We’ve linked to it once before, but we have to mention it again: Writers/Artists Snacking at Work is just about the best Web site going when it comes to reviews of snack-food products. There are almost 200 reviews up there now, penned by expert snackers calling themselves Paddy O’Poppycock, Kid Nougat, Candyman, Sir Snackalot and Figaroo. The reviews are priceless. Here’s O’Poppycock on the new Hershey’s Take 5 candy bar: “Holy smokes, this is good candy. And very satisfying, too. Eat just one half of it and you feel like, if you had to—if robbers swooped in and took your other half—you could go on with life without really needing that second half. But fortunately Take 5 robbers don’t exist (yet), so you’re free to enjoy that second half when you’re good and ready. Immediately after eating the first half, for example.” (He gives the Take 5 a 9.3 out of 10 on the “SSI”—snack satisfaction index—rating scale.) Mr. O’Poppycock is far less impressed by the packaging, however. “I’m honestly pissed off,” he writes. “Who designed this package—the makers of New Coke? The same ass that dressed Johnny Depp’s Willie Wonka to look like a cross between a member of the Cure, Betty Boop and an extra in Tom Petty’s ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’ video? And for gosh sakes, the cross-section image of the candy looks like my eighth grade Earth Science textbook’s drawing of layers of the earth’s crust. Do I see igneous rock in there?” There’s much more where this came from, if you’ve got time to waste.

—Posted by Tim Nudd