Candy Dish Blog

Dust off your ballgowns and tuxedos, friends.  The Academy Awards are this weekend.  I hope you have a fabulous viewing party to attend.  Check out the recipe section of our Web site to find some fabulous treats you can share with your fellow viewers.  In honor of the occasion, I thought I would share some of my picks for the top times candy has guest starred in hit movies.

Top Five Candy Moments in Hollywood:

1. E.T. Phone Home 
In 1982, Americans fell in love with a small, brown alien and his favorite candy, Reese’s Pieces. The main human character, Elliott, uses them to lure the loveable extraterrestrial out of hiding.
DID YOU KNOW? When Hershey was approached about participating in the movie, the first idea was to use the Hershey’s Kiss. But, since that was already a well-known brand, some really savvy marketer at Hershey came up with the idea to use Pieces instead. I hope that guy got a big raise.

2. It’s No Big Deal 
A Baby Ruth tossed into a swimming pool creates major havoc when it’s mistaken for something else in Caddyshack. Audiences were disgusted and delighted when Bill Murray’s character discovers it and takes a big bite.
DID YOU KNOW? The Curtiss Candy Company once sponsored a Baby Ruth airplane promotional tour. Before landing at each tour stop, the passenger would drop Baby Ruth candy bars tied to small parachutes to the crowds. Keep your eyes on the sky … you never know what might happen.

3. That’s Easy. Pez.
In Stand by Me, our coming-of-age heroes get their first taste of life and freedom when they set out to find a dead body. Around the campfire one night, Vern says to his friends, “If I could only have one food to eat for the rest of my life? That’s easy. Pez. Cherry-flavored Pez.”
DID YOU KNOW: When the movie came out in 1986, cherry-flavored Pez candies were not available in the U.S. (although they were available in 1959 when the movie took place). They were not re-introduced until around 2006.

4. We Elves Try to Stick the Four Main Food Groups
At 6-foot-3, Will Ferrell may not have had a lot of luck passing as an elf at the North Pole, but his character in Elf, Buddy, definitely embraced the lifestyle – especially concerning food. ”We elves try to stick to the four main food groups,” he says. “Candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.”
DID YOU KNOW? Buddy the Elf went through great lengths to make his way to New York City to eat sugarplums with his dad. He passed through the “seven levels of the Candy Cane Forest, through the sea of swirly gum drops and then … the Lincoln Tunnel.”

5. God, I Wish Had Your Discipline
In Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, the girls prepare to dazzle their former classmates with a fake success story. Romy also prepares by losing weight on her new fat-free diet consisting of nothing but gummi bears, jelly beans and candy corn.
DID YOU KNOW? Gummi bears also feature prominently in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. When Principal Rooney boards the school bus at the end of the movie, one of the kids offers him a gummi bear and says, ”It’s been in my pocket; they’re real warm and soft.” Euw.

There are, of course, many other great moments – The Lollipop Guild from the Wizard of Oz and both Wonka movies, for example.  What’s your favorite?

If you have any of these little guys left over, and I bet you do, you may be wondering what to do with them. Here at Candy Dish Blog, we are hard at work and ready to offer solutions.

1. Use them in crafts. Glue them to earring posts to make conversation heart earrings or use them to decorate a Valentine’s themed picture frame.
2. Make a conversation heart martini. When you perfect a recipe, let us know and we will post it here.
3. Pastel food decoration. Grind them up in the food processor to make pretty candy dust you can sprinkle on cupcakes and other yummy goodies.
4. Send them to Susan. She loves them.
5. Wrap them in plastic and save them for summer. Extra conversation hearts in February? Who cares. Extra conversation hearts in June? Now you are the hit of the barbecue!

What? You already ate all your conversation hearts? I bet you could still find some in the store at a discount. After all, Valentine’s Week is just now ending.

Conversation Hearts by CraftyGoat.

This week our Friday Five comes from our intern Kiki, who is excited about being here, as you can tell, and is working closely with our team that puts on our annual Expo. Please give Kiki a warm welcome.

