A Strange Garden of Pumpkins

A few years ago, I shared some daytime pictures of the Desert Botanical Garden's Halloween event, Strange Garden. They used to put up these wonderful pumpkin people displays. I would bypass the event and see the pumpkins during the day instead. This year, then, was the first year in which I went to Strange Garden itself.

This year there were no pumpkin people. But there were various stations, child-focused, to show desert animals and funky cactus and magic and other Halloween-y curiosities. This is why a year or two ago they tried out doing an adult night: like with most Halloween events, there isn't much for adults. At least, not much besides the nighttime garden itself. And I do simply enjoy an excuse to get a little dressed up and wander around an event.

The familiar garden with fog? What a perfect time to play with taking spooky pictures. And the pumpkin patch, how pretty. Strange Garden's pumpkin patch is nice and clean and neat, with the pumpkins arranged all over the amphitheater area in rows and piles. I tried not to be envious of the children who could pick out a pumpkin to take home; instead, I consoled myself with taking lots of pictures of and with the pumpkins.

There is a novelty to taking pictures of pumpkins and cactus together. Maybe especially because I can go to the garden whenever I want--so any little embellishment to its usual state is entertaining. For people with kids, it's a less chaotic, more laid-back Halloween activity option--there's no candy, but at least they get a pumpkin. Maybe, too, it works that way for adults: you can dip your toe into a Halloween event, dress up a bit if you like, but not have to immerse yourself fully in crazy crowds. 

Ghirardelli: Fall Assortment

Winding up my trio of Halloween chocolate candies is a set that is not specifically Halloween but simply fall-themed. Ghirardelli squares are a sturdy standby for any time of year, and usually any seasonal approach that Ghirardelli does is light. There are three flavors in here, two which are standard (Caramel and Fudge Caramel) and only one seasonal (Pumpkin Spice Caramel). Pumpkin Spice can of course take you all the way from September through November.

On one hand, this would also seem not to be a Halloween bag because who would want to give away Ghirardelli squares or even put them in your Halloween candy bowl--they're too expensive, right? But they fall right in between the prices of the other two. So yes, this is more expensive than a bag of KitKats, but still at a standard price for its genre, shall we say. If you use the Nutrition Facts to estimate, there should be 14 squares in here, which would be 34 cents each; again, I don't know if I somehow miscounted out of daftness, but I only counted 13, which would be 36 each (I paid about $4.79 for the bag). So if you're doing maybe a mini trick-or-treating event just for your family or keeping them in your candy bowl, the price isn't unreasonable.

This is the least decorated bag of the three. A rich brown color and some leaves, pumpkins, and acorns in the corners make up the whole of the theming, and there is nothing on the individual wrappers. While this is consistent with Ghirardelli's usual style, I do wish they had at least decorated the Pumpkin Spice Caramel wrappers differently. Maybe a couple pumpkins on there? Or at least a different color to distinguish them from the Fudge Caramels.

Those Fudge Caramels were the ones I started with. It's milk chocolate filled with caramel that tastes more strongly of vanilla than you might normally get in a caramel. It's a sweet, confection treat. The plain Caramel has more of a standard caramel flavor. Ghirardelli's caramel is soft but also not quite free-flowing or liquid; it's a nice balance between the two approaches. It's good, I say with a shrug.

What we're really all here for is the Pumpkin Spice Caramel. If they weren't going to do other fall flavors, as well (maybe apple cider), they could have just made the whole bag Pumpkin Spice. That's what people are after, anyway. That is, I'm after it because it's the seasonal flavor. Normally I'm not too much into the pumpkin spice craze.

There is already a pumpkin spice aroma even before biting in. When you do, you'll find a caramel base pretty much the same as the regular one, except that is infused with that distinctive pumpkin spice flavor. I taste cloves and cinnamon and ginger and maybe cardamom--the usual suspects. It's nice. As I've alluded to before, these are some of the same pieces you would use for chai tea and I do much enjoy a good chai. It's all nice and warm and sweet. In fact, the sweetness of the milk chocolate helps to ground the spices in the way that sugar and milk would in a chai latte. The caramel makes for a good base, as well.

