Free Candy! Young & Smylie Licorice

A few months ago, the kind folks at Hershey's sent me an e-mail saying they'd shipped me some of their new Young & Smylie licorice to try. (Gotta love that name. It makes me think of a toothless old man sitting out front on a rocking chair saying, "When I was a kid, we were all young and smiley. Now you whippersnappers are all moody and sullen with your e-Pods and your fancy phones with keyboards.") Anyhow, I was excited and I waited ... and I waited ... And then I kind of forgot about it, until I started seeing reviews of it on some of the other candy blogs. I sent back an e-mail and said, just FYI, I never received the licorice.

Hmmm, they said. We did send it. To this address: Candy Yum Yum's old residence.

Holy cow! Could that be the reason there was a party going on in my old house the night I drove by? (Not stalking. Really.) Were the new owners sitting back laughing devilishly as they plowed through MY licorice? Even though I told them that I sometimes get lots of strange candy-related packages and to call me if they ever receive any by accident? A pox upon them!

The kind Hershey folks sent out another package, though, and this time I received it. They've launched their new line of licorice: traditional black, strawberry and peach mango. The label says it's "Old fashioned soft-eating licorice." They weren't kidding. This is the softest licorice I've ever had. It has a really nice flavor to it-- deep and herby and sweet. Even No-Nuts liked it.

Next we tried the strawberry. I'm not big on strawberry or flavored licorice, so I wasn't particularly wowed by this. It was definitely in-your-face strawberry.

The last bag, peach mango, will be going to a randomly-chosen Candy Yum Yum reader. All you have to do is tell me about your fantasy licorice flavor in the comments. If you could invent a licorice flavor, what would it be? I'll stop taking comments on Friday, Sept. 5 at high noon, EST.