Specializing in old-fashioned candies, Espeez (the candy-making division of Las Vegas’s SP Enterprises) is nonetheless a company on the move. Since 1993, they’ve made sweet treats such as their Rock Candy (the kind on wooden sticks), Gold Mine bubble gum, Aunt Flo’s fudge, and other novelty candy products inspired by a bygone era. But this family-run company, started by brothers Sam and Alan Popowcer, also produce new products that catch on with the kids, like Viper Venom (a sour powder candy that sounds more like torture than a treat to anyone over age 18).

Espeez Peanut and Pecan Log Rolls are unique in the candy industry—no one else really makes this kind of candy the way Espeez does. Each 1.5 to 2 ounce log roll is a hearty size. Good luck finishing this off in one serving, unless you’ve skipped lunch. A sweet and fluffy vanilla nougat center is rolled in finely chopped nuts (either peanuts of pecans) to make this handmade treat so delicious. I like to picture grandma’s kitchen, a place where each layer of nougat is rolled out by hand with love. The peanut log roll is a bit salty, which is a nice complement to the sugary center, while the pecan roll is almost too sweet. But everyone has their own preferences, so you’ll have to try both to see which one is to your liking. I really liked this candy after I got used to eating it. It’s not quite a candy bar, and though it is soft, it’s also not something you can just wolf down. A heavy yet satisfying candy, I had to eat this over several days—and even that was with some help from friends. But isn’t that how a good candy should be…long lasting? So, where do you buy these candies if you have no mom and pop store nearby? Try finding them online at www.espeezcandy.com.

Tags: fluffy candy, caramel and pecans, nougat candy, peanuts, sweets

Coconut—I’ve never enjoyed a flavor so much that other people can’t stand. I’ve been to more than my share of parties where a delicious coconut dessert is served. And, more often than not, I can look around the table to see several people who refuse the delicacy sitting before them with the dreaded line: “I don’t eat coconut.”

One man’s loss is another man’s gain. And for that reason, I say “bring on the coconut.” Island Delights, a company based out of Seville, Ohio, is doing just that. With a passion for island living and the slow pace that comes with a tropical lifestyle, Island Delights creates coconut candies to ship all over the United States. Their Haystacks, a quarter-sized dollop of coconut rolled in sugar and corn syrup, are a bestseller. And why shouldn’t they be? They tailor their haystacks to the consumer who likes variety, with eleven flavors. I tried chocolate and caramel, but the haystacks also come in: vanilla, maple, cinnamon, key lime, cherry, orange, pineapple, lemon, and pina colada. Variety packs allow candy lovers to sample a variety of flavors in one 8-ounce bag. A larger 2-pound bag is available for purchase on their website, www.islandelights.com, and you can also select from smaller 2-, 3-, and 4-ounce bags.

I have to say, I wasn’t blown away by Island Delights Haystacks. The little sugar pods didn’t explode in my mouth or send me away to a tropical island. But the mild chocolate and caramel flavors are a good complement to each other, providing a chewy, sweet treat that complements the coconut this company has grown to love. In fact, it seems the company primarily focuses on their popular Haystacks, creating seasonal and holiday gift assortments of the product. With nine grams of fat in one serving (four pieces), this candy wasn’t worth it’s fat content as far as I am concerned. But the pretty packaging and unique concept make it a great gift idea for the coconut lover in your circle.

Tags: Coconut candy, Island delights, milk chocolate, tropical candy, sweets

Switzerland-born Nestle arrived on the chocolate scene in 1866. Their century and a half of candy experience has given them an edge over the competition and established their brand name worldwide—but did you know that Nestle also creates baby food, powdered drink mix, and bottled water? As their product line has become more diverse, it’s still chocolate that they are most associated with.

Nestle Treasures are among the best filled chocolates on the market. If you haven’t tried these yet, get out to your supermarket and buy a bag—or four. Twelve-ounce bags are filled with individually foil-wrapped, chocolate nuggets that look like mini bars of gold. For bonafide chocolate lovers, that’s not too far off from what they actually are. Unwrapping the royal-purple wrapper, you can feel the inner majesty of the candy begin to surface and alert your senses to one fact: you are about to taste something amazing. Biting into the chocolate chunk, you unearth a creamy caramel fountain. This candy brings a milky sweetness that is the perfect ending to any meal. You can get by on just one—but you won’t want to stop there.

