ZOMG, Candy!

Yesterday, I reviewed Mars’s new Milky Way Simply Caramel bar. Today, I’ll give 2 readers a chance to try it out for themselves!

Mars/Milky Way has given me 2 “Simply Caramel Relax and Enjoy” prize packs to give away to ZOMG, Candy! readers. Each prize pack will include a $75 gift certificate to SpaFinder.com for a yoga class or massage and “Enough Simply Caramel Bars to indulge in for a month (5).”

I thought it was amusing that Milky Way considered 5 candy bars to be a month’s supply. On the one hand, 1 bar a week is a healthy, reasonable indulgence, and 5 chocolate bars/person is a generous gift. On the other hand, don’t they want people buying and eating more than that?

So, to enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment about how many full-sized candy bars you would consider to be a month’s supply. Be sure to leave a real email address (seen and used only by me to contact the winners). Deadline for entry is Sunday, August 15 at 9pm EST. I’ll randomly select 2 commenters to win. Good luck!

This NY Times Food Stuff blurb about Toffee + Pretzels + Beer is reminiscent of The Kitchn’s recipe for Ale and Pretzel Caramels. The former is probably more expensive, but you don’t have to worry about ruining your pans!

I’ve tried, reviewed, and even given away Mars’s new Pretzel M&M’s. In case you wanted a second opinion, you can read about the Onion’s A.V. Club’s take on them in a Taste Test.

That same entry features chocolate-covered ramen. Yum? You’ll have to read them to find out.

When I recapped Serious Eats’s write-ups of this year’s Sweets and Snacks Expo, I didn’t realize that the Onion’s A.V. Club also got to go. Check out their recap here. It features video footage!

Edit: Oops! Not actually about Trader Joe’s… Embarrassing mis-reading on my part. Thanks to Jay for the catch!

Here’s a NY Times piece about how one man is buying up a huge swath of the world’s chocolate market. I sure hope he doesn’t single-handedly screw up the world’s chocolate economy!

I’m nearly a month late in posting this – maybe I should try to be more like Kit Kat’s marketing team. Via Ad Freak, an ad that Kit Kat displayed within hours of the end of Isner and Mahut’s record-setting, epically long Wimbledon match.

Via Serious Eats, 4 ways to cool down this summer, all of which involve chocolate. Yum! Now I’ve got fudgesicle cravings.

Random aside: The above photo is of a Japanese chocolate from a mixed bag that my friend Michael gave me ages ago. Not exactly summery, but fun!

Taza Chocolate, one of my favorite artisan chocolate makers, just got badly hit by a flash flood (note: video plays automatically).

From an email they just sent out/their blog:

“Around 3pm, Taza’s Director of Manufacturing (i.e. Head Chocolate Making Guy), Mike Schechter, thought maybe he’d pop by our newly renovated, first floor chocolate factory for a quick look, just to be safe. He arrived to find Windsor St. more river than roadway. And once inside, he found water pouring unchecked into the factory via a breach in our building’s front exterior wall, and bubbling up from the drains in the floor. The new chocolate production facility, where we’d turned out our first batch of Mexicanos just last week, was already sitting in an unwelcome lake several inches deep, and the water was still coming.”

After much hard work, Taza employees cleaned the place up and are now faced with the task of rebuilding their ruined cubicles and destroyed drywall. They also have to shut down production for at least a week.

Note: below photo is from a Taza factory tour I took a year ago, pre-flood damage.

I feel so bad from them! They were incredibly nice to me when I visited, and they’re clearly crazy passionate about what they do, and it shows in the quality of their chocolate and the care that they put into it. For a small, artisanal company, a set-back like this must be tough.

One bright note: their already made chocolate supply is still dry and totally tasty. If you’ve been putting off trying their goods, or if you’ve gotten to taste and know their deliciousness already, now’s a great time to buy their chocolate goodies. They could really use the cash flow help as they’re dealing with the double whammy of losing production time and financing repairs.

Via AdFreak, here are three bizarre Cadbury Boost commercials. Chocolate makes for a bad roommate, dontcha know?

Via The Kitchn blog, here’s a creative and intriguing recipe for Ale and Pretzel Soft Caramels. I’m too afraid of scorching all of my roommate’s pots to attempt homemade caramels, but maybe some of y’all have more chutzpah?