Trick OR Treat: A Review of London's Candy Aisle

Two posts in one week – this is madness!  All jokes aside, I have actually been saving up to write this post and with Halloween just behind us there seems to be no better time for me to review the tricks and treats of British Candy.  One of my guilty pleasures is binge watching taste tests on YouTube, so logically I thought I would do my own version of a review typically titled “American’s Try British Sweets for the First Time.”

Over the last few months I have only eaten candy that cannot be found, to my knowledge, in the United States.  I did not save them up to eat all at one time like most of these taste testers do or I would be in a sugar coma, instead I have kept detailed notes from week to week.  So indulge me if you will as I warm up a nice cup’a tea, open this new pack of Jammie Dodgers^TM and review the best and the worst of the United Kingdoms junk food!

                                                      After Eight^® – Possibly the best candy I have 

tried here and one of the first, After Eight^® mints 

are Britain’s answer to the peppermint patty.  These thin pieces of mint fondant coated in rich dark chocolate melt in your mouth and are perfect for a dinner party or scarfing down by yourself late at night so no one can judge you…  Although a little weird to talk about with food, their packaging is adorable.  Inside the midnight green box, each mint is slipped into it’s own individual sleeve emblazoned with a gold logo and makes what could be an average candy fit for afternoon tea at the Ritz. 

I give After Eight^® 5/5 Princes named George

Aero^® Bubbly Bar – This chocolate bar was not at all what I expected in good, can imagine eating this in the future, space travel sort of way.  From the packaging, I assumed each chocolate bubble would be filled with a mousse like mint filling that 

                                                     would burst when I took a bite.  When I bit into 

the bar though, I discovered the porous interior to be about the same consistency as the rest of the chocolate bar.  The mint portion did melt a bit like space ice cream…explaining my reaction – you’re welcome!  If you can imagine those butter mints you get at weddings or next to the deserts at the end of a Chinese buffet, dip them in chocolate and that is almost exactly what this bar was like.

I give the Aero^® Bubbly Bar 3/5 Double Decker Buses

Crunchie Bar – For me this was the most highly anticipated and thus the biggest let down in my candy tasting adventures.  I know I may make some enemies by this review because Crunchie seems to be the favorite of many of my friends here, but it was not that good.  Let’s begins with false advertisement: The bar claims to be 

                                                     chocolate covered honeycomb – a delicious 

combination!  However, in reality this just a honeycomb-textured bit of corn syrup based crunch coated in overly sweet Cadbury^TM Milk chocolate.  When I got over the initial disappointment of a real honeycomb or at least honey flavored center, I could not really even enjoy the candy for what it was because it was just too sweet. 

I give Crunchie 1.5/5 Metro Papers on the Tube Floor

Doritos^© Cool Original – These tortilla chips are sad.  Not as much of a let down as the previous candy, but definitely not an item I would eat again…unless I was really hungry at 2:00am because I forgot to eat dinner before a boat party and the only place still open is a Subway when you really wanted McDonalds but you didn’t stop at the McDonalds that was still open because you thought you could miraculously get home from across London in an hour by tube when the tube closed a half hour into that time which would have been fine except for the fact you had to transfer lines so you ended up in the middle of central London in the middle of the night at a 

                                                      closed bus station and have to find a different 

bus to take a really, really long ride to said Subway…but I obviously had these chips under different circumstances?  All of that said, these chips needed a little salt.  I would probably have liked them better had I not expected a certain flavor before tasting them but from my perspective they tasted like someone took American Cool Ranch Doritos^©, licked off most of the seasoning and decided to package them back up and sell them to clueless Brits. 

I give Doritos^© Cool Original 1/5 Tourists on the Left Side of the Escalator

Bounty – Compared with the other snacks on this list Bounty is not that unique because it is very similar to candy bars we have in the United States.  Bounty is more or less a heartier version of an Almond Joy without Almonds or a Milk Chocolate Mounds bar.  This British version is much higher quality though and has a thicker chocolate coat that I really enjoyed.  If you do not like coconut this should be avoided, but if you do Bounty will not let you down.