Part of Nestle’s Signatures brand, Treasures also come in full-size candy bars. They are also excellent for baking delicious cookies and brownies, and are available in flavors like chocolate crème, peanut butter, and the new dark chocolate caramel. Your best bet is to just buy the assorted bag and enjoy all of the varieties because you won’t want to miss any of them. I’ve sampled all of the filling flavors and would enthusiastically award peanut butter First Place. Caramel gets the Second Place ribbon, and chocolate crème comes in a close Third. All in all, these candies are the most appropriately named candies out there. Does a Snickers really taste like a “Snicker?” Who knows. But these are most definitely, as the name suggests, treasures to be uncovered.

Tags: Nestle, caramel candy, milk chocolate, bite size candy , sweets

Housed under parent company Hershey’s, the Reese’s brand is synonymous with peanut butter. The original Reese cup has been available since 1928—almost a century. H.B. Reese invented the popular chocolate shell with peanut butter filling. It has changed a great deal over the years with countless variations on the original. But the fame the Reese’s brand attained in the candy marketplace is due to this original success story: the peanut butter cup that changed the world.

How could the company branch out from their signature Reese’s Pieces and Peanut Butter Cup and tempt the public in new ways? Could they pack chocolate and peanut butter into a candy bar in a way that would be inventive enough and tasty enough to grab the public’s attention? Packing in fresh roasted peanuts seemed to be the ticket. But they didn’t stop there. Caramel and peanut butter round out the innards of the candy log. Milk chocolate coats the delicious invention. Wrap it all up in the classic orange-colored label with a bright blue nameplate, and you have NutRageous. Candy consumers have been buying up this bar since it was unleashed on the public in 1994. If you haven’t tried it–where have you been?

I love the NutRageous bar. It’s crunchy and truly satisfying, like a Snickers. In fact, I’d place it in line just behind Reese cups to meet my cravings for peanut buttery goodness. What makes this bar so all-the-rage? Definitely the rich peanut butter. You just can’t go wrong with peanut-creaminess and milk chocolate. In fact, I didn’t realize caramel was also one of the dominant ingredients until I read the packaging. If this candy-combo sounds up your alley, you’ll most likely buy NutRageous again and again. This is a genuine favorite candy bar of many connoisseurs, so you will be in good company if you find yourself adding the word “nutrageous” to your vocabulary—and your shopping list.

Tags: Reeses, milk chocolate, peanut butter, caramel, sweets

If Cadbury Eggs were sold year-round, all of our wallets would be in trouble. Strong seasonal sales have only encouraged England’s Cadbury corporation to release tasty temptations all year long. An expert in filled chocolates since the 1800s, Cadbury produces the United Kingdom’s current-best-selling chocolate, Cadbury Dairy Milk. In order to bring Cadbury over to the United States, Hershey’s gained the rights to make and sell Cadbury products nationwide. Americans picked up on the trend—they love Cadbury candies like the Royal Dark bar, Roasted Almond Bar, Fruit & Nut Bar, Crème Eggs, Caramel Eggs, and Caramello Bars.

The 1.6-ounce Caramello is a staple in many grocery and convenience store checkout aisles, and you can buy larger 4-ounce bars in movie theaters. Although each bar is filled with smooth, dripping caramel, each candy bar comes in sections (chocolate “pockets”) that are easy to break off and share without the filling oozing out. Though, once you sink your teeth into this delectable chocolate bar, sharing will probably be the last thing on your mind.

I’ve always loved Caramello bars, because there is really nothing like them outside of the Cadbury brand. The quality of chocolate is top notch. The caramel is so creamy and silky, and the bar has an undeniable melt-in-your-mouth quality. It’s like staring at uncharted lands or watching the ocean waves roll forward and backward. Eating this candy bar isn’t like going to the mall or going to a movie. It’s more rare and unique—like going on vacation. And you wouldn’t truly appreciate a vacation if you went all the time—right? It’s the same with a candy that you eat it all the time. Saving it for a special occasion makes it all the more special. Make Caramello bars your “vacation” candy—the one you eat to really get away from the “daily grind” and escape to a land of milk and cocoa.

