Sugar Pressure

Charms Sweet Pops

"Since World War I, Charms Flat Pops have been one of the world’s most popular, traditional, flat lollipops. Available in a variety of tasty fruit flavors plus Sweet, Sweet & Sour, and Fluffy Stuff Cotton Candy, they’re the perfect go-anywhere treat for kids and adults of all ages."  (From the Tootsie.com Web Site for Charms)

Charms are one of those suckers I often overlook while trying to find a new or fantastic tasting candy to review. In my mind they belong in the "candy for children" category or "what you give at Halloween" category. It's odd that I overlook them because I have such great memories of Charms Sweet Pops as a child. I remember going to the high school football, basketball, volleyball and wrestling events as a child and my parents would always let me get a Charms sucker. I've probably eaten a few hundred of them in my lifetime. So with that thought in mind I decided to pick a few different flavors up when we visited small candy shop in a nearby town, so I could give them a proper review.


Here's a Charms childhood memory I told my son while we were trying these and he said I should share it with all of you....I remember one time on the bus ride to school, I found an unopened Charms sucker in my coat pocket. I'm not sure how it got there or why I hadn't eaten it before. What I do know, is that I did what any fifth grader would do, I ate it on the way to school. So, I'm on my way to school and I'm eating this sucker at 7:40 a.m. and I start to think about how I like this girl on the bus and I start wondering how I could get her attention. (I'll admit in advance, fifth grade boys are not very bright and I certainly showed off my lack of intelligence this day.)  Okay, the girl I liked was wearing this fake fur coat. It wasn't a very pretty coat, but I'm sure she thought it was amazing. I have this sucker and I'm about half-way through eating it when I decide it wasn't a good idea to eat that much sugar in the morning, so I do what any boy would do, I stuck it to this girl's fur coat. Ruining this girl's coat sure did get her attention!  But not the way I'd planned.  Now, back to the review.....

The first thing you notice about a Charms sucker is the size. These aren't the tiny little Dum Dums you get at the bank drive-through, these things are massive. To hold the massive size, you need a massive stick and Charms has always had one of the best sucker sticks I've ever seen. The large size means this candy will last and last and last. I think that is why my parents let me get a Charms sucker at games, it would keep me quite for at least an hour! There are two downsides to eating a Charms sucker; one, it makes you thirsty, but that could be said about any type of hard candy and two, you can't set these down or put them in your pocket once you get started eating one.  As for the flavors, they are pretty good:

• Grape - tastes just like grape Kool-aid, very good, not a grape juice flavor
• Orange - identical to orange Crush soda, although the lightest/faintest flavor in the group
• Strawberry - fake strawberry flavor, not bad, tastes like that cheap candy with the strawberry looking wrapper on it
• Cherry - tastes like the panned exterior of a cherry sourball, this one was tasty
• Blue RazzBerry - sweet blue raspberry flavor, full of flavor, even if there's no such thing as a blue raspberry
• Cotton Candy - best of the bunch, tastes just like real cotton candy and I loved how they had both flavors that you'd find cotton candy made in, both pink and blue and there's an extra fancy wrapper on this one

Overall, you can't go wrong picking one of these up. They are often down very low on the store shelves for children to see and they are usually very inexpensive. My favorite is the sour variety, I'll have to find those to review sometime soon too.

Taste: 4/5 Really Liked It
Calorie Counter: 1 Charms Sweet Pop = 1 serving = 50 calories, 0g fat, 10g sugars
Price: $.20 purchased at small candy store
Tootsie Charms Sweet Pops Web Site

Guest Review: ICEE Popping Candy with Lollipop

I was never a big fan of the ICEE when I was growing up. We had a gas station in town that sold slushies, so those were what I grew up on. However, sometimes when we are at a local mall, I stop with my two sons and buy an ICEE. My six year old would disagree with me, but I believe that cherry is the only "true" ICEE flavor. He's a big fan of the blue raspberry. With that in mind, I decided to let him do this review of this ICEE novelty candy.

In his best "review voice", "Papa, the idea of this candy is that you lick the sucker (sticks whole thing in his mouth) then you put it in this crushed up candy, like this, it sticks to your spit."

"Oh..this is definitely a blue raspberry flavor, you don't like that flavor do you?"

"Hey, didn't they steal this idea from the Pop Rocks people!!" (LOL, I am imagining people made of Pop Rocks.)

