ZOMG, Candy!

I’m home in Texas for the holidays and taking a reviewing break until the new year. I’ll have a few more news posts to close out the year, and I’ll be back with reviews in 2012.

Hope your holidays are sweet and joyful!

Via Lifehacker, a Wired piece by Jonah Lehrer that explains why sugar makes you tired. I swear I do get sugar rushes after extensive candy tasting sessions though…

By the way, I have a brain crush on Jonah Lehrer. If you don’t have the time/patience to read through his pop science books, How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist, you can occasionally find him on RadioLab (which I love even more!). When I have to quit the candy blogging business, I may try my hand at pop neuroscience blogging instead. The key, though, is that I have to first master real neuroscience…

For me, Etsy is a black hole of internet shopping. It’s so easy to get lost in the endless parade of homemade goodies. (By the way, there’s a website called Heartsy that sells discounted vouchers for Etsy shops. It has led me to many great Etsy purchases.)

A few months ago, I discovered some amazing soap makers at a crafts fair in Rochester. The make vegan soaps that resemble foods and sell them online at their Etsy store (name N quite SFW).

The soaps were incredibly realistic in person and also look great online. There are lots of candy soaps - Swedish fish, Twizzlers, and lollipops – that look good enough to eat.  Very pretty! But maybe not safe to keep around hungry kiddos or candy bloggers.

Did you ever wear and eat candy necklaces or bracelets as a kid? I remember them leaving little artificial coloring stains on my wrists and neck when they got wet from my saliva.

If you miss the look but not the candy itself, there are cutely playful ceramic versions. I think I’ve outgrown the look myself, but I wouldn’t say no to the diamond version…

Photo from KanDi World website.

Via my friend Neil, a prettily photographed NY Times T Magazine piece about a new chocolate factory in Bali. The neat twist? The factory is built almost entirely out of bamboo!

The shots where you can see the building’s architecture makes me think of Noah’s ark. Now if only discarded cacao seed shells could be useful for building things too…

Gap Kids new holiday line is “I want candy” themed. Shrug. At least it comes with a cute music video with cute kids bopping around a candy store. Via AdFreak.

This winter, consider making your holiday extra sweet and patriotic with some red, white, and blue candy canes from True Blue Candy Canes. They’ll let decorate and satisfy your sweet tooth while giving back.

25% of their profits will be donated to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation, a charity that helps kids who’ve lost a parent in the Marine Corps pursue higher education. It sounds like a great cause!

Photo from True Blue Candy Canes

Chow’s got their annual holiday gift guide up again. This year’s set is less candy centric; just a mention of Madecasse chocolate bars and nut brittles.

I’m taking the week off from reviewing and enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday. I hope you enjoy yours too!

Adorable and autumnal hard candies above courtesy of Public Displays of Confection‘s Thanksgiving Mix.

Via my friend Davis comes this fun idea for a science experiment from Scientific American. It can teach your kids (or you!) about the power of evaporation by using some water to keep a chocolate bar cool, and you get to eat your results.

The experiment is especially perfect for this time of year, as you need two identical bars in their wrappers. I hope you’ve still got some leftover fun-sized bars from trick or treating! If you’ve eaten them all by now, you may have a future as a candy blogger yourself.