I give Bounty 4/5 London Tower Bridges

McVitie’s^® Digestives – A British classic through and through, these cookies are a bit of an acquired taste if you are used to very sugary sweets.  My personal favorites
                                                      are the Dark Chocolate covered biscuits that
may have sufficed as dinner once or twice (but we won’t talk about that).  They have more of a brown bread taste than chocolate so it is believable they could live up to their name by helping you digest with more fiber, but over all a very good treat.  They fill you up and though they might not be the most delicious sweet on this list they definitely get bonus points for creating the most adorable advertisement to ever exist – watch it HERE!

I give Digestives 3.5/5 Corgi Puppies

Jammie Dodgers^TM – Another classic biscuit that unfortunately has a better American alternative, these jam filled cookies are not bad.  I seem to remember a similar cookie though from my years as a munchkin that had a more chewy texture
                                                      and possible cream filling with the jam.  I
cannot recall the name of those cookies to save my life (so let me know if you do…they were tasty).  In comparison though, Jammie Dodgers^TM have way to much cookie in the cookie to filling ratio so they taste a little more like a mouthful of saw dust than a sweet treat.  Any of these cookies are improved with tea, but for me these were not a home run on their own…*teehee* Get it?  The Dodgers?  Okay, I’ll stop…

I give Jammie Dodgers^TM 2/5 Dr. Who References

Toffee Crip^® – Last but most definitely not least is my favorite candy bar in the UK that I am actually very disappointed is not an American staple.  It may not have anything more than chocolate, toffee and crisps, but this chocolate covered
                                                      combination of goodies makes has the

perfect balance of crunchy and chewy, salty and sweet.  Though that description sounds a bit like a Snickers^® bar, the flavor is much more like that of a Twix where the hard cookie in the middle is filled instead with puffed rice like you would find in a crunch bar.  Thankfully I can only find them in packs of four so I still buy other groceries.

I give Toffee Crisp^® 5/5 Crown Jewels

I hope that you enjoyed this post almost as much as I enjoyed making it.  Until next time!                             

When in Wales: Visiting a Welsh Prince's English Castle

Yes, I am officially the world’s worst blogger.  Instead of pretending I am actually going to start writing more often, I hope you can enjoy these posts as they do come along.  This week though, I want to share a somewhat recent trip I took with IFSA-Butler to Northern Wales.   Although this was a rather full weekend, my visit to Caernarfon Castle was a particular highlight for me because if you give me an old building and a good story about it I will be a happy person.

The bus came to a stop on the slate paved 

street just steps from a massive stone wall that

Caernarfon Castle built in 1303 by King Edward I.

rose high over the tops of any other building in the town.  Although conscious of the fact I was in the twenty-first century, the stone walls in front of me were drenched in the medieval past of this seaside town.  Caernarfon (kyre-nar-von), though now a world Heritage Site and relic of the past, still has a significant presence that emanates a history of what once was.

My geek senses were on 100 as I stepped foot into the courtyard of this massive palace.  The classic stonewalls of Shakespeare sets and English folklore stretched high into the air around me, and three huge turrets reached toward the sky on every side.  Despite the fact stones protruded yet from unfinished walls because the palace was never finished, it was easy to imagine how a little plaster and lush fabrics that would have once decorated this castle made it unlike any other. 

Although few rival its size and elegance, Caernarfon is much like most of the castles in Wales in that it was built by English conquerors.  Caernarfon though was unique in that King Edward I made it a seat of power.  The site itself is steeped in legend as Edward I choose to build on the site supposedly chosen by a Roman Emperor who searched the globe for this dream location.  As he began construction of this castle in the early eleventh century, Edward I added further legend though surrounding the birth of his son.  After killing off the last two dynastic Welsh Prince’s, the King promised to give the Welsh people his son as the new Prince of Wales in order to appease them. Legend says he promised the Welsh people “A prince born of Wales who could never speak a word of English.” Edward of Caernarfon was born in the palace in 1284, while it was still under construction, and was crowned Prince of Wales in 1301, a tradition that has continued in the English royal family since this time.

Window view from Eagle Tower.