"Okay, maybe this is a new idea, since they added a sucker." (Not really, I agree with him, it looks like Pop Rocks to me.)

"Oh..this tastes so much like a blue raspberry ICEE. What a fantastic idea, I LOVE ICEEs!"

Apparently he likes them. Although, now that I think of it, there hasn't been a candy I've reviewed he did NOT like. I think this candy is a good idea since it is both an activity and a candy. It kept him entertained for 30 minutes.  I like the ICEE tie in (the ICEE cup shaped sucker was a fantastic idea) and the flavor was an unmistakable blue raspberry ICEE flavor. It wasn't bad, but I would have rather had it in Cherry, since that is the only "true" flavor of ICEE in my opinion.

Taste: 4/5 Really Liked It
Calorie Counter: 1/2 of a package = 1 serving = 27.5 calories, 0g fat, 6.2g sugars
Price: $1.00 from our local grocery store
ICEE Web Site

Mega Lolly Tropical Flavor Smarties

According to the sales representatives I talked to from the Ce De Candy Company the MEGA Lolly is a very popular product. So popular, that they have recently added this tropical flavor to this candy line. If you are not familiar with the MEGA Lolly, these are giant suckers made of the same ingredients as Smarties. You can find them in bulk bins, jars and boxes in the candy aisle, and they are usually less expensive than a candy bar. The thing I like most about these, besides the price, is the fact that they seem to last a long time. I'm not sure if I eat them slowly because of how sugary they are or if I just enjoy the flavor that much. It might just be because I'm from Iowa, and in this state we love things on a stick!! (If you do not understand that reference, see this page for info on the Iowa State Fair and the 50 items you can purchase "on a stick" at the Fair.)

I also might like them because this candy is linked to my childhood memories. One of my best summer memories is of the school bus picking us up from our small town to take us to the larger town next to us (about 10 miles) so we could swim in the pool. I remember the swimming, but more than that, I remember the hundreds of MEGA Lollies I consumed at the pool and on the bus. For the reasons I listed above (low cost and long lasting), I was drawn to the MEGA Lolly every time I went to the pool. Plus, the stick makes it a good snack for the pool.

 

 

Now, as then, I love the tart flavor and how very sweet this candy is. What I like in these MEGA sized Smarties is that you can taste the flavors, more so than in a roll of Smarties.  Each MEGA Lolly includes 2 flavors. I'm not sure exactly what 2 flavors I had with this one but it was very tropical. It had a really nice Pina Colada smell to it, and an even better Pina Colada taste. I thought I could taste pineapple, banana and other fruity flavors (in the orange/blue combo). I was blown away with just how good this flavor was. However, a few days later, my family shared a different MEGA Lolly and it had more of a banana taste with a hint of berry mixed in (pink/yellow combo). I'm not really sure what flavor it was, but we didn't like it as much as the orange/blue combo. Just eating one of these Tropical flavored MEGA Lollies made me want to fill up the kiddie pool, splash around a bit and relive those elementary school days. Ah...the joy of candy, it brings the memories flooding back, which is one of the reasons I enjoy candy so much.  I highly recommend you try one of these in the tropical flavor and make some memories of your own.

Taste: 5/5 Loved It
Calorie Counter: 1 lollipop = 1 serving= 110 calories, 0.5g fat
Free Sample Provided by the Company
Ce De Candy Web Site

Celebration Time Lollipops - Bubble Gum, Birthday Cake, and Root Beer Float by This Charming Candy

Celebration Time Lollipops - Bubble Gum, Birthday Cake, and Root Beer Float
Originally uploaded by SugarPressure.com

I've been following charmingcandy on Twitter for a while now. All of the lollipop flavors they've linked from their Etsy store sound and look so very good. After seeing the Celebration Time Lollipop collection, I couldn't resist any longer, and I ordered them immediately.

If you haven't ordered from Etsy before, it's a great place to find unique, one of a kind items made by thousands of people across the United States. We often use Etsy to find a great gift for someone we know. The lollipops from This Charming Candy are a perfect fit for Etsy. Hand-made, unique, amazing quality lollipops made in small batches.

The Celebration Time group includes 3 fantastic flavors with 2 of each flavor in a package:

Root Beer Float: Smells like root beer as you take it out of the package, looks like a root beer float. It is a brown lollipop sprinkled with powdered sugar to look like a root beer float. If you are thinking this would taste like a Root Beer Barrel or root beer Dum Dum, you would be completely wrong. There is an amazing vanilla flavor in this lollipop that complements the root beer very, very well and gives it a true float flavor. It really makes you think of vanilla ice cream floating in a glass of root beer. This was my 2nd favorite of the group.