Since I am one of the few people at the NCA who will be attending the SWEETS & SNACKS EXPO™ for the first time, I have incredibly high hopes for it. When I talk about it with my friends, we are imagining a combined world of Willy Wonka’s factory and the board game Candy Land. They’re all insanely jealous, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to triple check my suitcase for stowaways before I leave.

Anyway, Carl wanted me to write down my top five amazing things I am expecting to see at the Expo. Like I said, I have high hopes, and I will not be talked out of any of these.

1. John Candy. Okay, he’s dead, but I can dream, right?
2. Cotton Candy Trees. Listen, they already look like trees. And what could be more perfect than a walkway of cotton candy trees leading up to McCormick Place? Sometimes you get a sugar craving before you even get into the Expo, so BAM, problem solved.
3. A petting zoo. Filled with life-sized gummi bears, Peeps, sour gummi worms, Sluggles, chocolate Easter bunnies, and gummi sharks. What could be more amazing or cuddly and delicious than candy animals?
4. An obstacle course of the board game Candy Land. To get to the Candy Castle, you have to find/eat your way through the Gingerbread Plum Trees, Peppermint Forest, Licorice Castle, Lollipop Woods, Gumdrop Mountains and so on. Only then will the business deals between buyers, suppliers and exhibitors go through. It may not be practical, but it’s way more entertaining than normal networking.
5. A Chocolate River. Carl has been trying to convince me that this does not exist at the Expo. I know he’s wrong, and I refuse to change my mind—he just never looked hard enough. I am determined to search for the chocolate river while at the Expo, and if Carl would stop making the Oompa-Loompas give him rides around the office I could get them to help me as well. By May 27, I will know the secret location of the chocolate river. Mark my words.

That being said, I am not crazy. I don’t expect any of these things to actually exist (except for the chocolate river, which I am serious about finding).

Click the image to buy the book from Amazon.

This week we’ve been telling you about great candy contests you can enter like the $100,000 giveaway from Black Forest Gummies, $5,000 for a creative idea from Stride gum, and getting Snickers to pay off your mortgage. 

The most famous candy contest of all time, of course, was the one featured in Roald Dahl 1964 classic, Chocolate and the Chocolate Factory.  A series of golden tickets hidden in Wonka bars contained the highly-prized admission to Willy Wonka’s candy factory. I remember reading the book and seeing the movie as a little girl with no clue what my grown up life would be like.  Little girl Susan would be so proud of grown up Susan for working in the candy industry, but disappointed to learn that she still hasn’t found that magic fizzy lifting drink. 

Actually, there are a lot of candies mentioned, especially in the book, that I really wish someone would invent.  With that in mind, here is this week’s top five list.

Top Five Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Candies I Wish Someone Would Invent

1. Three Course Dinner Chewing Gum
I am a huge fan of sugarless gum and love to try all new flavors.  Roast beef would be weird, but I’d give it a go – especially if followed up with blueberry ice cream.  But I do not want to turn into a blueberry like that pesky Violet Beauregarde.  That girl can’t handle her gum. Amateur.

2. Chocolate Bar TV
Let’s say you just settled down to watch the latest episode of Glee or House. You realize you’d really love a taste of your favorite chocolate, but there is none in the house.  What will you do?  Oh, just reach right into the television set and grab one out?  Sounds good!  Also, the next day I’d really like to be able to ride my hovercraft to work.  OK?  Thanks! 

3. Invisible Chocolate for Eating in Class
I can’t remember if this made the movie or not, but it’s definitely in the book.  While I no longer have class (get it?), I can imagine all sorts of times this would come in handy.  Actually mainly just for the times I don’t want to share with anyone. 

4. Rainbow Drops
About these colorful treats Mr. Wonka said, “Suck them and you can spit in six different colors!” I’m not much of a spitter, but if I could do it in six colors I might reconsider.  It’s a neat parlor trick at the very least.  Well, I wouldn’t want to actually spit in the parlor,  but you know what I mean.

5. Toffee Apple Tree
Plant a tree in your backyard and the tree bears candy- or caramel-covered apples? Yes, please.  That would be especially appealing to my friend Jaimie and I’d probably never get her to leave my house.

What candy from the book or movies do you wish someone would actually invent?

