2010-06-11

Traditional hand-made YUMMEH!!!

Advertorial

Yay for me!!! Probably one of my FUNNEST advertorials EVER coz I was invited to try MAKING ROCK CANDY!!!



Sticky is Singapore's first handmade rock candy store!

You've probably seen them before as they are situated in the busy basement of The Central (next to Clarke Quay mrt), and I confess to have stood there and gawked as the Sticky staff created rainbow candies in their open concept kitchen!!

It is FUCKING FUN!!!!



Once you step into the store it's like so brightly coloured and happy looking and smells so good your mood can't help but perk up!!

And yes I delibrately dressed to look like their store hahahaha I HAVE RAINBOW SOCKS



Jars upon jars of rock candy!!





What's so special about rock candy?

It can be customised to any design you want!!

Perfect for weddings and gifts and parties.


(4kg minimum batch size for customization, also can customize letters
on lollipops for smaller batches!)




I love the colours of the candies in the left bottle!





Lollipops!!



Sticky's really popular with the school kids coz their prices start at $2.90
which is really affordable.



Wearing the super cute Sticky cap they gave me!! YAY!!


AND WE START MAKING MY VERY
OWN CUSTOMISED CANDY!




First translucent candy is boiled in a huge pot and poured onto a metal surface to cool down.



It is super hot!



Here's co-owner Jamie explaining to me how to mix in different colours because I CHOSE RAINBOW!!

I saw it among the samples and I fell in love with it!!

Rainbow is the chioest design although it requires much more effort coz of the many colours needed. But totally worth it!

Btw Jamie owns Sticky together with his chio wife and they brought Sticky into Singapore for 2 years now.

Sticky brand has been around for 10 years and originated from Australia! It's a famous international brand! They have stores in Malaysia and HK's branch is opening soon, so if you want a franchise be sure to contact Jamie.



Super a lot of flavours to choose from so I chose WATERMELON! Yums!





Mixing in the pink!



And white/blue/yellow/black



I put on my gloves and I am READY TO HELP!!!

The gloves are crazy thick coz beneath the metal surface are stoves with huge fires so that the candies don't harden.



Mixing it up so the whites are even!



And here's our palette!



Decided to just let Jamie do the hard work...



Since he seems to like it...



There he is, cutting up the candy with a hilariously big pair of scissors, into different colours and kneading them. It's hard work!!!



Ernest, in black, is teaching me how to mix purple!



TADAH!! If you think the purple looks nice later you'd know who to credit.



Put on EVEN thicker gloves coz I wanted to help Jamie mix the white on this scary hook but as it turns out...



It is FUCKING heavy so I didn't.



You guys should see him doing this man, mad fast and the candy keeps drooping down due to the weight and you have to flip it up again.



Amazing flying candy!



A lot of gawkers, erm, gawking coz it's really quite fun to watch! Or maybe they looking at how chio I am. Either or.


AND NOW FOR THE EXCITING PART!!!

We are gonna form the word
"XIAXUE" in the candy!!



This requires a lot of 3D conceptualizing skills because you have to form the words in a cross section of a long... thing. Hiyah a bit hard to explain just see the next photos.




Jamie cutting out the pink candy for making the "X".



Super swift lah he is like lao jiao. -_- Before I could even comprehend what's going on he is already done. And anyway must be fast coz the candy will harden wtf so stressful.



I specially drew a cross section for you guys to understand!! That's how Jamie did the "X"! Honestly man I think this really requires some skill to get right coz not only do you have to visualize, you also have to take into account that the candy is heavy and will droop etc!

I'm trying to imagine how to do a "Q" now and it's killing my brain. FML I give up. Mensa should include this in tests.



And this is how the X looks like!! Believe it or not when its stretched out uber long it will retain its shape and look like a TINY PINK X!



MY TURN!

Mike, if you are reading this, this (above picture except in real life) will also be
what you will be seeing if you cheat on me. Snip snip!



I am sad to announce that I failed to make a satisfactory "I". WHAT! It's hot and it's slippery and it easily goes out of shape ok!



HERE'S THE "A" I MADE!!

Just kidding Jamie made it. :(



SECOND TRY!! I do the second "X"!



See? Good stuff



TADAH!! NOT BAD RIGHT!! Confirm better than JAMIE'S LOUSY PINK X~!!! HAHAHAHAHA Ok better not joke about that wait he throw hot candy balls at me. Actually he also did most of this. :( sadface



That's Ernest arranging the pink and green letters in a neat way!! My OCD approves.



At this point I tried to make the "E" and I dropped it on the floor (it's SLIPPERY!) so everyone's laughing at me!!



Wasted candy. Oh well...



I gave up the hard work and let Jamie and Ernest finish the rest.



See, got so many people staring!


