Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Gourmet Lollipops - They're Not Just For Kids

There's something satisfying and comforting about a lollipop. It brings us back to our childhoods while letting us take a mini break from our daily, hectic adult lives. Luckily the sweet treat has emerged into something that appeals to adult tastes and trends. It's not just a fruit flavor kiddie sucker anymore.

Lollipops in some form or another have been around since pre historic times. Cavemen routinely put something sweet such as honey on a twig and ate it. During the Middle Ages , candies was placed on small sticks and eaten. Later boiled sugar treats were favored in the American colonies and then in 1908 the modern lollipop was born. Both California and Wisconsin can lay claim to it. A Russian immigrant, Samuel Born, made a automated lollipop machine around the same time as the Racine Confectioners Machinery Company did. The last was known for making up to forty pops per minute.

Today candy companies have gone a step further and introduced all sorts of interesting flavors to the lollipop. Instead of the usual fruit flavors such as grape or cherry, they now come in banana, chocolate mint, bubble gum, cinnamon, cotton candy and root beer float. For real foodies there's Chupa Chups, those Spanish lollies that were first made in Barcelona, Spain fifty years ago and became a worldwide sensation. This favorite of Madonna's has different tastes such as cola , chocolate and vanilla. For a really wicked treat try Lollyphile's absinthe lollipops(they also sell maple bacon flavored ones too). They are candies made with that taboo liquor absinthe (the same one that practically did in poet Oscar Wilde). You won't get the same hallucinatory kick as sipping a glass but you'll feel something. There are also margarita lollies (covered in salt) and tequilas ones complete with a worm in them from the online candy company Lollies Galore.

Foodies everywhere - indulge your inner child with one of these grown up suckers. They not only fun but kind of naughty in a good way!

You can order the absinthe lollies at www.lollyphile.com. Tequila and margarita lollies can be bought at www.lolliesgalore.com