Lighting the Way

October 10, 2024 steveboilard3 Comments

Why are lighthouses so spooky? Because they’re lonely outposts on the edge of civilization? Set amid rocky cliffs and dangerous waves? Because they’re relics of a bygone age? I’m sure all these factors contribute to the eerie mystique of lighthouses, but for me it’s largely because I’ve seen so many movies where they are at the center of something spooky or sinister. Examples include The Lighthouse (2019), The Vanishing (2018), Lighthouse (1999), and Tormented (1960). (This last one I can’t really recommend, unless you’re under the influence.)

Anyway, today I found myself at the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, just south of Fort Bragg. Some (such as this random person on Trip Advisor) claim this lighthouse and its associated buildings are haunted. If I apply my SpookFilter (TM) to the photo I took this morning (thus converting it to black and white), it does give off a bit of a spooky vibe.

*Point Cabrillo Lighthouse: home to ghosts?*

What, you don’t agree? Allow me to turn up the SpookFilter a few more notches:

The Point Cabrillo Lighthouse dates back to 1909, and is located near the community of Caspar (which is almost the same as Casper). So there’s that.

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to survive my harrowing visit to the otherworldly Tower of Satan that is Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, and I can now present you with today’s Treat Review. Let’s open a bag of Ghirardelli Pumpkin Spice Caramels!

Ghirardelli is a storied name in the Bay Area, where I grew up. Domenico Ghirardelli was an Italian entrepreneur who came out to California in 1849 as part of the first wave of the Gold Rush. After trying his hand at prospecting for a few months, he shifted to selling supplies and candies to the miners at a store in Stockton and, a little later, in San Francisco. Incredibly, both of his stores burned down within a few days of each other in 1851. Undeterred, the following year Ghirardelli opened a “Chocolate Manufactory” in San Francisco. His company has been in continuous operation to this day.

I’ve always liked Ghirardelli chocolate. The milk chocolate in particular is creamy, rich, smooth, and mellow. Ghirardelli claims to be one of the very few chocolate manufacturers to control every aspect of its manufacturing process. It has a reputation for high and exacting quality. So my expectations for these Halloween/Fall treats are set high!

Conceptual Soundness: They’ve taken their famous milk chocolate, molded it into little flat squares, and filled them with a caramel-pumpkin spice treacle that oozes out when you bite into it. Each is individually wrapped. It’s an attractive treat that’s portable and indulgent. What’s not to like? 4 points.

Appearance of the Treat: Each square is individually wrapped in a foil wrapper with an attractive fall design. The background color is chocolate-brown.

Unwrap one, and you see that the chocolate is imprinted with the Ghirardelli name and logo,which is a nice touch. The edges of the square are a raised frame. The whole thing feels very classy and high-quality. Appearance definitely earns 4 points.

Taste: These squares are a pleasure to eat. The texture is creamy-smooth, but there’s still a good “snap” as you take a bite. Then the chocolate and the filling literally melt in you mouth. The size is ideal for a little after-meal indulgence.

I wasn’t expecting to like the pumpkin spice/caramel filling as much as I did. My low expectations no doubt come from my experience with the Starbucks PSL. It seems that anyone and everyone slaps the “pumpkin spice” label on whatever dreck they’re offering.

Now, Ghirardelli’s use of the word “luscious” to describe the filling seems a little over-the top, but I have to admit it’s delicious. They use “natural pumpkin flavor,” and I definitely detect some cinnamon and nutmeg. This is not the cloying, chemical-y taste that you’d find in Torani syrup or Starbucks drinks. Instead, this filling actually reminds me of pumpkin pie. The caramel, meanwhile, is smooth and low-viscosity, which ensures a good mouthfeel. Let’s give the taste 4 points!