While pumpkin spice by definition does not necessitate the inclusion of pumpkin, there is something of a taste in here of what comes across to me as artificial pumpkin flavor--whether or not that is what it actually is. If you are one with the pumpkin spice, this might just taste like fresh pumpkin pie to you. To me, it's just a little off. So we have another of those instances where you'll know best if this chocolate is for you. It's a nice approach to pumpkin spice; I'm enjoying it. But if someone had a candy bowl of these three flavors, I'd probably choose one of the other caramels and leave the pumpkin for others. Not a disappointment; just a preference. The disappointment here is that there is only one fall flavor in this assortment, but it is otherwise a pleasant bag of chocolates. 

OCHO: Trick or Treat Variety Pack

For day two of my three day Halloween chocolate spree, I have the Trick or Treat Variety Pack from OCHO. Like Tony's Chocolonely, OCHO has also made Easter egg candies, which I looked at last year. I expressed some disappointment that they were organic but not fair trade. But this bag says that they are fair trade, and OCHO's website lists recent fair trade certification. So it's possible that either their sources have recently received certification (not all fair trade cocoa is certified as such) or that they have been transitioning to fair trade certified sources. Either way, again, I'm just glad that it's part of the conversation and part of what more companies are trying to be aware of, even when it comes to candy.

And while the Tony's Chocolonely bag was from Natural Grocer's, you can get OCHO at Target. So this is the option that more people will come across because it's safe to say that more people shop at Target than at Natural Grocer's. While the bag says it has 22 pieces, I counted 19. Maybe I just can't count? This bag was about $8. So that's 36 cents each if there were 22 pieces, and 42 cents each for the 19 pieces that I actually got. Not as low as the Tony's per piece price, but still pretty standard for the price you'd pay for an individual piece of fair trade chocolate. 

The bag has a little more of a clip art look. OCHO seems to be still a pretty small company, despite their increasing availability in store, so I guess this is fine. and it's still a fun, Halloween look. Again, I like that these are happy jack-o-lanterns rather than spooky ones. It would be nice to have some pumpkins on the individual wrappers, too, though. While the yellow and orange fit in with a Halloween color scheme, the blue doesn't and the white is the most prevalent color. So they don't look very festive. Granted, most of the Halloween candy that's for sale isn't in special holiday wrappers--and many of the bags that hold the small pieces aren't even decorated at all, either. So this isn't necessarily a complaint, just something it would be possible to improve on. Especially since when you see a Snickers wrapper, you get excited about candy--but when you see an "alternative candy" wrapper, you see "alternative candy." So having a festive holiday look can really give the alternative options a visual boost.

I do apologize for the lack of a picture of the candies themselves. I didn't go in to the store to look for chocolate, so I completely forgot that these were in the car when I got off at one more stop. And one more stop in a hot car is all it takes to melt chocolate (although the Ghirardelli made it out unmelted, so I'm not sure what the difference was there). I didn't want to be more wasteful in buying a second bag, so we'll just imagine that the candies looked as nice unmelted as they do in the pictures on the bag.

There are three flavors in here: Peanut Butter, Caramel, and Coconut. Or Reese's, Milky Way, and Mounds, if you like. The familiarity is good.

I've talked about the Peanut Butter before, though it was in Easter egg shape then. The peanut butter filling is alright; it has plenty of salt to make it akin to the Reese's Cups we all grew up with. But there is a certain soft texture in it that blends with the flavor that isn't favorable. There are other Reese's Cup alternatives that are better--but this one is fine. It's a nice bite of peanut butter chocolate candy. 

The Caramel is in the chewy range. Not only is it a good sub for caramel chocolates but also for those with nougat. The Milky Way comparison really does work, even without nougat. There is a lot of vanilla flavor in here and plenty of chocolate compared with a Snickers or Milky Way. I really enjoy this one, and would definitely reach for it when I'm craving a chocolate candy bar. 

