Adventures in Advent: Advent 2024, Day 3

Yesterday I looked at one of the largest Advent calendars on the market. Today, I'm looking at 2 which boast being the smallest  Advent calendars ever made. 

First up is from the UK on a website called Allbranded. They sell what they call 'The World's Smallest (Advent) Calendar'. About the size of a credit card, it's essentially a blister pack of 24 individually wrapped candies. On the flat side, there's an image of 2 leaping reindeer with numbers 1-24 randomly printed on the image. Each day, you find the corresponding number, pop open the wrapper and enjoy a single flavor of candy, randomly inserted. Once again, there's no prize for making it to day 25. But for an MSRP of £1.28 per Advent, it way cheaper than the Lindt calendar found in European Costcos. 

Oh, did I forget to mention that you have to buy these in bundles of 1000? That's right! It'll cost you a minimum £1280.00 for an order.

Another contender for the tiniest Advent calendar in the world is from a company called In a Matchbox. They pride themselves in making extremely small gifts that fit inside a standard matchbox in hopes of reducing the cost of shipping on the buyer. Their 'The World's Smallest Advent Calendar in a Matchbox' contains 24 magic door decorations for a Christmas tree. The fun behind these cardboard ornaments are to guess which beloved fairy tale and holiday character is being represented on the front. Open the door to each character's home and a short poem provides another clue to the mystery character.

Small golden ribbons are included so you can make a loop on which to hang on your tree, this Advent sells for $20 and offers free shipping on all UK orders.

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 25

 

We did it. Made it to another Christmas.

I finish my 2023 Advent devoted to my favorite holiday candies with the granddaddy of them all- the Candy Cane!

The origin of the candy cane has more theories than the Kennedy assassination. Were they from Germany in the 1670s? Or did some guy in Indiana make them to represent the Shepherd crook? Or was it the candy maker in Georgia who made them to represent the J in Jesus, adding 3 tiny red stripes to represent the Trinity? There's probably a dozen more variations to the story. All I know is that I freaking love them.

I'm not a fan of mint. And before you say that Candy Canes are mint flavored, it's not the same. Mint like in girl scout cookies or mint chip ice cream has a sugary flavor on par with mouthwash. Peppermint is this fiery sweet on par with a mild hot sauce; of which I am not only an expert on, but addicted to as well!

Regular 4 inch Candy Canes are good. But I prefer the tiny 1.5 inch variety. The texture of the candy is more like the peppermint puffs (see Advent Day X). Plus, with the small canes, you can break off a piece and save the rest in the small plastic pouch for later whereas with the regular size, all you have is this straw sized wrapper that really can't get the candy cane from getting yucky in your pocket.

My Christmas tree was decked out in not just lights and ornaments but candy canes as well.  Being a devotee of Mr. Willy Wonka, I appreciate a decoration you can eat. Sure, there are a myriad of other flavors of Candy Cane, and some are pretty good. But nothing beats that original peppermint flavor.

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 24

Today's featured candy is one that has more fond memories for my wife, than it does me. However, I honor it because it's a treat that both of us used to get as kids from Santa. The candy I am talking about are the Life Savers Story Books.

First debuting in 1935, kids could get a book filled with 12 rolls. Instead of each roll being a variety pack, each package was devoted to a single flavor. The 12 original flavors were 'Pep-o-mint, Spear-o-mint, Butterscotch, Orange, Lemon, Wild Cherry, Wint-o-green, Clove, Stik-o-Pep, Butter Rum, Crist-o-mint, and Five Flavor.' Okay, so you got 1 variety pack. I was wrong.

Over time, shrinkflation took hold as it always does. As Mars discontinued flavors, the story book got smaller. Over time, the number of rolls shrunk from 12 to 10 to 8. Currently kids get only 6 rolls in a book; all 5 flavor variety packs.

The package for the life savers has always opened as a book. Half of the flavors were in a plastic sleeve on the left, mirrored with more rolls of Life Savers on the right. I'm old enough to remember the 10 count books looking like this. However in the 80s, the count shrunk to when you opened the book, all the rolls would be on the right side of the book. The interior left page was now a poem or letter from Santa.  

These days, the plastic display window has shrunk as there's no reason to highlight 6 rolls of the same variety. A hole has been cut into the cover to show of the product. The story now splits between the inside top left and top right with the to/from tag printed on the very top of the book. Not a fan of the hard candy variety? Mars now makes a Life Saver Story Book gummies edition. The inside of that book is full of fun and games activities.

