Saturday, February 28, 2009

Honeydukes - The Candy

Anyone who's seen the movies or read the books knows about some of the most famous Harry Potter candies. The chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Ice Mice, Droobles, Acid Pops, Blood Pops as well as Albus Dumbledore's favorite muggle candy, Lemon Drops.

For some reason these candies are impossible to find locally. I just might have to contact J.K. Rowling about her merchandising. I think there is a bundle of money to be made selling party supplies that are now impossible to find. Even if they are only available to purchase on-line.

I was fortunate to find perfect candy at DollarTree on Aurora. I was THRILLED! At $1 a bag it made recreating Honeydukes considerably less expensive. There I found candy that was unusual or interesting that one could imagine might be found at a magical candy store like Honeydukes.

WHAT I GOT FOR $1 A BAG
Eyeball Suckers
Pop Rocks
Daffy Taffy
Fizz Pops (which I used as Acid Pops)
Cow Tails
Twist Pops (Unicorn Pops, these were a HUGE hit with the kids)
Super Duper Gummy Worms
Gummy Mice/Rats (Which I used as Ice Mice)
Double Bubble (Which I used as Droobles)
Atomic Fireballs (The kids were scared of these)
Pixie Sticks


The chocolate frogs I ordered from http://www.alivans.com/?gclid=CNzFiuHpmJkCFRBbagodxhFTZg for $3.49 each but at the time they were offering 20% off so I saved about $10. I'd seen molds to make your own but I just didn't have the time. Plus I wanted the cool cards. As Ron says that's what you really want anyway, the frogs only have one good jump in them. Sorry, couldn't get a picture before Adrian bit the head off. I think it looked just like the frog on the wrapper. I had been curious if it would be worth it. I think it was. The kids loved them and were SO excited.


This is what the cards look like. We got Voldemort. Ooooh scary.


I didn't want to pay $7 + a bag for Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans but I knew that we had to have them for Honeydukes. I loved that the fabric bags were refillable. Amazingly I found a seller on E-bay that was selling the bags only for $20 for 100. I knew I could use them for Evie's party, Adrian's party (IF he has one) and sell the rest for probably more than I paid.

The story with Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans is that they were made by Jelly Belly. I don't know what happened but they stopped making them. You can find old bags of Bertie Bott's on the Internet but who knows how fresh they are. Jelly Belly now sells them under the name Bean Boozled Beans. They are only available in small boxes and they contain both regular flavors and gross flavors that look identical. See the back of the box.


We decided after much discussion to fill our empty bags with Jelly Bellys 49 flavor beans I bought at Costco and add a few of the Jelly Belly Bean Boozled Beans to each bag. I figure that the risk of getting a gross flavored bean is what is fun for the kids not actually eating the gross beans.


...Unless you are Evie. Miss daredevil. We had so much fun testing them out. We tried about 10 and every single one was gross. So even though they say they contain regular flavors we didn't get any. They are randomly selected so you don't know how much of each flavor you'll get.

Surprisingly I thought black pepper flavor was the worst. It stuck with me for hours. Toothpaste flavor was grosser than I thought mint could be. Vomit wasn't as bad as I thought. Moldy Cheese about made Evie throw up. Pencil Shavings was spot on. Skunk Spray was not as disgusting as it sounds. Thankfully I didn't taste Rotten Egg, Ear Wax, Booger. And we're not sure if we tasted Baby Wipes. That one must not be too bad.
The official Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans contain the following additional flavors that Bean Boozled Beans do not: Sardine, Earthworm, Dirt, Bacon, Grass, and Soap (which I think is now Diaper Wipes)

Even Adrian, who is a picky eater, had claimed he would never eat them just for fear that he MIGHT get a gross one, eventually gave them a try and then ate the whole bag before the night was out.


I think this was vomit flavored and he spit it out. Ha, ha.
I removed the official Harry Potter flavor guides since the flavors and images didn't correspond to what was actually in the bags. We made this guide on the computer, using images from the Jelly Belly site but removed their logo, so the kids would be warned that they could get the gross flavors in their bag. (I didn't want any parent getting mad if their child got sick after eating a disgusting flavor.) I printed them onto Matte photo paper, cut them with the paper cutter and placed one inside each bag. This one got a lot of use. The kids really did look at it to see what their risk was when eating each jelly bean.

