The big announcements for new candies came out earlier this year, but there are still some new products hitting shelves and on the horizon.

Name: Kandy Bar Kake:S’mores, Peanut Butter & Peppermint
Brand: Tastykake
Description: Tastykake Baking Co. is joining forces with The Hershey Co. to introduce Kandy Bar Kakes, a blend of cake and candy featuring Hershey’s most popular flavors. Kandy Bar Kake varieties include S’mores Kandy Bar Kake made with Hershey’s Cocoa, Peanut Butter Kandy Bar Kake made with Reese’s Peanut Butter and Peppermint Kandy Bar Kake made with York Peppermint Flavor.
Introduction Date: October 2012
Notes: I was just in Philadelphia and did pick up some Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes ... and I actually did meet with a rep from Hershey’s but I had no idea these were coming out. Unfortunately they are a regional, limited edition item and not available on the Tastykake.com webstore.   

Name: TABASCO Jelly Belly Jelly Beans
Brand: Jelly Belly Candy Company
Description: Hot sauce enthusiasts will immediately recognize the pungent taste of red peppers, Avery Island salt and distilled vinegar, coupled with a subtle sweetness – but not too sweet – undertone from the jelly bean itself.
Introduction Date: October 2012 in bulk - December 2012 in packages
Notes: According to John Pola, the VP of specialty sales for Jelly Belly,  “Hot is the new licorice.” I really don’t know what that means ... that hot is the new polarizing flavor that only some people will like? Hot candy actually is a pretty hot trend the past 5 years, and Tabasco already has a chocolate, so a jelly bean makes sense.

Name: Milky Way Bites
Brand: Mars
Description: These unwrapped, pop ‘em-in-your-mouth, bite-sized cubes are a convenient and easier-to-eat format of consumers’ favorite candy bar brands.  MILKY WAY Bites are available in two convenient sizes: 2.83-ounce sharing size and 7.0-ounce and 8.0-ounce resealable stand-up pouches.
Introduction Date: May 2013
Notes: The promo info didn’t mention the actual size of these pieces and it’s unclear if they’re a molded item (like the Reese’s Minis are) or if they’re teensy little enrobed nuggets.

Name: Snickers Bites
Brand: Mars
Description: These unwrapped, pop ‘em-in-your-mouth, bite-sized cubes are a convenient and easier-to-eat format of consumers’ favorite candy bar brands. Bites are available in two convenient sizes: 2.83-ounce sharing size and 7.0-ounce and 8.0-ounce resealable stand-up pouches.
Introduction Date: May 2013
Notes: I’m actually eager to try these, as I often find a full Snickers bar a little too much, and as they description mentions, they’re easier to eat, especially in situations like snacking at movies or perhaps making a trail mix with nuts and pretzels.

Name: Dove Mint & Dark Chocolate Swirl
Brand: Dove Chocolate (Mars)
Description: Dark chocolate lovers will adore the flavor sensations in the new Dove Brand Mint & Dark Chocolate Swirl. Combining Dove Brand rich, silky smooth dark chocolate with the sensation of cool, fresh mint, this new item delivers an irresistible flavor duo.
Introduction Date: May 2013
Notes: I really like the Dove Peppermint Bar, this sounds similar but without any crunchy bits and hopefully available year round.

Name: Dulcey
Brand: Valrhona
Description: Dulcey has a blond color and a smooth, enveloping texture. Its lightly sweetened biscuity flavor gives way to lush notes of shortbread with a hint of salt.
Introduction Date: September 2012 in UK, Early 2013 for North America
Notes: The bar contains 32% cacao content (cocoa butter) and is packaged for eating as well as ingredient use (sold in bulk as callets). It’s like a toasted white chocolate, less sweet - a caramel chocolate. An early review from Chocablog gives it high marks for quality, but not necessarily something for all chocolate lovers.

Mars doesn’t have much this year for Halloween, aside from the usual Harvest colors of M&Ms. I was interested to see that there was a new version of the Snickers Pumpkin from the previous time I tried it. (Review here.)

There are two package types for the Snickers Pumpkin. They come individually wrapped as seen here, or, more interestingly, in a 2 To Go wrapper like the King Size packages. It looks like a regular Snickers bar, but the background is black and has some pumpkins on it. It’s the same price as a King Size bar (which usually has 3.29 ounces in it), but has only 2.2 ounces in it.