Value: Here’s where the other shoe drops. A 9 oz. bag of these costs about $11 at Safeway. That works out to about $1.22 per ounce, which compares unfavorably to most of the other candies we’ve reviewed. (For example, yesterday’s Russell Stover’s pumpkin was about 76 cents per ounce.) Of course, one expects to pay for quality. Let’s split the difference and award 2 points for value.

Total Treat Score: 14/16 points.

Devil Eyez

October 10, 2024October 12, 2024 steveboilard3 Comments

I made a little visit to Russian Gulch State Park on California’s north coast. Among its highlights is something called “the Devil’s Punchbowl,” which is my Halloween tie-in of the day. It seems there’s a natural tunnel that runs under the park from the ocean side, and it somehow found an outlet through a vertical shaft up to the surface. Ocean water boils up through this opening at high tide. Sadly, the tide was out when I visited. But here’s a photo ripped from the California State Parks website:

With a name like Devil’s Punchbowl, this place is naturally said to be haunted. You can find a number of ghost stories online, but be aware there are many places called the Devil’s Punchbowl, both in California and beyond. As an aside, the name “Devil’s Punchbowl” reminds me of the Devil’s Gate Dam in southern California, which I reviewed four years ago.

As is typical for me, attention was drawn from the Punchbowl to something a little less sinister: The Frederick W. Panhorst Bridge, which carries CA Route 1 traffic 100 feet above the surface of the ocean near the Devil’s Punchbowl. Built in 1940, this bridge is made of poured concrete and is over 500 feet long. The bridge looks completely boring and nondescript when viewed through your car window as you drive over it. But if you get down under the bridge, as I did, you can appreciate its classic beauty.

*“Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my closeup.”*

My research found that this bridge was constructed as a WPA project. As with most WPA projects, I appreciate that the designers combined functionality with aesthetics. The latter consideration seems to be lacking in so much modern transportation infrastructure.

But let’s get back to Halloween. The day ended up getting away from me, so I’ve enlisted loyal reader Victor R. to provide our Halloween treat review. You may recall his review of a Halloween cookie during our October 2020 treat review suite. He now offers something especially ~~disgusting~~ interesting. Enjoy!

VICTOR R’S GUEST REVIEW:

I visited the Nibblers Popcorn Company store in the Town Center shopping center in El Dorado Hills today. Nibblers has been open since 2018 and is operated by the Sweeney family, specializing in gourmet popcorns (fancy popcorns like cheddar cheese, parmesan garlic or buffalo wing), and a wide variety of candies (such as classic candy bars, gummy fruits and bubble gum). My wife Peg suggested that, since I was hunting for a great seasonal treat, I should check out Nibblers and I’m happy to say that, after a less-than-satisfying pumpkin ice cream “treat” at Handel’s Ice Cream Parlor in Folsom, I took her advice and visited it.
First off, kudos to Nibblers for really getting into the Halloween spirit (see the decorations below). You really feel like it’s Halloween when you walk into the store. The decorations, tons of candy, and the model train that runs laps around the inside of the store make you feel like a kid again. The only difference is now you don’t have to ask your parents if you can buy a bunch of candy…you just pull out the old plastic pass to poverty (a.k.a., your credit card), cross your fingers that your purchase won’t be declined, and voila—off you go with your pile of sugary treats!!

*This guy eats here all the time, which is why they gave him an official Nibblers*
*Popcorn Company shirt to wear!*

While at the store, I looked over any number of treats, some of which were seasonally focused, and settled on Herbert’s Best “Gummi Eyez” which, according to the box, are spooky and have an “oozing sour center”. We all know how appealing it is to eat eyeballs, and if they have oozing sour centers, well…who wouldn’t want to try that? So, I bought a pair and took them home for a test run.

*With eyes like that, you’ll think twice before doing any carving on this Jack-O’-Lantern!*

Conceptual Soundness: I think combining jack-o’-lanterns, spooky eyes and gummy bears is a great idea. The jack-o’-lantern is very seasonal of course, but what would make you think more of Halloween than eating a couple of Eyez? And this is a perfect time to tip our hats to Herbert Mederer, who, since 1984, has specialized in making all kinds of gummies. Thanks to his leadership, gummies have become extremely popular in this country, even among folks who don’t insist that their gummies include hemp. It’s a good concept to tie Gummi’s to Halloween, so I’ll give it the full 4 points.

