Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #222 on January 19, a little easier than yesterday, this puzzle from Connections Companion has a difficulty rating of 3.0 out of 5.

We update the Connections clues and hints daily. And if the hints aren't enough, you can see all four answers along with the category title and related words. In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I've included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #221.

There are spoilers for connection #222. Only read this if you want to know the answer to today's connection.

Unlike today's Wordle answer guide, which recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, solving Connections requires you to identify the categories that are connected from the 16 words. The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult. Hints will help as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses.

If you need a hint to solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

These hints should at least help you find the answer to today's connection. If not, please continue reading for larger hints. Also, if you just want the answer, scroll down further.

Now for a bigger hint: Today's grid may look to some like the ingredients in a recipe book, but be warned: there is no cooking involved, just sweet seasoning. If it fails, don't swear in front of your children.

Now for the answer to today's 22nd game of Connections.

Drum roll please.

My insatiable sweet tooth finally availed itself today as I found the yellow category in seconds, combining cherry, fudge, nuts, and sprinkles as sundae toppings and coated in sugar.

Perhaps the game master of devilish connections thought that the word bell bell pepper might be a possible match for the above ingredients, especially since the presence of nuts suggests stir-fry, which might lead one astray.

However, I was convinced that Peppers and Maroons were part of the pop music category (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Maroon 5), so I avoided that savory pitfall in other ways. But I was certainly playing the wrong song here. Curse you.

And so we arrive at the blue category, where any parent with young children, with little drama, tends to find U-designated offensive screeds; "Darn," "Rats," and "Shoot" complete the "Phooey" category.

Shells. Woodchucks. Of course, there are only tongue-twisting expressions, but I soon found a third in my old friend's (pickle) peppers. The fourth, however, was not so easy to find. Unsure, I put in the word desert, but I lost my first life that day. One left.

Desert was clearly an outlier, but I didn't stop there as I combined it with Strand, Maroon, and Ditch to complete the green category. This left the last tongue twister, the word "fuzzy". The game was complete, and as an added bonus I had a new tongue twister to talk to the kids about. Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, apparently.

Read this late in the day. According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 3.5 out of 5.

When I typed in blue, green, scarlet, and white as my first answers, I was a bit skeptical, but the brightest colors in today's game came almost immediately to mind. There was no theme to it, and it seemed a little too simple. Sure enough, my answer was shaken off, but I had the consolation that it was just one more.

Yellow must be the last piece of this bright jigsaw puzzle, but which other shade could I replace it with? I was fortunate enough to watch the 2014 World Cup and immediately recognized the pattern, as the rhythm and beat of the bustling city of Rio lingered in my mind even a decade later. That yellow is, of course, canary yellow, which, along with blue, green, and white, forms Brazil's famous flag. Blue category complete.

Paramount, Peacock, and Prime had me stumped, looking for a fourth term to complete the category of popular streaming services. But with no Apple, Disney, or Netflix in sight, I was forced to redefine my objectives.

Remembering that peacock also means "to show off," and with the great Brazilian soccer team still in the back of my mind, I added grandstand, posture, and strut, and rather fortunately completed the yellow category without losing a life

"I was very happy with the way the team played.

With Paramount and Prime still available, I went from my technology-obsessed millennial head into the pre-digital brain of Baby Boomer X and came up with a definition before these words became synonymous with on-demand TV. Suffice it to say, it was the best tactic that led to the two aforementioned words joining Main and Supreme to complete the green category: foremost.

The remainder were Chain, Cover, Love, and Scarlet, and it is safe to say that we enjoyed a red-letter day as we considered the theme and hit submit.