Oh the anticipation! New candy bars on tap from Mars

Breaking news from Mars! Check this out candy lovers. There's some good stuff here!
1) 3 Musketeers Coconut will hit the shelves in December. Unlike other coconut bars that I so looked forward to (Twix Coconut, for one), this one scares me a little. I'm not sure it sounds that good, but I'm certainly willing to check it out.
2) M&M's Dark Chocolate Mint. Now these, I'm anxiously anticipating.
3) In May, 2012, look for M&M Snack Mixes. Milk Chocolate Candies Snack Mix features milk chocolate M&M’s, mini chocolate chip cookies, mini pretzel twists and peanuts; Dark Chocolate Candies Snack Mix comprises dark chocolate M&M’s, raisins, almonds and mini pretzel twists; Peanut Chocolate Candies Snack Mix has peanut M&M’s, mini shortbread cookies, almonds and mini pretzel twists. YUM!
4) Snickers 3X Chocolate 2 To Go bars (that's a lot of numbers in a candy bar name) will feature peanuts in chocolate caramel on top of chocolate nougat, covered in milk chocolate.

Breaking News: Twix Coconut on the Horizon

Oh yes, you read that right: in April, Mars will be launching a limited edition Twix coconut. Just when I thought I'd become immune to the excitement of new products, along comes this. I. Can't. Wait.

Guest Review: Snickers Fudge and Milky Way Simply Caramel

The Von Schokolats have taken time out of their busy schedules to do a taste test of the latest offerings from Mars. (The candy manufacturer, that is; not the planet.)
(If you've been paying attention, you'll notice another name amongst the crowd. Let me introduce Manfred, the Von Schokolats' exchange student from Brazil.)

Milky Way Simply Caramel

Liesl: very thick, stuck to my braces

Manfred: spit it out after about 2 seconds of chewing (ew!)

The Baron : Nothing special, I wouldn't buy it

Gretl : Tastes like caramels. Don't like it; it's too sticky.

The Baroness : Tastes like a Caramello. No big deal, very disappointing.

Snickers Fudge

The Baron : Don't like the texture at the beginning. Slight peanut butter taste. No fudge texture or flavor.

Liesl : Chocolatety deliciousness, crunchy, I think I ate my elastic, very thick

Manfred : Good, but you wouldn't want to eat too much of it.

Gretl : Tastes like ... nothing. It's a rip off on a Snickers.

The Baroness : I was very excited to try this as Snickers are my favorite candy bar. However, this one left a gritty feeling in my mouth. There wasn't enough caramel and I was very disappointed. I would prefer a regular Snickers!

Transformers Strawberried Peanut Butter M&M's: Do You Dare?

I can honestly say I've never had to ponder a grammatical question about candy before until today. But the new "Transformer Strawberried Peanut Butter M&M's" have arrived.

Yes, "strawberried." I'm sitting here thinking, that's an adjective, right? It's not a verb or an adverb ... I think. (And I'm supposedly an editor by trade. Bwahaha!) I could call the Necco Door Neighbors-- they'd certainly know-- but I'm going to stick with adjective.

Anyhow, you don't really care about that, do you? What you're saying is, "Eww. That sounds gross." Am I right? Because that's what I said, and what Mr. Goodbar said, and what No-Nuts said. I was the only one brave enough to try them. (No-Nuts, of course, couldn't for medical reasons.)

You know what? They're not bad, actually. They're red, brown and yellow with red speckles, and irregular in size. Some are big and fat, others are smaller and flatter. I kind of like that, actually. Makes 'em feel homemade. As for the taste: the initial hit is strawberry, then peanut butter, then slight chocolate. If I liked strawberry, these would be a big hit. Someone mentioned that it's not unlike having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the added bonus of chocolate. I just have to wonder, though, who came up with the idea of strawberry? It seems so wrong.

I think the von Schokolats would really like these. How about you? Have you tried them? What do you think?

The Inside Scoop (From the Outside)

While I sit here with the world’s neediest cat tucked under my elbow, hundreds of candy manufacturers and buyers are partying their lights out working hard at the All Candy Expo. I’m not there because 1) I’m broke; 2) I don’t have coverage for the Sugar Baby and 3) I’m too tired to even return my library books, let alone haul my sorry butt to the airport. In any case, the kind press folks at the Expo are keeping candy bloggers in the know with daily info. So dear Yumsters, want a sneak peek into what’s coming up around the bend? Here are a few I thought were interesting.

• Jelly Belly® will have two new super fruit flavors: Barbados Cherry, an emerging super fruit high in Vitamin C, and Acai (ah-sigh-ee) Berry, an exotic Amazon rainforest fruit, in their new Superfruit Mix, which also includes other super fruits of pomegranate, blueberry and cranberry flavors. Another new flavor will be Chili Mango Jelly Belly® jelly beans which will “offer an exotic fusion of heat and sweet.” I’m not so sure about those, but then again, I don’t like mango.


• MARS Snackfood US is introducing another flavor in its PROMISES line: DOVE® Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate with Peanut Butter PROMISES®. These individually wrapped chocolates include eloquent "promise" captions inside each wrapper. (NOTE: One lucky Yumster just might find some of these in the Great Anniversary Candy Giveaway!)


