Dave's Sweet Tooth Toffee

One of my favorite candies is toffee. It's just sooooo good. So when the folks at Dave's Sweet Tooth asked me if I wanted samples, I said "heck no."

No, I'm kidding. Of course I said yes.

This stuff is really good.

The toffee was the perfect texture. Crisp and crunchy, but not so hard that you feel like you're going to crack a tooth. And the flavors were nice.

I'll be honest. I was a tad skeptical about the pumpkin spice, but I was very happy munching on it. The warm spices work well with the chocolate and sweetness. Nothing to complain about here.

But ... I think my favorites were the traditional milk and dark chocolate, along with the coffee toffee. Or maybe I just like saying coffee toffee. Coffeeeee tofffffeeee.

You can order these either in plastic jars or in bags that sort of look like jars. I think I like the bags better. The jars seem sturdier at first glance, but the toffee moved around in the jar and smudged the inside, so it wasn't particularly pretty. The same thing probably happened inside the packages, but you couldn't see it.

Then again, if you need some plastic jars for storage, they could be a pretty good option.

Oh, and these aren't all the flavors. So go check 'em out. Great stocking stuffers. Or stuffers for people who are stuffing stockings.

I got these at no cost to me from Dave's Sweet Tooth.

Treatsie

There are all kinds of box subscriptions these days. Treatsie is one that was recently sent to me. Unlike the boxes that have cooking ingredients, this one is all about, well, treats.

There were bakery treats, candies, and nuts.

The first thing I tried was a caramel apple whoopie pie from a bakery called Cuit. They also sent a raspberry crumble. There was a note that said that that the Cuit items were freshly made and should be eaten soon.

That was easy. I liked the whoopie pie better than the crumble, but I wouldn't turn either one down.

The little packets were single pieces of candy from chuao. One was caramel apple chocolate and the other was a crunchy chocolate with cinnamon. They were both good and a nice size for a little snack.

And last was a cute little bag of candied pecans. Sweet, salty, crunchy, yum.

It's a nice little box. Not so much that you'd struggle to eat them all before another box showed up, and a pretty diverse selection.

Who's it for: People who want to try different sorts of snacks.

Pros: Snacks!

Cons: Probably not great for people who have favorites they buy all the time.

Wishes: I would have liked more of the chuao chocolates.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

Building Bricks and Figures Ice Silicone Molds

I've been accumulating a little collection of silicone molds for candy, ice, and other moldable things, so I was more than happy to test trays that made building-brick shaped products and odd little people.

Or maybe they're robots. I'm really not sure.

They've got all the usual properties of silicone - temperature range that makes them fine for freezer, oven, and dishwasher. They're pretty much nonstick. And they're flexible.

I tried them with ice. I always need ice. And then I remembered that plain white ice doesn't photograph all that well, so I filled the trays with brewed coffee and used some milk to add some accents here and there.

They worked just fine, except for a few where I poured too fast and ended up with bubbles in the pegs of the building blocks. But let's face it - they're just ice cubes. I wasn't planning on building anything with them. And now I know better.

Folks with kids who like Legos will love these. I doubt kids will be all that impressed with coffee-flavored ice cubes, but of course you could use them for candy or for baking small treats.

Who's it for: Whimsically-minded folks. Or people with kids.

Pros: Made from silicone.

Cons: For some uses, it might be hard to get the product unmolded, because the "pegs" are small. It might take some practice to get it right.

Wishes: Hmmm. None I can think of.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.

Little Secrets

Clockwise, from top:
plain milk chocolate, dark chocolate peanut butter, plain dark chocolate,
and dark chocolate raspberry

I love it when local food-related companies find me. The most recent one was Little Secrets, a candy company. They make candy-coated little chocolates that should look somewhat familiar to you.

But unlike products from ginormous companies, this candy company is focusing on things like using Fair Trade, non-GMO and natural products.

One item that a lot of people object to in food products is the use of food colorings. The candies are colored, but they use natural ingredients. Here's a quote from their website:

We use turmeric to make yellow, beet juice for red, spirulina for blue, pumpkin, carrot, and radish for orange, and red cabbage juice for purple. We realize that sounds like an intense drink at a juice bar, but we promise our candy doesn’t taste like a farmer’s market.

Yup, I've tasted all four flavors (dark chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate raspberry, and dark chocolate peanut butter) and I didn't taste a farmer's market. Not vegetal at all. But it is nice chocolate.

I have to say that the peanut butter is my favorite, maybe because I like nuts with chocolate. But I wouldn't turn down any of them.

Another clue that these are produced by a small company is that they're not all the same size. The filled candies - peanut butter and raspberry - are significantly larger than the plain milk chocolate and dark chocolate. If you dump them in a bowl together, it makes it easier to see which are stuffed, and which are plain chocolate.

They're also not perfectly shaped, which I find appealing. I'm also totally amused by the mythical beings depicted on the bags. I love when a company has a sense of humor.

The candies come in larger bags, like the ones above, for sharing, and also smaller bags for not-sharing. Although the big ones are fine for hoarding, too.

Who's it for: Candy lovers who want to avoid dyes and ... stuff.

Pros: Yum. They're really good.

Cons: Yum. These could be dangerous to have around.

Wishes: An endless supply would be nice.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for the purpose of a review.