Hey Junk Food Nation!  Yesterday was my birthday, and in honor of that I announced a contest – click here to go to yesterday’s post and find out how to enter!  Hummus and lentil chips could be yours 😉

Anyways, my birthday was really good, thanks for asking.  I took the day off from work, got a haircut, went to the shooting range, nailed some targets dead center, and then had authentic enchiladas for dinner.  All in all, no work made it a very good day.

One interesting side effect of birthdays is the deluge of Happy Birthday messages that you get on Facebook. While I (and everyone) loves to get a lil Facebook wall love on their birthday, I’m not really sure what to do in response.  I could not do ANYTHING in response, and have people think I’m a dick.  I could write one of those, “Thanks for all the birthday love, people!  Life is good!” messages on my wall, as a group thank you – because nothing says “Thank You” like a generalized personal affirmation.

Some people LIKE every single happy birthday message they get. Of course, anyone going back to your wall sees you LIKE-d everyone’s ELSE’s message too, so there’s a little wind taken out of the sails there (Hey, she/he liked my response! He/she liked my….hey waitaminute.  All these are LIKE-d. LIKE whore.)

Some ambitious souls respond with a message to each and every person on Facebook who said happy birthday to them.  That IS the ultimate response but who really has that time???  I dunno…what do you guys think I should do?  Tell me in the comments below.

Today’s junk food: Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Nips!

The Money Shot

I was hoping to get to these during the autumn-based holiday season (Halloween/Thanksgiving-ish), but never did.  Still, better late than never.  Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Nips I found at my local Walgreens! Nips are a Nestle-owned candy which I will forever see as “old man candy.” No, I’m sorry, it is. It is hard candy that is a very conservative caramel flavor.

BUT I do love pumpkin spice, and I do love the words “limited edition” – so why the hell not?

I KNOW SPANISH TOO!

Dulce Duro, Rico Y Cremoso.  I’m guessing that means rich and creamy hard candy.

By the way, here;s another reason why I see this candy as old man candy.  In a former life (as in, just a few weeks ago), I was an attorney.  And this one lawyer who I used to face with some frequency was (1) an old man and (2) would offer caramel and butterscotch candies from his pocket to the female attorneys in my office.  Yeah.  Herman Cain wannabe.

Whoa, that's low cal

Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Nips are 30 calories a piece, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.  On one hand, only 30 calories!  On the other hand, there are about 60 calories in a medium sized orange. By the way, I love oranges.  And I’d much rather have an orange than two of these candies.

Take a break...have a Nip.

Stop to enjoy the little things in life?  Take a break from that fast pace to indulge on…a caramel hard candy?  These phrases just scream at me: “OLD MAN CANDY!  OLD MAN CANDY!”

Coooorn syrup

These are…not that healthy for you.  The first ingredient is corn syrup.  Nuff said.

Old man candy?

I will give Nestle an A for Effort here with the detailed wrappers.  At least they printed something on them, and it wasn’t just some generic clear wrapper.

Werther's eat your heart out

Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Nips look like regular Nips…but just taste different?  I popped one in my mouth and…it was just OK.  All the kidding aside, Nips are not a bad caramel candy, if that’s your thing. The problem with these is that even though this candy DID have a decent pumpkin spice flavor added to it, it wasn’t enough. My tastebuds got used to the flavor too quickly, and before I knew it I was still only tasting caramel.

I can’t really say, then, that it was an unsuccessful candy – but I really didn’t like it.  Sorry, Nestle.

Thoughts?  Tell me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy