Here’s a fun new added feature for CandyBlog.net! I’ve started mapping candy using Frappr.

If you’re not familiar with Frappr, it’s an interactive map creator that uses Google’s maps and the ability to create custom “pins” with photos and info.

I’ve added about a quarter of the posts made so far here at CandyBlog to the map - you can find places near, explore places you plan to visit or just see where your candy comes from. I’ll be adding lots more as the weeks go on, but I thought I’d give everyone a sneak peek!

You can roll over each little pushpin on the map for a photo and name of the company. I’ve categorized them into factories, stores and tours, so you can find places that you can actually visit. Each callout for the location includes a link back to a post here on CandyBlog for more information about the company, tour or candy.

You don’t have to be a member of frappr to use the map (I’m not asking you to divulge where you live ... this is just for you to browse.) At the moment it just covers the United States, but I’ll slowly expand to other countries as they’re supported by the system.

This weekend is the Sweets Expo in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It’s a consumer trade show and fantasy destination featuring sweets, candy and confections a-go-go.

Sadly, I’m not there, but happily one of CandyBlog’s regular readers, g, is there and covering it all on a special blog: Sugarholic.

Check it out ... she’s already had her first chocolate experience since arriving in Toronto and the show doesn’t start until tomorrow!

Jealous? Fear not, there will be another Sweets Expo this summer in Montreal and this fall in Vancouver. I’ve never been to Vancouver ... hmmmm.

The winner of the CandyBlog Blogroll Challenge Drawing is .... Shauna! A package will be mailed out later this week with far more candy than you ever thought I could cram into a little box.

Everyone’s support and linkage is greatly appreciated and I liked looking at everyone’s blogs and sites (and I’ve added a great many of them to my RSS reader). I hope everyone else got a change to click around and see what CandyBlog readers are up to!

I’ll be doing another drawing again soon. If anyone has any suggestions for a sort of challenge to include as part of it, let me know here.

Looks like Hershey is revamping its marketing plans which will include some trims to its current product line.

Richard Lenny, chairman, president and CEO of The Hershey Co., said the company will reduce the “absolute number of both existing and new products” it markets, according to CandyBusinessInsider. The actions, he said, will allow the company to focus on its high growth initiatives, which include the accelerated development and introduction of dark chocolate products, as well as its refreshment, cookie and single-serve nut items.

Link to full article.

I’ve been enjoying the limited editions, but I’d like them to give some of the items more of a chance or perhaps think them through before putting them out. I guess I have some other expectations when it comes to mass produced candies, and one of those is consistency of availability. While it’s okay to have something that only comes out once a year (like the various Cadbury Eggs), it’s kind of a shame to build up a fan base and then dash their hopes.

Frankly, I’ve got better things to spend my time on than writing letters of support to candy companies to get them to make a limited edition part of their permanent repertoire (I know, you’d think that’s all I do all day). My continued purchase is my vote. If the line isn’t profitable, then sure, you’re well within your rights to get rid of it. But if they reason you’re trimming is because it’s not profitable enough or just to make the balance sheet all fit on one page, well that just seems odd. But there’s a reason I’m on this side of the keyboard and not in the boardroom. I really haven’t a clue what it takes to run a multi-national conglomerate like Hershey.

I didn’t do a very good job of finding a lot of stuff at the end of Candy Season with the post-Easter sales. I think I did much better on the post-Valentines front and here’s one of the items I picked up at that time.

I’d never heard of Stephany but the side of the box said “always the perfect gift” which must also mean, “always the perfect after holiday bargain.” Though the box had hearts on the outside, nowhere did it say Valentines Day or love or anything like that, so I thought it could just be their regular design. It also had a smart little label that said that the candy was good until June 1, 2006!

Inside the box were four pieces of almond toffee covered in chocolate and rolled in crushed almonds. The chocolate was thick and sweet and the toffee hard but with a good toothsome cleave to it. The toffee had a good salty bit to it and the chocolate far outweighed the toffee in sweetness. The ample nuts were good and fresh.

What was also nice was the price and the fact that I could get something from Colorado (what is it about Colorado and toffee?) at my local Target.

But I guess the big news here is that Stephany’s Chocolates is no more. They closed down their factory and retail stores about 10 days ago according to news reports. I considered not posting anything at all about this candy, but I figured I bought it and took a photo and then ate it, I may as well document it so that other candy fans will know what happened.

Here we go, I’ve got more candy to give away!

This time to enter, you’ve gotta do something for me:

Add CandyBlog to your blogroll or put a link to me on your website.

Then come here and leave a comment with a link to your site. Use a real email address (don’t worry, I’m the only one who can see it) when you comment so I can contact you if you win.

Am I already on your blogroll? Leave a comment and you’ll be entered too!

For this contest ALL ADDRESSES will be accepted - I’ll send the package anywhere in the world!

The deadline for entries is Friday, May 5th at midnight Pacific time. (I figured folks needed a little more time for this one.) Daily candy reviews continue as usual below.

You know if I’m not eating candy or writing about candy, I’m out on the internet reading about candy and looking at candy photos.

Last week I stumbled across two incredible sets of photos on Flickr, here’s a small sample:

Joshua has over 175 photos of individual pieces of Halloween candy, both wrapped and then unwrapped.

I emailed him, and he gave me the story behind it. He collected a barrel of candy (50 gallons!) for Halloween as part of his work as a youth pastor. They did a huge challenge called the Pumpkin Hunt for middle and high school aged kids, kind of like a treasure hunt:

We divide kids up into teams of like 4-6 each and they race through different clues that send ‘em all over the place in our community and the first one to make it to the candy wins. There’s also a combination lock on the candy, and along the way they pick up 3 numbers to the lock and have to get ‘em in order and unlock the padlock to actually win.

Wow, way harder than Trick-or-Treat, but it sounds a lot more fun. I wonder if the winner got the whole 50 gallons?

I was overwhelmed by the number of entries and folks de-lurking on the blog. I can’t tell you how much your praise, appreciation and return visits means to me. It’s good to know that my obsession is not uncommon and certainly not as secret as I thought. It made me smile each and every time someone left an enthusiastic entry or a wonderful compliment.

But you’re just here to see about the winner, aren’t you?

First, how I did the drawing: I exported the comment list that includes the name, email address, date & time and IP address of each comment to an excel sheet. Then I sifted through and vetted the obvious, such as if a person commented more than one time, I only used the first comment. This was as good as I could do to keep things on the up-and-up.

Instead writing on slips of paper and picking them out of a hat or something, I went high tech. I sorted the sheet (by one of the fields, I’m not going to tell you which) and then I went to Random.org and used their random number generator to give me a number between 1 and 154. The winner was #13 (hey, I can’t make stuff like this up!).

So, congratulations to Jenna! Her package will go in the post tomorrow. Stay tuned, I’ll be running another giveway (but this time I’m asking something of you!).