Tics Tacs - the Inverse of Kit Kats

...okay, sorry for the folks who thought my last post was TL and so DR. Basically, here's a quick catch up over what happened since September:

• I lost my job
• I caught chicken pox
• I then caught a cold, or flu, or some upper respiratory infection
• thus I spent half of September sick
• and I missed out on the company break-up because I was too contagious to go
  
• (oh, and my sister caught the pox as well, and we both almost died apparently)
• my savings started running out at the end of the month
• so I signed up for unemployment benefits
• two days later, my tax refund arrived, which meant I didn't need to go on the Dole (d'oh!)
• I applied for a few jobs, and had my name put down for something else via my employment agency contact
• two weeks into October, I scored an interview at another service station
• I was the best candidate, and I got the job
• so now, I am employed again! :)
  

Weird how it works out like that, isn't it?
So now, I at least have an income again (yay!), but now I have to start worrying about keeping schedules and missing out on important social gatherings all over again (boo).
Still, it beats being on the Dole.

---

I got an email from my old American penpal the other week; she has a much more exciting blog than mine, not neglected or anything, but she is apparently a semi-regular reader of this one. She asked me if I were still posting anything on this thing, and I explained that I didn't have a lot to share about myself these days...

And then I remembered something; back when we first started writing to each other (which was probably waaay back in '98 or so), we used to send each other different types of confectionery. She would send me delicious Hershey's chocolate bars and Jelly Belly beans straight from the United States, and I would represent humble Australia by sending her yummy Tim Tams and Peppermint Aero bars.

Sadly, this Candy Exchange was thwarted by the change in political temperature brought about by September 11 - the US Government shortly implemented new controls on importing food into the USA, such that every food item brought into the country (whether it be a shipment of beef, a crate of oranges, or just a big crazy-looking box full of sugary crap) required lengthy documentation for each unique item, detailing where each product was made, who made it, how it was packaged, what it was made of, how many were in each pack, how tasty it was, how many the postal inspectors were allowed to sample, etc. etc. etc.

I am sorry to say that, because of my enthusiasm for the project, the registration process was ridiculously daunting, and so I failed to honour my part of the exchange.
...but I DID at least buy the candy, so that counts for something, right?

Anyway, while I was cleaning up my room the other day, I found the parcel I'd assembled a couple of years ago, and it still had some confectionery items in it! Now, I know what you're thinking, and yes, a lot of the stuff in the box was spoiled; chocolate does not keep for much longer than two years (trust me on this - ick).

Before I throw all of this stuff out, I'd like to show you some of the interesting stuff we got to sample over the past couple of years, because it's kinda interesting, you know?

First up, the Kit Kat Chunky bars. In Australia, Nestlé has the license to make Kit Kats, and, along with the regular 4-finger packs, they make these over-sized single-finger bars. As many popular snacks do these days, they sometimes come in seasonal "fun" flavours; though they weren't all available at the same time, I managed to assemble a collection of them (click to see close-up):
Left side: Honeycomb; the regular Chunky; Caramel; Cookies and Cream (these last three are the only ones still currently available).
Right Side: Chocolate Strawberry (special fundraising edition for the Pink Ribbon breast cancer charity, it has a pink strawberry wafer inside); Cookie Dough; Chocolate Overload (every element of the bar is chocolate flavoured!); Toffee Crisp.
Not Pictured: Mint Crisp; Peanut Butter (which I thought tasted foul, nothing like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups); and White Chocolate (because they never released that in a Chunky bar!)
If you're at all interested in seeing some other strangely-flavoured Kit Kat bars, click here and here for the Japanese take on them!

And continuing the colourful candy theme, we move on to Tic Tacs:

Top row: Peppermint; Spearmint; Orange; Extra Strong Mint; Apple Sour.
Bottom Row: Peppermint (in a special box for the Pink Ribbon charity); Passionfruit Mint; Lemon Mint; Mango; Tropical Acerola (which I imagine is some kind of berry?).
The first three flavours were pretty much the only variety of Tic Tac available here until about ten years ago; then they released the Extra Strong, and then the Passionfruit flavoured one (which is... an acquired taste). After that they seemed to go a bit mad with flavours. The most recent variety is Citrus Twist, which isn't included here.

I was fascinated to learn that Tic Tacs had vastly different flavours in the States; thanks to my penpal, I got to sample some Wintergreen flavored Tacs, which I was also surprised to learn were actually green - none of the above flavours have any colouring, aside from the actual box. I understand there is also a Cinnamon flavoured Tic Tac?

Learning about this sort of thing is very interesting, I think - things as simple as the food we eat can be vastly different when you travel even a short distance (like interstate), so I can only guess what someone else in another country would think of our old familiar "lollies"!

Okay, enough of the candy comparison! If anyone out there wants to find out more about the local confec., send me a comment, and I'll see what I can put up! For further recommended reading, have a look at the Candy Blog for more sweeties from around the world!

Back soon! :D
(so, how's that Loretta?)

More Kit Kats from Japan

Okay, catching up from this post:

This was what came out of the second parcel from my friend in Japan. More weird parallel-universe-y flavours of everyone's favourite chocolate wafer stick biscuit*!

