Ah, Jolly Ranchers.  Every person of a certain age who grew up in Colorado has a bit of hometown pride attached to the brand.  Started in Golden by two locals in 1949, the company was sold to Hershey in 1996, though the factory that made the glossy candies here stuck…

What you might have missed on this week’s Cafe Society…The much anticipated Pho on 6th opened, along with Olivea and Otto’s Grill.We got to the root of owner Justin Cucci’s dismissal of Root Down’s executive chef, Ryan Leinonen.Jason Sheehan geeked out with the Geeks Who Drink and fought a pack…

A year ago, we came to you with a simple pink maltball that tasted like Barbie, and the Candy Girls were born.  In addition to this momentous anniversary, Aubrey has even bigger news to commemorate with the birth of her baby boy last night!  What better way to celebrate the concurrence…

What you might have missed this week…Jason Sheehan asks readers to chime in on the best last place to take your significant other.  Do you have a better restaurant to suggest for a break-up date?The team at Duo, rated Westword’s best New American Restaurant 2009, will be opening Olivea this…

Hershey posted a timeline of the Zero candy bar on its website that reads, in its entirety: 1920 Zero launched by Hollywood Brands 1996 Acquired by HersheyThe site also mentions, without further explanation, that Zero has had a loyal customer base since 1931. How the bar stuck around for eleven…

What you might have missed this week on Cafe Society…Cafe Star has reopened as a second Trattoria Stella, while Park Burger is still on the back burner and a new Santoro’s is on the way.As if you need another excuse to buy that burrito bowl you love so much–drop into…

“Sour gummy” is usually a good place for a candy to start.  But when it’s followed by “popcorn,” that presents a bit of a problem.  It gets slightly better with the promise that the gummies are fruit-flavored…then slightly worse with the warning that one of the fruit flavors is, in…

Things you might have missed this week in Cafe Society:   If you feel passionately about whether Steuben’s qualifies as a diner, don’t miss your opportunity to let Jason Sheehan know where he should send Guy Fieri when he comes to town for his show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  …

This hardly needs a review, does it?…

What you might have missed this week in Cafe Society:Spring has sprung — Denver style.  That makes for some snowy farmers’ markets and a chilly Taste of Vail.   The sun is peeking out a bit for the opening weekend of baseball and Rockies fans’ fav stadium bar.   Jason…

Starting a cupcake shop in Denver raises some obvious concerns: Will an already cupcake-crazed city welcome yet another baker of tiny cakes?  And if so, how do you distinguish yourself from the others?  Kathleen Nevin, owner of Big Fat Cupcake, had a clear vision of creating big cupcakes with superior ingredients,…

In case you missed it…Marczyk’s is bringing aboard pastry chef John Hinman. Brownies, blondies, whoopie pies and bacon-chocolate chip cookies coming soon.  Hawaiian plate lunch comes to Boulder, ruined by hippies.  The International Association of Culinary Professionals conference is in town.  Our bloggers make some recommendations for dining, including mandatory ethnic joints…

We’ll admit it: Big Lots on Broadway has been a go-to spot for Candy Girl “treasures” in the past, so we have a fondness for that bit of real estate. But we were in for a completely different kind of treat when we were invited to taste test the Amarena…

This nostalgic little confection comes out of St. Louis Joseph, Missouri, where it’s manufactured by the Chase Candy Company. While not a Denver candy staple, these guys do show up on our shelves now and again. If you’ve traveled through the Midwest, chances are you’ve seen these red-and-white packages peeking…

Rocky Road bar is one of those candies you might often see on the shelf, but never think to pick up. With its shiny red wrapper and straightforward name, it’s easy to think you’ve got this bar all figured out, but the Candy Girls know that appearances can be deceiving…

We have pretty much given up on Reese’s products that aren’t Reese’s cups. The story is getting old: Reese’s cups = delicious, Reese’s cup variants = eh. But as fate would have it, a colleague recently took a tour of the Hershey factory, where he purchased and brought back for us a…

The lure of the “New!” tag is hard to resist, even when the candy to which it’s affixed seems somewhat appalling.  Like chewy ice cream.  This is yet another instance where we don’t think the candy designers thought very hard about the flavor/texture combination they were creating.  Otherwise how would…

You know your Sunday will be filled with copious amounts of chips, dip, beer and maybe even a snack food stadium (if you’re so lucky), so why not start training for the big event now?  A great place to start would be The Spicy Pickle at 1298 South Broadway.  In…

What’s not to love about a Reese’s peanut butter cup product?  Even when the effort is lazy,  the end result is still delicious.  Something about the saltiness of the peanut butter melting with the sweetness of the milk chocolate…home run every time.  Even though we know it’s hard to improve…

We Candy Girls do love us a good gummy candy, so the Starburst GummiBursts seemed like a promising choice. Starburst as a brand has proven to have a strong-enough flavor that it transfers itself with some success to other types of candy; the Starburst jellybeans, for example, are favorites for…

  When a good friend returned from her semester abroad in Australia our junior year of college, she brought with her something that would forever change our lives: Arnott’s Tim Tam biscuits.  They seemed simple enough in concept–a chocolate sandwich cookie, filled with chocolate cream, and enrobed in more chocolate–but there was something about…