Wreathe It and Weep

Chile Today Hot Tamale is a hot pepper of the month club. A year’s membership ($69.95) also gets you a monthly newsletter . . . and one of these cool hot pepper wreaths. (You can also get a wreath with a $39.95 six-month membership for an additional charge of $9.95.) The number to call is (800) 468-7377, which of course spells HOT-PEPP.

The Wine Game

A couple of years ago there were trivia games of all sorts but not, so far as we remember, a wine trivia game. This is now at hand in the form of Vino! The Exciting Game of Wine.

Of course, the maker doesn’t call it a trivia game but a “fun educational board game,” though the general format will be familiar. You move tiny wine barrels around a board according to how you answer the question cards (there are 1,200 wine questions altogether). The aim is to arrive at the Chateau in the middle of the board and not, presumably, at the Dungeon.

Vino! is available at Nieman Marcus, the Game Gallery, Long’s Drugs and Wally’s Food and Wine; suggested price $39. If you need to find the name of a retailer near you, call (800) VINO-FUN.

Jelly Belly Update

Jelly Belly keeps on trying out wild new jellybean flavors. In 1995 it introduced cinnamon danish, strawberry jam, key lime pie, peppermint stick, plum, cookies ‘n cream, oatmeal raisin cookie and bloody mary. The last three didn’t make the cut, and somehow we don’t mind not having tasted the tomato-flavored bloody mary jellybean.

In case you haven’t noticed, the same company also makes Jelly Belly Taffy--a taffy candy with jellybean centers in it like the chocolate chips in a cookie. Some of the taffies are pretty cute; the watermelon flavor has a red “flesh” and a green “rind.” Taffy-eaters may be pleased at the additional flavor, though your real jellybean-eater will probably wonder why you have to dig through all that taffy to get to the jellybeans. At candy counters.