Both my bride and I would find one of these in our stockings. Being born a few years apart and from completely different backgrounds, we don't often have similar touchstones when it comes to things we got from Santa as a kid. But the Life Savers Book is one of those things we can both say we got from St. Nick. I'm sure if she longs for any of the original lineup to return. I know that I miss the Butter Rum flavor something fierce. There's actually an online petition asking for some, if not all of the original flavors to return in a special anniversary story book. It might be fun to get one to try some of those vintage flavors like Clove and Crist-O-Mint (what the frick is that?) If it did become available, I know my wife would want one. But I'm not sharing the Butter Rum. Okay... She can have 1!

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 23

As you have probably figured out, I love peanut butter. I've already highlighted two candies that utilize it as well as a third candy that contains peanuts. Well for today's Advent, I am going to pay homage to the candy that started me on a lifelong obsession with peanut butter candy. It's the Peanut Butter Kringles made by Palmer.

Kringles are these round chocolate balls filled with an uber-smooth peanut butter. Wrapped in gold, red or most commonly green foil, Kringles are supposed to represent the jingle bells found on Santa's sleigh.

The Palmer Candy Company has been around since 1948. If you must have a chocolate bunny for Easter, chances are you bought one made by Palmer. The company is known more for its style than substance. Palmer makes tons of eye-catching treats like krispie filled eyeballs for Halloween, foil wrapped chocolate hearts with G-rated suggestive sayings along with scores of colorful Christmas treats.

I don't mean to slight Palmer. But I consider Palmer's products to be what families struggling to get by have for the holidays and the company's ingredients prove this. Compare Palmer's chocolate with Hershey's chocolate. For both ingredient #1 is sugar. However with Hershey's ingredient #2 is milk whereas Palmer's loads their chocolate up with palm oil. 

Now palm and palm kernel oil is great for getting chocolate to hold it's shape. This is why Reese's trees come out looking like turds and yet a Palmer Easter Rabbit will never melt in the box at room temperature. So if you are looking for candies with great visual appeal, Palmer is who you need to work with.

As for saying that poor people buy Palmers, I take great pride in that statement. Until about age 9, I got Palmer Kringles as well as other amazing treats made by them every Christmas, Easter and Halloween. My dad couldn't hold a steady job. So my mom, who was a nurse, did her best utilizing discount stores like K-Mart and Roses which sold Palmer products.

Once my dad got a regular job, we moved into a house, bought more extravagant things. Over time, Palmer's Kringles were replaced by Reese's. And though I think Reese's peanut butter is one of the most perfect ingredients ever crafted, I still remember Kringles and it's sister products quite fondly. Heck, sometimes I find myself missing that distinctive tang of a Palmer's Kringle. It might not have been the top shelf chocolate but it was the chocolate I cut my teeth on and I thank the workers at Palmer for their products.

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 22

I've already mentioned the importance of Hickory Farms products during the holidays. Along with the Melty Mints, there's another candy that is synonymous with my Christmas time snacking and that's Strawberry Bon Bons.

In every Hickory Farms gift set, you would have several of these tiny red hard candies decorating the empty space. Each bon bon was wrapped in this red and green wrap that when twisted on the top, they looked like tiny strawberries. The red part of the wrapper was even decorated with these yellow dots to represent the seeds on the berry.

While made of hardened sugar, the middle was soft, containing a dollop of strawberry filling. You basically had 2 options with this candy - suck on them until you reach the center or you pull a maneuver like that owl in the Tootsie Roll Pop commercials and after a few seconds in your mouth, you just crunch into it.

Many of us grew up with grandparents who had a small bowl of these candies floating around the house during the holidays. With this history, the assumption could be made that Strawberry Bon Bons debuted sometime in the 1950s or 60s. However, researchers have found references to this candy dating back to the mid 1800s in France of all places. A food blogger found a recipe from 1861 mentioning these sweets as 'French Style' drop candies. No mention of when companies started wrapping them to look like strawberries. However, most agree that Hickory Farms was the ones who made that the definitive way to package them as dozens of confectioners have since followed suit.

I didn't realize this, but Swiss Colony includes Strawberry
Bon Bons with their gift sets too!

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 21

A lot of the candies I grew up with during the holidays were the results of family tradition. Today's featured candy is no exception to that rule. I'm talking about Jellied Fruit Slices. It was a treasured treat that my dad and his brothers would gift my grandpa each Christmas. Being diabetic, he could only have like 1 piece a day. Generally every Christmas, my curiosity over my grandfather's gift allowed me to sample a piece of this tart and sugary delight.

Jellied Fruit Slices are a mix of corn syrup, sugar, neon bright food dye and citric acid and natural flavors. Also called Boston Fruit Slices after the now long defunct Boston Fruit Company, famed for introducing the banana to the United States, these treats look like an actual slice of fruit. Each slice had a soft jellied center, a harder layer that duplicated the peel and a creamy pith section that acted as glue to the two gel segments.

Fruit Slices used to only come in 4 flavors. Orange, lime and lemon as well as cherry, which really didn't seem to fit with the citrus theme. A fifth flavor was added in the 1990s, the pink and yellow grapefruit, which took the place of lime as my favorite piece. Then about 20 years ago, new flavors were added to the mix: watermelon, pineapple, coconut, pear, pomegranate and a couple others were made available in both box sets and individual slices for sale by the pound. While many of these flavors are pretty good, they don't hold a candle to the original lineup up- grapefruit included.

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 19

Today's candy returns to the realm of hard candy; although it's actually really crunchy and can easily melt in your mouth. I'm talking about the Peppermint Puffs from Red Bird.

The candy is made right here in my backyard. Crafted by the Piedmont Candy Company of Lexington, NC for over 130 years. About the size of 2 peppermint starlights placed atop each other, the consistency of a puff is meringue-like. Think of those pastel mini mints you used to be able to get for free from a bowl placed near the restaurant cash register before COVID changed all that.

The recipe is simple: 100% cane sugar in liquid form, pure peppermint oil and a touch of red food color for the stripes on the peppermint. Handcrafted. Uniquely formed. It's a product where the quality shines throughout each and every piece.

Red Bird has in the past made a varietal of the puffs called a peppermint stick. It's about 3-4 inches in length and has about the same consistency. The only difference is that the diameter of the sticks is about a third of that of the puffs. When I went to Red Bird's website to research for today's post, I got a little scared because I couldn't find the sticks anywhere. Then I remembered that the Candy Factory in Lexington carries the entire line of Red Bird products, because the Reid family that owns Piedmont Candy Company, used to own the shop located in the downtown district. A quick search there and I breathed a sigh of relief. Whew! They still make them and along with several other flavors that I didn't even knew existed! (There's even an Easter mix!!!)

Red Birds are a candy I remember from the days of visiting Middlesex with my Grandmama. Only I didn't have to budget for peppermint puffs because my Grandmama always stocked up on peppermint puffs for the whole family to enjoy. Even today, I will become a tiny bit greedy and grab a couple extra for myself when presented with them. They're a classic candy that's still as freaking amazing today as they were 30 years ago and they bring back such great memories of family members that I miss so much.

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 18

In 1993 the Hershey Company changed the chocolate and peanut butter holiday game with the introduction of the Reese's Christmas Tree. My stocking was filled with 3 or 4 of these the year they debuted and since it's Christmas morn inception I was hooked.

Reese's Christmas Trees don't taste differently than a Reese's peanut butter cup. However the ratio of chocolate to peanut butter is clearly in the favor of the peanut butter lover. A Reese's cup has solid ridges of chocolate and the top shell is quite dense. With the Reese's Christmas tree (as well as the Halloween pumpkins), there's an even coating of softer chocolate covering a mass of gritty rich peanut butter. No thick chunks of milk chocolate here folks. And for someone who loves their Reese's frozen, it's much easier on the teeth.

There's been a bit of a controversy with the Reese's Christmas Trees. In years passed, customers have complained about the shape of the tree in years past with reports that it looks more scatological in nature than a lush evergreen. Reese's has admitted to the previous design flaws . But really I've not noticed any sort of change that made these candies look more like a Frasier fir. I really don't care how it looks. As long as there's more peanut butter than chocolate, I will continue to devour Reese's trees for my annual holiday eats!

Oh, and another thing! Don't try to pass off a white chocolate Christmas tree on me. They're just as poor a substitute as that hideous white artificial tree my mom used to have and they should both be condemned as crimes against Christmas!

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 17

 Today's post brings back some fond memories of a small town Christmas. My Grandmama was born in a town in Eastern North Carolina called Middlesex. It was such a small, out of the way place that in the 1980s and 90s, it seemed like the rest of the world had passed it by. 

Middlesex's only grocery store was an IGA that still used the original signage and displays from when it opened in the 1950s. The local pharmacy carried generic comic books from publishers I had never heard of as well as wrestling mags promoting superstars I'd never seen on TV before. The video store carried Betamax videos in a world that had gone VHS. As for the general store, it had a wooden plank floor that could have doubled as dirt with all the dried red clay carried in from the boots of generations of farmers. 

