Candy Snob: Who wouldn’t want to eat Easter candy early?

By The Candy Snob - Apr 11, 2017 | 0 comments

Left: We couldn’t taste Easter candy and not do so without a couple of all-time classics. So when we stopped at Granite State Candy, we got a calico bunny (white, milk and dark chocolate) and a peanut butter egg. Right: That little sheep on the left is actually a chocolate truffle. And the chocolate-covered sunflower seeds combined two of our favorite things.

During our trip to True Confections at Steeplegate Mall, we found all kinds of tasty-looking treats, including a slice of carrot cake fudge and a chocolate-covered Twinkie.

Look at all those jelly beans, 48 flavors in all, at True Confections at Steeplegate Mall.

These panoramic eggs at True Confections, made of sugar, will dissolve to reveal a little surprise.

Chocolate Easter bunnies galore at Granite State Candy.

This 10 pound solid chocolate bunny would make a great addition to anyone's Easter basket.

It's customary to find chocolate in your Easter basket, but Granite State Candy stepped it up a notch with baskets made out of chocolate.

The little sheep is actually a chocolate truffle made by Ava Marie Chocolates in Peterborough we found at Caring Gifts. And the chocolate covered sunflower seeds were quite tasty, too.

Chocolate truffles disguised as baby chicks at Caring Gifts.

We’ve tasted tested all kinds of food. Breakfast, lunch and dinner options. Dishes that are simple and others you may find a little too outside the box.

And we’ve written about desserts as options around certain holidays, and even incorporated a few into our meal features.

But to the best of our knowledge, there’s never been an exclusive story about candy, and more importantly, tasting it.

Since Easter is one of the biggest candy holidays out there, it only seemed right to hit the road in search of some chocolaty and sweet creations – all in the name of Insider research, of course.

We all know about Granite State Candy Shoppe and its inventory of treats that make our mouth water just thinking about the store.

But in case you haven’t been to the Steeplegate Mall recently, True Confections Candies and Gifts has a killer selections of candy that will satisfy anyone’s sweet tooth, and Caring Gifts on North Main Street also has a pretty impressive candy counter with plenty of options.

What we were looking for was a variety. Some traditional Easter stuff and others that you may not even know existed.

True Confections

After scoping out the selection, we checked in with store manager Ginger Card to see what was new and exciting this year.

And there were quickly two things that caught our eye: carrot cake fudge and milk chocolate dipped Twinkies with white, dark and milk chocolate drizzle.

The carrot cake fudge actually looked like a piece of carrot cake, complete with a little carrot candy in the middle.

It had that perfect soft texture you want in fudge and just the right amount of sweet. The walnuts were a nice touch, even if it’s not high on our nuts list.

The chocolate on the Twinkie had a nice hard shell, while the Twinkie stayed nice and soft. It was quite sweet, but definitely something we’d have again.

And in addition to some of the traditional Easter candy, True Confections is home to 48 flavors of jelly beans, and will also make you a basket.

Granite State

If you’ve ever walked by when candy is being made at Granite State, it’s hard not to stop in for a taste.

Well known for their chocolate, we felt this was the perfect place to try some of the main stays in the Easter candy world.

We first went for a chocolate bunny, but this was no ordinary.

This creation was solid (which is the only way chocolate bunnies should be), but was made with not one, and not two, but three kinds of chocolate. It was called a calico bunny and included milk, white and dark chocolate sections.

It was a little hard to figure out how to eat it. So first we ate a little bite of each to taste the individual chocolates and then went for some bites with all three. It’s something we highly recommend.

Then we had a peanut butter egg and it didn’t disappoint. The milk chocolate was so good and the peanut butter was smooth and rich – we sure wish we could have tried all the egg flavors.

And just an FYI, you can find just about anything Easter related there, including a 10-pound bunny for sale, a 40-pound bunny that you can sign up to win and Easter baskets made out of chocolate.

Caring Gifts

We typically don’t think of Caring Gifts as a go to spot for candy, but we should since it makes a nice gift.

And now that we’ve seen the selection, its definitely worth putting on the list.

All of the candy is brought in, but it’s carefully selected from some pretty legitimate candy makers. Some are bigger names, while others are smaller, more local shops.

We were encouraged to return later in the week for truffles in the shape of baby chicks and sheep from Ava Marie’s in Peterborough – and are we glad we did.

We went for the sheep, and not only was the truffle inside light and fluffy (and delicious) but the mixture with the white chocolate had us ready to head back for an encore.

And the detail in the design was almost as good as the taste

We also picked up a bag of chocolate covered sunflower seeds. It combined our favorite sweet (chocolate) and seeds, and was it ever a good match.

It had a light candy shell, and just the right ratio of chocolate to seed. It didn’t matter it was made by a big company, they are worth the try.

You’ll also find bunnies on top of pretzels, rabbit tails, along with the more traditional stuff like jelly beans, foil eggs and assorted candy filled bags.

There’s even a mixture of peas and carrots that are mints.

So now that you have some tips, enjoy shopping for that special person’s Easter basket. Just try not to eat it all before it actually goes in the basket.