My friend was kind enough to attach labels to the packets to explain which one was which flavour; unfortuantely, they've all since fallen off. So, I had to do some puzzling out as to which flavour was which:

1. Apple Carrot flavour! Tastes exactly as it sounds! And not entirely bad at that, despite any misgivings you'd have about a savoury flavour in a confection.
2. Soybean Rice Cake?!? This one didn't taste that much different from a regular Chocolate Kit Kat. The flavour must have been too subtle for my tastebuds.
3. Cherry. A nice sweet flavour with a pink chocolate coating. There was some contest mentioned on the outer; I'm guessing this was released as a promo for some rock band, or something? :/
4. Plum Soda. As in, a plum-flavoured soft drink. Convincing and pleasant enough, even though I've never even heard of a plum-flavoured soft drink before I tried this chocolate bar flavoured like one.
5. Mango Pudding. Num num! Me likey!
6. These blue ones were flavoured to taste like something called Ramune Soda. No, I don't know what a "ramune" is. But the bar tasted like a 7-up, so I'm guessing it must be plain soda-flavour? (edit: Oh, I KNOW WHAT THIS IS!!! Ramune is a brand of soft drink that is popular in Japan, and the bottles are sealed with a marble embedded in the neck, like all soda bottles were before screw caps became popular. There are some Asian shops in Australia that sell them, and I've tried them before. They are very nice!)

Clicking this will lead you to the Wikipedia article about Kit Kats, and it includes a list of all the flavours of Kit Kat released over the world. Later, I'll include a photo of all some of the flavours we've had in Australia, for comparision. Aaand, here's what was in the first parcel Nova sent me back at the start of the year! Bon appetite!

* Unless you of course prefer something other than a Kit Kat. Your mileage may vary.

Another Parcel Received

A quick note, while I'm here:

Nova, I received your package with gratitude! I will post a photo of the yummy contents as soon as we've tried them all. (No, this post is not about drugs.)

Regards,
Neb

PS. What on earth happened to your blog?!

Mmm... Candy...

Only popping in to say two things:

1. My job will improve once we get the new register system up and running properly. OHMYGOD we had some really big problems this week -
   
   but, this blog is not the place for those sorts of things. I have to draw the line somewhere, after all...
   
   
2. I am really liking this: CandyBlog , though I can't for the life of me imagine why... drooool
   I really shouldn't be looking at confectionery I'll probably never be able to try, but it's just soooo gooood... And you can tell that the owner of the blog really enjoys their work.
   

That's all. Oh, and hello to my Ma if she's still tuning in. I haven't forgotten when your Birthday is, either. Grin.

Happy Easter to All!

I hope everyone who visits this blog managed to have a cool Easter long weekend! I had to work, but hey, someone had to...
And, let's just say that there were a lot of people caught short when they discovered that we were the only place open for the public holidays. By Monday evening we were out of bread, milk, and small change. Eeep.
Seriously, though...Easter was fine, and everyone got nice chocolatey things. Ma gave me a block of Kiwi-fruit-flavoured chocolate! A weird combination, but it's not as surreal as those Kit Kats I tried a few months ago.
Seeyas!

...and Hello!

An explanation for the previous post is overdue...
and here it is! Along with some extra news:

1. For those of you who did not get the hidden message in the last post, Please Read It Again. Admittedly, I posted it a few days late. But no, I have not decided to suddenly get a life and quit blogging. Yep, there will be more mundane postings to come!
   
2. Things are crazy at work at the moment. We are in the process of changing our cash registers to a new touch-screen interface. So far, only one site has made the upgrade, and they have been having LOADS of issues with it. Like f'rinstance, when they installed the central control unit - the first time they tried it out, it worked perfectly. But when they tried to install it permanently, it threw sparks, and caused about 80% of the petrol pumps to blow their circuits! YIKES.
3. The other thing that worries me about the new system is that, although I am experienced enough to know how this one will work (because it's very similar to the old system we had when I started working here) I am worried that all of the new staff who have arrived in the meantime will look at this thing and PANIC because they have no idea what to do! I can see myself becoming very busy over the next few months...
4. Well, I guess I know that I'm wanted. I'm a wanted man! Look out!
5. Other stuff. We had another earth tremor about a week after the last one I mentioned, but I was outside sitting on the ground at the time and didn't feel a thing. Apparently it affected the same area it struck last time, and of course everyone in the City was freaked out by it, as if they were the only ones who felt it, but never mind.
6. Last week, I was serving a customer when I heard this strange creaking sound coming from one of the aisles. I look up, and sure enough, tiles were starting to bulge up and crack out of the floor! O_O Very strange stuff. It took about an hour for the damage to stop, and at the end, we had about a 2 metre long run of cracked and shattered tiles. Why did they do this? I'm not 100% sure, but I think it may have been all of the rain we've suddenly been getting. (Most of the town is built on clay, and it's been a long dry summer. A day's worth of rain ought to make all the clay swell up, and then, things start moving about...)
7. Easter is coming, and I've done all the shopping I need to do. Now I just have to visit everyone and give out all the gifts and things I've been holding on to for too long... I still have Chrsitmas gifts to give out, for crying out loud! slack slack slack
8. Aaaand... Krys and Andrew are in a play together, involving nudity. Well, imitation nudity - I've been told that the "nude" cast will actually be wearing modesty garments and those flesh-coloured lycra things that give the appearance of nudeness, so it won't be a total shock when I invite my polite 50-ish friend to come along with us to see it. :D
   

That's about it. And no, I haven't got a Twitter account yet. ;P

What's in This Box?

