Vakkotaur

On a recent trip I stopped at a place on Hwy 169 that's only open seasonally, for when the apples and pumpkins are ripe, that also carries other items. They have various 'Dutch Licorice' including the infamous double salt kind that leaves you exhaling ammonia, eucalyptus drops (imagine a gum drop that tastes like a throat lozenge), and also many others including Walnetto.

I had only heard of Walnetto before, and then only on the versions of Laugh-In aired or re-aired in the 1980s. If you don't recall the skits, the elderly Tyrone would often offer the frumpy Gladys a Walnetto and get swatted with her purse for it.

I got some to find out just what it was. Little squares of fudge loaded with chopped walnuts seems to describe it. The only problem I've had with it might just be a handling issue. Getting the paper wrapper off of the candy can be a trick as there always seems to be a bit still sticking to the candy. Other than that, they're quite good.

This past weekend I bought some Dutch licorice candies. I've sampled three packets so far. Two are quite good. One... well, I'll get to that.

First, some background. I like licorice (or else why would I have bought any?). I munch on licorice Altoids, so it's not just a mild thing. I can deal with licorice at Altoids strength.

But this is no mere licorice, no siree! This is "Double Salt Licorice" which I expected to be a bit weird just from being salty. I can deal with weird. But this... this is not merely weird. This stuff has gone past weird and into diabolical.

I was not prepared for the sheer intensity of the salt. Enough salt that it seems to knock the licorice (which is no slouch in flavor intensity) into the background.

Ah, but it didn't stop there. This stuff is made not with sodium chloride (table salt), not with potassium chloride (so-called lite salt), not even with calcium chloride (road salt) but with... ready? ... ammonium chloride. And evidently quite a lot of it. It's salty stuff, yep.

Wait, there's more! Now as I munch on this gel of hyper-salty licorice alleged candy I discover two unpleasant things which conspire to make things worse than either alone might have been. First, the gel candy sticks to teeth much like napalm sticks to skin. Gum drops have nothing on this stuff. And second, the ammonium chloride seems to dissociate and react. How do I know? I know because the sticky gel bonding to my teeth begins to reek of ammonia!

This is candy?! Is this given to kids? If so, I suspect it's to make them swear off candy. I am not about to eat any more of this stuff. Anyone having trouble with a candy thief? This stuff will give them pause. And might get you accused of trying to poison them.

I saw some Reese's "1 gram Sugar carb" peanut butter cups at work and decided to try them. I also got the regular kind for comparison.

The ingredients lists are interesting. The regular kind starts off with milk chocolate while the "1 gram" kind starts off with peanuts. I think the wall of the regular kind is thicker than the wall of the "1 gram" so there may be more peanut butter filling. The "1 gram" also uses a couple artificial sweeteners, sucralose and acesulfame potassium. Oddly, while being more artificial, it seems to be more like actual peanut butter. It's still not what you'd spread on toast but it does stick to the roof of the mouth some.

( ingredients )

The nutritional label shows that the "1 gram" has less of almost everything except for dietary fiber and "sugar alcohols." I'm not going to copy the nutritional labels, but the "1 gram" is 160 calories (110 fat) while the regular is 230 calories (120 fat).

It's certainly best to avoid both the regular version and the "1 carb" but if you don't have problems with what's in the "1 carb" (I prefer to avoid artificial sweeteners, myself) then it seems to be a little less bad for you than the regular version.

Sometime during his recent trip, jmaynard bought a Violet Crumble bar or two. When he mentioned this on IRC it got a few positive responses and I was curious as to what this strange and unique thing was. I knew there were no violets or violet flavor or violet color (save perhaps for the wrapper color) involved. Well, he brought a bar home with him. And this noon I sampled it.

Guess what? I've had it before! Only it wasn't in a fancy violet wrapper, nor as regularly shaped, nor known by that name. See, for years and years and years the family would have this Christmas candy, around - wouldn't you know it - Christmastime. It was a somewhat crystalline thing, like a solidified froth of tiny bubbles, coated in chocolate. The pieces were irregularly shaped, like a batch had been made, and shattered, then the resulting pieces coated. These would be in a container made of thin plastic, or more often, on a foam tray and covered in a plastic wrap and sold by weight, like hamburger.

Jay was surprised by the name I used. And when I asked at work, I got mixed results. Those from Minnesota, if they knew of the candy at all, simply called it "Christmas candy." Those from Wisconsin knew the name I had always heard it called, "Angel food." One guy did recall he had seen the stuff, labelled as angel food, for sale at one of the stores in town around Christmastime, so it isn't purely a Wisconsin thing.

To me, that is what angel food is. If you say "angel food," I'll think of the candy. If you want me to think of cake, you'd best say it's "angel food cake" to avoid confusion. Violet Crumble is good, but it's not the unique thing that was implied. Not to me, anyway. I suppose a Violet Crumble is more consistent than angel food, which can have considerable variation in density, but that's all it is: angel food candy. Here's a recipe for the stuff. Or just google for "angel food candy," not cake.

I think I'll have to make a point of getting some angel food around Christmastime this year.