Sweet Valentine's Day treats

It's almost Valentine's Day!  Do you know what you're getting your sweetie?  No better way to tell them you love them by giving them candy.  Just in case you were wondering, I'd be thrilled with a box of candy on February 14!  As if it was a question! :)  Sugarfina sent me some yummy festive candy to try:

You're My Sweetheart - Cherry Sweethearts  

Pucker Up - Sugar lips

You Give Me Butterflies - Baby Butterflies

The Cherry Sweethearts will make your heart skip a beat when you eat one.  They are all chewy and succulent, and are very similar to flavored jelly beans.  These Sweethearts come in an array of cherry flavors.  A personal favorite was the dark cherry chocolate, because it was super rich, chocolatey with a luscious cherry flavor.  I also liked the speckled hearts because speckles add some pizzaz to anything and I honestly think it makes them taste even better!  If you are a chewy cherry (aka cerise in Spanish) lover, you'll love these!

Sugar lips will make your mouth so watery and luscious that you'll just want to pucker up and give your loved one a kiss!  As you know, I love sour candy so these were a fan favorite for me.  These lips are bubble gum, watermelon, and berry flavored.  All three of these flavors are the best candy flavors ever made, and will definitely make you smile.  They all were extremely sour and chewy.  Layers upon layers upon layers of sugar coat these lips and I'm not complaining about it.  They're so delicious!  The first few chews are very sour, then they get juicy, and then the bubble gum, watermelon, and berry flavors pop and your soul rejoices. 

Spread your wings like a butterfly oh oh oh oh spread your wings and fly butterfly.  Just like Mariah says, these Baby Butterflies will make your heart, stomach, and tastebuds flutter and want some more!  They're so chewy, juicy, and are bursting with flavor.  These butterflies come in grape, watermelon, tangerine, cherry, green apple, and raspberry flavors.  They all have a soft chew to them and are similar to fruit snacks.  The green apple was like a sour Jolly Rancher and eating the watermelon reminded me of a warm summer day.  The green apple, watermelon, and raspberry were my favorites.  All of the butterflies were full of flavor and were neon colored which made them even more fun to eat.  Think electric butterflies.

So get ready to smack those lips together, pucker up, and eat candy because Valentine's day is oh so soon!  Muah!

Anti-Valentine's Day Candy

Hate Valentine's Day?  Just got over a bad break up?  Are you over love but you still have love for candy?  If so, you need to try the Love Bites Giftset from Sugarfina!  Even the biggest frown will be turned upside down once you see this adorable collection!  It's bound to cheer you up and make your taste buds happy, trust me!

This charming giftset comes in the cutest blue packaging and can definitely be a reused jewelry box or for other little trinkets!  When you open up the package, there's three nicely placed containers filled with candy!  These are bound to help you drown your sorrows and immediately make you okay with being single.

The first type of candy was the Stop Kissing Frogs green apple froggies.  These gummy toads had green apple on the top part of their bodies, with soft, white, marshmallowy & vanilla tummies on the bottom.  The tummy was super fluffy, smooth, and mushy.  The vanilla fluff mixed super well with the green apple top, which was harder and chewier than the fluff, but super juicy and filled with apple flavor.  This toad was a perfect combination of soft and chewy, making it a super delicious gummy!

Next were the Men are Pigs little pink pigggies.  They were baby pink, extremely jiggly, and light weight, hopefully nothing like your ex.  Soft and fluffy, with the perfect amount of chew, these pigs do not stick on your teeth, but rather, melt in your mouth.  The flavor was a combination of strawberry and vanilla, not too strong or overpowering, both tastes were just right.

Last but certainly not least were the Plenty of Fish in the Sea baby fishies.  These fish swam all the way over here from Sweden and are ready for your consumption!  There were four different types of flavors: Lemon-Lime, Lingonberry, Apple, and Orange.  They all were hard just like Swedish fish since they were extremely chewy, sticky and felt super stiff, unlike the jiggly pigs!  The Lemon-Lime was my favorite, since I love lemon everything.  Each bit of all of the flavors were filled with their flavored juice, whether that be berry, apple, lemon, or orange.  The apple had a sweet juice flavor and not sour, the lingonberry was surprisingly a tad spicy with a berry flavor, the lemon was lemony with a hint of lime, and the orange tasted just like biting into an orange fruit and was a bit citrusy.  

