Rollin' up Graves'.

Short message about Rolos and Graves' Disease.

My previous calc teacher, as you know, kept candy in a drawer for we students, every single day. At one point, I spied this thing that looked like a chocolate, with a golden foil wrapper. It was really sticky, with the caramel inside sticking to my teeth the way benzene sticks together.
Anyway... a few weeks later, at the Hershey store, I realised that they were actually ROLOs. I think that these are significant because I wanted to give one to AP but I ended up chickening out.
Today, I thought of them just because, as usual, I am thinking about food. However, I'm also thinking about not thinking about food, because I actually need to lose 350000 Calories. Okay, maybe not exactly 350000 Calories, but in the past few months, I have gained at least 2 to 3 kgs because my metabolism is slowing down loads, thanks to Graves' Disease. This is a good thing, because it proves that methimazole is working for me, but it sucks for my body since I'm storing everything as glycogen and triglycerides. Tack on a bunch of parties... and plain old exercise doesn't really cut it.
Hmm... at least I know that I can change this. Technically, I'm still of an "average" mass. No such thing as a lost cause. I'm trying to be optimistic.

Hershey's Hugs

There is always a way to turn something into a party. Seriously, in our English class, we had our final project, in which we read a book and explain stuff to the class [yeah, it was vague]. I don't really want to get into the details for every person's presentation, but NC brought in Hershey's Hugs, which I can now add to my "New Chocolate" list [on the sidebar]!

The Hershey's Hugs were extremely pretty, as they were nicely striped. Although the inside was plain ol' chocolate, the outside white chocolate was surprisingly overwhelming. The whole thing had a bite of caramel [though when I checked the ingredients, I found nothing caramel related... so it could've been the taste of white chocolate that confused me. Though, my taste buds honestly felt as though they were tasting a hint of caramel]. As usual, they melted pretty fast. If you had moulded a few of these into a spherical shape, sifted some cocoa powder over it, and offered it to some person on the street, he/she would most likely state that it was a chocolate truffle.

Pot of Poop...

I got duped today.
Well, I didn't. I just was naive enough to eat something without reading the ingredients, because I trusted the company. Hershey's. I TRUSTED them. But I guess I was wrong.
HFCS is the second ingredient. PHO is the third ingredient.
The first ingredient is sugar. DO YOU CALL THAT CHOCOLATE?!?!?!?
... I guess in the U.S. of A they call it "chocolate". Sigh.
So halfway through consuming one, I read the ingredients, and then became extremely biased against them.

So, in order to give a less biased review of these "Pot-of-Gold" candies, I guess I have to revert back to what I was thinking when I took my first few bites. In all honesty, I could not taste any chocolate. None. Zip. Zero. No chocolate taste at all. I could taste a bit of the pecan, though there was no strong aroma or anything... it was in little pieces which added a nice crunch, but it was not chunky. The caramel was the majority of the piece; it was sweet, very gooey... quite nice, I guess. It's... about 48 calories per piece which kinda sucks. Overall... I regret having eaten one. :(

Candy Corn Kisses.

I typed a paragraph and accidentally Ctrl+W. Oh well.

Basically, in early November I went to buy some chocolate/candy because college apps were done, and all those food items' prices were slashed in half. I got these Candy Corn Kisses from Hershey, basically because I like candy corn. Actually, the first time I'd had it it was when AZ was eating them on the bus back from an XC meet, in 2008. Anyway.

The first thing that you think of when I say "Hershey"? Chocolate, right? Nah. You're wrong. Considering that their Kissables candy has no substantial cocoa content in it [in fact, if you called those Kissables "chocolate", then your general unbranded chocolate milk is thus indisputably pure chocolate], I didn't really expect much "chocolate" taste in these. I figured it was just better to get this than get a bag of candy corn which has partially hydrogenated oils, a.k.a. trans-fat.

I know that white chocolate has no cocoa powder [or else how could it naturally be white?], but by looking at the ingredients, I can honestly say that this isn't legitimate chocolate [a mon avis].