I ate one of the Coconut candies because I'm self-sacrificing like that. I've never had a Mounds or Almond Joy because you know I, being not overly fond of the flavor, usually avoid coconut. I don't know, maybe I'm starting to get over it. It's chewy, creamy coconut filling. While I can't say for sure, I do believe there is likely much more chocolate here than in a Mounds bar. So if you're going to have a coconut chocolate candy, this one's pretty good. 

Overall, this set was better than I had been expecting. Though the peanut butter chocolate is what I associate most with OCHO, I don't believe it's their strongest flavor. So the Caramel and even the Coconut helped lift my esteem of the brand. These are exactly what they're marketed as: fun size, organic chocolate candies. 

Tony's Chocolonely: Halloween Tiny Tony's Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt

Because I have collected more fall products than I'd anticipated, I'll be ringing in October with a trio of Halloween chocolate candy bags covered in the next three days instead of three weeks. I'm not overly fond of Halloween, but I do like dressing up and I like candy and I'm always after seasonal chocolate products to review. So the increasing availability of seasonal products around this time of year can get even me excited. 

Tony's Chocolonely has certainly been showing up for the candy holidays. They make the Chocolate Eggs for Easter (this has turned out to be one of my most-viewed reviews--perhaps because there is indeed demand for such a product?) and now they have an option for Halloween, too. The thing is, I don't necessarily think it's sustainable to have all Halloween candy be fair trade chocolate. For me, part of the idea of fair trade cocoa is consuming less cocoa (I am aware that this can sound hypocritical coming from a chocolate blogger). So if I were handing out candy, no, I wouldn't be handing these out--and not just because the bag of 27 pieces is about $9. But if you knew you were only going to be handing out a small amount of candy or if you were just having them at home for your own circle of friends and family, then this works.

Philosophy aside, let's get back to the product. Of the three brands of Halloween chocolate I've had so far (I don't think there'll be anymore, but you never know what else you find), this was the only one that had an accurate count. The bag says that there are 27 pieces inside and there are 27 pieces inside. That comes out to 33 cents each, which is also the best value of the three options. I'm not going to start counting grams, but they're decent-sized chocolates, too.

The bag is pretty cute. A standard Halloween orange comes with a pattern of little skeletons and brooms and ghosts and jack-o-lanterns. Again, being that I'm not big on Halloween, I prefer this cute, goofy look to anything truly spooky. It's neutral, too. It can be the candy you buy for your kids or it can be for adults--the packaging doesn't lean too much in one direction or the other.

It's a paper bag, too, which is kind of cool. The individual wrappers are "recyclable plastic;" while maybe we should give them some credit for trying, the fact is that probably not a single one of these will in fact get recycled--even if someone wanted to, finding the right place to send them would be an issue. 

All three of these companies kept their standard packaging for the small wrappers. But I do like the Tony's look best of the three. They already make these Tiny Tony's as part of their product line, and the Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt is already orange (the milk chocolates are red and the dark chocolates are blue, neither of which would look very Halloween--perhaps they'll bring out the milks for Christmas, though?). The bright orange wrappers have a fitting Halloween look. These are the only individual wrappers of the three brands to not include the ingredients list on them, but there is a link to their website to view that info. 

I've never had any of the Tiny Tony's before. They're pretty cute. It's just one little link on a circular piece of chocolate. The chains (which are part of their message/goal about ending slavery, particularly child slavery, in the cocoa industry) look like they're a Halloween design. Again, they just used a product they already make, but the look is great for the season. And it's a great way to link the season with their message. "Hey, did you know that these grotesque chains don't belong to a Halloween monster, they represent the huge issue of child slavery?" (Now I'm picturing someone on the street passing them out as part of a campaign . . . . )

As I mentioned, these candies are the Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt. I've covered it before, both the whole bar and in the Easter eggs. Probably it is most favorable in this form, though that may just be my own bias (the large Tony's bars are so big that they put me off). The chocolate is sweet, nice enough in small doses like this. Lots of caramel and vanilla flavor to it. The caramel itself comes in those little small crunchy bits, along with some big chunks of sea salt. I definitely feel like there is more prevalent salt in here than there was in the bar, though that could just be my memory being fallible. These are big hits of sea salt.

