A Sweet Start to Christmas

What am I thankful for this year? The abundance of new (and old) Seasonal Christmas candy! I'm thrilled to report that I have already run across several new sweets. A much needed boost after the lack of creativity and existence of new Halloween candy this year. Admittedly, I haven't tried many of these but I'm happy to share my finds and look forward to hearing your reviews should you pick up any of these new treats.

One of my favorite finds is the ginormous gift package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Weighing in at hefty half pound a piece, this novelty is almost too good to be true. I've often been irritated by companies that call their miniature candy bars 'Fun Size,' I don't think having a smaller version of a candy bar is all that fun. These crazy huge cups are much better qualified to own the name Fun Size. For a bit of comparison, the traditional Reese's Peanut Butter Cup is .75 ounces and their Big Cup is a measly 1.4 oz. The one pound gift can be found at Target for about $10 along side two additional novelty candies, chocolate Scrabble tiles and a huge Tootsie Roll (which isn't really made of chewy Tootsie Roll, it's just chocolate in the shape of a Tootsie Roll = lame).

Next up, Cinnamon M&M's. I held out on purchasing these since I haven't been a fan of the Cherry or Coconut flavored varieties. I may be alone in my distaste since they recently moved those limited editions into regular rotation. Cinnamon and chocolate is a popular combination and is often referred to as Mexican chocolate. I've only seen these M&M's at one Target (yes, I shop multiple Target locations hunting for different treats). This is a good opportunity to revisit Mint M&M's, you can catch up on my thoughts here.

A bit fancier, Toblerone has been one of my favorite special treats since a trip to Germany when I was 10. Their traditional variety is made of Swiss milk chocolate with bits of honey and almond nougat. The new limited edition Snowtop bar adds tips of white chocolate to the traditional milk chocolate bar. You can also find most of their products in special holiday packaging.

Of course, peppermint is a common flavor this time of year so it's no surprise to find Andes Peppermint Crunch. These three layer sweets are imprinted with a candy cane and contain bits of candy canes.  These are cute but I'll take their traditional Creme Menthe version (with chocolate) over this version any day. I have also seen a truffle version but missed the opportunity to take a picture and haven't been able to find them again.


In additional to Christmas sleeves of red, green and white gumballs, Rainblo has introduced Snowballs. Creative and cute these all white gumballs are even better because they are the original flavor instead of mint!

Also in the category of 'cute' are these Holiday Malts by Brach's. Perfect for a sweets table these malted milk balls are bright and cheery. Brach's recently changed the packaging of their regular lines and it is terrible, it gets lost in the sea of bright candy packaging and looks cheap. It's nice to see they didn't carry the packaging over to their holiday line.

The first new seasonal candy I ran across, the Skittles Holiday Mix is a disappointment. First off, call it what it is - a Christmas mix. Second, the flavor mix is the traditional line up replacing orange with wild cherry. Lime and grape are the same shade of green and the wild cherry and strawberry are the same shade of red. I missed the orange flavor in this otherwise traditional mix and was underwhelmed with the lack of differentiation of colors. Skittles has introduced so many varieties that this seems like a sleepy approach to what could have been a fun new mix. Even having more than three colors would be an improvement.

Hopefully there will be more seasonally inspired treats to come, in the mean time I'll be making candy and baking up a storm as I move even closer to the official launch of my confection business. You can see some of the sweet things I'm working on by liking The Sugar Kitchen on Facebook. Stay sweet!

Bye Bye Butterfly

It has been tough having pet caterpillars over the last month. I spent lots of time worrying about my friends Peanut and Butter, knowing they were late to the scene and that they needed to move quickly if they were going to survive. They were anything but quick in their entire transformation. In fact, they took so much longer than Yipes did, it was really like learning the process a new. The four pictures below are all of Butter, she packed in on 10.12 and emerged on 10.30, 8 days longer than expected. I was lucky enough to see her break out of her chrysalis and caught some video footage. 

  

Let's not forget about Peanut who amazed me when he packed in on 10.21 nine days after Butter. He emerged on 11.2 and was much more eager to leave. I spent several days trying to convince Butter to fly, she was not interested in leaving. Even after Peanut left on 11.4, Butter just stayed. I brought her in at night and began wondering if she might hibernate in my house. Finally, after sitting on the roof of her cage for several hours yesterday (11.6), she took off. I didn't get to see either of my friends on their maiden voyage but I am incredibly hopeful that they have headed South. My butterfly friends are gone for the year, time to think about planting for them to return in the Spring.

Peanut gearing up to take off

Peanut and Butter, being beautiful and reluctant to fly