Appearance of the Treat: First off, using a jack-o’-lantern as the packaging for the Eyez is the perfect presentation for the season. Each eye looks very realistic, with a white sclera and a green eyeball. While only a small portion of people have green eyes, the green creates a perfect look for Halloween. I do think they could have made the eyes bloodshot, so I’m going to give it 3.5 points for appearance.

Taste: As you saw, the packaging makes a point of saying that the Eyez have “oozing sour centers”. Well, they do have sour centers which are cherry flavor, but they don’t ooze (which would lend more authenticity to it since I’m guessing the red center, along with being cherry, is supposed to represent blood). And the centers are only a little sour, which was a surprise and a little bit disappointing. Since it’s a Gummi, it does have the spongy feel of what you imagine a real eyeball would feel like, so thumbs up for that. As a Gummi treat, it was pretty tasty. I’m going to give it 3 points for taste.

*There’s nothing like a tasty eyeball to top off a great meal!*

Value: One package of two Gummi Eyez is only $2.95, which I think is a heck of a deal! When you think about how expensive it is to buy…well, anything anymore, $2.95 for a scary Halloween treat has to rank as one of the better values you’ll find anywhere. I’m going to give it 4 points for value.

Total Treat Score: 14.5 points/16 points. I suggest that, if you’re anywhere near El Dorado Hills, visit Nibblers and pick up your own set of Gummi Eyez. (You can also buy Herbert’s Best treats on Amazon, but that’s way too easy)!

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Dime-Store Delicacy

October 9, 2024October 9, 2024 steveboilardLeave a comment

Before we launch into today’s review, let me share a spooky discovery that’s appropriate for the season.

I am currently visiting the town of Mendocino (pop: 731) on California’s northern coast. Today I happened upon a forlorn place called Evergreen Cemetery. Despite its lush-sounding name, Evergreen occupies a couple of dusty acres of arid land and dead weeds on the edge of town.

“*Nevergreen” Cemetery. (I decided to present my photo in black and white to make it spookier.)*

Off to one side of the cemetery is an interesting grave marker: It’s a stone column maybe three feet in diameter, which has the appearance of being truncated by some kind of earthquake or act of vandalism. Upon closer inspection, it seems the marker was designed merely to look like the top had broken off. I guess it was an artistic choice.

The inscription on the marker reads:

Cinderella P. Rueckert

Died

Oct. 7, 1921

Now that’s an interesting name, on an interesting marker, for someone who died almost exactly 103 years ago. I figured I’d research the back story.

*I couldn’t find her obit; just this legal notice she placed as “executrix” after her husband died.*

It seems Cinderella was her real name (her mother is said to have been a fan of fairy tales), and she was born in 1840 (exact date unknown) in Illinois (city unknown). She came to Mendocino and married a watchman at the local sawmill in 1875. She was widowed in 1888, and supposedly inherited a small fortune. She spent her remaining 33 years living in a house the street from the cemetery, selling apples from her trees to passersby.

*Cinderella’s house still stands today!*

Now, here’s the spooky part: She was a ghost! Sort of. We now turn to the Kelley House Museum website for details:

“A Swedish lumberman…liked to use Evergreen Cemetery as a shortcut home from town. He would become inebriated and sing at the top of his lungs in the middle of the night passing Cinderella’s home. She got so irritated she found a newly-dug grave awaiting a burial service the next day, bedecked herself in a sheet, then crouched in the grave awaiting the wandering drunk. She popped out of the grave whooping and screaming, and you can be sure the man never shortcut through the graveyard again.”

Let me end with a photo from the back deck of my hotel. I tell you, this is one of the eeriest towns I’ve visited outside of Pennsylvania!

