Snyder's Of Hanover Pretzel Dips and Sweet & Salty Bugles Caramel
The salty-sweet combination is generally a no-brainer when it comes to snackables, and chocolate-covered pretzels are the no-brainiest of all. While we imagine it would be tough to concoct a chocolate-covered pretzel we wouldn't wolf down by the handful, Snyder's Of Hanover's version has stacked the deck by using Hershey's special dark chocolate. The dark chocolate renders the treat a little less sweet than usual, which is a good thing—the dark stuff is layered on very thick, and a sweeter milk chocolate would likely overwhelm the thin, salty pretzel underneath. The chocolate's a little waxy, as Hershey's tends to be, but it isn't as noticeable when combined with the crispiness of the pretzel.
Mere pretenders to the sweet-salty throne, Sweet & Salty Caramel Bugles don't come close to hitting the same mark as their pretzely superiors. In spite of a gloppy, inconsistent layer of brittle caramel, these are still overwhelmingly corn-chippy, and leave the same unpleasant aftertaste as regular Bugles. Worse than that, though, the Bugles' characteristic conical shape seems to be warped from the layer of caramel, so we can't fit them on our fingers and pretend we have witch-nails, which is really the whole point of Bugles anyway.
Arizona Jack's Super Giga Original Beef Jerky & Pepperoni Whipper Snacker
The candy gets most of the attention at the ACE, but there's plenty of other stuff, particularly in the jerkied meat department. Lording over all of it are two freakishly large products from Arizona Jack's: the enormous Super Giga Original jerky strip, and the 3-foot-long Whipper Snacker pepperoni sausage. The guys from Arizona Jack's were particularly eager to talk about both, noting that the Super Giga is the only branded jerky—note the AZJ branding—and that the Whipper Snacker is the "longest piece of sausage that's wrapped." "You got all the regular beef jerky, then you've got the branded," said one of AJ's representatives. You can't argue that, but you can easily argue that there's far, far tastier jerky out there. But if the American eating habits are about anything, it's quantity over quality—and who can top a quarter-pound beef-jerky strip or 3-foot sausage? U-S-A! U-S-A!
Chuao Firecracker ChocoPod
We reviewed Chuao chocolate in Taste Test back in January, where the Spicy Maya earned high marks for its mixture of heat and choco-satisfaction. The Chuao rep at ACE remembered the story and quickly offered us the new Firecracker, a bizarre mix of 60 percent dark chocolate, chipotle, salt, and popping candy à la Pop Rocks. Available in ChocoPod and bar form, it brings the heat more than the Spicy Maya, but the mix of spice and dark chocolate, combined with the novelty of popping candy, was surprisingly satisfying. More, please.
Shoogy Boom Popping Candy
Speaking of popping candy, good ol' Pop Rocks was present at the convention, but they didn't seem to have anything new going on, and by the time we got there toward the end of the convention day, they'd taped down all the sample dispensers and wandered off for some weary chitchat. So we were forced to sample their less-known competitor Shoogy Boom, a Turkish product from the Hleks company. (According to the website, Hleks "always see the future clear and optimistic," which is an excellent reason to suck up some popping candy right away.) There are an impressive number of popping Hleks products under the Shoogy Boom label, including popping gum, "poppin' drink," popping lollipops, straight-up Pop Rocks-style popping candy, and the impressively tasty popping chocolate balls, which melt in your mouth and sizzle at the same time.
Dan's Chocolates
While Pop Rocks locked the store and sealed the dispensers when they packed up and left, the kind people at Dan's Chocolates left out an impressive, attractive display that basically said "Try everything we make, you'll love it." So we did. Their mini-bars are notable for being palm-sized but extra-thick, and for coming in oddly named varieties like "Peppy-r-mint" and "The Caffeinator" (which contain chunks of peppermint and coffee beans, respectively) rather than the increasingly common fruit and spice flavors, but better still were the giant bins of amazing truffles, particularly the dark chocolate peppermint and dark chocolate orange zest. There are cranberry raisin and Caffeinator truffles too.
Love Candy
The guy at the Love Candy booth completely failed to explain why his caramel-nut bars are called Love Candy, but that's okay. We pretty much loved them anyway. The caramel is ultra-soft and silky rather than chewy, drippy, or gooshy, and the bar's minimal chocolate or yogurt bottom and sides hold it together and provide some extra sweetness and texture without overwhelming the taste. "Unwrap the passion" is probably too strong a tagline—"Unwrap something tasty involving chocolate and caramel and pecans, almonds, and brown sugar" would be more accurate, albeit wordier—but we can see why the little Love Candy company has gotten emotionally involved with its product.
Tootsie Pop Drops and Pomegranate Tootsie Pop
The world has wondered since the 1930s how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop—there's even been scientific research done. (It's somewhere between 250 and 400.) But the delicious treat has been slightly shy about new flavors over the years: It's chocolate, cherry, raspberry, orange, and grape, and occasionally you'll see the less popular watermelon, strawberry, and lemon-lime. Well, get ready to have your world blown apart, as Tootsie is introducing pomegranate-flavored pops, presumably to break into the lucrative foodie/lollipop crossover market. And guess what? They aren't bad. In more exciting news, they're also offering Tootsie Pop Drops, a.k.a. "Tootsie Pops WITHOUT the Stick!" That's right, same great flavor, much smaller, no annoying cardboard stick making you look like Kojak. On the downside: It's almost impossible not to chomp right down on 'em.