It’s a nice little portion, about 1.1 ounces it’s half the size of a regular Snickers bar. It’s 2.5 inches long and about 1.5 inches wide at the base.

The big difference that’s noticeable out of the wrappers is that this is a molded product. The Reese’s Pumpkin is enrobed (coated) where this one is build upside down, with the pumpkin shaped shell created first, then the fillings squirted in and the base of chocolate added last.

A regular Snickers bar is also a layered product, but ultimately is coated via a conveyer moving under a curtain of chocolate, enrobing the bar. The ratio of chocolate to filling on that bar is such that the filling is the star, the chocolate is a device that keeps it all together. In the Snickers Pumpkin, the chocolate shell is most notable.

It smells sweet, milky and nutty. The center is soft, but doesn’t have the same caramel chew or plethora of crunchy nuts that a standard Snickers does. It’s overwhelmingly milk-chocolatey, which is fine if you’re into Snickers bars because of the quality of the chocolate. I am not. I find it a bit grainy, overly sweet and lacking a strong cocoa punch. The light touch of salt is good, it’s the only thing balancing out the sugar blast.

I’ll probably stick to the Minis, which have very little chocolate on them (though not much in the way of nuts).

Mars is in the process of moving towards 100% sustainable and ethically sourced cacao, but they’re going with their higher end products first, like Dove. The Snickers Pumpkin contains peanuts, soy and milk plus is made on shared equipment with tree nuts and wheat.

Related Candies

1. Snickers 3X Chocolate
2. Snickers Slice n’ Share (1 Pound)
3. Nestle Butterfinger Pumpkin
4. Brach’s Peanut Butter and Caramel Pumpkins
5. Snickers Peanut Butter Santas
6. Snickers Dark
7. The Great Pumpkin Roundup
8. Dove Truffle and Snickers Eggs

As a kid, a Toblerone bar was a special treat reserved for holidays, partly because they were expensive and partly because they were difficult to find year round. The bar was different from anything else on the market from the shape of the box and the exotic name to the interesting combination of flavors and textures.

The Toblerone company was bought from Jacob Suchard in 1990 by Kraft and is still made in Bern, Switzerland. The bars are much easier to find now, and easily located any time of the year. Their newest bar released in the United States is the Toblerone Crunchy Salted Almond and features Swiss milk chocolate with salted caramelized almonds and honey and almond nougat.

Rosa at ZOMG Candy gave the bar pretty high marks, so I was eager to find one in the wild. I spotted them at Walgreen’s over the weekend, though not on sale. It’s $2.99 for the 100 gram (3.5 ounce) bar, which is what I’d expect to pay for something from Kraft that’s in their Green & Black’s range of ethically sourced and all natural chocolate.

The serving size is 1/3 of the bar, and it would be nice if they just said how many peaks that is (there are 12 in the bar, so 4 is a serving). But I did like the packaging. The snug triangular box protects the bar, even though it’s just in a thin foil wrapper inside. I liked the color and the bold, simple design. The nutrition panel, otherwise, is really easy to read. 

The look of the bar is the same as the classic milk chocolate bar. Inside I expected to see more almonds, as they’re both in the nougat bits and included as the salted pieces as well. The bar smells milky and sweet. The bite is soft and has a lot more crispy bits in it than I was accustomed to. The chocolate is fudgy and has a lot of milky flavors to it, mostly it holds together the inclusions. The nougat pieces are crispy ... unless they’re a little bigger which may mean that they’re a little tacky if chewed. The almonds are a little larger and have a nice, fresh crunch to them. As for the salt promised, I didn’t really taste it. There’s only 55 mg per serving, so it’s not a liberal dose. Though I can’t say that I perceived it, I will say that this bar seemed less sweet than the standard Toblerone. I actually prefer this to the Classic.

Kraft and Toblerone have scant information on the sourcing of their ingredients except to say that the chocolate is not Fair Trade on their website in the FAQ section and the the cocoa is sourced from around the world (well, at least it’s Earth chocolate). The bars contain milk, soy, almonds and eggs plus are manufactured on shared equipment with other tree nuts.