You know, the price tag may be higher on these, but you're paying for more than just fair trade. Not only are these candies possibly slightly bigger than some of the fun size chocolate candies (just a guess), but they also have more chocolate. This is solid milk chocolate except for the sprinkles of salt and crunchy caramel. While Tony's milk chocolate doesn't top my list for milk chocolates, it is certainly better than what probably all of the standard chocolate candy brands make. So the value here is pretty decent.

I started with Tony's because it was the first of the three bags I came across. I don't want to peak too soon, but I definitely score it the highest of the three based on value, quality, and visual appeal. 

Astor Chocolate: Halloween Selection

A little early in the week to be doing a chocolate review, but that would be because I wasn't planning on reviewing any Halloween chocolate until I suddenly happened upon these two at World Market and decided that I might as well. This is chocolate I would normally avoid, but given that specific holiday chocolate can be scarce (especially strange given the abundance of candy around Halloweentime), I'll sometimes just go ahead and cover a little bit of novelty chocolate like this.

There were in fact three Halloween bars for sale from Astor Chocolate. I picked up the Jack-o-Lantern and Frankenstein's monster bars. There was also a witch, which I skipped because it was simply a plain dark chocolate. There is never much to say about plain (milk or dark) novelty chocolate.

These are part of Astor's Moodibars line. Most of them are emotions, like Grumpy or Happy or Tired. These are a little different, though. The Pumpkin Spice Milk Chocolate is Scary and the S'Mores Milk Chocolate is Monster. And you know what's scary about them? How plain the bars look. Especially when it's novelty chocolate, you kind of wish there were more novelty to it than just a boring Halloween label. But that's just the way of novelty chocolate, so perhaps I shouldn't complain.

Let's start with the Monster bar. Immediately, the chocolate smells like milk chocolate with a hint of marshmallow and tastes pretty strongly of marshmallow, as well. The milk chocolate is milk chocolate; nothing to say there. A slightly crunchy texture at first seems to come from the marshmallows since they're the strongest taste but is probably in fact from the graham cracker element. They don't add anything to the taste. The vanilla flavor is a taste you'd already expect to get from the marshmallows and the chocolate so you associate it more with them than with the graham crackers--and anyways, there is no vanilla in the "graham crunch" in the ingredients and in fact the last ingredient is "french vanilla," so that vanilla flavor is in fact separate from the chocolate and the marshmallow, as well.

It's a nice chocolate candy. I won't say that it isn't. I'm going to finish eating it, kind of gladly even. But the chocolate itself isn't great and the flavors aren't anything that another company couldn't do just as well.

Now we'll move on to the Scary bar. Pumpkin Spice is definitely a scary concept these days, so this one is aptly named. The smells is warm like nutmeg, so nothing scary there. When I snapped off a piece, I was surprised to see a kind of filling inside. You know, the type that looks and acts almost the same as the chocolate but is visible as a separate, softer element. That seems to be where the flavor is. And um, this is not one of those cases of pumpkin spice as in the spices you use for pumpkin products; this is pumpkin spice as in spiced pumpkin. There is a weird, wannabe pumpkin flavor and simply a bad flavor that my mouth is rejecting as either a spoiled taste or a taste so artificial that it is foreign and unpleasant to me. Just adding cinnamon and such to milk chocolate is in fact quite nice and this could have been another pleasant chocolate candy--except that it tastes bad. When I checked the ingredients here, I did see the culprits: pumpkin powder, pumpkin pie flavor, and pumpkin spice extract. Those are apparently part of the "pumpkin spice ganache." I hate to put a bad name on ganache with this. If Astor used better ingredients, they could avoid such negative flavors. But I guess that isn't what they aim for. This one is so unpleasant that I won't even be finishing it.