The room in which Edward II was likely born is now covered with swept wooden boards part way up Eagle Tower, the highest turret in the palace.  Like much of the castle this room could only be reached up a precariously small spiral staircase and over a large threshold stone that thankfully once in the room kept me from falling out.  The view from this room through windows deepest into the curtain walls was amazing, and ultimately enjoyed by the Prime Minister who would have kept residence there once the palace was closer to completion in 1330.  Although a political stunt in many ways, the birth of Edward II at Caernarfon made the castle significant enough to be preserved to this day and was most recently renovated when Prince Charles was invested there in 1969 (see pictures here).

Wandering around a place centuries older than the United States itself is truly remarkable, and at times quite creepy.  However, if you ever get the chance to visit, I highly recommend taking some time to explore as though it were the first time anyone has seen the castle.  I found the most beautiful view outside of the tour by climbing up staircase after staircase until I could climb no more, and reached the highest point possible on Eagle Tower.  Wales in general was a beautiful place to visit, and I encourage you to visit my IFSA-Butler Bog to read more about the natural beauty of Llanberis where I stayed.

~ Wonder at Wales ~

Although Edward I promised the Welsh people a Prince who would never speak a word of English, this really was not a difficult promise to keep in the time so it is a little surprising to me there was not more hostility toward the royal family.  Edward II would have most likely only spoken Normand French, which was still the language of nobility in this time.

An A-bridge-d Tour of London

Alright, you have been patient long enough.  I have finally written the second installment to Living on the Edge of the Thames.  I apologize for the wait, but I became quite ‘poorly’ (British for sick) a week before classes started here, and am just within the past few days feeling myself again.  It has also been quite an adjustment to a new university, so I will definitely write more about Trinity Laban as I reflect in the days and weeks to come.

In the meantime however, there are some fun touristy things I would like to catch you up on, that I have been saving for a few weeks now.  Although orientation is long past, those were the weeks I got to be a tourist and see as much of the city as I could in a matter of days.  London, as many of you know, is a rather expensive city.  So I did what all college students on a budget do…found a way to see the majority of it for free!

Instead of paying for a tour, I went online and searched for the best walking tours in London and from that added a few sites I really wanted to see to create my own route.  For the most part I combined the “Bridge” and “Cultural” tours you can find here.  After convincing a friend of mine to humor me, we set off to Buckingham Palace and wound our way across the Thames for four hours.

               

                     Walking Route…if you can make it in two hours the first pints on me!

Buckingham Palace was the first stop on this tour, a short walk from the Victoria tube station.  Although none of my pictures do it justice because of the angle of the sun, the palace is quite beautiful.  I spent a fair amount of time in front of the gates, watching the guards and trying to capture the detailed, gilded doors with a camera zoom that did not have 

Buckingham Palace Gates

a prayer.  The royal family was not in at the time I visited because they were on holiday, but even so I was surprised how close we were able to get to the Palace itself.  Although the President and Queen hold very different roles in the United States and England respectively, the only thing we have comparable to Buckingham Palace is the Whitehouse, which can barely be seen from the road miles off.  Here, I was easily fifty feet from the front doors.

Since it was such a beautiful day, people were spilling into Green Park, so I joined them taking a path via St. James’s Park toward the Westminster Bridge.  Along the way we entered the most iconic part of London, Parliament Square, just steps from Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben.  Obviously I made stops to see all three, although the Abbey is currently under renovation so it was a little difficult to see.

           

              St. James's Park

Westminster Abbey

Pro-Tip:  If you must have a picture in a telephone booth (because lets be honest, they are too iconic to pass up), I recommend taking those pictures somewhere along the route between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey.  These are the cleanest booths in all of London, and the sidewalks are also big enough that you will not block the flow of traffic.

The best place to see the Palace of Westminster (house of Parliament) though is from the opposite bank of the Thames, which is where I was headed next across the Westminster Bridge.  After taking many more of pictures I then made a left toward the London Eye.  I will say this was probably the worst decision of my tour path, but I did want to see the Eye up-

Palace of Westminster

close.  For those who do not enjoy crowds of tourists though, the area surrounding the Eye is probably the most crowded place in London and walking a few extra blocks away from the river bank would be advised.  That said, I was witness to some great African Dance by street performers along the way and a lot of people making bubbles.


