Page & Shaw Christmas ad featuring Bob Hope (1956)

I’m not familiar with the Page & Shaw candy company. The only information I can find seems to point to Page & Shaw Inc. being one of the nation’s top candy makers in the early 1900s. Judging by the product pictured, it appears they were similar to a Whitman’s/Russell Stover. It doesn’t appear they are in business any longer but I did find an interesting article from the New York Times (PDF format) from July 20, 1918 about the Federal Food Board shutting them down for a week because they had stockpiled more sugar than the Food Administration permitted.

The ad above is from 1956 and I have to say, this is a pretty creepy painting of Bob Hope. He looks evil. Apparently he was somewhat of a spokesman for Page & Shaw though because I found another ad he did (same pose, but this is a photograph) in 1955.

M&M’s Christmas Commercial from 1987

I’m not really that big on M&M’s. I never have been. I have kind of a weird relationship with them. It’s love/indifference, really. They certainly wouldn’t be the first candy I reached for at the supermarket but a few times a year I’ll get a craving for them and just go nuts and destroy a whole bag. It’s too easy to scoop up a huge pile of M&M’s in my hands and knock out a bag (and I’m talking about the BIG bags not those ‘tear ‘n’ shares’) in a matter of minutes. That is, if I wanted to do such a thing…

Seen above is one of those typically heart-warming holiday commercials that brands like M&M’s, Oreos, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola excelled at during the 1980s. It was great marketing to make you feel like there could be no joy in Christmas, there could be no Christmas PERIOD, unless you were stuffing your face with their product. It’s as if Christmas was all about sitting around a decorated tree & roaring fire at night with your family slamming M&M’s down your throat by the pound. No wonder in this country we’ll happily eat our weight in McNuggets and Triple Double Oreos before even thinking about touching a salad. Salads just don’t scream “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” like a bucket of original recipe KFC.

According to Wikipedia my hours of research, the red & green “HOLIDAYS” M&M’s debuted the previous year in 1986. You’d think they’d want to highlight their seasonal candy shell but I see what they did here. The Holidays batch is going to sell no matter what but they’ve gotta keep pushing the regular brown, yellow, green, red, tan and orange M&M’s so they’re using Christmas to get you to associate warm fuzzy feelings with that bland collection (which I always thought was suited best for Autumn and shouldn’t have been used year ’round).

Of course, with the M&M colors these days, it looks like a rabbit came along and pooped in a batch of Skittles.

“Heard you missed us, we’re baaaack!”

So what if I’ve only posted three times in the past three months? Did you think I’d sit out Halloween and Christmas? Besides, something this special I had to come in and talk about it.

Now certainly we’re all familiar with Brach’s peppermint nougats. Perhaps some of you are even aware they produced cinnamon & spearmint nougats for Christmastime as well. In recent years, they added Halloween orange creme nougats (I actually haven’t seen these in the last few years but they were good). And now?

Now we have a new Christmas nougat flavor — Chocolate Mint! Or is it just new to me? I’ve never seen these before but when they came rolling out of the truck today at work… I knew, I knew! I just had to have them!

And yes, for those of you keeping track, I’ve managed to sneak Van Halen and KISS lyrics into this post.

They’re like sex in my mouth. They’re amazing! Imagine a chewy Andes mint and you’re right on the money! I love these things.

That is all for now. Stay tuned.

Whitman’s Marshmallow Egg: GOAT Easter Candy?

In the last year or so, it’s been really had to stay away from candy while trying to cut back on junk food. More or less, I succeed, but when you work in retail and you have to stare at Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter candy for half the year, it takes a toll on a man. His soul too.

A co-worker told me Whitman’s Marshmallow Eggs were really good. I usually don’t care much for marshmallow filled stuff. Eggs, Christmas trees, Santa Clauses, pumpkins, whatever, I usually don’t like it and would much rather have something filled with caramel. So, I thought not much of his comments and even refused to let him buy me one to try.

Well, my girl was given one of these at work and she’s even less into junk food than I am nowadays so she brought it home for me. Aww, how sweet! And I’m talking about this marshmallow egg because it is AWESOME! I couldn’t believe it! I begrudgingly ate it while remember one of my co-worker’s gave it two thumbs up and boy was he right.

They aren’t quite like any marshmallow-filled candy on the market. The marshmallow isn’t that usual cheap stuff you would find in a Russell Stover egg (yes, I know Whitman’s and Russell Stover are part of the same company). It tastes like and how the texture of Marshmallow Fluff or Kraft’s Jet-Puffed (or whichever marshmallow creme you prefer) and I was expecting the coating to be similar to chocolate but it’s not. It’s called “pastelle”, I guess. I has a similar texture and feel of chocolate but it tastes different. I can’t explain it but it’s very good and tasting it now, I remember having had some solid “pastelle” candy back when I was a kid when my elementary school took a field trip to a candy shop and get to watch it get made.

I never could figure out what that candy on a stick was but now I know and I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for it.

These eggs are almost too pretty to eat though. It’s like a work of art they should be charging more than 59 cents (or 2 for $1!) for. I seem to feel that way about a lot of Easter candy. All those bright colors and beautiful designs, seems like a waste to eat it. They come in three Easteriffic colors: yellow, green and pink.

My attempt at a close-up shot.

For someone who tries to stay away from candy, these things are addicting. I’ve had six more since eating my first and that was like a week and a half ago! 110 calories for each one of these little suckers!

Good Halloween Treats and Candy

I’ve discussed what candy I didn’t like while trick or treating, now let’s talk about what I did like. This list could go on forever, so instead of listing all the great candy that’s available all year ’round (bite size Snickers, Mounds, Twix, etc) I’m trying to limit this list to what felt extra special to me around Halloween.

Dubble Bubble – Never once as a child did I ever ask my parents to buy me some Dubble Bubble, but it was always a standard around Halloween and in the spirit of the season, I enjoyed it (it’s just too bad the flavor didn’t last long). Huge bags of those stuff were, and are still, produced. This guaranteed you could always get a handful of this stuff and throw it into your bag.

Mary Janes – Mary Janes took me a while to get used to, but once I did… MMM!