Adrian stuffing the toffee popcorn flavored candy corn into bags for Werewolf Fangs. I bought those at Grocery Outlet.
The label was made in Photoshop. I printed 4 - 4" x 5" labels per page onto matte photo paper, used a paper cutter to cut them, then folded them in half and stapled them to the plastic bags (which I already had, you can get them at Cash and Carry).
Lemon Drops were easy to find. We made the label in Photoshop and used the same bagging technique as for Werewolf Fangs. The Dumbledore graffic we found on the Internet but changed it slightly in Photoshop.
I got this cool container at the Goodwill a few years ago. I thought it looked icy so it was perfect for the Ice Mice.
These are the individually wrapped gummy mice I used for Ice Mice that I got at the dollar store.
Amazingly I found individually wrapped Cotton Candy flavored Dubble Bubble at the dollar store too. The gum wasn't labeled so it was easy enough to pretend they were Droobles which are also hard to find these days. They do sell Droobles cotton candy gum on the internet but I believe the gumballs are discontinued, except for a few locations that still have some old stock.
We used the lemon Fizzy Pops as Acid Pops. Which you may still be able to get off the Internet in packages of 3. I thought it was a bit much to get 3 pops each. I wanted everything to be individually wrapped because the kids would be taking them home as party favors. So for $2 (2 bags) I thought these would work. I had Adrian unwrap and help rewrap in clear cellophane. I was surprised that few children chose these. I think they really thought they'd burn their mouths. We did the same thing with Cherry flavored DumDums as Blood Pops.

*As of Oct. 5th 2011 you can now again purchase Bertie Botts Everyflavor Beans and Chocolate Frogs from Jelly Belly. Hooray!

17 comments:

  1. re: earwax flavoured bean.. yup, I have tasted that one and it too is spot on (and gross!)

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  3. OMG!!
    If I leave you my e-mail do you think you can buy me one of those and then I pay you??? you send it by mail (not e-mail)please!!!
    Imagine you are a 12 years old girl that love Harry Potter more than everything and a kind lady that names herself Minerva Mcgonagall helps you
    PLEASE I beg you!!!
    (As my allias) Hermine Granger
    P.S.If it helps i want to said you that soon is my birthday... in this month...please

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  4. I have tried the vomit flavored one and for the rest of the day almost threw up.

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  5. Perhaps Jelly Belly had to stop naming them Bertie Botts because a copyright contact ran out? Just a guess. Thanks for the hint re: Bean Boozled Beans though. I have been looking all over the net for Bertie Botts. Now I know what I should be searching for instead :)

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  6. I loved all your ideas; they were really creative! And also, I really like how you attached the pictures, and the idea of making individual little baggies! I'm definitely going to have to steal some of your ideas for my harry potter party:)

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  7. I LOVE all of you're ideas!! I would LOVE this to be my party, I had fantasy's all around my 11th birthday, but I never ended up having a Harry Potter birthday party.

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  8. I was wondering how you managed to crop out the Jelly Belly from the images? I was trying to do this but could not seem to get it.

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  9. Jennifer all the labels were made in Photoshop.

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  10. Do you have any of your Bertie Botts bags left for sale? I love the bags more than the boxes you can get from Jelly Belly.

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  11. re: the bertie botts

    I think it may have something to do with Wizarding World of Harry Potter as well as licensing. You see, you can purchase screen accurate boxes of Bertie Botts at WWHP in Orlando for about $10/box. I haven't opened mine, but it appears that the beans are not stamped.

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  12. i tried a chocolate frog and it was really nice but where could i buy some?

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  13. Hi there. Do you still have the Bertie Bott's little bags? I would love to purchase some for my son's Harry Potter birthday party. My email is reemurch@yahoo.com. Thanks!

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  14. Any Bertie Bott's bags still available for sale?

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