I do dislike to be so negative. I thought I was just going to go with the casual "they're fun to eat but they're not great" comments. Instead I'm illustrating why I normally just avoid reviewing chocolate like this: it isn't fair to dwell too much on the negative. Yet this post also ends up being a commentary on the need for more seasonal chocolate of decent quality (with a long shelf life, that is: chocolate shops do make seasonal truffles and things that are often quite nice). And Halloween, too, seems to keep getting bigger and bigger year after year. Instead of just having scary bad chocolate, why can't we get some spooky and delightful chocolate, too?

Zak's Chocolate: Halloween Truffles Selection

Well, actually, only one of these truffles is a Halloween piece. But I didn't want to say "Halloween and others" or "Halloween and non-Halloween." So here we are: four truffles, one of which is a Halloween truffle.

I do enjoy getting special seasonal or holiday selections. Most of the store chocolate, if anything, just gets a holiday-themed wrapper for a regular flavor. Chocolate shops like Zak's Chocolate, on the other hand, have the chance to throw in fun pieces like this.

- Bloodshot Berry Bonbon - I say fun because even though a bloodshot eyeball sounds like it would fall into the gorey side of Halloween, this eye is actually rather cute. Perhaps I'm just admiring the paint job. A box of these would make a nice little gift (gifts aren't a standard Halloween tradition, but a gift is always in season), or you could put out a small plate of them at home on Halloween night. Perfect for everyone who just stays home for the holiday but still likes to bring in a couple of Halloween touches. Now, as far as taste goes, you get a berry flavor from this truffle's ganache right away, then tangy chocolate, and then more of a semisweet chocolate flavor once the ganache has melted away and left you with just the chocolate shell. I'm not always the biggest on berries, so I can't say specifically what berries I taste; it seems like more of a general berry flavor to me, perhaps with some blackberry in there. It's somewhat tangier than I'd expected. Overall this is a simple, flavored truffle.

- Cinnamon Plum - This one, visually, makes for a great companion to the Bloodshot eye: it also comes in a rounded shape, with some red, purple, and white painted on. And the cinnamon (and even the plum) makes for more of a fall type of flavor. You get that cinnamon flavor right away, followed quickly by the plum; the two together create that spiced fruit tone. The plum I would say is more of a general either spiced fruit or fruit-in-a-dessert flavor, not specifically recognizable as plum. It's the cinnamon that's the star and takes the most attention, in an absolutely warm and delightful way. Cinnamon is a wonderful spice and goes so well with chocolate and yet I don't feel like it gets used very often these days. The cinnamon here is nice and strong (properly, not overly, strong) to really give you that feeling of the holiday season. I taste this and instantly picture fireplaces and pine garlands and The Nutcracker and plum pudding in A Christmas Carol.

- AZ Queen Bee Honey - The biggest of the four, this truffle is a sort of round, thick disc with scalloped edges and a yellow honeycomb pattern on top. The ganache here is a big firmer, almost chewy. While you do taste some chocolate first, it's that rich kind of creamy flavor belonging to honey that quickly takes over. Strongly, recognizably honey. I don't know that I've ever come across the honey flavor in chocolate being this strong--which is a compliment. If a chocolate is labeled as honey, then I want to taste the honey. And of course that would be where the different texture comes in: the ganache seems to be made largely of honey. That's why it has a texture like the thicker, creamed honeys, almost grainy like that; I approve since that type of honey is usually my favorite. This truffle is the perfect example of two flavors working together as one, the chocolate and the honey blending together and enhancing each other. Lovely.

- Peixoto Mocha - A nice square with the coffee bean (shape) on top. Sleek-looking. I cut this one open (I can hardly even remember the last time I just bit into a truffle: I always have to be prepared to take pictures of the inside) to find a strong coffee scent. Naturally, then, this truffle tastes strongly of coffee right away--and yes, mocha specifically. It's like I can taste the coffee, the cream, and well, the chocolate--so I suppose this could be a cafe mocha, too. The strong and fresh coffee flavor will make this one a win for coffee-lovers.

I think my favorite is the Cinnamon Plum because it transported me and made me feel warm and happy, then the Queen Bee because it's awesome. And the Bloodshot Berry Bonbon is just the thing for Halloween. When I was at the shop earlier in the week, they mentioned that they would also be putting out plain chocolate in Halloween shapes. So for everyone who isn't trick-or-treating, try stopping at a chocolate shop instead; it's just as fun.

Happy Halloween

It all started off just fine, with pumpkin carving a few days ago. I tried my hand at one of those artificial, carvable pumpkins (I guess what's nice is that you can keep them and use them year after year, adding to your collection--and they won't spoil if you carve them a couple weeks before Halloween). They're a little difficult to get the hang of at first, but then again I'm also not very good at carving real pumpkins. So I stuck to a simple design. 

And I made cookies a couple of days ago. Double chocolate cookies made with a gingerbread man cutter and then decorated to look like skeletons. 

And then I got dressed up in my planned Darth Vader outfit. I was trying to model my makeup around his mask so that I wouldn't have to wear the mask. The thing was, I may or may not have ended up also trick-or-treating, though that wasn't part of the plan. I confess to nothing. 

The dress is Her Universe, the faux leather leggings are Anthropologie, the shoes are old Nine West ones my friend was going to get rid of but that I knew would be perfect for Vader (they have that angular shape with the square toes), the gloves are (child's) Darth Vader costume gloves, and the cloak I made (with much assistance--I basically just cut out the fabric and ironed the seams). 

Happy Halloween. 

What Do You Celebrate? Halloween Edition

I'm thinking this will be a new series in which I explore my concepts of upcoming holidays--that is, holidays that I in some form celebrate. If I don't celebrate them, then I have nothing to say about them; so if you want a certain holiday to be talked about, you be the one to talk about it.

As time goes by, I realize more and more that everyone sees something different in holidays--so this series is about what I see in them. Sometimes the question of what a holiday is about is simple and sometimes it is more complicated. I think Halloween is one of the more complicated ones, maybe even more complicated than Christmas, though Christmas is generally the one people have differing attitudes toward while also realizing that they have differing attitudes towards it.

Halloween is one of those holidays that some people have trouble with. Is it a day about embracing the Dark Side, about inviting in the monsters and the ghosts and the demons in a real sense? Or is it just an innocent day of fantasy? I'm not really quite sure. Most people seem to take it as a time to get scared, in the same way that they might watch horror movies just for the fun of it. You dress up and eat candy just for the fun of it. Just for the fun of it is the phrase, and I think there is usually no more depth to the holiday than that.

But I still feel like there is an edge I don't like to veer off of with Halloween. I'm not the type that likes watching horror movies: I don't like it when they scare me and if they don't scare me, there isn't really a point to them. So I obviously stay away from the Haunted Houses and things. And I'm fine with putting out skulls and skeletons because what's wrong with skulls and skeletons? They're just bones and everyone has bones. But I don't like all the gore (I suppose I'm just not a gore person) and I'd rather stay away from the demons and ghouls (like, why would I want to put around or dress as a roach or lice? demons are the same thing to me). Spiders are okay because they're just animals to me--as long as they're not very gross-looking, I'm not really scared of spiders (there are always so many in and around where I live that, well, I have to be used to them).

Let's see. I brought up the dressing up thing. So that should bring me to what I do celebrate with Halloween if not terror, horror, and darkness. I like the chance to dress up, even if it's just wearing my Darth Vader dress from Her Universe. Villains are fine to dress up as; again, I'm just not into the gory or, let's say, frightfully evil costumes. And this year I am seriously considering posing as a twelve year old and going trick or treating (I'm short, so this could work more easily than I'd really like to admit). We all know I love the candy. Then I like to decorate, with Fall things like pumpkins and with black, white, and silver things like skulls, skeletons, vultures, and maybe spiders. Once the weather starts to cool off and the days start getting dark so early, I feel like I need to start decorating for something. So Halloween has kind of turned into my transitional holiday: it's the transition into Fall and the transition into decorating, starting with light and barely visible additions in neutral colors (no orange for me).

