Since licorice is one of my favorite varieties of candies I’m always looking to try new kinds and brands. Licorice isn’t very popular in the USA, so it’s somewhat tricky to find a good selection. That’s why import stores have become a to-go to place, since they often the only stores where I can get my fix. This tube of VanSlooten’s Flowers & Butterflies licorice was a recent find from Cost Plus World Market, which is a store that has yet to disappoint me with their licorice selection. So far my experience has taught me that Dutch and German licorice brands are my favorites, so I was very excited about finding these since they’re Dutch.

I like the packaging. It allows for you to have some licorice and save the rest for later a lot more easily than the bag styles. Especially since certain types of licorice can go stale. These licorice candies are all covered in pretty sanded sugar, so they don’t look so intense and black like some licorice can appear. The tube smells rich and herbal, which is an aroma I love and usually is a good sign for the candy.

The shapes of these licorices are pretty cute! The light colored ones are all butterflies, and all the flowers are black. I noticed two different molds for the butterflies, or it maybe have been how the one style has been squished and shaped in the can.

Butterflies: Same as a type of licorice called “Groitten” which are licorice sugar cubes. The flavor is nice and mild and a strong flavor of molasses with a subtle edge of salt. the texture is soft and chewy and has a nice give to it.

Daisy Flower: Much chewier in texture than the others. The flavor is sweet and very mildly of licorice. Like the butterfly, it has a strong flavor of molasses, but it doesn’t have the salty kick to it. Very tasty, I’m a fan!

Sunflower: The texture here is also pretty chewy, the flavor is similar to the daisy with strong molasses notes to it and mild licorice taste.

Tulip: This one is my favorite. The texture is chewy and you immediately get a wonderful strong, sweet licorice flavor. It’s herbal, it’s sweet, and it’s just wonderful.

I really loved this collection of licorice. Each piece varies in flavor slightly so if you’re in the mood for one type you can just pick out that specific flavor. I really liked the whole selection and feel it’s a solid assortment. It was easily gone in a week. A must for any licorice lover.

Rating: Will Buy Again

Everyone has their preferences with candy, and that’s the beauty of it all. I have preferences just like everyone else, but I also enjoy trying everything because I’m a big foodie like that. One candy that’s always in my stash are gummis. Both my boyfriend and I are big fans of gummi candies, so we’re always looking for new kinds and well as keeping the classic favorites around. When I saw these VanSlooten Sun & Fun gummis, I was interested since I’ve never seen anything like these before.

The come in a convenient tube with a removable top. The package design is simple, yet eye-catching. The photos of the gummis are pretty spot on in representing the candies on the inside, so it’s not a sad surprise when you do go about opening the package. The top was a little hard to remove at first, but once I practiced it a few times I had it down. The package smells fruity and sweet, but not of any particular fruit.

Green: Hard to lay my finger on this place. It isn’t lime or watermelon, but it has juicy fruity notes and a pleasant flavor. My best guess is it’s apple.

Beige/Brown (Cola): Sweet with spicy notes to it, like a good cola should. It reminds me more of Pepsi than Coke, as the spice flavor is more predominant.

Red: Sweet and floral, and surprisingly mild. Not really sure what this one is supposed to be. I get soapy notes every so often. Whatever it is I’m not quite sold on it.

Orange: Orange, but more like an orange cola flavor. It has some strange spicy/bitter notes to it that remind me of some orange candies I taste around Halloween.

Green/Maroon: This one is sweet and tasty. Has notes of “red” and berries. I think it’s trying to be strawberry or cherry, but the taste is so nondescript that I cannot place my finger on it.

These proved to be interesting all right. The flavors seemed kinda benign and muddled, but that didn’t stop me from eating them after the tasting. I shared them with my friends, like I do all my candies, and they liked these too. One especially with smitten with their dense, chewy texture. When I really sit down and think about it, I finally touched on what these remind me of: wine gums. Regardless, if you’re a gummi fan, these are a fun variety to try!

Rating: Might Eat Again

We return to the Tappsy licorice! Like the original Tappsy that I reviewed earlier, these are licorice candy pieces that are shaped like panda faces. The difference is that these are the milk chocolate version.

In terms of the candy’s appearance itself, there really isn’t anything different from the original Tappsy except the white foam but are not colored like hot chocolate; a milky brown hue. They have the same alternating panda face variations, both of which looks a little less cool because last I checked, panda’s aren’t brown. Ok, maybe these are muddy pandas. I can live with that.

