Category Archives: Soft Candy

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year… for Candy Lovers

It’s official, pumpkins are rolling into local stores, haunting attractions are springing up, scary costumes are filling up the shelves, and spider webs are accepted as house decorations. This could only mean one thing; Halloween is just around the corner! Whether this year you’re the one trick-or-treating or the kind neighbor handing out candy, they key ingredient to a spooctacular Halloween is candy. Candy Direct has everything you need to awe your trick-or-treaters and your own taste buds from Jelly Belly Pet Tarantulas to the traditional candy corn. Wondering what little Frankensteins, superheroes, princesses, and mummies love the most? Chocolate is clearly the preferred choice. Of the $1.9 billion sold in Halloween candy each year, $1.2 billion is on chocolate candy alone.  This year, get ready with Candy Direct and their great selection of bite size Snickers, Reese’s, and Milky Ways, oh my! Trick-or-treaters are hungrier than ever for a sugar rush so start getting ready and let us help you get ready for our favorite time of the year.

This Blog is Intern Approved!

Alina Serrano (the newbie)

Candy Corn – Chewy Candy

Going Beyond Simple Sugar with the Many Flavors of Candy Corn

Every Halloween, there’s no doubt that there’ll be a batch of candy corn ready for the eating. As a traditional treat, we’ve all come to know and love its simple sugary taste. But did you know that you can now find this candy in a wide variety of other flavors?

A little touch of fruity flavor can totally transform a traditional treat into something new for everyone! This Halloween, why not treat your guests to a sugary rendition of caramel apple? With its white, red and brown colors, it also makes a welcome addition to any Thanksgiving cornucopia.

If you’re feeling a little more gothic, maybe the blackberry cobbler flavor is right up your alley. With a violet stripe over black and white, this type of candy corn totally makes the perfect treat to pair up with a bowl of licorice sweets in a Halloween candy buffet.

It isn’t all about different flavors, though. Today, you can even find these chewy treats molded into all sorts of shapes and sizes! Don’t hesitate to surprise your guests this season with a completely different spin on candy corn. After all, it’s always great to take a little break from tradition every now and then.

Gimbals Jelly Beans – Halloween Candy

Have a Magical Jack and the Beanstalk Halloween with Gimbals Jelly Beans

Take your guests right into the world of fairy tales this Halloween by recreating well-loved tales right in your own home. With Gimbals jelly beans and various decorations that keep with the theme, you can easily breathe life into one of the world’s favorite childhood classics: Jack and the Beanstalk.

Recreating Jack’s world isn’t very difficult. With a little imagination, along with some basic arts and crafts skills, you can create a fantasy world that even the giant would envy!

Use unused lamp stands or columns as your beanstalks and decorate them with green art paper for the leaves and crepe paper to make the stalk. You can even dress up as the giant and greet each visitor with a hearty bellow of “fee-fi-fo-fum!”

To complete the experience for every child, create a bag of magical beans using different flavored Gimbals jelly beans. With all these done, you can be sure that your costumed guests will have a Halloween to remember in a world of whimsy and storybookfantasy!

New sizes, prices, and no shipping and handling costs!

Have you ever been shopping for your favorite candy on-line and thought to yourself, “What in the world do I need 5 pounds of candy for?!” You know that when you shop in bulk you save money, but it has never seemed practical to buy 5 pounds of candy for personal or family consumption. Not only is there a good chance that some of it may go bad, but you also have to pay the increased shipping fee, which sometimes can be as expensive as the candy itself!

Well look no further, CandyDirect.com is here for you! At CandyDirect.com we now offer more conveniently sized bulk candy. Your favorite candy is now available in sizes approximately equal to 2.5 pounds! And do you want to know the best part of this promotion from CandyDirect.com? Shipping is included! Can you believe that?! It is like a dream come true! No longer do you need to worry about ordering 5 pounds of bulk candy. You or your family can easily eat 2.5 pounds of your favorite candy!

What’s even more amazing about this promotion from CandyDirect.com is that if you want to try something new and do not want to pay an outrageous amount for it, we have separated the candy by price. That’s right! Candy now available in approximately 2.5 pound bulk bags for under $20, under $30, and under $40! There are even some below $15! This promotion is cleverly called the $20, $30, $40 deal!

Let me say that again so you fully grasp how amazing of a deal this really is: Your favorite bulk candy is now available in more convenient sizes! (Approximately 2.5 pounds) And it is available, with shipping included, conveniently bracketed by price, under $20, under $30, under $40!

This unbelievable deal might not last forever, so make sure to order your favorite candy in bulk, at a reduced price, with shipping included! Unbelievable!