Maybe candy-coated pencils? Cavity-filling caramels? Cows that give chocolate milk?  Edible marshmallow pillows? Lickable wallpaper? Stickjaw for talkative parents? The rock candy mine?

The Friday Five is a Top 5 list of just about anything related to candy.  If you have ideas for an upcoming Friday Five, please let us know. 

Recently I told Carl that when I was a little girl, I told my dad I was going to enroll at Mt. Olive College and work my way through school by taste testing pickles.  My dreams were dashed when Dad pointed out that I’d have to taste bread and butter pickles in addition to my beloved dill pickles.  Oh well.

Since coming to work in the food industry, I now know for sure that there are pickle taste tasters in the world.  I know this because I personally know people whose jobs include tasting candy and chocolate.  Seems pretty awesome, right?

Here are, in my opinion, the Top 5 Coolest Jobs to have in a candy plant:

1. Research and Development Scientist
Formulate new or improve existing confectionery products, troubleshoot production problems, ensure compliance with industry and government specifications and regulations.

2. Industrial Engineer
Plan and monitor workplace design, conduct time-, methods- and motion-study analyses to make production as efficient as possible.

3. Electrical Engineer
Design new products, write performance requirements, develop maintenance schedules, test equipment, solve operating problems, estimate time and cost of engineering projects, may include work with robotics.

4. Line Worker
Form candy by hand or, more frequently, operate one of several machines in the candy-making process.

5. Innovation Technologists
Develop new concepts for confectionery products, research market and production trends, test flavors and formulations.

Keep in mind these are jobs within the plant.  All confectionery companies need accountants, marketing folks, sales people and tons of other job specialties to keep the engine running.  Plus, there are jobs in related fields, too – like confectionery buyers for retail stores, brokers, and people who work for the companies that make the equipment or ingredients candy makers use.  Or, you could work for a trade association like Carl who talked his job on Monday, Laura who filled us in on being a candy scientist on Tuesday or me. Only you’ll have to wait a long time because no one wants to leave the candy association!

The Friday Five is a Top 5 list of just about anything related to candy.  If you have ideas for an upcoming Friday Five, please let us know.

We’re starting a new feature this week, the Friday Five.  It’s a Top 5 list of just about anything related to candy.  If you have ideas for an upcoming Friday Five, please let us know.

You may have noticed we’ve been talking about television and candy this week.  That’s in preparation for this weekend’s Golden Globe awards.  Personally, I’m pulling for House to win best TV drama and Glee to win Best TV comedy or musical.  Come to think of it, I can’t remember candy being prominently featured on either or those shows, though (Glee does frequently feature Slurpees, however).

I hope lack of candy coverage doesn’t hurt their chances.  After all, Seinfeld won three Golden Globes and that show featured candy all the time.

Elaine loves 'em!

Top Five Candy Moments on Seinfeld

1. Heir to Oh Henry! candy bar fortune
Elaine meets up with Sue Ellen, an old high-school friend who is now an heiress to the Oh Henry! candy bar fortune.  She’s notable for her lack of an important, uh, foundation garment.

2. Tweetie Pez dispenser
Jerry’s Pez dispenser makes Elaine laugh very loudly at George’s new girlfriend’s piano recital.  Later, the girlfriend hears Elaine laugh and realizes who ruined her concert.

3. Junior Mint in the operating room
In season four, Kramer invites Jerry to join him in a surgical viewing suite where they accidentally knock a Junior Mint into the patient’s open chest. Explaining later how it happened, Kramer says he didn’t expect anyone to turn down a Junior Mint. He makes a good point.

4. The Hanging Twix
George is outraged when he puts money into a vending machine and his Twix candy bar fails to drop.  He returns later to find the hanging Twix missing from the machine. He confronts the mechanic who he believes “stole” his candy bar and claims that the cookie crumbs on his face are clear evidence that the mechanic took it away from him.

5. The Jujubes incident
Elaine gets busted  for stopping to buy candy when she should have been rushing to the hospital to visit her friend after an accident.  Her candy of choice: Jujubes.  Her explanation: ”Because they’re Jujubes.  And I love them.”  Sounds reasonable to me.

Have I missed an important candy moment on Seinfeld?  What’s your favorite?