Name: Super Cucharazo
Origin: Mexico
Found at: Bodega R Ranch, Tustin
Cost: $1.49
Ingredients:
Sugar, Corn Syrup, Chili, Citric Acid, Iodized Salt, Artificial Flavor, Xanthan Gum and Artificial Color (FD&C Red 40.
Why I Bought It:
Spoons! As candies go, this, my friends, is the wackiest, found in a store that has given me a bounty of wacky candies, like last year's Salsaghetti. And like the latter, this is a Mexican treat, but look at it! It comes slathered on a spoon! Cuchara, is of course, the Spanish word for the utensil.
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Tasting Notes:
Like a spicy fruit roll up. Bold, salty, sour, with a chili kick lacing every lick. Tamarind is a woefully under-appreciated ingredient anywhere north of the equator, especially in candy form, but these were delicious. I don't know why the ingredient isn't listed anywhere in the list. Have they found a way to duplicate the flavor and texture without it?
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.