• For Halloween, DOTS® Halloween Mix will include Candy Corn DOTS®, Blood Orange flavored Bat DOTS® and haunting Ghost DOTS® (Tootsie® Roll Industries). I’m psyched about these!


• And finally, DAS® Lolli lollipops have new flavor pairings: Naughty Ginger is a ginger and lemon flavored pop, Caramelini Me Happy is a salty caramel lollipop, Fab-O-Pom blends orange and pomegranate, and Man Bait is a maple bacon flavored lollipop. As I’m writing this, I’m eating one of the Fab-O-Poms. It’s got a nice balance of sweet and sour, although now that I’m getting down to the end of it, there are little pieces of fruit in it, and I’m not digging that. I prefer a totally smooth lollipop—no chunks. We’ll see how the others fare.

Coconut M&M's, Puckerooms and more!

In one of this year's most controversial posts, Mr. Goodbar took a close look at the economics of M&M's. It was in this investigation where he suggested a brilliant idea: coconut M&M's. So guess what the latest flavor is going to be? Yep, coconut! Check out some of the other new releases that'll be coming soon at Candy Dish Blog. I'm intrigued by the cranberry Raisinettes and all of the Nestle Crunch variations.

I'm also excited about the Wonka products, particularly the Wonka Puckerooms, described as "the chewiest new treat made with natural ingredients and 25 percent real fruit juice. Each cherry, lemon-orange and grape mushroom-shaped sour gummi candy delivers a bitter twist with a curious combination of squishy and sour to dazzle your mouth." I'm not so sure about that "bitter twist" part, but I'm always on board for sour.

Two, Two, Two Tastes in One! (Well, not really.)

On a normal candy-scavenging day, I probably would've walked right past the Skittles Crazy Cores, but after I read the review by the cheeky lads over at Candy Gurus, I had to give them a go.

The Gurus claim that these are bunk because they are not "Two Flavors in Each Piece" as the package claims. The flavors are supposed to be: Mango Peach, Cherry Lemonade, Strawberry Watermelon, Melon Berry and Blue Raspberry Lemon.

Out of all of them, I think the Cherry Lemonade came the closest to being two flavors, but the boys were right: these aren't magic candies. There's no dual personalities here. These are just differently-flavored Skittles. Having said that, No-Nuts LOVED these Skittles and I believe she's going to go on a rampage if she doesn't get more soon. As for me, they were fine, but I've always been a little afraid of Skittles ever since I found out they have more calories (230!) than your average candy bar.

Hershey's Thingamajig

This just in from Alexandra: Hershey's has released a new limited edition bar called "Thingamajig," apparently a sister bar to the Whatchamacallit. Instead of peanut butter crispies, this one has cocoa crispies. Stay tuned for Alex's full report!

Snickers Adventure and Twix Java

It was looking like I was going to have some yummy days ahead of me, since I was finally able to get my mitts on both a Snickers Adventure bar and a Twix Java. Never have I been so disappointed. Well, okay, there was that one time when I was eight years old and the Ice Cube Queen took me to the kids' bingo night at church and I was really, really hoping to win the giant roll of insulation that someone had donated as a prize*, but this was a close second.
The Snickers Adventure bar is the latest tie-in for the new Indiana Jones movie (that, despite my better judgement, I'm actually looking forward to). The description on the wrapper says, "Rich chocolate. Crunchy nuts. And a cliffhanger kick of exotic spice and a hint of sweet coconut flavor." Well, boy howdee, that sounds good, doesn't it?
It's not.
Imagine if you will: you take an air-tight Tupperware container and put in a regular Snickers and an open bottle of Coppertone suntan lotion. You seal up the Tupperware and let it bake in the hot sun for a few months, thereby allowing the fake coconut aroma of the lotion to infiltrate the normally delicious Snickers. And voila! You have a Snickers Adventure.
Next, the Twix Java, which I've been sooo looking forward to. In fact, I contacted someone at Mars to find out where I could get one, because I haven't had any luck. The nice lady informed me that they're already being phased out, but I happened to stumble upon one. The caramel is coffee flavored and the cookie is chocolate, not vanilla. It was good. It was perfectly acceptable. But it wasn't the big "OMG!" I was hoping it would be. Frankly, I didn't think it had enough coffee flavor. So there you have it. A disappointing haul, but still better than listening to some other kid shout "BINGO!"

*As I was only eight years old, I had no idea what the insulation was, but it looked amazingly similar to cotton candy and it had a picture of the Pink Panther on the wrapping. You would think, however, that some thoughtful adult might've said, "Hey, I don't think any kids are going to want to win this insulation. Why don't we just donate it to the church and offer them a 25 cent candy bar instead?"

Want samoa?

I couldn't resist buying one of the 1oo Grand bars with coconut. Yesterday, I split a piece of it with a coconut aficianado. "You know what this tastes like?" I asked him.
"Wait," he said as he chewed. "Yep, just like a Girl Scout cookie."
Yes, the 100 Grand with coconut tastes just like a Samoa. The first thing I noticed about it was that the caramel seemed softer than in a regular 100 Grand. The toasted coconut kind of blends with the crisped rice giving it that cookie taste. Pretty good.
In other news, Hershey has said that it's going to cut down on its Limited Editions. Apparently they were good for drawing attention to the original candy bars, but not so good as overall sellers. But that Elvis peanut butter cup is still scheduled to come out this summer.