Now it’s time to get down to business. Today we’re checking out the “Happy Halloween Russell Stover Pumpkin Caramel.” Or at least that’s how I read the jumble of words scattered across the packaging.

Alert readers will recall that we’ve examined Russell Stover “confections” in the past. But this Caramel version seems to have escaped our notice. Until now. Let’s apply our rating rubric!

Conceptual Soundness: Russell Stover Candies began in 1923 as “Mrs. Stover’s Bungalow Candies,” and specialized in selling boxed chocolates brings bargain prices. This was just two years after See’s Candy was launched. I can’t find any information about their rivalry, but I’ve always felt that Russell Stover’s is the cheaper, everyman candy. Where See’s sells through an exclusive network of their own stores, Russell Stover’s seems to be available at every drugstore in the country. That in itself would appear to be a legit marketing strategy, trading exclusivity for ubiquity.

*Mrs. Stover’s actual bungalow, in Kansas City, around 1930.*

This particular candy is part of Russell Stover’s pumpkin series. They are chocolate pumpkin shapes filled with different kinds of gooey candy. They are clearly marketed for Halloween, sold individually at a reasonable price, and decorated with an illustration of a smiling jack o’lantern. Overall, it’s a solid concept. 4 points.

Appearance of the Treat: It’s your standard Russell Stover’s foil packaging. It features a nose-less, buck-toothed pumpkin with an expression like Don Knotts in his dotage. It’s not exactly an image suitable for Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, but it is colorful and evocative of Halloween.

But then you remove the packaging and are faced with the candy itself. I know I’ve ranted about this in the past, but it bears repeating: there is an inexcusable, possibly criminal, disconnect between the image on the package and the actual product within. This brown blob is evocative of meconium. 1 point.

Taste. I have to admit, this is a toothsome Halloween candy. There’s a satisfying crack of the chocolate shell when you first bite into it, and then there’s the pleasant mouthfeel as you masticate the chocolate together with the caramel filling. That caramel is surprisingly tasty, without the chemical notes that one often associates with cheap drugstore candy. It’s got a bit of a Snickers vibe going on, without the nuts. I’ll give it 3.5 points.

Value. These are a buck each at our local CVS. What other chocolate-adjacent candy product could you get for that price? Most of the similar candies weigh in at just ounce, so this gives you 30 percent more candy. I’m sure you’d get tired of eating these all the time, but as a single treat, $1 is a definite bargain. 4 points.

Total Treat Score: 11.5/16 points

Get one today! Chances are they’re available within walking distance of wherever you are!

2024 Halloween treats · Halloween candy

Skull Candy

October 8, 2024October 8, 2024 steveboilardLeave a comment

When I was a little brat growing up in the 1960s, the Easter Bunny (aka my mom) would always leave me an Easter basket filled with candy. I remember one year the basket contained (among other things) a marshmallow chick. As I recall, it was a reasonably detailed depiction, in bright yellow, with a distinct head and body, poised on little toothpick legs. I marveled at it…and then I bit its head off.

A few years later I discovered Peeps, which are extruded marshmallows roughly approximating the shape of a chick. They have no legs, no distinct segments. In fact, a package of five are technically just one big marshmallow, shaped in such a way to suggest five separate chicks that can be separated at the narrow isthmuses that connect them. They do not come close to the magical creature that Mom put in my Easter basket.

Peeps, I’ve learned, have been around since the 1950s…and the guy who created the “modern” Peep in 1954 just died, at age 98, last year. Today, the Peeps line has expanded to include bunnies, Christmas trees, and now skulls for Halloween.

OK, I’m game. Let’s review the little squishy brainpans see how they, uh, pan out.

Conceptual Soundness. Like cotton candy, marshmallows are a pretty simple candy without a lot of visual appeal. But Bob Born had the vision to mold them into festive shapes and festoon them with color and decorations. It’s a pretty good concept. 3 points.