Side view of that old General Store with a modern mural added.

The owners of these small businesses might not have had a lot. Yet their efforts to decorate for the holidays were more impactful to me than any CEO's mansion on Madison Avenue. Anemic gold garland and unraveling red satin balls hung from the ceiling of each small store. Dime store decorations of plastic reindeer with ballerina-like legs lined the service counters. The bank had faux wrapped presents underneath an even less realistic artificial tree lined with a strand of the tiniest colored lights ever crafted. Only 5 of the lights ever blinked. And then there was my favorite store in Middlesex: the general store.

Just like every other shop in Middlesex, the general store was owned by a distant relative of my grandmama's. I think he was a cousin of her's. Only the windows of the general store were decorated for Christmas. Fake snow edged each corner. The latest sleds, a teddy bear or two and a plastic Santa Claus head were the only indications that December 25th was soon approaching. But it was the display case that drew my attention for our annual pre-Christmas visit to Middlesex. After visiting her mother at her childhood home and then her sister who worked at the bank, my Grandmama took me over to the general store for there amazing assortment of penny candy.

Dozens of old fashioned candies filled the glass display case next to the register. I've already talked about the ribbon candy I would foolish buy, thinking it tasted a whole lot better than it looked (in case you missed that post, it didn't.) A couple other things I like to buy will appear in future postings. Of those candies, one of my all-time favs were the Chocolate Covered Peanuts. And these peanuts weren't just covered with a thin layer of confection, these things were double-dipped! Each peanut was lightly dusted with salt. That saline tang was the perfect contrast with that rich milk chocolate. 

Despite being called penny candy, everything behind the candy counter at the Middlesex General Store was 99 cents a pound. Each year, I was allowed to buy a dollar's worth of candy. I usually got a quarter pound the ribbon candy, a quarter pound of other hard candy and 4 bits worth of chocolate covered peanuts. All filled in a single brown paper bag. Being family, the owner of the store always gave me a little bit extra with the chocolate covered peanuts. 

Going from Middlesex back to Raleigh, NC seemed to take forever. Especially back then when a lot of those time-saving highways had yet to be paved. I would make a huge dent in my inventory of chocolate covered peanuts. Oddly enough, I always had enough ribbon candy to choke a horse. I see that question about if you could tell yourself as a kid one thing, I think my advice would be to 'Skip the ribbon candy. Stock up on chocolate covered peanuts!'

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 16

The focus of today's Advent is a candy that I looked forward to because of it's unique flavor profile. Made from a blend of chocolate and carob, these candies bear a distinctive malt flavor which I absolutely love. I'm talking about Sixlets.

Created in 1960 by the highly underrated Leaf company, these candy shell coated treats have many theories as to their name. Some think it's because of the 6 colors that the candy originally came in: red, green, yellow, orange, brown and blue. They must have discontinued blue because A) I don't remember it and B) current photos on the Internet only have the first 5 colors in the assortment. Others believe that it's because they were originally sold in a 6 pack cellophane tube in vending machines; a half dozen for only a penny.

The way I received Sixlets as a kid was inside of a plastic tube in the shape of a candy cane. Many a Christmas morning, I found one of those Sixlets candy canes hanging from our tree. I also would get on filled with M&Ms. But I preferred the Sixlets. I never really knew why until I was researching candies for this Advent. I love a chocolate malted and based on what I learned about the Sixlet blend of chocolate and carob, which is a dark brown bean pod with  molasses overtones, from the Mediterranean, it all makes sense know why I like the Sixlets candy canes versus the M&M variety.

These days, Sixlets candy canes are filled with a Christmas mix of red, green and white. In my youth, the canes were filled with the autumn looking colors. If you were to offer my the holiday mix, I'd eat them. I'd probably even enjoy them. But no matter how you presented it to me, if just wouldn't be the same.

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 15

For Today's Advent, even though you might have been nice all this year, you're all getting coal. One of the things I always got a kick out of was finding coal in my stocking. And I got coal in many different ways. 

The first coal candy I remember getting was this block of hard licorice candy. It came in a tiny bucket like my grandparents would use to bring firewood in with, as well as dumping the ash with. The candy also came with a tiny hammer. Kids got to take their aggression out on this hunk of rock with the hammer, which was actually made of metal, before breaking the coal into bite sized pieces that ended up turning your tongue blue instead of black! This stuff should have come with protective eye-wear because if you gave the candy a hard enough whack, it's send shards of it shooting in every direction!

