Where's the Chocolate Dragon's Beard Candy?

Last week two people in my office went to Asia - one to China and one to Japan. And, they both brought back treats, presumably from the packaging, chocolate candy. Let's start with China and the Chocolate Dragon's Beard. Very beard-like, although not chocolatey. It was like a fuzzy shredded wheat that shed when you took a bite. And it desperately needed a cup of coffee to wash it down. There is a brown interior, wrapped in the white fuzz, but it was more of a paste than a piece of chocolate. This should never be confused with a Chocolate Frog (of Harry Potter fame), white is actually solid chocolate and actually shaped like a frog. Having never seen an actual dragon, I am not even sure that this is what their beards look like. Moving on to Japan, we have the Salt Crispy Chocolate. Again, no trace of chocolate. It was very much like a thin rice crispie treat with lots of added sodium, so they got two out of three right. These candies have made me think that somewhere, some marketing whiz said you know, if you use the the word chocolate, Americans will eat it up.

Where's the Beef? The ubiquitous tag line from the 1984 (a little too Orwellian, if you ask me) Wendy's commercial that sky rocketed  Clara Peller to fame. The ad featured three old ladies fondling a fluffy bun, admiring it's largess and Peller screaming for bigger meat. The phrase became so popular that Presidential candidate Walter Mondale asked his opponent Gary Hart "Where's the Beef?" referring to his lack of big ideas during a democratic debate (we now know that Donna Rice had that answer all along). Peller ate up her 15 minutes doing talk shows and even made an appearance on Saturday Night Live, before dying in 1987 at the age of 85. Finally, in 2011, Wendy's began an ad campaign declaring "Here's the Beef" . Now that's better.

The Ingredients:

Mmmmm, desiccated coconut, that's what gives it it's beard flavor. Please heed the warning about not eating the desiccant silica gel - that fooled me when it fell out of the package upon opening the candy! Not sure if the January 8, 2013 was the manufacture date or the expiration date......and always keep your Dragon's Beard in a cool, dry place (as it is likely flammable).