swiss Lindt)
And salty liquorice! I have a craving now... :(
I hate liquorice, so salty liquorice was even more of a shock - but it's odd, I wouldn't refuse it, if offered.
I miss British candy so much. I LOVED the one that had the crunchy psuedo-honeycomb in the middle.
I think it's the same in the UK, to be fair - the bigger manufacturers are often pretty rubbish, but there's a lot of imported stuff available. I adore Lindt, as Rigel mentions above. And Cadburys. And Galaxy. Even if they're not 'proper' chocolate, by EU standards.
We get Lindt too - and, yes, very good. And sometimes, "junky" chocolate works just fine.
Crunchies are great. Haven't had one in ages. Mm...
This is going to sound soo sad, but I really, really want to try a Twinkie some day. I've beentold that they are awful, but they seem to be so iconic in American tv and movies!
You know Apu, with the "silly customer, you cannot hurt a Twinkie!" Hehe
I used to love the Hello Kitty suckers when I was a kid. They were kind of expensive candy wise, so I'd generally only got them in my Christmas stocking. I realized a couple of years ago that most of them taste like plum wine. Pocky is okay, but I'm not sure why people get so excited about it. I do love the Japanese gummy candy. The kiwi flavor is my favorite. It even has kiwi seeds in it.
Nerds were my all time favorite candy as a kid. Grape was my favorite flavor and I'd almost never eat the strawberry side of the box.
And you're completely right, American chocolate sucks terribly. I really can't stand it. The only good stuff is imported. It also really annoys me when my friends think things like Milk Chocolate Hershey's Kisses are good chocolate and won't even try REAL chocolate.
I shouldn't have started talking about this, should I? *g*
I'm still debating whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that there's no chocolate (good or otherwise) in the house.
Peanut Butter Cups are awesome, though.
Twinkies = bleh. It's true, though, they do have a sort of iconic presence in media.
Small amounts of good chocolate - that's the way forward. It's too rich to eat much of - but that's a good thing. You have a little, and that's all you need.
That's what I like, anyhow. And I have lots of started-and-not-yet-finished-despite-the-fact-I've-had-it-for-months chocolate bars in my house, so I should know. :D
(P.S. Hi. Haven't been around here in a while.)
I like being snobbish about chocolate. I feel it counterbalances my otherwise childish tastes. *g*
I don't like peanut butter, so I find the Cups a bit much, but I do like Reese's Pieces. Mmm. American chocolates with nuts or toffee or caramel seem to be okay. Milk Duds, mmmmm.