Ingredients: Sugar, vegetable oil [cocoa butter, palm, shea, sunflower and/safflower oil], non-fat milk... blah blah...colours, emulsifiers, additives.

So it's basically sugar and fatty acids, but that's what makes it taste, uh, sweet and fatty.

In all honesty, these did not taste like candy corn, unless you whole-heartedly believe that candy corn has one taste, "sweet". Candy corn itself is initally chewy, with this poofiness and gooiness, and then this chalky taste, and has this aftertaste which is extremely sweet.

Candy corn Kisses start off sweet and creamy. Still sweet and creamy. Ends up sweet and creamy. Uh, not really chocolate. Not really candy corn.

But hey, they're pretty.

Note that the second last one that I ate [I ate the last one today.] had two plumes. Mutant! It is twice as long as the typical ones that were in the bag. Come to think of it, maybe 15% of them didn't even have plumes, and about 42% of them had the white part dripping into the orange part. Either way, they were cool to open. I have a lotta pretty wrappers now. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, though. Maybe make some art.

Reese's Mini Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup

I love Calc AB. I love the teacher too, not only because she actually teaches! but also because she has this drawer of candy in the room. Even though teacher's aren't supposed to give candy out to students, she basically said, "If you guys come and take the candy, I wouldn't be actually giving it out." Despite the fact that I don't eat half the stuff she gets [HFCS, PHO], I occasionally happen upon something novel. This time, it was the Reese's [Hershey's] Mini Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup. I immediately liked the wrapper, and proceeded to consume the dark chocolate shell and peanut butter+ sugar interior.
My expectations weren't really high, so I was surprised to find that the dark chocolate actually tasted bittery! It was awesome! I typically like Reese's peanut butter cups... not in love with them, but I do enjoy them once in a while. These, however, are wayyyyyy better. A bit sweet (if it was sugar-less, and with no sugar substitutes, I'd be even happier), but extremely inviting.

Heath Bar and Book Review

Many people have been gnawing on Heath Bars ever since their baby teeth started growing out. I, however, had never heard of such thing until I started working at the Carvel Ice Cream Store. Since the U.S. admires toppings on ice cream, there were little jars of different candies and sprinkles spread across the counter at Carvel.
The manager showed me crushed up Heath bars, and I said, "Heath what?" She let me try some, and it was both familiar and novel, at the exact same time. Of course I'd eaten tons of milk chocolate before, and of course I'd eaten plenty of toffee [but not as much as I wanted]... but the two mixed together with almonds was so crunchy and creamy and satisfying.
Heath started off being an independent company, and I wished it had stayed that way. They got bought by Hershey's, a oligarchy... but at the moment, I don't have any blatant hate against Hershey's, so I'm giving the Heath bar a nice review. When I learn how to make them myself I think this'd change. Plus, when Hershey's decides to use palm kernel oil and flavouring to make these, I'd start burning their logos in effigy (figuratively).

I bought a pack of mini Heath bars this Halloween, and I have one piece left... so much for my Halloween candy lasting a year. I supposed it'd last to mid-February, and then I can go buy more chocolate. Anyway, Heath bars. Are. So. Addictive. Like I said, it's crunchy, but creamy, chewy, sweet, nutty, buttery...
HeatH bars. A.k.a. H eat H bars.
You add an L and you get "Health bars" but seriously, adding an L is like adding a Lie. They are [as The End of Overeating by David Kessler would say] "almonds, toffee, chocolate - fat on sugar on fat on sugar on fat".

As a book review, The End of Overeating is a terrible book. I have read shelves of books, stacks of books about food, and I must say that this one is the second worst book. The worst? A book written by a haughty connoisseur which I think was called Fork Over It or something. That one was worse because the guy was so condescending to we readers. The End of Overeating basically goes through restaurant food and labels each one as "sugar on fat on salt on fat etc. etc. etc." It also stated that overeating causes obesity. Oh really? I never knew. I totally thought that being anorexic causes obesity.

If I had to sum this whole post up in one sentence, it'd be: Eat Heath bars and don't read The End of Overeating.