Heading north along the river then I went towards two more bridges, and with them two areas that represent my two interests quite well – Law and Art.  After crossing the Waterloo Bridge, I found myself very close to the ‘Inns of Court,’ where what we know as law firms are housed.  Most notably in this area are Summerset House and Temple Church.  Farther down the river then, and across Black

Shakespeare's Globe Theater

Friar’s Bridge begins a taste of the artistic and cultural landscape of London.  This area on the South Bank of the river includes Shakespeare’s Globe Theater and The Tate Modern within easy walking distance from one another.  The Milenium Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral can also be seen from here, although I decided to continue farther up the river.

The last bridge on my walk was the Tower Bridge, so often confused for the London Bridge, that is another icon of London.  Although the view of it from the London Bridge is great, that is really the only reason to visit the London Bridge since it looks like a pretty standard highway crossing.  I crossed the Tower Bridge though among hordes of people there to see the Columbian football match that evening, and to meet up with some friends for a picnic in Trinity Square Gardens overlooking the Tower of London and just a few steps from Tower Hill tube station.

 Although it was a really long walk (and this is a really long blog post), it was also a great route to take for the highlights of London.  I would highly recommend my personalized walking tour if ever you visit this lovely city.  More of my adventures will come soon, but until then I hope you enjoy this post and if you have not yet seen my latest blog through IFSA-Butler you can find that here.

~ London Logic ~

When the London Bridge was originally built in 1176, it was the first permanent (non-wooden) bridge to cross the Thames.  It was needed to aid traffic since the only other way to get across the river was by ferry or wooden bridges frequently destroyed by fire.  However when it was completed, the bridge was host to several shops and houses whose rent funded the construction, but whose existence significantly limited space available for traffic.  In those days crossing the bridge could take up to an hour. 

Now if you are really wondering if the London Bridge fell down, instead of finding extreme interest in this historical traffic problem…it did!  The bridge collapsed on multiple occasions, including in 1281 when Queen Eleanor was blamed for misaproriating revenues to repair the bridge.  This was cause for the addition of “my fair lady” to the popular rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down.  What a scandal!

Click here for more information about the London Bridge.

Double Vision: Two Blogs, Two Rivers, Two Londons

No, you're not seeing double!  This really is another blog I am writing while here in London.  As many of you already know, I am also blogging for IFSA-Butler, my host university.  I created this second blog to have a space where I could be a little less formal and share my excursions in London with you more frequently.  I encourage you to read my other blog as well since the content will be different, and I will link it at the end of each post.

The first post on every blog is the worst because you have to explain who you are, what you are writing about, and give a basic overview that ends up saying nothing at all.  So, instead of doing that, let me just explain to you the origin of this blog's title.

To me, writing a blog title is kind of like getting your first tattoo.  Admittedly I don't have a tattoo, but the idea here is that whatever you choose you'll be stuck with you forever.  Ideally, you don't want a stupid tattoo, something too cliche, or predictable -- you want a conversation starter.  For me, this meant doing some research.  What I discovered is that I live on the same river on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.  In the sates I attend Connecticut College, where I major in Dance and American Studies.  This school is located just up the hill from the Thames River in New London, Connecticut.  Now, I did not know this until I was trying to create a new blog title, but you best believe it will be my fun fact for the next month!

Myers Studio, Connecticut College           Dance Center, Trinity Laban, UK

Here in London, I will be studying at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance on the south bank of the River Thames.  Logically I will be dancing there for the next three months.  The school is physically located in Greenwhich, a lovely seaside area strangely reminiscent of the maritime feel in New London.  Today, I had my first chance to wander around the area and gather inspiration from the local scenery.  I feel so lucky to be here and cannot wait to share more with you about the fascinating culture and history of London England.

So, let's give me a virtual pat on the back for avoiding a Tale of Two Cities reference in this post, and if you have not yet had a chance to read my IFSA-Butler blog check it out here.

~ London Logic ~

According to my orientation leader, the River Thames in London is pronounced "Tems" because of the speech impediment of a former King of German origin.  Since the King could not properly pronounce the name of the river, the British people politely adopted his pronunciation to this day.