Bubble Gum: This one was my absolute favorite. Imagine liquifying a package of bubblegum flavored Bubble Yum and putting it into a lollipop, that's exactly what this one tastes like. It is nothing short of amazing in my opinion. I think I liked this one the best because bubble gum isn't a flavor you normally get in a hard candy like this. In fact, it's not a flavor you'd find outside of gum or a unique Jelly Belly jelly bean. I highly recommend this one and enjoyed every minute of it.

Birthday Cake: I wasn't very sure about this flavor, but that's only because I'm not a big fan of cake or cake batter tasting candy. This lollipop has a very distinct yellow cake flavor, and while it wasn't my favorite, it was pretty darn good. The sprinkles inside were a very nice touch that shows how This Charming Candy does a little extra to make their product unique.

There are several reasons I liked this candy. I enjoy helping a small candy company that makes a unique and extremely tasty product. I like the very different flavors offered for sale and the amazing pictures offered on their site. My lollipops arrived very well packaged with a very nice personal note that I was the first sale, for them, in my state. That was such a fantastic touch you don't get when you buy from a large candy company. The extra long sticks on this candy are ingenious. I've always thought the normal short sticks on lollipops weren't quite right. I also love the amazing texture and denseness of this candy. The lollipop itself feels thick and solid, there's almost no way you could bite into one of these, and I'm not sure you would want to. These are meant to be savored, and as The Charming Candy tagline says, "everyone deserves a 10 minute treat". My wife wondered if, as an adult, do you really want to be seen sucking on a lollipop? My answer, "Who cares? These things taste AWESOME!". Honestly, I love candy that makes me feel like a kid. Candy is meant to be fun and tasty. You really should try these, especially if you are a kid at heart.

There are two new ways to order from their Etsy store. They now offer one of their amazing lollipop collections (6 lollipops) per month for 6 months and the ability to buy their items as a gift, with hidden payment and a personalized note. This would make a great gift for any candy fan.

Taste: 4/5 Really Liked It
Calorie Counter: no calories listed, I'd guess ~50 calories each
Price: $9.00 with $3.00 First Class U.S. Mail Shipping from This Charming Candy on Etsy
This Charming Candy Website and their Flickr photostream with some fantastic photographs of their product.

Guest Review: Blizzard Shaker Pops

Blizzard Shaker Pops
Originally uploaded by SugarPressure.com

This is and example of what you bring home when you stop at the Dollar store and let your 5 yr. old SugarKid pick out something from the candy clearance section. It is a hollow container designed so that you lick the sucker then flip the container upside-down and shake so the non-pareils stick to the wet lollipop. Then, repeat...repeat...repeat. I did a guest review with SugarKid at Christmas and I thought I'd do another one today. It's a short review:

"This sucker has a green apple flavor" was his first comment.

So I asked him a follow up, "Green Apple, that sounds good what about..."

"Well...it's a 'hint' of green apple, Papa" he interrupted.

"Oh" I said, "how are those non-pareils?"

"The what??" he answered.

"The non-pareils." I asked again.

"Do you mean these sugary colored dots of fun flavor?" he responded.

"Yes, how are they?" I asked.

"Papa, this sucker is WAY TOO much work!"

For something that was "WAY TOO much work", he had no problem finishing off the dots and throwing away the sucker. In fact, I think the sucker was just a mechanism to eat the non-pareils. I'd like to add that this was a very messy candy. In fact, I don't think I've ever had a messier candy in my life. I had to clean non-pareils from the floor and countertop. Then I cleaned non-pareils from my son's clothing, his face, hands, arms etc... The non-pareils stuck to everything. I checked to see if they were stuck to the cabinets and ceiling at one point.

After all of that, I still think this is the essence of candy. It is meant to be fun, enjoyable and MESSY! SugarKid sure had a fun time eating this one. He rarely gets any of the candy I review, so every once in awhile I don't mind buying something out of the ordinary for him.

This candy is made in Korea and distributed by Fantazzmo of Bensenville, Illinois.

Taste: 3/5 Liked It
Calorie Counter: No calorie information on the packaging
Price: $.40 at Dollar Tree