If I had to pick, the pigs and the frogs would tie for first.  I love the soft and fluffy gummy textures and the flavors were delicious.  The fish were also very enjoyable of course, and the lemon-lime fish definitely took first place.  I love gummies more than anything so all of these were top choices for me!  They're all juicy, delicious, and lovely and will bring a smile to any Anti-Valentine's day fans out there.  Make any Valentine's day hater into a Valentine's day lover by feeding them these sweet gummies and they'll love you forever!  Thanks for letting me review these tasty treats, Sugarfina!

Sour Punch - Punchies

There's nothing more that I love than Sour Candy.  Sour Punch belts and straws have always been one of my personal favorites.  I like the Strawberry and Watermelon flavors the best.  So when I found out that Sour Punch made another product called Punchies, I knew I had to try them!  My friends at American Licorice Co. were sweet enough to send me some to review.  As soon as I got them in the mail, I had to try them immediately and loved them!

Punchies come in 5 different flavors:

Lemon

Strawberry

Tangerine

Blue Raspberry

Green Apple

I tried each one by one and even mixed the flavors for a fun and delicious twist.  Punchies are soft and chewy, super tart, and definitely sour!  I didn't know what to expect at first and thought they would be mini sour belts, but they were small circular shaped candies, with cute little faces on each one, and were super colorful.  

I first tried the lemon flavor, and as you may or may not know, lemon is typically always my go to flavor for candy or sweets.  One bite in, my taste buds took in the tart flavor and my mind thought I was taking a bite out of a real lemon because it was so juicy, flavorful and sour.  The lemon definitely reminded me of Lemon Heads, which I love, so this was absolutely my favorite flavor.

Strawberry was also delicious.  After a few bites, I could taste a fresh but sour strawberry in my mouth, and I thought I was eating a strawberry sour belt, minus the outside coating of sugar.  The aftertaste was  amazing since the fresh strawberry juice stuck with me.

Eating the tangerine tasted like I was sipping on a tangerine orange juice.  Super juicy, super sour, and super tart.

Next was the blue raspberry.  There was mostly a blueberry flavor with a hint of raspberry.  As with the others, this was extremely tart and sour.  

Lastly was the green apple.  This one tasted just like the green apple sour belts.  The strong and tart apple flavor mixed with sourness was just mouthwatering and made me want to pick some more green apples off of the tree and keep eating!

Eating these flavors solo or mixing them are both amazing decisions to make.  I'd definitely recommend these for any candy lover, especially sour connoisseurs like me!  My favorite mix was Strawberry and Lemon to make Strawberry Lemonade!  So sweet, tart, juicy, and flavorful.  Go buy some, you will not be disappointed.  Thanks Sour Punch for making my day that much sour, but in a good way!

Hot Chocolate Run 15k

First blog post of 2014!  That being said, note that my new motto is I only run for chocolate.  This week, I ran my first 15k and I did it all for the chocolate.  Previously, the longest I've ever ran was about 4 miles, and if you were unaware, a 15k is 9.3 miles.  I pushed myself to the limit and was able to build up my endurance to 9.3 miles and ran like the wind on race day, completed my goal, and got to eat chocolate.

My very good friend originally asked me to run this with her, and thought it'd be a great accomplishment for us both and would make the perfect blog post.  And now here I am, writing my blog post about my hot cocoa journey.  What drew me to the race obviously that it was called the Hot Chocolate Run.  There were only two options for lengths of the race, either a 5k or a 15k.  My friend and I decided to challenge ourselves and go for the 15k.  Although we were nervous, we did it!  

The day before the race, we got a few of our race goodies, including a black running jacket that says Hot Chocolate 5/15k run, our hot chocolate running bibs, and an adorable mug that says I only run for chocolate.  We made sure to eat a hearty dinner and get some good rest the night before.  

The morning of the race was so bitter cold outside, but after I started running, I of course warmed up.  I was so happy to be sporting my hot cocoa running bib and couldn't wait to receive my winnings afterwards.  During the race, all I could think about was finishing and getting my hot cocoa.  

To my surprise, after I crossed that finish line, I went straight to pick up my finisher's mug, which was so adorable!  It was a big brown mug that said America's Sweetest Race on one side and Hot Chocolate 5/15k on the other.  The best part was that the giant plastic mug was comprised of little sections, that included sweet treats in each spot, such as dipping chocolate!  It was a mini fondue kit, were the runners could dip their pretzels, banana, wafer, marshmallow, and Rice Krispie treat into the smooth and creamy melted chocolate.  And of course, in the center of it all was my own personal cup of hot cocoa.  I was so hungry after the race that I scarfed it all down as fast as I could and enjoyed every bite.  Not only did I complete 9.3 miles in the wee hours in the morning, I also was a finisher for America's Sweetest Race, and could not be more proud!  If you get the chance, definitely attend the Hot Chocolate Run!