Gimbal’s Sour Lovers Chews

CandyDirect.com is currently running a special on Gimbal’s newest candy creation Sour Lovers Chews, so I decided to give them a try, and boy was I impressed. I am, by nature, a chocolate lover. If given the choice between a chewy or hand candy, and a chocolate bar, I will choose the chocolate bar every single time. But after trying this new sour candy, I can honestly say that I would choose these new Sour Lovers over the majority of chocolate bars.
The package claims, “Intensely Sour and Real Fruit Flavors! Experience the Long-Lasting Mouthwatering Flavor of Sour Lovers. Made with Real Fruit Juice and high in Antioxidant Vitamin C. Absolutely 100% Deliciously Sour!”
For most candies, this description seems too good to be true. The fact is, most candy does not have a “long-lasting mouthwatering flavor,” but that is not so with Sour Lovers. As soon as you bite into this new candy you will have a sour and fruit flavor explosion erupt in your mouth. The external sour sanding and delightfully sour centers are perfectly balanced with the delicious real fruit flavor. You can really tell that this candy was made with real fruit juice and not some chemical flavoring.
Sour Lovers are perfectly sour; not over powering, but not so weak as to be unnoticeable. They come in twelve deliciously sour flavors including Pomegranate, Fuji Apple, Grapefruit, Watermelon, Meyer Lemon, Tangerine, Baja Margarita, Sour Blueberry, Mango, Bing Cherry, Strawberry Daiquiri and Georgia Peach. Each flavor is unique from the others, and equally delicious. I especially love Pomegranate and Sour Blueberry with Baja Margarita and Watermelon coming in right behind as my favorite flavors. Each flavor is fantastically unique and all are sure to please.
This wonderful candy is peanut free, tree nut free, dairy free, egg free, gluten free, transfat free, gelatin free and soy free. So they are perfect for all those special people in your life with dietary restrictions. And since they are in the shape of a heart they are sure to put a smile on your loved ones.
I have consumed a lot of candy in my life, candy of all types, shapes, and sizes, and I can say that I am sold on Gimbal’s new Sour Lovers. I will definitely be eating more of these in my near future. They get my seal of approval.

by Matthew Rogers

To celebrate the launch of Sour Lovers Chews, Gimbal’s and Candy Direct are running a special promotion: For a limited time you can get TWO 11oz bags of new SOUR LOVERS CHEWS -or- 14oz bags of CINAMMON LAVABALLS for just $7! Shipping and handling included!


Jelly Eggs

Regular Jelly Eggs and Sour Jelly Eggs come in four different flavors: Lemon, Orange, Lime, and Cherry. The flavors are not overwhelming, and might even be on the weaker side for those of you who enjoy strong, dominant flavored candy. The flavors, nonetheless, are distinct from each other. My favorites are cherry and lime as I always seem to be drawn toward green and red candy, they also seem to have the most prevalent flavor.

About half the size of my thumb; in my opinion, they are too large to be considered a bite-sized candy and are therefore more difficult to eat than jelly beans or other similar candies which are much smaller. But if you only eat half of the Jelly Egg, the exposed section of the candy is extremely sticky and must be consumed quickly or it will stick to everything it touches, including your hands and all the papers on your desk.

Once consumed, some people prefer to chew them quickly; others prefer to savor the soft, sugary, candy, enjoying the full flavor the candy has to offer. Don’t be fooled, these candies do not have a liquid jelly center, but rather are a soft, chewable candy. I prefer to suck on these candies because I found that when I chew on them they tend to get stuck in my teeth and can be rather difficult to remove.

The Regular Jelly Eggs are lightly sprinkled with sugar crystals, while the Sour Jelly Eggs are sprinkled with sour sugar crystals. I found myself preferring the Sour Jelly Eggs even though I am not particularly inclined towards sour candy, simply because the sour sugar offers more flavor to the candy.

Check out the regular and sour jelly eggs, as well as all your candy needs now at CandyDirect.com

Easter Candy – Something New

Mix it up this Easter with new Ideas

Easter is right around the corner and if you haven’t stocked up on candy then you might find yourself in a tough spot. We all know that there are some popular Easter candies that just seem to run off the shelves themselves leaving us looking puzzled as we try to decide between green marshmallow peep bunnies and regular Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. This year, why not think outside the egg? Colors can be your best friend and with a day like Easter it is easy to think of colors that are appropriate. Spring colors are always a big hit and pastels really give you that Easter look without being overly suggestive of the theme. Some great products in these colors are available all year round so they might be more readily available than most of the themed candy you’re used to seeing, and don’t be afraid to get creative! Think of all the unique candies that you can have to make your Easter celebration delightfully surprising and a hit! Products like Smarties, SweeTarts, Gum Balls, Jordan Almonds, and Laffy Taffy are available all the time with color specific choices. Imagine being the only person on your block to include Gummi Bears and Twinkle Pops in your Easter decorations. Maybe even try a different brand of Jelly Bean, like Gimbal’s Gourmet Jelly Beans, with more than 40 flavors, you’re sure to find your favorites and maybe make some new ones. Plus, if you’re really aching for something more traditional you can always go with Cadbury Creme Eggs, which are available 8 months out of the year. Jump over to Candy Direct and check out the Color section, there’s even a Pastel Colors subcategory where you are sure to find some creative Easter ideas.

