Cedrinca Sicilia Citrus Candies

These candies come to us from the Italian confectioner, Cedrinca, who makes the espresso candies Candybowl recently featured.

The package, roughly translated, says "candies filled with natural citrus juice." The ingredients are all-natural (if you count glucose syrup as natural), and include both fruit pulp and 20% juice. They come in three flavors: tangerine, lemon, and orange.

Candybowl tried the tangerine candy. The shell is very nice, with subtle but well defined citrus notes. It is scallloped, like the espresso candy, but not as rough on the tongue.

Chewing revealed a marmalade-like center, with citrus notes as well as odd notes that, while pleasant, do not immediately suggest natural citrus flavor. If anyone can place them, please feel free to comment.

A very nice candy, and the all-natural credentials seal the deal.

Kasugai Cabernet Sauvignon Candy

Another candy from Kasugai, with a hardness somewhere in between the gummies and the milk candy. Not halfway in-between, however, for how can one be halfway between 1 and infinity?

The appearance is very nice; a striated candy shell reminiscent of the preserved plum, wrapped around a barely-visible gummy center.

Flavor notes? Wild Irish Rose, or MD 50/50. But without the hangover or blackouts. Seriously. For those who do not know the delights of the 'Rose, the shell has a nice natural grape flavor, not at all artificial. The center has some artificial grape notes, but this does not detract.

The outside crushes nicely, leaving an acceptable amount of residue on the tooth. And then the chewing begins. And continues. The center is not a gummy, so much as a gum candy -- like a Rowntree blackcurrant fruit pastille. So you'll have to work out your jaws a bit.

Of the soft center, a denizen of the candybowl remarked "A bit of a choking hazard. Only for ages 6+" One might question why a wine-flavored candy would need warnings aimed at children, but it seems sensible -- after all, candy cigarettes were sometimes consumed by children, too.

Once again, Kasugai has proven themselves as a reliable source of candy delight. Not soaring as high as Kanro, but producing consistently nice candies. Well worth a try.

Kasugai Milkland Candy

This milk candy comes from Kasugai, the folks who fill our world with gummies. But comparisons end there. Not only is this candy not soft, it's unbreakable. So don't be misled.

The package is absolutely adorable. Not that silly-cuteness that can sometimes afflict Japanese stuff, but just cute. Happy cows (or perhaps bulls -- no visible udders, and a red ring through the nose) standing in an idealized field of trees near a windmill and a farmhouse.

So it was quite a surprise to find the candy rough-hewn and misshapen. Perhaps as ugly a candy as has graced the pages of this blog since that Jolly Rancher incident. Yet this is no Jolly Rancher, my friends.

The candy, for all its ugliness, is smooth and slippery on the tongue. Milk and cream notes cascade and even seem to intensify as the candy is sucked. None of the play-doh flavor that can afflict milk candies. Mmm....

Candybowl thinks he has jaws so strong they could chew through the spine of a small animal (thankfully, this exigency has not arisen). Yet biting into this milk candy proved impossible. At one point -- or was it just a dream -- a small chip broke off, but then the fracture healed over and it was bulletproof again. Don't eat one unless you have 15 minutes or so.

Putting it all together, the hardness may provide a clue to understanding the ugliness. Perhaps Kasugai lacks tools hard enough to polish this candy once it is formed.

Altogether, a nice effort. Come for the adorable cows, stay for ... well, for as long as it takes to dissolve deliciously in your mouth.

Life Saver Mints

Readers and denizens of the Candybowl would be forgiven for thinking that it tries to be a kind of elitist feed trough, and that nothing ordinary could possibly be good enough. So it may come as a surprise that Candybowl has always had a soft spot for the humble Life Saver mint.

Although it does not claim to be "curiously strong." this is no timid mint. It is just sweet enough, and it gives off a good flavor and mentholation without burning the tongue.

After a while, the flavor gets a little cloying, and the surface gets a bit furry-feeling on the tongue. So the candy simply begs to be chewed. And it's good. It fractures easily, and while it breaks down into a bit of a paste (trying to avoid using the word gritty....) it doesn't gum up at all on the tooth.

In short, nice from start to finish.

Don't bother looking in the Candybowl for these; this is a guest candy. Four doors down.

Kishiri C Lemon Candy

The Japanese can be a tad obsessive about vitamin C. Head into 7-Eleven or Lawsons and you might find dozens of soft drinks, gum, and candy containing the stuff. So it should come as no surprise that the Candybowl came across another novel Japanese Vitamin C candy.

This treat comes to us from the candy superheroes at Kanro. Although the packages say VC3000, this candy is neither a mouth-puckering 3-gram lump of ascorbic acid, nor a harbinger of Vietnam's tri-millenial plan for world domination. Instead, it refers to the total quantity of vitamin C, in milligrams, in the entire bag of candies.

Each morsel is comprised of two layers. The outer ring is lemon candy, a simple boiled sweet. The center (labeled "Kishiri C Candy" -- anyone?) is a bit more chalky and has a slight medicinal flavor.

The initial taste impression is sweet lemon, followed by a flavor reminiscent of Halls lozenges. It's a very suckable candy, and Candybowl really didn't want to bite into it. But duty calls. The boiled sweet breaks away first, leaving little residue. The center is not so easy on the teeth. Meessage to readers: suck it!

One more good thing about this candy; no high fructose corn syrup. It's mainly millet jelly and palatinose, with some xylitol and lemon juice mixed in for good measure. And some herb extract, which may account for the medicinal flavor.

Kanro has done it again. Candybowl is unsurprised, but deeply impressed.

Cedrinca Caffe' Espresso

Denizens of the Candybowl know that Japanese and Korean candies have tended to dominate the selection. So it's a pleasure to say that the bowl now includes several candies from Italy, of which this is one.

The first thing you'll notice is that this candy is huge. As big as the oafish Hirano candies (like Flower's Kiss). It also has a nice, sculpted exterior, which is at odds with the rough feeling on the tongue.

The initial taste is almost imperceptable. So mild that Candybowl is at a loss for words to describe the flavor. It's as if the candy makers at Cedrinco needed to cut some flavor from the candy shell to make budget.

When you bite, you will see where the food chemists spent their flavor lira. Each morsel is filled with coffee paste -- not a liqueur, not a gummy, but a thick and slightly gritty paste. The coffee flavor is earthy like real espresso. The shell is delicate, leaving little residue.

Don't be put off by the comments about mouth feel -- this candy may be a bit unrefined but it certainly is delicious. Overall, a nice candy, and worth a try while they last.