A Big Bowl of Polish Candy

I think there's a widesoread belief over here that American chocolate is weird and terrible.

Well…

I'm wondering if these 'Polish' candies might be a little sweet for American tastebuds.

If there's one thing your average American chocolate lacks, it certainly isn't sugar.

these are all WAY sweeter than I'm used to!

the man alive special:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0007/9744/2107/products/npblossomgel_400x.png?v=1620405350

anyways you're right in noting that i don't like peanuts or almonds in my candy as a general rule

If there's one thing your average Eastern European chocolate lacks, it certainly isn't sugar.

I grew up in Scotland, where the concept of something being too sweet doesn't exist. I mean this stuff should probably be illegal on dental health grounds at least:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_(confectionery)

btw pom:

Tablet is almost identical to Québécois sucre à la crème.

I think there's a widesoread belief over here that American chocolate is weird and terrible.

― Wouldn't disgrace a Michael Jackson (Tom D.), Wednesday, July 28, 2021 4:52 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Well…

― pomenitul, Wednesday, July 28, 2021 4:53 PM (four minutes ago)

definitely true at the level of a Hershey's bar, but you can, of course, get nice US-made chocolate

I think Hershey's is US chocolate to people outside the US.

I've never tasted it.

you can, of course, get nice US-made chocolate

Oh yeah, you can nice US-made anything (or very nearly). I was thinking in terms of the typical, ubiquitous stuff.

As for sucre à la crème, yeah, it's blindingly intense and I'm all for it – just not more than maybe twice a year? I'll definitely try Tablet when I get the chance.

Anyway my Eastern European candy/chocolate challop which I'm allowed to state point blank is that 95% of them suck and are only worthwhile as exotic artifacts. The desserts are where it's at.

absolutely, just want visitors to know it's okay to eat the fancy chocolate lol

isn't Hershey's not technically chocolate or something?

As for sucre à la crème, yeah, it's blindingly intense and I'm all for it – just not more than maybe twice a year? I'll definitely try Tablet when I get the chance.

You'd have to go to Scotland to try it, no-one else is insane enough to make it and feed it to their children.

Proper link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_(confectionery)

I'll be on the lookout for it once I get there – it's a question of when not if.

I've never had Tablet or sucre à la crème but the image in that wiki article looks a lot like burfi, which is the only Indian sweet I really like

tablet sounds like the babyface candy stuff upthread

ILX struggles with Wikipedia links that feature closing parentheses, so you have to copy/paste it.

2xp

Fuck me, that link doesn't work either. Anyway, you can feel your teeth rot as you eat it etc. Indian sweets are even worse though!

Evan ate a bunch of these leftovers and lived to tell the tale

Indeed! Not so bad. Lots of various waxy textures iirc

I got a bag of wrapped candies from the Swedish company Sockerbit. They’re good! Much better allocation of sugar than the last pile so I can eat a bit more in one sitting without feeling poisoned.

http://i.imgur.com/fw6UCGh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZrjiAxM.jpg
Gingerbread Caramel - Outrageously strong gingerbread flavor, tastes just like one of the gummyish corners of a tray of fresh gingerbread. Absolutely outrageous, totally delicious. Would eat a pile of these without noticing, probably lucky that I can’t immediately find these for sale on their own on the website. 10/10.

http://i.imgur.com/W5X373Y.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Ql6WNA0.jpg
Fransson’s Polkakola - Peppermint taffy with a slightly creamy flavor and consistency. Nothing exciting but the freshness and natural taste made it a treat. 8/10

http://i.imgur.com/1CVO5Sk.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/UBxIWjd.jpg
Grahn’s BRAVO - Thinner-than-Starburst-sized individually wrapped bits of flavored toffee. The Gräddknäck flavor is vaguely ginger and coffee, the Lakrits is a pungent but not unpleasant licorice and Choklad is exactly what you would expect. The size and relative kick of flavor makes me think that a jacket pocket full of these would be great to have for blood sugar emergencies or to pacify kids… or just me. 7/10

http://i.imgur.com/KZBhpKC.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lbKKsf7.jpg
Kick Original - Billed as “My Soft Licorice Toffee” on the wrapper, it delivers exactly that. Creamy after chewed and without the tannic leather flavor I associate with lower quality black licorice. It’s not going to win any converts but if you like that flavor, this is a great option. 7/10

http://i.imgur.com/dLVeiBn.jpg
Kolafabriken Lemon Toffee - Harder than many of these other taffies but possessed of a subtle, enjoyable citrus flavor. There’s lots of different flavors, but this is all I had at the moment. 7/10