Tags: Caramello, milk chocolate, caramel candy, Cadbury, sweets

Nips, a brand purchased by international chocolatier Nestle in 1989, have been around since the 1920s. These milk-infused caramels are long-lasting and absolutely delicious, in flavors like butter rum, coffee, mocha, and dulce de leche. Chocolate Parfait and Peanut Butter Parfait have a silky “parfait�? center that melts in your mouth, making the treat truly irresistible. It’s easy to eat one after another, after another. The round, individually wrapped caramels are easy to toss in a candy jar or in your bag.

Peanut Butter Parfait Nips have an interesting consistency—if a Werther’s hard candy and a soft caramel chew produced offspring, this would be it. Nips have a smooth caramel shell that is harder than a chewy candy, but not as soft as the caramels you’d use to melt over caramel apples. Inject a dose of creamy peanut-butter flavor into the center, and you’ll discover all the peanut-buttery goodness after the candy dissolves in your mouth. A 5.5-ounce box of Nips provides a few dozen of these premium candies at a discount-store price. Variety bags are also tempting for candy lovers who can’t make up their minds. Also available in sugar free, Nips are enjoyable to a variety of candy lovers.

I had a middle school teacher who always kept Nips on hand and would occasionally reward her students occasionally with one of these candies. This only happened semi-regularly—my theory is that she just really didn’t want to let them go. Now that my middle school days are long gone and I’ve graduated to adulthood, I can buy my own bag of Nips and chomp on them all day long. But, they always tasted better coming from Mrs. Price’s candy jar. If you try any kind of Nips, try the Peanut Butter Parfait. They are by far the most fulfilling variety that’s just so creamy and different from what other candy brands bring to the table. Pop one in and let it dissolve your cares away.

Tags: creamy hard candy, long lasting candy, bite size candy, peanut butter, sweets                      

I used to be anxious about Easter time because I was waiting for the Cadbury Easter Egg to be sold at the corner store. But nowadays, I don’t get excited about that. Now, I get excited about Easter because of the Cadbury Caramel Egg. The Cadbury Caramel Egg took the rich milk chocolate from the regular Cadbury Egg and put a big gob of gooey caramel in the center. The best way to enjoy one of these is to bite off half of the egg to expose the creamy caramel nougat on the inside. Once exposed, you can either put rest of the candy in your mouth or you can do as I like to do – scoop the delicious nougat out of the bottom half of the egg with your tongue. This way, you can savor the creamy nougat taste and still have the rest of the milk chocolate egg to satisfy your sweet tooth. I like the Cadbury Caramel Egg much better than the original because the egg yolk-looking center in the original always seemed weird to me.

The wrapping for the Cadbury Caramel Egg was the first thing I noticed about the candy. The shiny gold foil wrapping automatically draws your attention to the potential goodness once you unwrap it. With spring flowers on the package, it also helps to get your in the mood for the warming spring season.

Another great thing about the Cadbury company, besides its amazing candy, is that they have an awesome interactive website for their customers or potential customers. Visitors to the site can take part in a virtual factory where you can make virtual chocolate and other deserts. Their website also offers a podcast competition that is open to the public. You might also enjoy the wide-variety of e-cards that you can send to friends or the Cadbury themes for desktops and screen savers, including ones where you can splat Cadbury eggs on your screen. Not only is their product fun to eat, but they also give their customers other great resources to have a good time.

Tags: Cadbury egg, caramel egg, milk chocolate, Easter candy, sweets

What have we here? The Nestle Grand white Fudge Turtle, a Nestle Signatures treat. I opened up the package to see what looked like a white-chocolate covered Oreo cookie, so I figured we were off to a good start. (That type of Oreo may be one of my favorite things about the Christmas season, so much that I’ve started dipping them myself.) One bite into the turtle, and I was overwhelmed by the flavor of white chocolate. White chocolate is a good taste most of the time, but the thickness of the “white fudge�? as they call it, was overwhelming the rest of the flavors of this candy. And it was really a bit too sweet, if you ask me.

The white chocolate layer surrounds another level of milk chocolate containing caramel, pecans, and cashews all tucked into this 2-inch disc. Because so much chocolate covers the turtle, you can’t see its traditional little legs, made of nuts. Which shouldn’t really matter all that much to chocolate fans. Of this turtle, I’d have to say I’m not that much of a fan. I mean, Nestle does okay on this one, though less white fudge would have made for a better premium candy. I think there was just too much confusion among the many competing tastes or flavors, shooting it’s overall score down a few notches.