This is the box that Nova presented to me when I met up with her (during the visit mentioned in my previous post). Upon opening it, I found this:

Yummy! Kit Kats from oriental shores! Delicious! Admittedly they'd melted a bit before we had a chance to get them, thanks to the extreme warm days we've been having, but still, tasty nonetheless.

With most of these, the flavour component is within the wafer part, not just the chocolate. Here's the list of which flavour is which, and an explanation of how each tastes as we've tried them:

1. Sweet Potato! - actually, this one didn't taste strange at all, rather it tasted just like the White Chocolate ones we have over here. Though we did detect a slightly salty aftertaste.
   
2. Muscat Grape! - WOW. This one so far has had the most dramatic effect on out tastebuds. It really DOES taste like grapes. Slightly eyew.
   
3. Bite size Fruity flavour! These have a decidedly banana-esque taste, or perhaps it was tutti-fruity. But they were little wafer pieces about 1cm square! Yum!
   
4. Bean flavour?! Nova wasn't 100% sure, but I did some research, and it's just Red Bean flavoured white chocolate. I'm not sure why it has a Japanese fan on the front, though. I think the flavour of this one is a little subtle for my palate, as I couldn't detect anything different from the plain White Chocolate variety.
   
5. Mixed Berry - a blend of strawberry, blueberry and cranberry. The big surprise was that the sticks had white and pink stripes!!! Very tasty!
   
6. Blueberry Cheesecake - nice! The wafer had the berry flavour, and the chocolate was the cheesy part!
   
7. I think this one is Caramel Pudding flavour. It tasted sorta pudding-y but not really caramel-y. (maybe because it had degraded in the heat?) Nice, though!
   

It's interesting to see how adventurous the Japanese are with their treats. I used to think that Peanut Butter and Cookies 'n' Creme were pretty "out-there" for a Kit Kat, but I've really been put in my place!
What's more, these aren't even the most exotic flavours they have. You can also buy Kiwi Fruit and Cantaloupe flavoured Kit Kats... hint to Nova for when she goes back

I wonder if it would be possible to get some imported over here...?

Shameless Chupa Chups Promotion!!!

Speaking of Chupa Chups (and I was, but the way this blog is arranged makes the chronology a bit confusing)...
The place where I work has a huge display of these things standing quietly in the corner. I say huge, because it can hold 1,000 of the lollipops at once (assuming my calculations are correct, I'll check this up).
I spent a little while restocking it last night. It doesn't get much custom, because the smaller one on the counter is more prominent, but it is definitely a sight to behold. Just seeing this column of confectionery does something odd to the senses.

Anyway, that was what prompted me to mention the whole Salvador Dalí thing (check next post), so I've decided to dedicate some space to the humble lollipops. You can check out the Flash site and the corporate website for more info if you like (I suggest checking out the FAQs page under the "Brands" tab along the top. Note FAQ number four!)

Random Chupa Chups facts

• Chupa Chups come from Spain! Olé!
  
• The name means "Lick a Chups". They were originally just called "Chups" but a radio jingle led children to believe that the "chup a" part of the song was actually part of the name... and it kind of stuck.
  
• The Spanish pronunciation is "Choopa Choops". We pronounce it as "Chuppa Chupps".
  
• They have been around for 50 years! Happy birthday!
• The company also makes Melody Pops, which we were never allowed to have as kids because they were way too noisy... ;(
  
• Did I mention that Salvador Dalí helped to design the logo? (It's changed a bit since then, of course, but the daisy outline was his idea, as was the placement of the logo bang smack on the top of the lolly.)
• You can buy miniature Chupa Chups decorations for your mobile phones! They're not edible, but they look just like a miniature version of the real thing.
• The average price of a single Chupa Chup in Australia is 47 cents. (At least that's how much we charge for them.)
  
• At the place I work, we sell about 19 different flavours, including some special 3-in-1 flavours like Strawberry-Orange-Kiwi.
• If you were to buy all of the Chups on that display I mentioned above, it would cost you $A470.
• My favourite flavour? Lemon Lime, or "Lime Lemon" as it's described on the wrapper.
  

Chocolate

BTW, in case certain US-based friends see this...

I have recently discovered that a local confectionery store has started selling candy bars from the United States. This means that: a) I am now able to buy as many Butterfingers as I like (for $A2 apiece); and b) you guys probably won't have to send me so many chocolate bars from there now.

But please, please, feel free to send me Hershey's stuff. Mmmm, that Hershey's was definitely worth a repeat.

And to my Japan-based friend... you already know what we would like. Pretty please?