Junior Fruit Cremes
The Tootsie folks had a separate area for the Junior Mints subsection of their candy empire. The Junior Mints Minis were exactly like Junior Mints, but the size of plain M&M's; the reduction eliminated more mint than chocolate, leaving the choco-shell dominant. On the exact opposite end of the spectrum were Junior Mints Deluxe, golf-ball-sized confections with a thin candy shell surrounding a shocking amount of goopy, syrupy mint. (Note: It is almost biologically impossible to sample a Giant Junior Mint without thinking of it as a Senior Mint.) But the big reveal went to the not-yet-marketed Junior Fruit Cremes, which have the approximate shape and texture of Junior Mints, but come in mixed boxes of three fruit flavors: raspberry, orange, and black cherry. A.V. Club testers back at the office were pretty dubious about Junior Fruit Cremes, praising their initial tart burst of juicy fruit taste, but not so much the way the flavor quickly passed, leaving us all with waxy mouthfuls of the outer coating. These are a limited-edition candy, which is Food Industry for "We don't know whether anyone will go for this, but if they do, you'll be seeing an official release version later." Don't count on that to happen here; get your Junior Fruit Cremes while you can, once you can.
Gum And Mint Roundup
The gum and mint world is slightly limited, and to be honest, just not nearly as exciting as actual candy. That doesn't stop manufacturers from exploring new ways to keep your mouth busy, though. We weren't sure what to make of Ice Breakers Chewy Sours (strawberry blast! flavor): Is it gum? Is it candy? Is it a mint? It looks like a bumpy little dinosaur egg, and tastes a little bit like death. Sweet, sour, super-chewy… Ick. It's easy to tell what Mentos Gum is, because it says it right there in the title, and even features a picture of its "new soft center." It comes in a pretty elaborate plastic case with a flip-top, and the gum is shaped like Mentos. It's extremely shiny, too, and extra-elastic. This flavor tastes like flowers. Trident Xtra Care claims to strengthen your teeth, which we'll probably need after all of this sugar candy. The magic ingredient is called Recaldent, and the packaging handily points out that it's "milk-derived." We tried cool mint and peppermint, neither particularly notable for their flavor, but not bad. It's way more fun to chew Bazooka Bubble Juice Bubble Gum Nuggets, particularly since the flavor is Slammin' Blue Raspberry. The fact that it's called "juice" is quite deceptive—it's presumably because it's in a Capri Sun-shaped package, right? Not exactly! It's insanely juicy. It just keeps juicing as you eat it. Our teeth feel weird. Elsewhere: Altoids are offering dark chocolate-dipped crème de menthe mints (yummm), Tic Tac is throwing their weight behind sugar-free Tic Tac Chill (exotic cherry and paradise mint)—about twice as big as a normal Tic Tac, but delivered in a hard-to-open fancy case. And not too exciting in the flavor department. Finally, in the boutique department, Hint Mints are pretty hip. Their curved tin fits snugly into back pockets, and the fancy mints even come in chocolate.
Green & Black's Organic Milk Chocolate Butterscotch Bar
Sick of chocolate yet? We almost were, and then we ran across the Green & Black's booth near the back. These British-import high-end organic bars are a staple of high-end organic supermarkets; check the extra-snooty section in aisle two. But they do a delicious chocolate. The new, not-yet-available-in-the-States Butterscotch Bar, they informed us, will be repackaged as "Toffee" before it hits stores; sadly, we were underwhelmed by its minimal amount of toffee. Far better were the more familiar dark-chocolate bars on display, including Ginger, Cherry, and the delicious Maya Gold, which combines cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and orange for a flavor bristling with spice.
Valor Chocolate Chocolat Noir Banana Bar
But of all the unusual premium chocolate bars on display at the expo, the one that most stood out was the banana-flavored bar from Spain's Valor Chocolates. It seemed like the big themes in chocolate this year were extra-super-duper-dark bars and pomegranate flavoring in bars and truffles alike, but no one (apart from Dove, and only in banana-caramel form) seemed to be doing a banana-flavored bar. And Valor's was terrific. The 70% cacao dark bar with smooth, rich banana flavoring—not banana bits, just banana essence—was unique at the show, and all the more delicious for it. The Chocolat Noir Pear bar was good too, but the banana wins the day. Sniffing around online, we aren't immediately seeing an American source for these, so we'll just have to make the one we have last for now.
In fact, we shouldn't have much problem making our approximately 28 pounds of freebie candy last through Memorial Day weekend; even hours after we opened the pile up to the madding crowds at our Chicago office, billions of calories still remained unclaimed on our kitchen table. We'd go pick through the remnants for more tasty treats, but we're obscenely full. Time to go look up the URL for The American Diabetes Association.
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