Related Candies

1. Frey Chocobloc AIR
2. Milka NAPS Mix (Assortment)
3. Ferrara Milk Chocolate with Almond Nougat
4. Toblerone Fruit & Nut
5. Terry’s Chocolate Toffee Crunch Orange
6. Toblerone Single Peaks
7. See’s Awesome Nut & Chew Bar

Darrell Lea is an Australian confectionery company founded in 1927. They were known in Australia for their quaint and classic chocolate and licorice products sold at the company’s branded stores. (The company went into administration earlier this year and was bought out by the Quinn family, who also run VIP Petfoods. The shops are closed, but they’re still making candy.)

Here in the United States were get few of their products on our shelves, with their signature item being the Australian style licorice. I’ve even tried another version of their chocolate covered licorice before.

Cost Plus World Market recently had a big display of Australian and specifically a large array of Darrell Lea confections. I picked up a chocolate covered fudge bar and this package of Darrell Lea Dark Choc Liquorice Bullets.

The package holds 7 ounces, but is jam packed with the candies. It’s a heavy bag, like a bean bag filled with lead shot. The pieces are large. Think of a swollen Good & Plenty. Good & Plenty are about 2/3 of an inch long. These are over one inch. They’re consistent, dark and glossy. They smell like sweet chocolate and nothing like licorice.

The chocolate coating is nicely done, shiny and thick. The flavor is, well, thin. It’s like hot cocoa made with hot water instead of milk. The chocolate notes are like chocolate syrup. The licorice nib beneath is hefty and soft with a solid and satisfying chew. The earthy flavors of the licorice go pretty well with the chocolate. It’s almost bitter with lots of notes of dirt and minerals but not a whole lot of anise, more on the green fennel flavors.

The chew leaves behind lots of sticky bits of the licorice in my teeth and has a sort of rib sticking density as well. The ingredients show that this is real chocolate, though it does contain PGPR (an extra emulsifier) and butter (so it’s not vegan ... though it also lists shellac). The licorice base is wheat flour. It was made in a facility that also processes peanuts and tree nuts. There’s no corn syrup though, which I know some people avoid in a licorice.

I found them satisfying as a candy, but not great as a chocolate product or as a licorice product. I ate the whole bag, but it took me well over a month, as I kept losing interest. They also make a Milk Choc variety, which might have a better balance with the added dairy flavors. I don’t know what the financial restructuring will mean to availability of Darrell Lea products outside of Australia.

Related Candies

1. Panda Traditional Soft Original Licorice (with High Fructose Corn Syrup)
2. Goetze’s Licorice and Double Chocolate Caramel Creams
3. Panda Soft Herb Licorice and Licorice Cremes
4. Walgreen’s Australian Licorice (Chocolate Covered)
5. Darrell Lea Dark Chocolate Covered Liquorice
6. Kookaburra Choc Coated Liquorice
7. Darrell Lea Licorice & Ginger

Taza Chocolate makes their chocolate from bean to bar in Somerville, Mass. What sets them apart from the many other small batch chocolate makers that have sprung up in the last 10 years is that they stone grind their chocolate in the rustic, classic Mexican tradition. Taza sources their cacao through direct trade sources to assure quality and ethical practices.

They make a wide variety of products but the ones of most interest to me are the Mexicano Discs. They make 10 different varieties, but I got samples of two that I thought would represent the style best: Cacao Puro Chocolate Mexicano 70% and Taza Salted Almond Chocolate Mexicano. I also noticed recently that Trader Joe’s has started carrying a strikingly similar set of chocolate discs, so I’ll throw in some notes about that.

The Taza website describes the Taza Discs as Rustic, round dark chocolate discs with a distinctively gritty texture, some sweet, some savory, some spicy. The packages have two discs in them, 2.7 ounces total (1.35 ounces each).

The discs are either for eating straight from the package or making into a drink by mixing with a whisk (or molinillo if you want to be authentic) and some hot milk (or water).

The packaging is extremely simple. It’s a printed, stiff parchment style paper that’s folded around the chocolate and sealed on the bottom with a large sticky label.

The Cacao Puro Chocolate Mexicano 70% is organic, gluten free, soy free and dairy free plus Kosher and made with only two ingredients: organic cacao beans and organic cane sugar.

The process for making the chocolate is very simple. The roasted cacao is placed in the stone mills and ground, then ground a second time with the sugar added. As noted on their website, it’s not a lot of processing, no conching and no emulsifiers are used. The chocolate is then tempered and molded into the discs.