And I guess that's about it. Nice and simple and straightforward; that's how my Halloween is. What's yours?

Albert's Candy: Gothic Chocolate Rose

I realize that, while I bought this chocolate rose on Halloween, it is now more than halfway through November. It's Turkey Time, with Christmas just around the corner; Halloween is now nothing more than a passing fancy. But I did want to put this rose down in the records, even if I'm a little late with it.

It's from Albert's Candy, a name which does not sound at all familiar to me. It's a single black stem with one chocolate rose wrapped in black foil. It's called a Gothic Chocolate Rose, and it comes with a place for To/From so that, I suppose, you can give it as a gift like a real rose. The clear sleeve that carries the label acts like the sleeve that would carry a rose--in fact, it's a nice effect, which is why I picked it up to begin with. I had thought that I might carry it around, a single black rose, during the evening. But I was busy eating candy and people-watching and going out to dinner and all that sort of thing, so the rose remained lonely. 

I've mentioned that I was out of town Halloween weekend, so I had half expected this rose to not survive the return journey very well. I was mistaken. Undamaged it remains, and might I add that it is fairly well molded for a casual candy novelty. The 18 ounce rose is lovely, perhaps even lovelier than a real long stem rose (I prefer freshly picked, full blooms--the long stem kind have always looked fake to me). And you know what's also so nice about this small rose? You can enjoy it for the novelty without being left with a large amount of cheap chocolate. Eighteen ounces is small enough that you probably won't get sick of it before you're done. Maybe this sounds silly, but I am entirely in earnest.

It's also true, though, that this chocolate isn't the worst in the world--especially when it comes to novelty chocolate. Sometimes there's too much focus on the play and not enough on the taste. This chocolate isn't loaded with grease and even has some slight berry notes to go with the usual caramel/vanilla flavor. The rose is, of course, hollow--wouldn't want to be breaking teeth. Once it's gone, you're left with nothing but a black stem, but you know what? This chocolate rose was fun.

Clever Candy: Halloween Milk Chocolate

I wish I were going to get a free bag full of candy tomorrow . . . in costume, I could probably pass for under twelve, anyway, right? I should do that sometime, pretend I'm eleven and go trick-or-treating. Since, however, acting half my age is not in my plan for tomorrow, I have to get my own candy. One bar of chocolate that has come into my ownership is this milk chocolate from Clever Candy, distributed by Nassau Candy.

While the paper wrapper is standard Halloween fare, I'm pausing over the tagline at the bottom: "Milk chocolate to share with your dark side." On Chocablog, we used to talk about the Dark Side in reference to (usually very dark) dark chocolate. So maybe that's why it sounds odd to me to talk about the dark side in reference to milk chocolate. But I think what the line is supposed to mean is that it's sweet chocolate to bring out your good side and banish away the bad/dark side. A cute-style approach to Halloween.

The chocolate is a lovely bar of ten smooth squares. While the vanilla is artificial (why? why?), there aren't any added oils and such. It's perhaps less melty and greasy than Hershey's, but fairly akin in flavor. Those sweet caramel notes are there, but maybe accompanied by a little more of a nutty flavor than you get with Hershey's. 

Yes, it's still sweet and it's still candy before chocolate, but it's okay. It's okay as my version of Halloween candy since no one is going to be giving away a free bagful to me.

Halloween Candy Selection

Last week, I investigated the more middle-range Dead Sea Salt Chocolate bar; today I bring the Halloween telescope back down to the candy level. I managed to find three candies with a specific Halloween twist--not including a bag of, I believe, Hershey's kisses, that I decided not to get (at least for now). In green, purple, red, and orange, the candies don't really give off a traditional Halloween vibe. Just squint and you won't even be able to tell that's the holiday they're celebrating.