Appearance of the Treat: The skulls are sold six to a box. The color palette employed on the box is an odd choice for a Halloween-themed confection. The bright green package with yellow and white accents has a springtime, Easter vibe. Perhaps the good folks at Peeps are just so rooted in their chicks origins that they can’t escape Easter pastels. But I think it creates an uncomfortable dissonance with the skull-shaped marshmallows.

But wait! These skulls are festively decorated in a distinct Dia de los Muertos pattern. In fact, they look like calaveras de azúcar–the sugar skulls that are inextricably associated with the Mexican holiday. Check it out:

It gets me wondering if these are not so much intended for Halloween, but rather are meant as a nod to the Day of the Dead. Even though Dia de Los Muertos is sometimes referred to by philistines as “Mexican Halloween,” the two holidays are not interchangeable. Me, I’d prefer something a little spookier than a brightly-colored skull that resembles Joel Grey from Cabaret. Still, the Peeps design is colorful and well-executed. Let’s give it 3 points.

Taste: Basically, it’s just a marshmallow. But the outside has been sprinkled with fine sugar, which delivers a gritty though not unpleasant sensation. More importantly, the outer “skin” of the marshmallow is somewhat firmer than the gooey center, resisting your bite for a millisecond before yielding with a satisfying snap. It makes for a great mouthfeel. On the other hand, the taste itself is pretty uninteresting–just that saccharine, cloying sweetness you associate with classic marshmallows. Let’s give it 2.5 points.

Value: A box of these will cost you $1 at Rite Aid. That works out to 17 cents per skull. What else could deliver so much visual and gustatory entertainment at that price? 4 points.

Total Treat Score: 12.5/16 points. This is much better than I thought they’d score. What’s more, they each have no fat and only 47 calories, so they’re practically a health food!

Do yourself a favor and eat a box of them today.

2024 Halloween treats · Halloween candy

Witches Brew

October 7, 2024October 6, 2024 steveboilard4 Comments

Or should that be “Witches’ brew”???

In any case, I can’t read those words without thinking of this cartoon.

But the reason we’re discussing this is because Fluffy Stuff’s Witches Brew Cotton Candy is our treat of the day. Modern cotton candy was invented by a dentist (I’m not making this up) in 1897. It’s known as “candy floss” in the UK, and in France it goes by the rather disgusting sobriquet “daddy’s beard.”

Conceptual Soundness: Cotton candy strikes me as one of those accidental inventions that no one ever asked for, but which was widely embraced nonetheless. Objectively, there’s nothing especially appealing about eating pure sugar that’s been spun into something with the shape and texture of a dryer lint. But there’s something magical about the sensation of biting off a hunk of cotton candy and immediately feeling it melt into nothingness in your mouth. Its fun factor is further enhanced by its association with fairs and circuses and childhood. Let’s give it the full 4 points.

Appearance of the Treat. This product is sold in a foil bag featuring the silhouette of a slim and possibly hot witch, a black cat with Anime eyes, and scary “Witches brew” lettering. But open the bag and you see that this looks even more like dryer lint than you’d thought possible. It has a disgusting, dirty color and texture. Zero points.

*This is an unretouched photograph of the actual “treat” once removed from the bag.*

*By way of comparison: Here’s some actual dryer lint. To my eye, it looks slightly more appealing than the cotton candy.*

Taste: Not only does it look like dryer lint; it also tastes like it. Zero points.

Value: It was only a buck for a 2.1 ounce bag. Which isn’t bad. If you actually wanted to eat it. Which I don’t. Zero points.

Total Treat Score: 4/16 points

But wait! There’s a slight chance of redemption available from the “Witches Brew Berry Magic Punch” recipe on the back of the bag. Combine 1 cup cotton candy, 1/2 cup berry sparkling water, and 1/2 cup cran-raspberry juice. Watch the video:

Back to the drawing board…