Wednesday, March 26, 2008

I Want Candy

I can't eat things that are super sweet. This means that i love RICH desserts. The darker the chocolate, the happier I am. Words to live by, friends. When i eat super sweet stuff, my glands immediately start hyperventilating and go into code red. I feel sick and my eyes get all sweaty. Seriously, they get hot and I have to fan them. I have diagnosed this disease and call it "feeling blah." Many things make me "blah," and i know exactly what they are. Many times, it also has to do with how i'm already feeling--how high my blood sugar is, probably. I went to the doctor once and got a small blood test and asked if i was a little hyperglycemic. He came back and said i was normal. He said if anything, I was a little hypo, but i don't believe that. So congratulations, I have just discovered a new disease. Blah.

Anyway, so i have a hard time with certain candies. And guess what? I love candy. In the old days i used to buy a bag of skittles every day at school. Even now when i look at them i am immediately launched back to the 8th grade. After i got tired of skittles i moved onto gobstoppers. As I got older, i continued to eat milk chocolate, and loved it. Then one day, not too many years ago, I ate a dark chocolate Dove egg and it changed my life forever. I have fine-tuned my mouth to know immediately if there's enough chocolate in something. What others taste and call "chocolate" i know is really "sugary crap" with nary an ounce of chocolate in it. So now I am all dark all the time. I can eat probably 3 times the amount of dark chocolate candies than i can milk. I just ate a tiiiiny tiny bite-sized Snickers which i knew would be a mistake, and it is. I am done with candy for now.

So as i grew up, my love for candy continued but my taste for it had to change, else i was making myself sick. I can't have Skittles anymore, which is a little sad. Starbursts always made me ill and i get "blah" if i'm within 3 feet of one. Aaak, they do a number on my glands. Just thinking about them is making them very nervous. All growing up, I've been a big fan of gummies. Mmmm... love 'em. But, they too make me sick. I've had to deprive myself in recent years and it always saddens me. But, happily, I have found a WONDERFUL alternative, and it is Japanese candy. Oh yes, I am a believer. So far, we are 2 for 2. Behold the Japanese version of Starbursts:




I don't know what they're called or what the ingredients are but I. love. them. They are a million times less sweet but are still sweet to be "candy" and they're so delightfully chewy and not stringy-chewy like Starbursts.

As for gummies, this will probably go down in history as one of my greatest discoveries. I am not joking. Here they are:




These things... I... I have no words. They truly are like fruit in gummy form. And they are INDIVIDUALLY wrapped. Umm.. yeah, the Japanese know how to class it up (and i guess, not help the environment). I will never forget the first time I tasted an individually wrapped grape gummy. It was like i had stumbled into paradise and I wanted to hold the gummy up in front of me and serenade it with "You Fill Up My Senses." I recently discovered the other flavors such as strawberry, kiwi, pineapple, peach, orange, etc. Peach is outstanding, strawberry and kiwi are good, but my heart will always belong to grape. (p.s. there are actual kiwi seeds in the kiwi gummies. Believe it.)

I have strong feelings about candy and chocolate, mostly chocolate. I defy anyone who thinks milk chocolate is better. And usually i'm not one to fight someone on their preferences/tastes but i feel so strongly about this, it is one of my life's missions to help preach the gospel of the better chocolate, to help people see the light. Or dark, as it were.

So. Just wanted to share a couple of my newfound loves. Let me know if you want me to ship you some. I'd be glad to. Stay sweet. (but not too sweet)

3 comments:

Joel said...

I have a hard time with dark chocolate because my sweet tastebuds go on a vacation and the bitter ones start working overtime. I feel like I'm eating earwax or something.

Anthony and Rene said...

OH MY GOSH!!!!! Why haven't you told me this, my WHOLE family and I grew up eating both of these candies. We had them in our house all the time. And now I've gotten Anthony hooked on them, and he's gotten some of his co-workers stuck on them. WE LOOOOOOVVVVEE them. All the flavors are so great (of the starburst type). The apple is one of my favorite and it reminds me of living in Hong Kong, but you need to try all the flavors, the Lychee is the best!!! But seriously all the flavors are great.....oh yeah they are called hy-chew. yes I am so glad you discovered these. And the gummy candies are just called, whatever the fruit, gummy. so this picture says kiwi gummy.
when I was reading this I got so excited I wanted to call you and share the joy!!!!
ps. the Japanese hy-chew are much better then the American made ones, you can tell the difference because the Japanese ones are always in Japanese, and the American ones look the same but the label is written in English. (they are usually really hard)

)en said...

RENE!! Why did I not think to come to you first?? You could have shared your wealth of wisdom (<-- hmm... make sense? maybe not) I'm so happy to meet someone who feels as strongly about them as I do because I seriously LOVE them, soooo very much. I tell everyone about them which is kind of sad, but is it? IS IT??? They rock my world, to and fro. High fives for sharing the love. And i am so glad to know the name of the chews. Hy-chew?? i love it.

p.s. joel, that may be due to the quality of chocolate of which you are partaking, not the quantity. Try some good stuff. Trust me on this. Today i bought dark chocolate-covered cornflakes and they were out of sight.