Fascini Sour Snagx

Snag some for yourself, because Fascini Sour Snagx are scrumptious! With four flavors packed into one bite-size, sour snack, this candy has it all. You’ll love these if you like Sour Patch Kids. Inside each rainbow-colored strip is strawberry, apple, tutti frutti, blue raspberry goodness that’s sour, but not in an eye-watering way. The candy has a slight waxy taste to it, though that won’t keep you from pounding ‘em down. Don’t worry—these candies are low in fat and a single serving package has about 200 calories. But their gummy substance does well to fill you up, so you might even throw a bag of these in your pocket or purse to tide you over before dinner. The packaging is a little dull—lots of primary colors, and it reminds me of the old Fruit Stripe Gum commercials that once aired on Saturday morning TV. But the mini fruit-gum characters on the wrapper look like they’re having a good time, so why not join in the fun?

You may not know it, but Fascini is almost 100 years old as a company. Unfortunately, this Netherlands-based family business hasn’t always made candies. Remarkably, they got their start in 1911 making products such as fly catchers and rat poisoning! Their first edible product was licorice, meant to sooth winter colds and sore throats, and soon peppermint candies were added to the line. Sour, sugar-coated gummy candies were next on the market, and the company sold them under its previous brand name, “Candy Castle.” The switch to Fascini took place in 2006, a combination of the founders names (Fassini) and the word fascination. This sends a clear message to consumers that these candies should enthrall and excite. And these candies did just that—I was perplexed and fascinated that a candy I’ve never heard of before and one I’ve never seen on supermarket shelves could taste so good, like an undiscovered gem.

Hershey Kisses Cherry Cordial

As a limited edition product, Hershey recently released Cherry Cordial Kisses. The familiar milk chocolate kiss is now filled with a liquid cherry center. Each Cherry Cordial Kiss is wrapped in special foil to distinguish it from the pack—magenta with a zebra-like black swirl.

From what I can tell, the reviews on these are mixed. Some candy addicts would like to see Cherry Cordial Kisses available year-round! Others think the cherry filling tastes a bit like medicine. I’m leaning more toward the medicine analysis, but I can still see and appreciate why others might fall in love. First off, cherry cordial candies are reminiscent of Christmastime. I used to get a box of the creamy-filled candies each year in my stocking, with a chew maraschino cherry inside waxy-tasting chocolate. Hershey Kisses, while they inspire the same sentiment, don’t have a cherry inside—just light pink liquid filling. Not nearly as thick and creamy as traditional cherry cordial filling, Hershey’s cherry filling gushes out as soon as you sink your teeth in.

Milk chocolate Kisses are such a good thing; I can’t imagine making them any better by filling them with cherry goo. In fact, I don’t think any of the variations from the original (Hershey’s Hugs, Kisses with Caramel or Peanut Butter) are as satisfying as solid milk chocolate. But if you’re game for possible disappoint, potential delight, pick up a bag and give them a shot. One serving (9 kisses . . . I didn’t make it that far) has 180 calories and 7 grams of fat. Unlike the original Hershey Kisses, released over a century ago, these aren’t here to stay. But if people buy them up fast enough, who knows when they might be re-released.

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Albanese 12 Flavor Gummies

 

Who knew that we had beets to thank for one of the best candies on the planet? The second ingredient listed on Albanese 12 Flavor Gummies is, in fact, beet sugar! All produce aside, I was instantly drawn to this product, being a fan of gummy candy and wondering what the 12 advertised flavors could be.

These soft and luscious chewy gummy bears come in 12 amazing color-flavor combinations: Ornery Orange (of course, in orange), Poppin’ Pineapple (yellow), Granny Smith Apple (dark green), Rrripe Watermelon (in the not-so-obvious pale aqua/blue), Lickin’ Lemon (bright yellow), Wild Cherry (red), Bodacious Banana (pale yellow), Luscious Lime (pale green), Freshhh Strawberry (dark pink), Rockin’ Raspberry (dark blue), Groovy Grapefruit (pale pink), and Concord Grape (purple). You’ll need the color code on the back of the package to keep them all straight, though the flavors themselves are bright and fruity—totally what you’d expect from Albanese, a quality confections company since 1983.

I loved these gummies, and was so glad to have more than one bag handy. The 5-ounce package isn’t quite enough to share, because you’ll want to try all of your favorite flavors several times over. My favorites had to be Banana, Grapefruit and Grape, because you just don’t see those flavors honored in the gummy candy world—not very often, at least.
Touted the “world’s best” gummies, these candies are (as the package states) bursting with flavor! If you try these gummies and like them, check out Albanese Gummi Army Guys, Gummi Jet Fighters, Assorted Krunch Bears (coated with candy sprinkles) and Gummi Cola Bottles! In addition to gummies, Albanese is famous for their gold label chocolates and premium fresh-roasted nuts.

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