http://i.imgur.com/txevX5E.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/w7Xq2nx.jpg
Hem-Kola - Starburst-sized wrapped squares of toffee. Hasselnötter original is caramel, Chokolad is chocolate. Both are fine and would easily surpass most of the “original” big bowl but in this company it’s middling at best. 6/10


http://i.imgur.com/YBHcBgW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/w5Qc27W.jpg
Marianne - Thin white peppermint shell over a chocolate shell for the red ones and over caramel for the blue ones. The blue ones are fine but it’s the red ones I love. The temptation is to crunch these, which makes them into lightly chocolate flavored peppermint candies but trial and error has taught me to breath them as lozenges to suck on. The peppermint is mild and sweet and eventually gives way to a now mostly liquid core of chocolate that gets much more flavorable now that it’s body temperature. I just bought a quarter pound. Blue ones are 6/10, Red ones are 10/10

http://i.imgur.com/bvj1Wjv.jpg
Pim Pim Klubba - Mellow strawberry flavor lollipop. Super-dense candy, not a chewing lollipop but a legit sucker. Not bad, but not the way I prefer to consume candy. 6/10

does removing this from Poland kill the interest? Who woulda thought.

I've a swedish colleague that occasionally brings back marabou bars. The black saltlakrits are particularly great. I've read and enjoyed these updates.

no, this is gold. xp.
always wanted to try maleco pastellfiskar.

I find the soft, salty licorice things smell faintly of urine, like the sheep kidneys in Ulyesses

This thread is great... thank you for sharing these candies.

i am avoiding the salt licorice stuff tbh; i've tried them once and it was like eating shoe leather in curdled piss. not something I'm looking to repeat.

lol

but do u like regular black licorice?

standard licorice, when either mild or particularly raw anise, is fine by me. That licorice thing upthread was pretty tasty!

as long as i have your attention: where can i get grab bags of foreign candies online? Or better yet, buy them for me and then send them to my home. I will eat them for your amusement.

https://www.candywarehouse.com/international-candy

??

not sure if they sell samplers tho

Not so much. Once Omicron blows over, maybe I can start going to places in the city.

Polkakola is my favorite name, but I would love to try the Mariannes.

my mom got me 6 months of universal yums for xmas and the first month is polish. i haven't opened it yet, though.

http://i.imgur.com/MSaBkyc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/pzTuRKK.jpg

This elegant looking, ballet branded block of candy is sold as kinda premium chocolate and it mostly lives up to the price hike: silky chocolate, ground hazlenuts, no chemical aftertaste or overly harsh sugar flavor. Sort of a milder, richer Ferraro Rocher. 7/10 would eat again but could probably get better for the money.

http://i.imgur.com/0dAwh1C.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/fs8BcK9.jpg
Another sort of hazelnut whipped, airy chocolate center, somewhat sweeter but without chemical aftertaste. 7/10, good and better than a lot of prior offerings in this thread but a little undistinguished.

http://i.imgur.com/aesbaPb.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/qvjNHUn.jpg
Chocolate-enrobed lemon creams. As you might imagine from past reports, the lemon is outrageously sweet and somehow creamy. It avoids the dreaded evocative scent of floor wax, but really only barely. Its tastier than I'm giving it credit for but the INTENSITY of the goddamn thing is such that half of one might be a better snack. Eating a whole one (and they're the size of your first pinky knuckle) coats your throat in saccharine citrus. 6/10, a little goes a long way.

are you ready for the next one? I wasn't.

http://i.imgur.com/wtpyXW3.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/F6GFEYF.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ocEAjxm.jpg

At $12 a pound, wrapper and all, the Boletto Premium was the most expensive item in the candy counter and, if not for this thread, I surely would've skipped it. But curiosity set in, so I got one. Imagine my surprise upon opening this treat to discover that the external advertising was all too accurate. This thing looks just like a mushroom and slips out of the cellophane with a pre-moistened glisten of lubrication. Alas, it turns out to be made out of the aforementioned and generally disgusting "bird's milk souffle" marshmallow, a dense and coagulated lump of oversweet hog fat. The "head" is covered in thick milk chocolate and the "stem" is inexplicably crawling with a generous smattering of poppy seeds and then split up the middle. This is presumably to allow for sharing but the effect is near-pornographic. 1/10, everything here is a bad idea and i feel bad for eating the little bit that I did.

Oh no.

Creamy mushroom souffle, hat covered with chocolate glaze, leg sprinkled with poppy seeds.

Unfolding the wrapper you will see just a 100% copy of this fungus)

Very original design.

A wonderful idea.

Incredibly delicate taste.