The next sugary treat based on coal that I remember as a kid was the Coal Mine Naughty Nugget Bubble Gum. It came in a tiny red sack that looked just like Santa's. On the bag was a cartoon image of Santa dressed as a miner. Inside were these teeny tiny little bits of jet black little pebbles of candy coated gum. Made by ESPEEZ, the company website says that the flavor of the gum is 'fruity'. I'll have to take their word for it as I can't recall what they tasted like. But I do recall being a fan. The only drawback was that in order to make a decent sized bubble with the gum, you had to put the entire pack of coal in your mouth. That's because half of each piece of coal was the sugar coating that dissolved. A great novelty but not sufficient for those of us who loved to blow bubbles with our food.

The third coal candy I recall having as a kid are Palmers Double Crisp Coal. These pieces of coal were actually little lumps of chocolate wrapped in pure black foil. The filling contained a goodly amount of crisped rice. Instead of a burlap sack, you would get a small red net plastic bag containing about a dozen pieces.

While in the 80s getting coal candy for Christmas was a novelty, nowadays, it's almost become universal. Zots, Sour Patch Kids, Tic Tacs and dozens of independent confectioners produce some sort of candy for naughty boys and girls--- of all ages! Even Archie McPhee made a coal candy cane. Though I'd be careful of those as they probably tasted like soot. 

The good thing about the 3 coal candies I remember getting as gag gifts from Santa is that all 3 are still being made to this day. And yes- they were gags gifts as I've never gotten an actual lump of bituminous coal rock from Santa or anyone else for that matter! It's strictly the edible variety for me!

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 14

There are these creatures in Doctor Who, called the Silence, where if you stop looking at them, you forget that they even exist. That's kinda how I feel about today's featured candy. I'm talking about Gum Drop Nougats. 

Gum Drops are the trapezoidal candies that are slightly harder than a gummi bear. They come in flavors of lemon, cherry and lime; often sold as ZOTS. However, during Christmas, companies make a spiced flavor that has components of cinnamon, clove and ginger. These guys are typically red. In the mix are a green variety that is peppermint or spearmint flavored. I like the Christmas mix of gum drops almost as much as I like the regular blend. If not even better. But I love gum drops when they are added to nougat!

I'm not normally a fan of ultra chewy candies. I'm also not really a fan of marshmallow. Yet, if you take that marshmellowy white nougat, chop up some gum drops into them (preferably of the holiday mix variety) and then portion that concoction out into bit sized squares, I cannot resist them. I then hoard a few and eat them over the course of the following January. And then a year or two passes, in which I completely forget gum drop nougats exist until I somehow run into them at a party or in my stocking and BAM! It's a temporary obsession all over again!

It's probably a good thing being a diabetic that I forget about gum drop nougats as they are 100% sugar. But they are so tasty and those vivid colors in a field of pure white is just so intoxicating. You might be asking 'how did I remember these for my Advent?' Thankfully, it's because I ran across them as I was doing my research for this blog. I plan out my Advent and each day's focus weeks in advance. Had I not come across the nougats while doing a Google search for something else, I might have substituted another candy in the place of the gum drop nougats. Selective amnesia or not; that would have been a crime against confections of the holiday sort.

A Hard Candy Christmas: Advent 2023, DAY 13

I am addicted to cherries. But being diabetic, I limit myself to them. Especially the maraschino ones. Yet for today's Advent, I'm going to let myself indulge a little bit as I explore Chocolate Covered Cherries in all there various forms.

According to Wikipedia, those differing types of Triple C's include:

cherry cordials with liquid fillings often including cherry liqueur, as well as chocolate-covered candied cherries and chocolate-covered dried cherries.

Christmas and Valentines seemed to be the only times of year these confections appeared in the homes of my parents and grandparents. Typically, I would get a small pack of chocolate covered cherries. The ones with the tiniest cherry of all time and that creamy pink filling. I HATED THOSE! My adult family members would receive the liqueur filled cordials. Because of the alcohol, I was only allowed 1 to try every year. But they were so good!

I'm going to go a little blue now. But what I am about to reveal is 100% true. My grandmama (on my dad's side) used to do chocolate work every year in anticipation of her annual Christmas Eve party. She'd make chocolate covered cherries by the dozen for those who were coming to the holiday bash. But for her family, including her grand kids, she'd make us Dolly Parton chocolate suckers where each ample bosom was filled with a maraschino cherry! It's definitely a story I should never share with my students. But I apologetically admit that I devoured quite a few of those chocolate cherries on a stick as a child!