June 2021 Journal + Kaffre talks Candy #60

Welcome back, loyal journal-readers to my (somewhat delayed) June Journal!

As it happens though, there really isn't much to talk about - I finished Season 1 of the excellent 'Promised Neverland' near the start of the month (surprised to discover that it's considered a Shonen series) and have just started 'Heaven's Design Bureau' which doesn't exactly have a 'plot' per se, but the first few episodes were, as predicted, cute and pretty funny. In other anime/manga related news, the official release for the 2nd 'Made in Abyss' Anthology: A Dangerous Hole' releases tomorrow so I'll probably be ordering it soon along with Volume 9 which I was unable to purchase locally due to being under lockdown the last few months.

Another thing I wanted to talk about is that, between receiving my final KS reward for 'Golden Sky Stories' and backing 'Magical Kitties Save the Day', I've also been thinking about my long neglected Babyfur RPG once again. As I've noted in the past, one of my obstacles is that I have a very narrow 'sweet spot' when it comes to 'crunch' in my RPGs - my favourites tend to be those games whose rules are sophisticated enough to represent the situations in which characters find themselves with a degree of detail that I find enjoyable (arbitrary as that maybe) while still giving the GM and players latitude in how the situations are represented and resolved - 'tightly designed' systems like D&D 4e or PF2 feel more like a straightjacket and not in a good way! That said, I think I'm at the limit of what I can do just by thinking about mechanics and will be trying to put out another simple playtest soon so that I can get a feel for what works and doesn't work in practice.

Anyway, I guess that about covers this month's journal thanks for taking the time to read it over and comment *hugs* and now, without further ado, I proudly present: Kaffre talks Candy

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Kaffre talks Candy #60

Name: Clove Chewing Gum
Manufacturer: Gerrit J Verburg Co.
Size: 12.5 gram pack
Where Purchased: Dollar Tree
Descriptions: Consists of 5 sticks of white chewing them that are individually wrapped.
Opinion: A vintage gum I learned about while researching Beeman's and Black Jack. The gum was quite brittle and smelled strongly of cloves. The flavour was very pleasant, but subtle and not particularly long-lasting. Overall, I thought this gum was quite good and would definitely consider purchasing it again in the future.

Name: Coffee Crisp, Double-Double
Manufacturer: Nestle
Size: 50 gram bar
Where Purchased: Dollarama
Description: Consists of a single large coffee-flavoured wafer cookie coated in chocolate. The bar itself is blocky and plain-looking from the outside. This one was slightly melted.
Opinion: An item I saw and decided to sample. This featured a sweet and pleasantly crispy coffee-flavoured wafer paired with sweet milk chocolate, but while it did a good job reminding me how much I love Coffee Crisp, I can't really say it tasted any different to me than the regular variety - that's not to say it's a bad product, but I can't say I'd go out of my way to choose this over the standard bar.

Name: Hershey's Birthday Cake Bar
Manufacturer: Hershey's
Size: 39 gram bar.
Where Purchased: Dollar Tree
Description: Consists of a slender bar of white chocolate with sprinkles embedded in it. The bar is vaguely divided up into five vaguely ice-cream cone shaped sections.
Opinion: A product I'd occasionally seen targeted ads for and decided to sample. The bar has a strong vanilla flavour that is indeed reminiscent of cake frosting (though based on the marketing, it sounds like the bar was inspired by an ice cream flavour inspired by cake) and the sprinkles do lend a bit of texture, but a bit sweeter than I would have preferred. Overall, I liked this bar and would definitely consider buying it again.

Name: Lays Magic Masala Chips
Manufacturer: Lays
Size: 165 gram bag
Where Purchased: Shopper's Drug Mart
Description: This product consists of ridged potato chips with a deep red-orange cast due to the flavourings used. Indian inspired, but 'masala' apparently just refers to any spice blend and isn't helpful.
Opinion: A 'New' product, I decided to sample. The chips' most prominent feature is 'heat' but it's rather different from 'barbecue' or 'jalapeno' in that it has a savouriness as well a slight bitterness and something I can't quite identify (possibly mango powder). Overall, I thought this was an interesting flavour, I found the lingering heat just a bit too much for me and I am unlikely to purchase them again.

Name: Tim Horton's Coffee Bar (Dark Roast)
Manufacturer: The Whole Coffee Company LCC
Size: 38 gram bar
Where Purchased: Giant Tiger
Description: Consists of a bar of caffeinated chocolate divided into three sections each adorned with a relief of a coffee bean. contains 36 milligrams of caffeine.
Opinion: Another coffee bar I decided to try this one Dark Roast flavoured. While I expected this bar to be less sweet than the other varieties I sampled, it was a bit of a surprise that it wasn't really bitter either. It had a coffee flavour to be sure, but overall was the least interesting of the three flavours though I should qualify this by stating that I am in no way a coffee connoisseur and there may well be nuances I was unable to appreciate or even detect. Even so, not a bad product and I would consider it again should I require a caffeinated chocolate.