A meetup is definitely made a success by the participants, and this one was no different. I want to start the recap by saying how thankful I am to all the attendees. You came prepared and were willing to laugh, talk, taste and share. I love being part of such an amazing global community of local guides! So, we ended up having 11 attendees at different points and 10 who shared.
I started the conversation by sharing my lolly board (that’s what we call candy in Australia). I took a cork board and pinned to it a huge selection of Australian candy.
I spoke about most of them, including one made locally near my home. Kuranda Candy is a local business which makes hard candies in a large variety of flavours including passionfruit, watermelon, cherry and eucalyptus.
I also showed everyone a type of lollypop called a Melody Pop which is shaped like a whistle and which you can play by blowing air into it and sliding the plastic insert in the handle up and down. You will also be pleased to know that I did fit a whole packet of Hubba Bubba in my mouth and, even under pressure, I was able to blow a bubble as big as my face (insert round of applause).
Next we had @PaulPavlinovich , from Melbourne in Australia. He shared a range of candy including his favourite – black cats! These are a soft candy with a sarsaparilla or aniseed type flavour. He also pointed out how much lollies had shrunk since we were children – he showed tiny red frogs, spearmint leaves, and milk bottles. His last candy was a killer python; a large, soft, rainbow coloured candy which is literally half the size it used to be! Paul also demonstrated how you need to stretch it before you eat it!
@SilvyS from Argentina was next to share. She showed us lots of candies made from, or containing Dulce de leche, the famous South American caramel. She also showed us Dorins, which were small, pink hard candy hearts flavoured with strawberry. Next was Bocadito Cabsha, a wafer capsule filled with dulce de leche and cognac. Yum! Caramelo “Media Hora”, as Carolina informed me, is called this because it lasts half an hour in your mouth. Silvys also showed us Jack – which is a chocolate that has a really cute surprise toy inside.
@PennyChristie from Sydney, Australia then shared. Her favourite is musk – musk sticks and musk flavoured life savers. Life savers are a hard, round candy with a hole in the middle. She also showed us Minties – an Australian classic. These are a hard, chewy mint flavoured candy. When she was a kid her and her siblings would carefully tear around the wrapper, in a square formation, trying to make it into the longest piece possible. Whoever got the longest continuous piece won. Paul informed us that the record was 22cm!
@CaroGuiniazu from Argentina told us that they are ‘crazy for candy’ and even have speciality shops that sell only cigarettes and candy! She showed us lots of local candy including Block – Caro’s favourite. This is a chocolate bar with peanuts inside and it looked delicious! When you like someone in Argentina, you give them ‘Two Hearts’. An adorable chocolate which has two pieces inside that can be broken apart and shared. There is also a ‘love message’ inside, a bit like a fortune cookie (which Caro keeps on her fridge to remind her of love – I love this!). Caro also showed us Tita and Rhodesia which are wafers with lemon cream inside, covered in chocolate. Next was Turron – a cereal bar with two wafers and peanut butter inside that you can buy in bulk so you can take them to work and share with your colleagues when they need a snack. Lastly, Caro showed us Oreo which, in Argentina, you can get with a range of flavours inside including… Dulce de leche!
@anuspice from the USA showed us her favourite candies - Nerds; hard, small candy which is tart at first and then sweet at the end. Next were Lemonheads – little, round, yellow hard candies covered in a gel. Tessa also showed us Skittles, Starburst and Sweetarts original (because the recipe has changed slightly over the years). It was interesting to note that the colours of Starburst in America and Australia represented slightly different flavours.
@JaneBurunina , from the Ukraine, had a HUGE range of candy to share - although she admitted that she preferred chocolate! She showed us Fruitella Rainbow candy, small hard candies with different flavours and small flowers, fizzy bombs which bubble in your mouth and caramel eclairs filled with chocolate. She also showed Crazy Bees which her children enjoy – these are gummy candies with different types of fruit filling. The last candies she showed were fruit flavoured such as cherry, blueberry and apple.
@Tushar18 from New Dehli, India shared that in India candies are called toffees. He showed a lollypop, which is local to each region, made from strawberry and orange candy. Next was Rola Cola – a coca cola flavoured hard candy. There were also Indian candies made from rose petals and Indian spices. One called Pulse, which was a guava flavoured toffee, contained spices such as black pepper and turmeric and sounded really interesting. Others were made from ingredients such as saffron, pistachio, honey and sugar. There was also a mango candy. Tushar shared that there are 200-300 varieties of mango in India – wow! He also showed mentos, candy made from coconut milk, lychee flavoured candy and tangy orange candies made from beetle leaves which are local to the northern/Himalayan region.
@Ddimitra , from Indonesia, explained that she prefers spicy candy. She showed us Fisherman’s Friend which she eats when she is starting to feel sick. She also showed a traditional Indonesian candy made from chilli. Next was a local chocolate bar called Beng-Beng which has chocolate, peanuts and nougat. Devi also shared some lolly pops which she had made from white and milk chocolate in cute shapes such as butterflies, Bugs Bunny and Hello Kitty. She makes these to give to visitors who come to her home, but she had lots to show because she hadn’t had any visitors recently.
@RosyKohli from Mumbai shared, through the chat, that whenever she has a cold or cough, she makes ginger candy at home. Here is her recipe: It’s very simple – begin by grating 100 gms ginger. Put 1 tsp water into it and squeeze it to remove the juice. Next, grate 25 grams of jaggery (palm sugar) and put it and the ginger juice over slow gas to boil. Put pinch of turmeric in. Then grease a plate with pure ghee. Put drops with spoons & keep in the fridge to set. I’m definitely going to try this recipe! Thanks Rosy.
What an amazing meetup! I thank each and every one of the attendees for sharing their candies from all corners of the world. I also hope that you have enjoyed reading this recap and sharing in our learning.
Until next time!
