After day one of ISM, the international Sweets and Biscuit Fair in Cologne I have no handy, condensed update.

I am officially overwhelmed, and if you know me and my ability to take in candy, you’ll understand how huge this thing is.

That building up there is filled with candy. There are 10 halls and 6 of them are taken with candy displays. I went through about two halls on the first day and it took me at least 90 minutes to just get my bearings. I don’t speak German, though I understand it pretty well for the basics and at least can read some of it. But I’m never prepared for the overwhelming crush of a big show like this.

I’m on the look out for trends, but it’s hard to spot because it is such an international fair and the companies and products are so specific. If there’s one trend I can spot it’s that every country makes it’s own version of the same thing. You like Chupa Chups? There are 20 other regional versions of them around the world made by other companies. Same goes for Mentos and of course things like Caramel Wafer Bars.

I’ll leave you with a photo, as I prepare for my second day:

ISM Cologne is the world’s largest confectionery trade fair. For over forty years it’s featured the best in European candy and biscuits (cookies). About 1,500 companies from 70 different countries around the world come to display their wares to buyers, wholesalers and brokers.

I’ll be attending this year, with a full press pass to cover the show. The show lasts four days, starting Sunday, January 30th to Wednesday, February 2nd at the 4th largest convention hall in Europe, Kolnmesse. The exhibits cover more than one million square feet. (I’m bringing good walking shoes.)

More on the 2011 trade fair from Professional Candy Buyer magazine.

I’m really excited to go to Germany, which has such a rich and varied tradition of candy. They have such a wide array of confectionery traditions, from their invention of the Gummi Bear, traditional devotion to dairy milk chocolate and marzipan and globally known brands such as Ritter Sport, Haribo and Kinder (part of Ferrero).

My journey will begin in Amsterdam, where I plan to spend three days checking out the local licorice and chocolate scene. Then I head to Cologne via ICE (high speed train) on Friday. I’m hoping to spend a day before the show starts visiting local German stores to see how and where candy is sold to get a sense of how confections fit into daily life in comparison to North America. Cologne is also home to the Chocolate Museum, so I plan to get a world-class education on chocolate.

Posting may be a little lighter here for the next ten days or so, but after I get home with my lovely samples and photos, I’ll have lots to share.

I get advance tastes of new candies, but I often post about them months before they hit the stores. Here’s a little review of reviews of new candies:

Snickers Peanut Butter Squared from Mars is a new introduction to the Snickers family of candy bars. It’s not a limited edition and is available in single serve size and fun size bags.

The regular package is two squares of candy. It features nougat, peanut butter and caramel covered in chocolate. It’s a bit less of a textural marvel than the standard Snickers. Folks who like a softer chew may prefer it, but it left me wanting a real Snickers bar.

I saw these first at the checkout at Target.

See full review for Snickers Peanut Butter Squared. (7 out of 10)

The new Hershey’s Drops come in two varieties: Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Drops and Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Drops. They’re large chocolate beans with no candy shell, easy to pop in your mouth or share. The milk chocolate variety isn’t different enough from a typical Hershey’s Kiss for me, even if there’s less unwrapping. But the Cookies ‘n’ Creme is interesting because there are so few candies that use the white confection like this. (Though there is a Kiss version, too.)

I saw these first at Von’s (photo) in stand up bags.

See full review of Hershey’s Drops (7 out of 10)

Like the Hershey’s Drops, the new Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Minis are here to making snacking easier. They little cups are easy to pop into your mouth and don’t require layers of wrapping like the foil-wrapped, fluted-cupped miniatures. They’re going to be great for baking.

See full review of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Minis (7 out of 10)

I teased these last summer and I’m doing it again. New PEEPS Chocolate Covered Raspberry Flavored Marshmallow Hearts in single-serve packages. This year, PEEPS Brand Marshmallow Candies are melting hearts with their new PEEPS Chocolate Covered Raspberry Flavored Marshmallow Hearts. Delicious milk or dark chocolate cover raspberry flavored PEEPS to create a scrumptious chocolate and marshmallow experience.

I tried the Peeps Peppermint Trees for Christmas and found them to be poorly made. I bought six of them and all were oozing, cracked and sticky inside. (Even the ones that weren’t cracked still had deflated centers.) I’m hoping the quality control for the Raspberry version will be better, because I think it’s a great idea.

I don’t think they need the colored marshmallow centers though, it just adds more ingredients that do nothing for the flavor (in fact, I’m prepared that the pink will taste bitter to me).

Finally, another tease. Mars is introducing a new Limited Edition Twix Coconut this spring. Look for it to hit shelves in April 2011.

Like the Coconut M&Ms, these have no coconut in them. Instead it’s a traditional Twix with a cookie base, caramel stripe and chocolate coating plus a light touch of coconut flavor.

Related Candies

1. Peeps Dark Chocolate Covered Mint Marshmallow
2. Eat with your Eyes: Twix Coconut
3. Snickers Peanut Butter Squared
4. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Minis
5. Hershey’s Drops: Milk Chocolate & Cookies n Creme
6. Chocolate Covered Peeps
7. M&Ms Premiums

Sometimes I meticulously photograph things with the intention of doing an exhaustive review.

And then I eat them.

I liked this photo because I felt like the chocolate had some personality. There’s a swirl on top, but it’s turned away, like the chocolate is being coy. Or perhaps I snuck up on it and took this photo.

This is from Gail Ambrosius, which I’ll get around to reviewing for the holidays.

This is a little visual tease ... there’s a new Twix Bar coming out next year, Twix Coconut.

It doesn’t look any different on the outside (actually it looks the same inside, too). It’s kind of like the M&Ms Coconut.

The full review for Twix Coconut is now up!

Since this is the sixth Halloween I’ve covered on Candy Blog, it’s hard to find Halloween candies to feature that I haven’t reviewed before. So I thought I’d do a run down of what I’ve been seeing in stores again this year for the Halloween Season. These are just candies that are special to Halloween, not regular candy in large bags or with special wrappers.

HERSHEY’S

NECCO

FARLEY’S & SATHERS (BRACH’S)

TOOTSIE

JUST BORN

NESTLE & WONKA

RUSSELL STOVER & WHITMANS

JELLY BELLY

Other

What have you seen in stores ... or what have you had trouble finding this year?

Unlike Circus Peanuts, Honeycomb Peanuts are more like you’d expect based on their size, shape and color. They look like peanuts, are about the same size as a small pair of peanuts in teh shell and actually taste like peanutty candy. They’re a light orange colored hard candy filled with a crunchy peanut butter center (kind of like the middle of a Butterfinger Bar).

I usually pick them up in bulk bins. They’re also considered a vegan candy.