My Sweet Tooth Agrees

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Werther's.

Hello, my name is Kendra, and I am secretly a candy-a-holic.

I try to resist. I try with all my heart. But my stomach says it wants candy. And some days I listen to my stomach more than my heart.

I know summer is around the corner. And I've tried so hard to be a good girl and resist sweets, but the retail stores are not playing nice with my diet plans! First, we had all the yummy red and green shiny Christmas candies. Then came the cute and lovely pink and red Valentine's candies. Now, it's my worst temptation of all: Easter candy! Somehow, those lovely pastel and goo filled eggs always make it in to my cart. And on to my waist line. Just in time for swimsuit season! Oh joy!

With a little more that two months to go until the official start of swimsuit season, I have revved up my exercise and diet efforts. The exercise is easy to do: catch up on DVR'd shows while walking on the treadmill. Jump with the big kid on the trampoline until your calves hurt. Easy peasy.

The diet, on the other hand, is downright hard. I love vegetables. I love whole grains and high fiber. I love chicken and fish and diet drinks. And I love sweets. And with sweets come calories.

I spent a month trying to avoid sweets at all costs. And my poor sweet tooth went in to major sugar withdrawals. My body craves sugar. No, my body DEMANDS sugar! I am not one, though, to be satisfied with one tiny piece of chocolate a day or with chewing sugar free gum. My sweet fix must have substance. It must have flavor. It must allow me to eat more than one or two pieces!

I've tried other "diet" candies. I've tried sugar free candies. And they all left me unsatisfied with their portion sizes or with that artificial sweetener taste on my tongue that only the taste of REAL sugar can get rid of. So when I found out I had a chance to taste test some yummy sugar free candies from Werther's Original, my sweet tooth and I jumped at the chance.

I have been a Werther's fan since my late night dorm room study sessions. Their caramel sugary goodness kept me going for hours and hours. Long gone are those blissful days of late night fun and high metabolism. Now I have to actually think about how many candies equal a serving size, how many calories and fat grams are in a serving size, and how much more I have to exercise to burn off those extra sweet calories.

Classic Werther's Originals have 70 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, and 10 grams of sugar for three pieces of candy.

Werther's Original Sugar Free candies have 40 calories, 1 to 1.5 grams of fat (depending on the flavor), and ZERO grams of sugar for FIVE pieces of candy. MORE candy per serving, FEWER calories and fat grams, and NO sugar. Sounds good to me!

So I got to taste testing. And I recruited my husband and my 4 year old to help, because I do believe they have an even bigger sweet tooth than I do!

First up, the classic original Werther's Original:


We could not taste the difference from the original sugar-full and the sugar-free variety. We gave this candy an "A". It would have been an "A+" but the size was slightly smaller than the original one. A little candy maker's trompe l'oeil, I'm afraid. Shrink the size, up the portion number, and it makes you feel like you are eating more for fewer calories! But I'll eat them anyway, they're that good.

Then we broke out the Caramel Coffee flavor.


Five words: Mmmm-Mmmm-Mmmm-Mmmm-Mmmm! It tastes like my favorite coffee house caramel latte. I quickly hid this bag in my mama's secret candy stash. I don't share my favorite candies. We gave it an "A++" because we love this flavor, except for the kid. But he's a kid and he doesn't get the deliciousness that is a caramel coffee. He's four, what does he know?

Next we tried Caramel Mint.


I had a hard time trying to figure our what it reminded me of. My husband said it tasted a lot like those little chocolate mints we get at our favorite Italian restaurant. He's right. If it had chocolate AND mint with the original caramel flavor, it would have been heavenly. So we gave it a "B-" because mint does not quite go with caramel, according to our discriminating sweet teeth.

Finally, we sampled the newest flavor, Caramel Cinnamon.


The first thing my son said was "It's red!" And the next thing he said was "Yuck!" And he was right. It was not a good flavor at all. Some flavors just should not get married, and these are two of them. The cinnamon was just too overpowering and spicy for this cinnamon-loving girl. I hate to grade this flavor because others may love it's spicy sweetness, so I'll just say that if you love cinnamon you'll love this candy.

There is one drawback, however, to these delicious little goodies:


Apparently, you CAN have too much of a good thing.

I know what will be in MY Easter basket this year.


I do believe that with these Werther's sugar-free candies I have found a sugar-free way to keep my sweet tooth happy and keep my waist line at bay. With Werther's Original Sugar Free candies, you really CAN have your cake and eat it, too. (Ohhh, maybe I should not have said cake.)

Check out the reviews from other BlogHer reviewers at the BlogHer.com special offers page or find our more product information at Werther's here. And be sure to visit my blog at Kendra's Keepings.

If you have tried Werther's Sugar Free candies be sure to leave a comment or two. Let us know what you think of these delightful little confections and which flavor is your favorite! For me, it's the Caramel Coffee hands down!