I would normally wait until my Holiday Gift Guide to post about this, but I doubt they’ll be any left.

Endangered Species had too many outdated candy wrappers so they engaged Ecoist to create a series of purses and bracelets from the old packaging.

They have two different logo versions (black and white) but the best ones are the large version that feature either the Giraffe from the Peanut Butter Milk Chocolate bar or the Snow Leopard from the Milk Chocolate with Mocha.

You can pre-order now, but they won’t be shipped until October 15th. They’re a little pricey (that’s what happens when you give people a living wage) at $25 for the coin purse, $55 for the purse and $16 for the bracelet.

You can also order your Green Halloween kits at the same time!

(Ecoist has other wrapper recycling deals as well, you can get Luna Bars or perhaps find a repurposed movie billboard.)

If you’re more interested in eating your packaging instead of making it into things, take note that Charles Chocolates is running a web only promotion right now where you can save 25% on Edible Chocolate Boxes.

That means the Fleur de Sel or Marzipan Collections are only $33.75 and the Fall or Tea Collections are $45.00. If you can’t decide you can by the full collection of five boxes for $187.50 (five boxes you say, what’s the fifth? looks like another assorted collection). See them all here. Must ship by October 15, 2007.

See my reviews of the Charles Chocolates line here.

Related Candies

1. Endangered Species: Eco-Rounds
2. Endangered Species Chocolate
3. Guide to Gifts for Candy Lovers

Last year I tried the Limited Edition Chocolate Covered Pop Rocks. They were interesting, not really anything to bring me back to eating Pop Rocks on a regular basis.

But this year Pop Rocks had something completely new and not packaged in a flat envelope. This is the new Milk Chocolate Pop Rocks Bar. The gentleman at their booth at All Candy Expo was careful to tell me that they used premium chocolate for this bar. (I’m not sure I’d call it premium, it does have PGPR in it.)

The bar is petite at only 1.16 ounces and three chunky segments.

The chocolate is soft and rather creamy but sweet. It melts quickly to reveal the chunks of Pop Rocks that, well, pop. It’s like a proactive Nestle’s Crunch Bar (with better chocolate).

The chocolate is light and lacking in the darker chocolate flavors, I got an overwhelming taste of raisins, but I don’t know if that had something to do with some actual flavor to the Pop Rocks.

The bar can be eaten two ways, as far as I’m concerned. The first is to simply let it melt and allow the Pop Rocks to pop. This creates a mild and interesting effect, but not terribly different. The second is to chew up much of the bar and then let it melt, giving it another chew or two as it dissolves completely. This is extremely noisy (at least inside my own head) and by far the most fun.

Popping candy chocolate bars have been around for a few years, most notably a brief appearance in the United States by the Wonka Xploder bar, which I never got to try.

I expect them to be found in the same places I see Pop Rocks (7-11, Target and candy shops), no word on the retail price. This bar was made in Spain.

Related Candies

1. Gummy Fishies
2. Soda Can Fizzy Candy
3. Astra Flying Saucers
4. Pop Rocks Cherry Cola
5. Pop Rocks Limon

Of course I wasn’t the only writer covering the All Candy Expo and I’m glad, otherwise I wouldn’t know half this stuff. So here are some extra reads if you’re inclined:

Bloggers

Other Coverage by Me

Finally, the National Confectioners Association site also has a nice roundup of coverage including video links!

Related Candies

1. All Candy Expo - Tuesday Wrappers
2. All Candy Expo - Tuesday Noon Update
3. All Candy Expo - Monday Wrappers
4. Navigating a Candy Expo

One of the exciting new products teased at the All Candy Expo is the new Chocolate Mix Skittles. This is a permanent flavor addition to the Skittles line which already includes: Original Fruit, Tropical, Smoothie Mix and Wild Berry.

The Chocolate Mix has five flavors: Vanilla, S’Mores, Chocolate Caramel, Chocolate Pudding and Brownie Batter.

I was pretty skeptical. First, Skittles are known for a lot of flavor being packed into that candy shell. Second, one of the best things about chocolate is the whole experience of both the meltiness (fat) and the cocoa solids (flavor), there’s no way they could get that in here. Third, two of the five flavors in this mix were introduced in the Ice Cream Skittles last year and they were (chocolate and vanilla). I detested the chocolate ones ... and here’s a whole bag designed around that?

Vanilla (cream colored): light and sweet, like a vanilla taffy.

S’More (pale caramel colored): slightly tangy candy coating, a good toasted flavor to it ... not a trace of chocolate, but a little graham/cereal taste to it. Pretty good. Very sweet.

Chocolate Caramel (caramel colored): the prettiest color in the bag. A nice sweet chew with a little burnt sugar note to it and maybe a trace of cotton candy, but I wasn’t catching any chocolate at all.

Chocolate Pudding (dark brown, almost purple colored): vaguely chocolatey, mostly sweet, kind of like cocoa towards the end of the chew.

Brownie Batter (darkest brown): fudgy and kind of like a cookie all at once, which I guess is why it’s called brownie batter. It doesn’t have the complete chocolate flavor, more on the cardboard side and not nearly as satisfying as a Tootsie Roll.

I know everyone’s really excited about these, but I don’t like them much. They’re watery, not vibrant or really engaging my tastebuds. I know that the Carnival Skittles were similar in that they diverged from the intense fruit-ness that Skittles are known for, but these just didn’t have that zing that even they were able to muster with their delicateness. Quite a few folks have stopped by my office to try the new stuff I brought back. They try them, but no one’s come back for more.

The good news is that they contain no dairy and no gelatin ... so as long as you’re okay with a dash of hydrogenated oils, these might be the Skittles for you! The package also states that they are “Gluten Free.”

These should be available in stores later this year, post here if you’ve spotted them in the wild!

Related Candies

1. Tootsie Rolls & Fruit Rolls
2. UHA Puccho Custard
3. Starburst Retro
4. Skittles Carnival Flavors
5. Skittles Ice Cream

I got word during All Candy Expo that Good ‘n Fruity, the fruity version of Good & Plenty is returning next year.

I believe the revamped product was test marketed last year in Oregon, as the photo shown here by permission from ravenzachary shows (or perhaps he got a frighteningly old box).

The original Good ‘n Fruity was a clear sweet jelly center with a variety of fruit flavored candy shells. According to Wikipedia, back in 1988 the centers were changed to improve the flavor and were rather like pieces of fruit licorice with a candy shell.

I have no recollection of ever eating Good ‘n Fruity, I always preferred the licorice parent. But I’ll give it a whirl! If only to find out if they’ve squandered their Dr. Frankenstien powers on this candy instead of reviving the Bar None.

We’ll find out in late February 2008 whether Zombie candies are as good as the original ones.

UPDATE 3/11/2008: I finally got a hold of a box via CandyWarehouse ... here’s the review.

Related Candies

1. Goodbye Tart n Tinys
2. I Miss: Bar None
3. Goodbye Reed’s