The flavor is of a mild black licorice, and of hot cocoa for the foam bits. The flavor combination of licorice and chocolate can be strange if not done well, but these do it excellently. It’s really good. I can elaborate more on the foam’s texture since I didn’t last week; it’s light and chewy and dissolves nicely in the mouth. Yum!

Just like the original Tappsy, I’d recommend any licorice fans to give this one a try. It’s very original, tasty, and fun!

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links Katjes Website

I am always amazed on how many different varieties of licorice that exist out there. Living in the United States, you really don’t see that many, as it’s not a popular candy here, for reasons I don’t quite understand. Walk into any store that imports candy from Europe and you start to get an idea of how extremely popular and diverse a candy it really is. These Tappsy licorice candies are not only different from other varieties I’ve had before, they’re also more creative. I’ve seen licorice in animal shapes before, fish and cats come right to mind. But panda faces? Really? This is certainly new territory.

So what are these Panda faces made of? Well, aside from the accents of black licorice to define the features, the white part is a soft, gummi “foam”. It’s chewy, yet not very dense. It reminds me of the “cream” part in many gummies you find here in the USA, like the white part of those blue gummi sharks you see everywhere.

The flavor is really nice, and not as delicate as I imagined. Depending on the piece you got, as there were pieces that had the base of black licorice accented with the white foam, and others visa versa. The white foam is lightly sweet and is a little marshmallow-y in flavor, a light vanilla flavor accented by a starchiness. The licorice is lovely with delicate herbal notes and a wonderful rich molasses base to it. They two parts blend beautifully and I found myself very tempted to keep eating these one after another.

I definitely recommend these if you love black licorice and you are looking for something new. I was wonderfully surprised with these! Yay, pandas are yummy!

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links Katjes Website

I heard about these mysterious Milka “Scoop Easter Eggs” in places all over the internet. Usually I’d hear them mentioned, and praised, in areas where Cadbury Cream Eggs were being discussed. The idea of a cream filled chocolate eggs was extremely tempting, so I started to extensively search to find these nameless scoop eggs that fondly existed in people’s childhood Easter memories. My hard work eventually paid off as I located these Ei Eggs made by Milka (I know Ei is “egg” in Dutch) and I knew immediately that I had found what all the fuss was about. I put an order in and waited patiently for my treat to arrive on my doorstep.

First of all, I was impressed by the packaging. They really went all out. The eggs come in a pack of four, in a beautiful bright purple egg carton. How cool! You flip the top open to find the eggs and a set of two plastic spoons to eat them with. Are they suggesting that at share? I hope not!

This one’s interactivity I found really interesting. It looks like a large Cadbury Cream Egg (CCE from now on) that you “crack” open and eat the white looking insides with a spoon. So cute! Once unwrapped from the foil, the egg’s surface is smooth, except for 1/4 way up the top where there’s a zig zag crack pattern showing were you are supposed to open the egg. The packages’ picture directions who you whacking it open with the dinky plastic spoon that is included, but I decided lightly squeezing the egg to get it to cleave was a better method.

Eating the broken off top shell gave me a chance to taste the chocolate: it’s sweet, has a really nice milkiness to it that has a slight tang to it. I’d say Cadbury chocolate is milkier and I do get notes of the chocolate and some caramel in there too. I was impressed with the chocolate’s taste, since I really was expecting it just to be creamy and sweet tasting like most mass produced milk chocolates are.

Now, for those white cream insides. Taking my first scoop, I realized the insides were more light and fluffy as opposed to the CCE’s dense and gooey center. This is more whipped and airy. The flavor is that of white chocolate: it’s creamy, a little chocolatey, very sweet and I even get notes of malt and vanilla. Overall, a stellar white chocolate flavor. It has that very slick mouth feel from all the cocoa butter and vegetable oils. This was cute to eat too as it was oddly satisfying to eat with the little spoon. That also slowed down my eating process so it took me a bit to finish and I could go slowly and really enjoy it.

I love these, since the interactivity of eating it is not only fun, but unique was well. Not to mention they’re really delicious! The only thing I would warn against is you may find this overly sweet if you are sensitive to that sort of thing and if CCE’s are not too your liking for the same reason. If you see them, I highly recommend you picking some up.

Rating: Hoard

Links Milka Website