Let's begin with the Starburst Candy Corn. I don't favor candy corn much. I just like to have a couple pieces a year, and I have already taken those from a store's candy bowl. So I was more interested in the bags of flavored candy corn this year. Starburst seemed a less traditional enough combination that I might like it. There are four flavors/colors: strawberry, orange, lemon, and cherry. While the candies are slightly moister and softer than regular candy corns, they do taste much like Starbursts. Because the "material" of Starbursts has been too much for me these days, I enjoyed having their flavor in a different format. For a fruity twist on the classic candy corn, I think these work. 

Now on to the chocolate candies. As candy bars go, I like Milky Ways. Here we have minis in Caramel Apple flavor. The cashier assured me that I wouldn't want to give them out to trick-or-treaters (I wasn't planning to, anyway) because they taste so good. And you know what? I see what she meant. This is still a candy, with the same chocolate, the same nougat, and the same caramel we're used to. But the added flavoring gives it a more sophisticated feel. Instead, however, of calling if Caramel Apple, I'm tempted to call if Spiced Apple. All of the warm, holiday spices really take over the other flavors so that I don't necessarily think of caramel while I'm eating. But I suppose Caramel Apple sounds more Halloween than Spiced Apple; Spiced Apple could be a nice Thanksgiving offering. This makes one more candy I'm essentially pleased with. 

While Cadbury Cream Eggs are an essential part of Easter for many people, I don't get them very often. I also figured out this year that I prefer the chocolate variety: the chocolate cream is less sweetly sticky than the regular kind. I've never had Scream Eggs before, and I'm uncertain whether or not I find the concept on the cute or gross side. That green color isn't exactly the most appetizing. 

I have managed, just for you, to take a picture of this egg's inside without making a complete mess. While it is, naturally, not nearly so perfect as the picture on the box, the swirl of green is intriguing. The box also assures everyone that, while the creme is green, it has the same taste as always. And that's really all I need to say. If you've had a creme egg, you know how sticky and gooey and sweet they are without tasting like anything but creamy sugar and very sweet chocolate. Honestly, I'm still not won over . . . but I like that there is some sort of twist, anyway. It would be better, though, if Cadbury also added a flavor in addition to the green. 

Considering that these are among the best Halloween specific candy offerings available at the average store, the selection really isn't great. But considering what else is on hand (bags of regular KitKats and Smarties), I'm glad that at least Candy Corn, Starburst, Mars, and Cadbury have done something different. 

Skunks and Lobsters, Oh My!

Some people dress up for Halloween, going trick-or-treating or to parties; some stay at home and do nothing; and some get too creative. I'm normally in the middle category, letting the strange holiday pass me by, but this year, my parents bought a couple of costumes and since I was staying this weekend with them . . . Here is what happened:

Three dogs in costumes, myself in "accented" clothing (including glittery eyelashes, which stayed on despite it being a hugely windy day), at the square in Prescott, after a pet costume contest. Yes, there were about 25-30 four-legged contestants. Here are our two vampires meeting another one, who also happened to be the winner.

This tiny thing was Superman; he was incredibly cute.

People really know what's best for their dogs, don't they? This little round pumpkin looked completely himself.

And the little diva here seemed pleased with herself (by the way, hers is actually a girl's costume).

A skunk and a ladybug.

Don't forget the bumblebee.

This guy was harder to understand at first. Once you saw that he was a shark, though, he was fun.

So prim, isn't she?

I took a few pictures of these two because I was trying to get the best angle on their costumes; I never really succeeded. One is the now-classic hot dog; the other is carrying the headless horseman.

An interesting event. Overall, though, it was a good example of pet ownership. Most dogs didn't have headgear, but those that did seemed comfortable with it. None of them were scratching or biting at their costumes. (Like our own lobster Molly: her costume had a hood, but we left it down because it just didn't work for her. It completed the costume, sure, but that's not a big enough reason). There was a brief bark-off when everyone first stepped into the middle, but after that, there was good behavior even with so many dogs in such close proximity. They all knew they're loved . . .