I came across a package of Candicraft edible ink and paper at my local Dollar Tree. It was the last one (that I could find, at least), so of course I had to snatch it up. I didn’t expect it to taste great, but it looked like it would be lots of fun.
The Candicraft website is a little psychedelic and rather spazzy. My favorite part is the voice that goes “a-MAY-zing” when you mouse over the logo in the top left corner, and make sure to check out the commercial. Their child actors are quite talented, as they managed to take bites of the candy paper without making faces.
The paper looks and feels like thick rice paper (according to the ingredients, it’s mostly potato starch) and smells faintly sweet and fruity. It tastes kind of like cardboard but with a faint SweetTart undertone.
My candy pen was lemon flavored (it also comes in apple, strawberry, and blueberry). The ink reminded me of the oozy lemon curd part of a lemon meringue pie. It had the same gel-like consistency and tasted pretty nice too – bright and lemony without being too sweet. When eaten along with the paper, it managed to mask the cardboard taste.
The paper is all about novelty, not taste, but the ink was surprisingly good. The pens would be nice for cupcake or cookie decorating. It would be fun to buy these for a kid’s birthday party. They’d probably be especially impressed by the edible paper, and once the novelty wears off, the pens can be used to decorate treats as a party activity.
An O for the gel, though the paper is a —.
Varsha