SO... At this point I saw a fucking intricate PANDA inside one of Jamie's candies (try conceptualizing that - brain explosion), and I was like,

"HOW COME MINE SO BORING ONLY GOT WORDS INSIDE?!"

So I demanded a crown in my candy!!
(Actually I asked nicely but just to pretend I have a feisty personality...)

Anyway so yeah and he said "Erm, ok, we never did a crown before... But let's try it!"


And so Jamie started work on a crown and... THIS IS WHAT HE CAME UP WITH:

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It looks like a dude you just punched in the face coz he is ugly and he is really unhappy to get punched. And he is oily although he does have very white teeth.

I didn't have much faith that the crown was going to turn out nice but well... You'd see in a bit!



Digression, took a pic of Ernest's shirt.



Completely lazy I just left the guys doing the rest of the work and watched them from outside AHAHHAAHA...

Seriously though look at the huge white thing Ernest is rolling... I can't do that lah!!



AND THIS IS THE RAINBOW EXTERIOR!!

So exciting omg!!



Hey it looks Jamaican.



And it is pulled into a thin roll.

End result:


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MY VERY OWN ROCK CANDY!!

And the crown is mad cute!!!!!

Next time I'd give Jamie something more challenging and ask him to, erm, design a... what's complicated? Maybe organs. Like candy-sized replica of lungs/heart/pancreas etc and all must be anatomically correctly placed and have a good sizing ratio.

But that would be an awful looking candy.

Maybe suitable for a hospital's Dinner and Dance. Ah!



So cute!! I lovesss it


AND FREAKY YUMMY TOO!!

Why? Coz Sticky uses quality SIS sugar only - and all flavours and colours are imported!

Seriously I couldn't stop popping them in my mouth.





YUMMY!!



And super gorgeous



YAY JOB WELL DONE!!!



Time to chop up the candy! This part is super easy and fun. Using a chisel just gently hit the candy and it breaks!

The staff does it SUPER FAST it's pewpewpew and all done.




So pretty!!



Love



I tried it too!



Gave up after a bit. Eating is much more fun!



Me with the Sticky crew!! That's Jamie's wife Kristin on my right. Or is it left? Right in real life left in photo. Anyway they are both very nice. And just had a baby girl too. Congrats!!



Kristin had the boys also make me some MINI rock candy which is like the cutest things ever!! Basically just standard sized rock candy stretched thinner. SUPER KAWAII!! And can still see the words clearly.



One jar for momo, one jar for Mike to put in his office, and the mini ones for me to eat! :D

I love their packaging!



Wait what is Christine stamping for me?



It's a loyalty card with damn cute stamps!!!! My fav is the panda!! Or strawbie!!

Anyway with every $10 spent you get a chop and freebies on the way. Go for the Trucker cap man it's really damn nice!!!!!



My Sticky card :D :D :D


When you get 24 chops you become a STICKYFIED CANDY JUNKIE as seen above!!! So cute the name. I superimposed the stamp on my card (they forgot to stamp for me! hmpf!), it's obviously not so big lah.

And candy junkies get 10% off, always! :D




Thanks Jamie and Christine for the super fun day!!


Here's a video of how the candy is made in Sticky if you are interested!!




I'm am so gonna get Sticky candy for my wedding (the Chinese one)!!! Their skills are excellent, quality is superb, and it tastes damn nice!!! Also if you have some unfortunate long name they can even go up to like a zillion letters!! Actually their longest ever made was 26 (wtf how to squeeze into a candy) so I suggest all my long-named readers go challenge them heeheehee!!


And of course rock candy is also for sell in different flavours and designs, not only for customization. So if you are having a candy craving go give them a visit!


PROMOTION!!

As you can see I have like a zillion of the Xiaxue candy left over and they are still in Sticky so while stocks last, anyone who spends $10 and above at the Sticky store (in Central Mall's basement), will get a packet of my candy FREE!!


All you have to do is snap a shot of this following photo and show them!!




Just snap with your phone or digicam, don't need to print out.


If you don't like it, eat me. HAHAHAHA sorry couldn't resist that. Geddit? Coz "I" am on the candy? LOL!! Ok lame.


Want to order some Sticky now?
Check out their super cute website:

Http://www.sticky.com.sg



And join their fanpage on facebook!!!

Sticky on FB


Erm as of NOW they have 11,670 fans and I have 11,934. This is highly embarrassing. They have so many fans one!! In fact, what am I doing advertising for them when they should be advertising for me wtf. HEY HEY JOIN MY PAGE TOO!! LOL

Anyway go join their page they have a "STICKY FREE CANDY DAY" where as long as you bring your own container/bag, they give out a scoop of candy, free!! And a lot of other updates like new flavours and good deals! So shiok one wtf.

p/s: Most pictures are taken by Jonathan from Nuffnang! If you think they are ugly blame him LOL