Nestle, a Switzerland-based chocolatier, first came to us in 1866. For over a century, they’ve been serving up the goods, but the company today does so much more. Bottled water (Mmm, chocolate water might be nice), milk, coffee, seasonings and pet food make up its diverse product lines. But remarkably, the company got its start in baby foods. The Nestle Grand White Fudge Turtle isn’t for kids—that’s for sure. They would be prone to a sugar rush that could last for days on end. Keep this far from your children, or they are liable to suffer a tummy ache from the sickly sweetness.

Tags: Nestle, milk chocolate, fudge candy, caramel chocolate, sweets

I must say that I was somewhat skeptical about trying this new Snickers Cruncher (it’s not really new, but it’s new to me). Seeing as I’m not a big fan of Snickers in general (I’m not a big fan of peanuts or caramel) you can understand my uncertainty. But as soon as I took my first bite, I found myself quickly taking another… and another… and another… Before I knew it, I was down to my last two bites. This incredibly interesting creation has grabbed my attention. Allow me to break it down for you.

The inside contains a most satisfying mixture of crispy rice, not-too-chewy caramel (it’s a perfect consistency that doesn’t cling to your teeth like other kinds), and crunchy peanut chunks.  Though the taste of the peanuts was very distinct, I can’t quite say there was a plethora of peanuts. This is great for me, since I don’t exactly fall head-over-heels for peanut anything; so for all you peanut lovers (I know you’re out there somewhere), your best bet is to stick to the regular Snickers bar. 

Alas, don’t turn your back on the Cruncher yet! One thing that really caught my attention about the Cruncher is the texture and consistency of the caramel that holds together the two stars of the show—I’ve gotta give credit to the supporting actor! Because what’s a Snickers without its caramel? The caramel is smooth and creamy, but not so sticky that when you take a bite, the caramel sticks to your teeth (or your dentures). Then there is the chocolate that’s signature of Mars candy bars.

Snickers is currently celebrating over “75 years of Hunger Satisfaction,�? according to their website. And I must say, it’s about time they changed up the recipe. Its new-found crunchiness adds a fresh new twist to the age-old original, and it brings the Snickers name into the picture for the not-quite peanut lovers, like me. By the way, did you know that every day, over 99 tons of roasted peanuts go into making Snickers bars, and each bar contains approximately 16 peanuts!  (www.snickers.com)

Tags: Snickers, milk chocolate, crunchy peanuts, caramel chocolate, sweets

Sugar Mama Caramels are small pieces of delicious candy entirely for the caramel lover. This candy doesn’t mess around with fancy mixtures or combinations of flavors, but it just pleases the candy lover with its simplicity and pure caramel taste. One of the great things about these caramels is their softness, which makes it easy to chew without getting a lot of the candy stuck in your teeth. Everybody knows how annoying this can be. Part of its softness is because they use milk caramel rather than straight caramel, which is the same reason milk chocolate is much smoother and easier to chew, too. Being bite-sized is another advantage. You can easily unwrap a Sugar Mama Caramel and put it in your mouth and enjoy the caramel taste explosion for the next 10 minutes or so, depending on if you’re a chewer or a if you prefer to let it dissolve in your mouth so you can savor it longer.

The Sugar Mama Caramels come from a family of already existing caramel favorites that include Sugar Babies and, you guessed it, Sugar Daddy caramels. The Sugar Babies product began being manufactured in 1935 as a smaller and easier version of the popular Sugar Daddy candy, which was basically a caramel lollipop on a stick. The Sugar Daddy was created by a confectioner named James Welch in 1925 when it was originally referred to as the Papa. It began being manufactured a few years later and this idea gave birth (so to speak) to the Sugar Babies a few years after that. Now, the candy is distributed by the Tootsie Rolls Industries and it has been a favorite of candy lovers for a long time.

You can go to your favorite candy store and buy these tasty treats. You might be able to find them individually and buy just a few of them, but if it was me, I’d want to buy an entire bag that contains about 60 pieces. Heck, I might even want to buy a few bags. I’m a caramel lover, though. And Sugar Mama Caramels cater to my caramel loving taste buds. You can even go online to your favorite candy website and buy Sugar Mama Caramels there.