SousChef Community

I have always known that Jelly Belly manufactures more than their trademark jelly bean; however, my knowledge of the rest of their product line is rather limited. I attribute this fact mostly to price issues. As anyone who sees Jelly Belly products already knows, they are considered to be a gourmet line of candy widely accessible [...]

We all have trick-or-treaters we really don’t want to give candy to. You know the ones - thug teenagers who have no business being out trick-or-treating, parents asking for candy for their third child who happens to be 2 weeks old (”Yes, she eats *** milk, formula, and a few Snickers here and there”), and [...]

When I went to the Swedish Fish Party a few weeks back, I salvaged the evening by buying a few varieties of Halloween candy I hadn’t tried before. Unfortunately, it was so overpriced I didn’t buy very much, and what I did buy got devoured on the subway on the way home. So, I didn’t [...]

My local grocery store just began carrying a new fruit candy by Sun-Rype called Squiggles. They profess to be 100% fruit twists - implying that the Squiggles are healthy, not just yummy. To me, something called a “Squiggle” just looked fun so I grabbed a couple. First up, I tried the strawberry. The moment I opened [...]

Remember those plastic wrist bands that everyone was wearing a year or two ago? First available in yellow and bearing the inspirational message “Livestrong,” they were sold by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to raise money for cancer research. The campaign was so successful that other organizations also began to sell bracelets in various colors ...

Ok, confession time: I’m not into the whole organic/natural food thing, for two main reasons. One, I don’t believe in quick-fix solutions to the complex health, environmental and sociological issues that plague today’s food industry; and two, I just love my artificial flavors and colors too darn much. After all, the candy aisle would be [...]

I buy candy with the intention to eat it, but might not get to it for months, at times more than a year. It’s simply because I have so much of the stuff, and I typically consume what will go bad the fastest first, i.e. chocolate and marshmallows, leaving gummi products and hard candy for [...]

Here in Canada, something strange has been happening to the packages of Sour Patch Kids, Fuzzy Peaches, and an array of other familiar gummies. They’ve gotten package updates that prominently feature the name Maynards – a very minor branch of Trebor Bassett known only for making Wine Gums, hardly the most popular of candies. Fortunately [...]

My dad introduced me to the majority of candies I have ever tried. One of his favorites which still exists today is Dots. First established in 1890 by Mason, they were all black licorice-flavored as Crows. In 1945, the original fruit-flavored Dots - which boast the title of most popular gumdrop in the world - [...]

As part of my job I have to travel to Florida several times a year. For someone who hates sun, sand, and heat, it isn’t exactly a dream come true. One of the few things that make the trips bearable are my mandatory excursions to Fresh Market and their gourmet candy section. On my last [...]