(My photos for the Puro turned out poorly, so just imagine this Salted Almond is the Puro. It really looks the same, just a smidge darker.)

The look of the bars is a little dusty, less than glossy. The snap is solid, these are tough and dense bars. The melt is, well, not very smooth. It’s described as rustic and rustic is what it is.

The overwhelming flavor note I had was green wood, it’s a little like black tea, with other notes of lemon peel, raisins and a hint of figs and leather.

The texture is grainy, there are grains of sugar, which are interesting because they dissolve quickly. Then the is the grit of the large cacao particles. This gives the overall flavor of the chocolate a sort of variation, there are parts where the flavors might start as citrusy but then after chewing (yes, later because of the grit, there is more chewing than a really smooth dark chocolate might obligate me) some other flavors come out, like the tobacco and tea.

It was really looking forward to the Salted Almond Chocolate Mexicano.

The chocolate here is only 40% cacao, with a larger proportion of sugar plus the almonds and salt taking up the other 60%. I really expected the cross section of this one to look more rustic, with more bits of almond in there, but it’s really well integrated.

It’s quite sweet, the graininess is taken up with the sugary grains with a hint of salt. I didn’t catch much from the almonds, except that they gave it a more creamy and mellow flavor that moderated the bitterness of the cacao better than the sugar. The chocolate flavors were also evened out, so I just got a sort of fudge brownie flavor from the whole thing.

I tried making a hot chocolate with this, since that’s part of the appeal of the Mexican-style of rustic chocolate. I didn’t put a lot of chocolate into it - about half of a disc for about 6 ounces of whole milk, I’ll probably add more next time. It’s best to use a whisk for this, all I had was a fork, so there was a lot of stirring (and a good thing that I didn’t fill up the cup all the way). The flavor is much more nutty and the sugar dissolves completely. The grittiness of the cocoa part goes away (until you get to the sludge at the bottom which is then a mix of almond bits and cacao nibs, which is also great).

I prefer this as a hot drink to a bar for eating, but that’s just me. It’s a bit expensive and requires a lot more work than just dumping a powder into some hot water, but I appreciate good ingredients and can take that extra minute for the stirring. (And now that the weather is getting cooler, I need a sort of whisk that’s ideal for one cup of chocolate.)

The final one I have notes on is the Trader Joe’s special version, Organic Salt & Pepper. It has 54% cacao, so it’s a bit darker than the Almond version. The only real difference between this disc set and the Taza branded ones is the fact that there are no little letters T A Z A on the molded sections.

It smells dark and peppery with some rum notes. The salt is much more forward than the Salted Almond. The gritty texture seemed to go well with the rustic flavors of salt and pepper and the grainy sugar. The cocoa flavors were a bit lost though did remind me of brownie batter. Of the three that I tried, this was my least favorite, but mostly because of the overall sandiness. The heat of the black pepper takes a while to warm up, but lends some nice tones.

The style of chocolate is interesting and definitely different from the standard fare and novelty chocolates these days. Really, I think this chocolate will shine as a drinking product, not for straight eating. But that’s a personal preference. If you’re looking for a chocolate that’s easy to portion, made with vegan ingredients, that has no GMO ingredients, emulsifiers or gluten or added vanilla bean then this is a fantastic option.

Update 10/29/2012: Per the suggestions of readers that I should drink this as hot chocolate, I did just that with one tablet of the Salted Almond. I found it a little bland, but very rich. So for the remaining discs, I made chocolate pudding. The recipe was 1/4 cup of corn starch, 3 cups of milk and three discs (about 3.5 ounces) of chopped chocolate. I warmed the mixture on the stove over low heat while I used a whisk to completely incorporate the corn starch, then as the chocolate melted to emulsify it. Then turned it up to medium heat, stirred constantly until it just started to thicken and boil. I added some vanilla extract (optional). It’s very rich, not at all sweet.

For my mix I had one disc of Salted Almond and two of the Cacao Puro. I wasn’t interested in the Salt & Pepper as pudding.

Related Candies

1. McIlhenny Co Tabasco Brand Spicy Chocolate
2. Al Nassma Camel Milk Chocolate
3. De la Rosa Mazapan
4. Carlos V: Dark Knight
5. Christmas Classics Poll Results
6. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Line
7. Nestle Carlos V Milk Chocolate