LOUD!
Each in its own way, on its own terms: these candies know how to hold attention. They’re not the most extreme specimens in existence (no Warheads or Mega Bombz, no Black Death). Instead, they’re on the noisy side of delicious. Each has an intense quality that is different from the others. You’ll find sour, salmiak, spicy, crunchy, salty. And you’ll find a couple candies that combine several of these flavors at once.
Around the world, human beings love to eat intense flavors. Enclosed are candies from Finland, Japan, Sweden, China, Mexico, and the US (with connections to Italy and Central America). If you like, you could think of each of candy as a short song: a brief flavor artwork of intensities, from the candy’s first taste to its disappearance. Some of these come on strong immediately. Some start mellow and build over time. Some offer a steady humming cacophony. For others, the degree of intensity depends on how you eat it (or on how you individually experience the flavor involved). Slow or fast, suck or crunch, nibble or chomp - all produce different results.
in this box...
SALTED PLUMS (China)
This is arguably the most intense item – and inarguably the oldest recipe – in the box. The recipe for this sweet – hua mei in mandarin, li hing mui in Cantonese, suan mei in Taiwan – dates back in China to at least the 3rd century CE. Known as “traveling plum,” it has inspired adaptations in Japan (umeboshi), Hawaii (“crack seed”), and Mexico (chamoy), to name a few. Initially, this plum’s heady mix of salty, sour, and sweet is wonderfully focusing – and then as the plum flesh disappears, this candy has a second phase of sucking flavor out of the center of the salty-sweet seed. (Note: these contain pits.)
SALMIAK LICORICE LOLLIPOPS (Finland)
Made by Fazer, these are lollipop versions of classic Finnish salmiak + licorice hard candies. How loud you find these will likely have to do with how you experience salmiak. Some love it, others hate it. Some find it very strong, others not as much. Many grow to love it after repeated tries. The enclosed order, from mildest to strongest: salmiakki < super salmiakki < tyrkisk peber.
SUPER COLA, SOUR LEMON (Japan)
Here are two takes on sour. One soda, the other citrus. One hard and fizzy, the other soft and squishy. One whose maker is nearly 100 years old (Nobel was founded in Osaka in 1929), the other whose maker is closer to 50 (Ribon was founded in 1970 in Nagoya). Both illustrate Japanese confectionery approaches to intense sweets, where subtle flavor and shifts over time often achieve something far more interesting than mere sour bomb.
CANDIED HABANEROS (Colorado)
Candying fruit is a millennia-old practice; here Colorado-based confectioner Kimberly Bannick gives it a new spin by applying the process to habanero peppers. Toute Douceur’s candies are often like this one: playful, experimental, and classic at the same time. These candies are unquestionably habanero-spicy, but their heat is made mellower and more elastic by the infusion of sugar, and complement of dark chocolate.
JORDAN ALMONDS (California)
I never appreciated how noisy Jordan almonds were until I brought some with me to the movies! These Jordan Almonds are made by US brand Sconza Chocolates a fourth-generation family-run company, established in 1939 in Oakland CA by Italian immigrant Vincenzo Sconza. Just try to eat one of these quietly (and after that, maybe just enjoy the crunchy ruckus).
SOUR RAINBOW TWISTS (Spain)
These gummy candies aren’t hollering, so much as very talkative. They engage many senses at once: sight, taste, and touch (the chew!). Vidal Candies was founded in Spain in 1963; today they are an international distributor and inventor of many new gummy and licorice varieties.