comedy

Starburst And Skittles Are Releasing Spicy Versions Of Their Signature Candies And People Don’t Know How To Feel

By May 26, 2017 at 6:18 pm
Instyle / Wrigley / Cassy Athena / Youtube

Sometimes companies need to spice things up in order to get buzz going for their products. It seems Starburst and Skittles took that advice and literally made spicy versions of their famous treats. The spicy treats were announced today by several food and snack outlets like the Today Show’s food related Twitter account @TODAYFood.

Starburst and Skittles, both of which are candy brands of the Wrigley company under Mars Inc., revealed that they would be releasing “sweet heat” versions of their world famous snacks.

Sweet and spicy do often go together, think Mango con chile.. but in candy form? Hmm… interesting. ?

Sports Illustrated tweeted about the spicy treats for some reason, and that’s when the hilarious reactions started.

“Wtf is this” tweeted @maxeiumus who was obviously confused about probably 1. Why was Sports Illustrated tweeting about this? And 2. Why would Skittles and Starburst make spicy candy?

Some of the gifs used to skewer the candy announcement were perfect.

This tweet was well thought out, using the always-appropriate James Harden gif to underscore making fun of both Sports Illustrated and the candies. I guess this Twitter user wasn’t feeling like tasting the spicy rainbow.

Some Twitter users weren’t having it at all, though.

For this Twitter user, it wasn’t “why?” Or given the James Harden side eye, it was just straight up “no.”

Others felt this way about the snack, too. No comedy. No jokes. Just “nah, fam.”

?‍♂️

This Twitter user wanted answers.

Like “Hello, can I speak to the manager, please?”

This person couldn’t even fathom why the candy company would do such a thing.

“Why on earth would anyone want spicy skittles or starburst ?” @officiallyamber pondered on Twitter.

Not to be outdone Krispy Kreme made an announcement about making moves in the candy game, too.

The spicy treats drop later this year and are being shown this week at the Candy Expo in Chicago. According to People magazine they’re coming out in a bunch of flavors.

“The Skittles flavors include Fiery Watermelon, Blazin’ Mango, Flamin’ Orange, Sizzlin’ Strawberry and Lemon Spark, while the Starburst are similarly flavored with Fiery Watermelon, Strawberry Mango, Flamin’ Orange and Pipin’ Pineapple. Both start at $0.99 per single pack and go up to $3.19 for a laydown bag. “

Everyone needs a Flamin’ Orange every now and again, right? ?

[H/T] Today

READ: Misconception: Not All Latinos Can Handle Spicy Food And Here’s Why

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Load Your Tacos Up With Hot Sauce Because A New Study Shows That Eating Chilies Is Good For Your Health

Culture

Load Your Tacos Up With Hot Sauce Because A New Study Shows That Eating Chilies Is Good For Your Health

By December 19, 2019 at 9:59 am
BY  | December 19, 2019 AT 9:59 am
Unsplash

Chilies have been hailed as a holy grail food by many for its flavor and mythic health properties. Now, researches in Italy have found that consuming chilies as a part of your regular diet can lower the risk of death from stroke and heart disease.

Researchers monitored almost 23,000 people’s health status and eating habits for over eight years. Using data pulled from the Moli-sani study which has 25,000 participants from the Molise region of southern Italy. The study found that the risk of dying from a heart attack was lower by a whopping 40 percent among the participants who reported eating chili peppers four times a week at least. The risk of death from stroke was lowered by over 50 percent.

It doesn’t matter what else you eat, as long as you eat chili peppers.

The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and demonstrated that regardless of what the individual’s broader diet was, simply the inclusion of chili peppers reduced the potential risk.

“An interesting fact is that protection from mortality risk was independent of the type of diet people followed,” Marialaura Bonaccio, an epidemiologist at the Mediterranean Neurological Institute (Neuromed) and study lead author, told CNN. “In other words, someone can follow the healthy Mediterranean diet, someone else can eat less healthily, but for all of them chili pepper has a protective effect.”
Call it a win for every country that was colonized for their spices — it’s not just the melanin! In Italy, the peppers usage has been consistent in its cuisine.
“And now, as already observed in China and in the United States, we know that the various plants of the capsicum species, although consumed in different ways throughout the world, can exert a protective action towards our health,” Licia Lacoviello, director of the department of epidemiology and prevention at Neuromed, told CNN.

Similar studies in the United States and China show that chiles are good for your health.

Lacoviello might be referencing a 2015 BMJ study that analyzed 487,375 people across 10 Chinese regions in the country. The study found that those who ate spicy foods six to seven times a week at least had 14 percent lower risks of death than participants who ate spices only once a week.
The BMJ study echoed Bonaccio’s earlier point, it suggested that people who ate spicier foods generally had poorer health habits but they still benefitted from the chilies. However, those who frequently ate chilies and excluded alcohol benefitted the most.
In 2017, a PLOS ONE study in the United States analyzed date from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. Of the 16,179 Americans surveyed those who ate red chili peppers had a 13 percent lower death risk than those who didn’t.

So what makes these peppers slap so hard? It’s scientific.

It’s all about the spice. Peppers high capsaicin, like the spicy Carolina Reaper, were the ones that lowered the death risks in study participants.

“In general the association of sweet peppers with mortality were less strong than the ones of chili peppers, suggesting a role for capsaicin,” Bonaccio said.

Other peppers, like sweet bell peppers, which are low in capsaicin due to a recessive gene were less beneficial.

 “In a large adult Mediterranean population, regular consumption of chili pepper is associated with a lower risk of total and CVD death independent of CVD risk factors or adherence to a Mediterranean diet. Known biomarkers of CVD risk only marginally mediate the association of chili pepper intake with mortality,” the study concluded. 

However, skeptics are less enthusiastic about finding the study conclusive. Duane Mellor, a dietitian at Aston Medical School in the United Kingdom told CNN the study “does not show a causal link.” 

“It is plausible people who use chilies, as the data suggests also used more herbs and spices, and as such likely to be eating more fresh foods including vegetables,” Mellor said. “So, although chilies can be a tasty addition to our recipes and meals, any direct effect is likely to be small and it is more likely that it makes eating other healthy foods more pleasurable.”
However, the study from China noted the opposite (that people who ate spicy foods had poorer diets) and it had the largest sample of the three studies.

“This type of relationship suggests that chilies may be just a marker for some other dietary or lifestyle factor that hasn’t been accounted for but, to be fair, this kind of uncertainty is usually present in epidemiological studies, and the authors do acknowledge this,” Ian Johnson, a nutrition researcher, told CNN.

More research is needed because other factors could contribute to the observed effect, however, three studies in three different countries with very large samples are highly suggestive of the chilies’ benefits. 

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spicyHot Saucehealthy eatingpepper

This Map Shows Each State’s Favorite Halloween Candy And We Have Some Questions And Concerns

Culture

This Map Shows Each State’s Favorite Halloween Candy And We Have Some Questions And Concerns

By October 29, 2019 at 12:50 pm
BY  | October 29, 2019 AT 12:50 pm
CandyStore.com

Halloween, aka every candy lover’s favorite holiday, is almost upon us. If you live in Arizona, California, or Florida, you’re probably dreaming about Skittles. Seriously. A ranking of the most popular Halloween candy in every state (and Washington, D.C) was released by Candystore.com, and let’s just say the results are pretty sweet.

Shoppers will spend an estimated $2.6 billion on Halloween candy this year, according to the National Retail Federation, so the online candy retailer partnered with major candy manufacturers and distributors to conclude which treats would be the biggest hits. The rankings are based on 12 years of sales data, taken from 2007 to 2018, with a focus on the months leading up to Halloween.

Some of the results are surprising.

Credit: Unsplash

Who knew salt water taffy would be popular in Nebraska, Washington, and Wyoming? Or even at all, especially when my personal favorite, Nestlé Crunch bars, are missing from the list entirely.

The infamous (depending on who you ask) seasonal favorite candy corn claims top honors in more than one state.

Credit: istockphoto.com

Meaning there’s something seriously wrong with several states, including New Mexico and Idaho. While residents in the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and Tennessee seem to be interested in how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

In addition to state rankings, Candystore.com also released a list of the most popular Halloween candy in the U.S. overall.

Credit: Skittles.Com

Skittles takes the No. 1 spot, followed by Reese’s Cups, M&M’s, and Snickers. They are followed by, Starburst, candy corn, Hot Tamales, Tootsie Pops, and Sour Patch Kids. And finally, in 10th place, Hershey’s.

Check out the full list of favorites broken down by state, below. 

This map outlines what we’ve been saying all along…some states really are just better than others.

Credit: CandyStore.com

Pulling together 12 years of candy sales data, CandyStore.com has put together a map of each state’s favorite Haloween candy based on actual sales. This is important information if you don’t want to become your neighborhood’s dental floss people.

Alabama has a serious obsession with Hershey’s Miniatures.

There’s nothing small about how much the people of Alabama love Hershey’s Miniatures. Close to 50,000 pounds of the candy is sold in the state to pass out to trick-or-treaters.

While Arizona doesn’t seem to think it’s hot enough…

As if parts of Arizona aren’t already hot enough, the most popular Halloween candy in the state is Hot Tamales with just over 750,000 pounds sold. The cinnamon-flavored candy barely beat out second place Snickers, which comes in at about 742,000 pounds.

And, as usual, California is a trend setter among the 50 US states.

Skittles are the most popular Halloween candy in the United States, so it only makes sense it’s the biggest candy in the most populous state. Over 1.5 million pounds of Skittles are sold in Californiaalone on average each year.

Meanwhile, in Texas they go crazy for Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the appetite for Halloween candy. Just how much of its No. 1 candy do Texans buy? More than 1 million pounds of Reese’s.

All of this is great info, but we can’t help but wonder what the map would look like if Latino candys were included…?

Like, I’m pretty certain that there would be plenty of Latino favorites included in the map. A few that come to mind would be the beloved/much maligned mazapán, Duvalin, or Lucas.

What would your list look like?

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