Bucket List Accomplishment: M&M Pretzels

Awhile back, I added 'trying the new pretzel M&Ms' to my bucket list, because I just love trying out new candy flavors.  In some small way, it's a return to my childhood.  There is something special about the simple, pure joy of discovery, excitement and sugar all mixed together in one fun experience.  My love of trying new candy is yet another reason why I'm so excited to move to Japan in a few months.  Japan has completely embraced the excitement of new and silly foods like green, mint Pepsi or sushi pizza.  And there are literally dozens of Kit Kat flavors in Japan, including grilled corn, cantaloupe and soy sauce!  If you want to know more, NPR did a taste test of several crazy Kit Kat flavors last year and there's a great blog dedicated to reviewing Japanese snacks.

But until I move to Japan and become overwhelmed by new foods and flavors, I am content to try new American candies like cotton candy pop-rocks and pretzel M&Ms.

new M&Ms and very old water

Copyright Jeff Howick 2011 

The first thing that I noticed about the new M&Ms is how huge they are, almost the size of marbles.  If I had to, I think I could probably fit 60 or 70 standard M&Ms into my mouth at once, but I doubt that I could fit more than two dozen of these bad boys.  I know I got the same amount of candy as if I'd bought dark chocolate M&MS (because they measure by weight), but I still felt slightly cheated because I got so many fewer M&MS.  When it comes to M&Ms, bigger is not better in my book.  I guess that's why I like chocolate chip cookies better than chocolate chunk.

Copyright Jeff Howick 2011 

On the taste front, there were no big surprises.  I've had plenty of experience eating chocolate covered pretzels before, and they tasted like smaller, candy coated versions of those.  The pretzel quality was much closer to pretzels from the delicious snack Combos than classic bag pretzels, which I enjoyed.  Overall I'd say the new pretzel M&Ms are good, but not great.  They don't bring anything new to my snacking needs and there are already many other M&M flavors I'd rather purchase.  If you've had the new M&Ms, let me know what you thought in the comments.

This Week's Bucket List Additions 2

Every week, I am inspired to try out new adventures and I've decided to keep track of new additions to my bucket list each Friday.  You can see what I added to my list last week here and this weeks additions below.

-Spend a night at an ice hotel. Difficulty rating: 7 out of 10
When I saw the British super-agent James Bond visit an ice hotel in 'Die Another Day' I knew I HAD to visit one for myself someday.  I think most kids dream of adventures in igloos and giant snow forts, I know I certainly did.  So when I realized that people really do build massive hotels out of ice, I was filled with childish excitement.  It seems that every December in Sweden they build the world's largest Ice Hotel from scratch, including a bar, a church, reception hall and enough rooms for 100 people.  It's not cheap, simple accommodations for 2 in a snow room with sleeping bags runs about $500 a night, but what a truly unique experience!  Plus there are all kinds of exciting things to do while you're there.  You can watch the northern lights from horseback, go dog sledding, watch cultural performances and even go on something called a 'moose safari'.  Moose Safari!  I'd love to visit the world's largest and first ice hotel, but there are several others I'd be just as happy to visit, including one in Japan.

Hanging out in an ice tunnel I built with my wife after a recent blizzard

copyright Jeff Howick 2011

-Try the new pretzel M&Ms.  Difficulty rating: 1 out of 10
I know I'm a little late to the bandwagon on this one, but I love it when new varieties of M&Ms are released.   A new M&M flavor is a tiny reminder that humanity is still making progress in our slow forward march toward utopia.  It's a very small step toward perfection, but it's exciting none the less.  Here are my top 3 flavors of M&Ms:  #1 Dark Chocolate.  Dark chocolate is always a superior choice to milk chocolate in my book.  #2 Mint.  Usually these come out around Christmas, so I have a lot of warm memories associated with them.  #3 Peanut Butter.  This is the first 'new' variety of M&M introduced in my lifetime, and it blew my mind.  I doubt the new pretzel M&M will make it into my top 3, but eating a new flavor of M&M is still worth a mini-celebration.

Hanging out in a previous Halloween costume

copyright Jeff Howick 2011

-Take dancing lessons with my wife.  Difficulty rating 4 out of 10
After watching 'Billy Elliot' on Broadway, I was inspired to add more dancing to my life.  So I decided to try and find a place to take dancing lessons with my wife.  Ballroom dancing would probably be fun, but I think I'd prefer something more like swing dancing or salsa dancing.  I guess we'll just see what options are available nearby.