We've carried a great selection of European candy for almost a year now. We sell TONS of British chocolate. I think I bought a lot of it myself. (I lived in England for several years and can't get enough of that awesome chocolate)

Our selection is quite good, but we sometimes get requests for items people love that they can't find on the shelves. Lately we've had several requests to bring in the amazing Swiss chocolate...

Toblerone!

You asked - we answered. Toblerone is now available here at Blickenstaff's!

Toblerone originates from the chocolatier's family name "Tobler" combined with "torrone", the Italian word for nougat.

According to Theodor’s sons, the Toblerone bar was modelled on a red and cream-frilled line of dancers at the Folies Bergères in Paris, forming a shapely pyramid at the end of a show.

The Tobler family has been creating chocolates since 1868- that's a rich chocolatier history!

We know you probably love Toblerone as much as we do - so let's give one away! Leave a comment on our Facebook letting us know whether you'd like the classic milk chocolate or the white chocolate! We'll choose (1) commenter to win a free Toblerone bar of their choice!

The beginning of March is like a second Christmas here at the store. All of the new items we found at the toy fair start coming in and every day is exciting as we see new shipments arrive.

There's one shipment I've been really excited for because I remember how much fun I had at the booth in NY.

Drumroll please....

TENZI!

Tenzi "The World's Fastest Game" has just arrived!

This game could literally been done in under a minute - as long as the dice fall in your favor!

How to play:
*Everyone in the group gets a set of 10 dice
*Start the timer and begin rolling until you've got all ten dice showing the same number.
*The first to finish and yell Tenzi is the winner!

Example: If I roll four 6's on my first roll then I would quickly gather my other dice and reroll hoping to get another few 6's to show up. If I see two more then I add them to my pile of 6's and continue rolling until all ten dice show the number 6.

While we were at the toy fair they had a big stopwatch that was used to time us in our efforts to reach Tenzi! It was fun playing with other people - but man I really enjoyed the race against the clock!!

We were lucky enough to interview one of the Executive Dice Presidents, Steve Mark! We asked him a couple questions about the game...

Where did the idea for Tenzi come from?

After coming up with various board games, we decided to try our hand at a dice game. Specifically, a fast game! Kevin and I both have families, kids, etc so the prospect of sitting down to a 2-hour board game was what we didn't want to create. We kept adding dice till we got to 10 (a nice round number). The game sort of invented itself from there.

What made you decide on the name Tenzi?

The name is inspired by an ancient Asian cultural-- no just kidding -- onesie's, twosie's, threesie's, foursie's, etc got us to TENZI.

Are there plans for any future games or have you guys done any other game?

Of course, always something brewing in the R&D of our minds!

We can't wait to see what these guys come up with next - but for now you definitely need to stop by Blickenstaff's to try out this awesome game. We're going to make things interesting and offer a giveaway of this great game! Leave a comment here or on our Facebook page telling us what the tag line for this awesome game is! (hint: it's near the beginning of the post)

Check out the fun video we did playing Tenzi!!!

February is in the books - the candidates fought hard and we're happy to announce that the fiery Sally "Sizzlin' Cinnamon" Sanders is the our February winner!

What does this mean for you?
You can now find Sizzling Cinnamon Jelly Belly Beans here at Blickenstaff's for the entire month!

It also means it's time for us to announce a winner!
Thanks for casting your vote - we threw all of your names in a hat and .....

drumroll please....

Congratulations Jennifer James! You've won a (5lb.) bag of bulk candy that you can come pick out whenever you're available!

Also - don't forget to cast your vote for our March election...

This is seriously one of my favorite times of the year! March Madness is right around the corner! I've loved filling out brackets since I was a kid and the excitement hasn't dropped off at all. Looks like BYU will make the tournament (fingers crossed) but without Jimmer will they make it out of the first round? I'm excited just thinking about it!

Last year we did a March (candy) Madness bracket. With 64 candies battling it out, it was a lot of fun to see who you guys liked the most. This year we're going to make it a little bit simpler and we're going to give away even more candy!

Here's how the madness will work this year...

There are 2 ways to win prizes:
1. Fill out a bracket. (print it off online, or pick one up from the store) The bracket needs to be turned in by 9:00 pm on March 12. If your bracket is the closest to the actual results you will win a $50 candy basket!

2. Visit us on Facebook each day and vote for your favorite candy! We will have several candies battling it out each day beginning March 13. Leave a comment voting for your favorite and we will choose one commenter to win (1lb.) of candy. We will be giving away (1lb.) every weekday throughout the ENTIRE tournament!

It's easy and SO much fun! We had such a great response last year that we're excited to do it again this year with more chances to win and an even simpler layout!

Get your bracket filled out and turned in ASAP and then come visit us on Facebook when the tournament starts on March 13!

Good Luck!

We've got all kinds of great rock candy here at the store - but if you're feeling a little adventurous then you should try making your own!

This recipe works great (courtesy of Heidi at Mom's Crafty Space)

Rock candy ingredients & supplies:
wooden skewers (cut in half)
water
sugar
clothespins
glass jars/drinking glasses

The amount of water and sugar you need depends on how many pieces of rock candy you would like to make and the number of jars you have available (I recommend no more than 2 pieces per jar) - the standard ratio is 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water, but we found that we had to add a bit more sugar than our recipe called for. In the end, we used 10 cups of sugar to 4 cups of water.

To make our batch of rock candy, we started with 4 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar. Put it all into a large saucepan, because once you put it on the stove it will expand while boiling. I let my 4-year-old mix up the first bit of sugar before putting it on the stove. He was fascinated with watching the sugar dissolve, and it was especially interesting for him to see that we could dissolve even more sugar with the addition of the heat from the stove. Once your pot is on the stove, bring it to a low boil over medium heat, and continue to add sugar one cup at a time until you can no longer dissolve any more of it (making a completely saturated sugar solution).

Turn off the heat and allow it to cool for 15 minutes.

While your sugar is cooling you can prep your sticks. Soak them in water and roll them in a coating of sugar to give the new sugar crystals something to "seed" to. Be sure to let them dry all the way! If they are still too wet when you put them into the hot sugar solution, all of the sugar coating will fall off, and the new crystals will have nothing to grow on.

CAREFULLY pour your sugar solution into your glass jars. If you'd like to add food coloring or flavoring to your rock candy, now is the time to do so. We added color, but we kept the flavor all natural (what kiddo doesn't like the taste of plain sugar?).

Slowly insert your sugared skewers into the solution. You can use a clothespin as shown to keep your sticks in place. Smaller mouth jars/glasses work best, but only allow room for about two sticks per jar. Be sure that your sticks are not touching the sides or bottom of the glass or each other! They need room for the new crystals to grow!

Give it a try and let us know what you think! We love rock candy SO much!! Just in case you can't wait a whole week to eat your candy stop by Blickenstaff's and pick some up today :)