Here’s one of those items that I never figured I’d see: Fairhaven Candy has created not only an all-natural flaked peanut butter, but it’s also Kosher, Gluten Free and Vegan. I tried it back in March at ExpoWest and have been waiting to get my hands on a full bag for the detailed review.

They’ve appropriately named them Crumblzsoft, flaky peanut butter treat. It’s pretty much the center of a Butterfinger bar, minus the hydrogenated fats, minus the whey & nonfat milk, and of course minus the preservative TBHQ.

So while they took out all those crazy additional ingredients, all that’s left in this little candy is this: peanut butter (peanuts & salt), organic sugar, non-GMO corn syrup, peanuts, water, vanilla, baking soda. This particular version also has squiggles of dark chocolate on it.

If that looks like it’s really a lot of dense peanut butter, it’s much lighter than I expected.

The pieces come in little scored quads. Each piece, when broken off is a nice two bite chunk (or a big mouthful). Inside are layers of the nutty flakes plus whole peanuts.

While they don’t look particularly appealing by themselves, I can tell you that they smell mouthwateringly good. Roasted nuts, some toasty sugar notes and a little dash of salt ... like fresh baked peanut butter cookies. It remindes me of Halvah.

They don’t quite have the flaky chew that something like the center of a Fifth Avenue, but then again, they don’t stick to your teeth the way that a Butterfinger can. And no mockolate! (You can even get them without any chocolate at all, if you’re all about the peanut butter.)

Nutritionally, yeah, this stuff is loaded with calories because it has all that peanut fat in there, but the difference between this and plain peanut butter is negligible. It’s also really satisfying, because of, well, all that peanut fat and protein.

The only other bad news about these is probably the price and the ability to find them. You can order online but they’re about $4 a package. I’m sure they’re in shops like Whole Foods & natural product stores. If you’ve spotted them, how are the prices? I’d love it, honestly, if they just made a single serving bar. It gets a little messy pulling the pieces out of the bag.

Related Candies

1. All Candy Expo in a Box
2. Mary Jane Peanut Butter Kisses
3. Clark Bar
4. Chick-o-Stick
5. Head-to-Head: Butterfinger vs. 5th Avenue

Here are the last few stories that have trickled in about All Candy Expo. I expect that after everyone has gotten a little sleep over the holiday weekend there may be some more wrap ups.

Interesting news from the trade publications, this one about convenience stores from Convenience Store Petroleum magazine. The thing that caught my eye was this little factoid about how we approach the candy aisle: Shoppers shop first by segment (gum, chocolate, etc.), then by usage, then package type and finally by brand.

This makes perfect sense. I usually have something in mind like “I want something tangy!” and then go from there. I’m not sure what they mean by package type, I’m guessing size. (Though most convenience stores don’t have much choice in size of packages like grocery stores do.)

Here are a few items I sampled, I’m probably not going to do a full review of them but I wanted to show them to you:

Chuao Firecracker ChocoPod

The newest addition to the ChocoPod line. I got this one in a simple little cellophane bag, so I didn’t think it was fair to give it the full tilt boogie review without final packaging.

It’s similar to the classic Spicy Maya ChocoPods, just a little cacao pod shaped disk of 60% dark chocolate, weighing in, I guess, at a little over a third of an ounce, it’s about two bites.

The inclusions make it a little bumpy in spots. The chocolate smells more like chili, but a little sweet and smoky. There are a lot of pop rocks in there, they’re completely unflavored, just lightly sweet little sugar bits ... that just so happen to pop. Some of the little bits, however, are salt crunches.

Some bites are pretty poppy, some bites are really hot, others are salty. It’s a noisy bit of chocolate (and even got a few sneezes out of me).

It’s a fun little diversion. I appreciate that it’s a small piece, not a huge bar, but I don’t think I’d want more.

Rating: 7 out of 10

PEZ Chocolate Candy

First, you’ll probably note that I don’t mention PEZ much on Candy Blog. I don’t like it. The candy just isn’t very good and the idea of collecting the little dispensers never thrilled me. But I fully applaud those who get into it.

PEZ has brought out a few other flavors of their candy tablets. Last year it was Cola and they have a Sugar Free version as well. This year they’re highlighting the Chocolate version.

As you can tell from the photo, they’re very light in color, which should give you an indication of the depth of the flavor. It tastes like I’ve inhaled some Cocoa Pebbles. Not actually eat then, just, you know, been near the Cocoa Pebbles dust. They’re sweet but have just a slight cocoa note.

Rating: 3 out of 10

Organic Confections Raspberry & Cream Bar

It’s an organic twist on classic tastes.

So just looking at it, with only the name to go off of, I thought, “this is a white chocolate bar with dried raspberry bits in it.” Which sounded pretty good in my head, kind of like the Hershey’s Limited Edition one a couple of years back ... but organic!

Hmm, somewhere I led myself astray. It’s not white chocolate, it’s a non-colored confection made of organic sugar, organic whole milk powder and organic fractionated palm kernel oil. And it’s crunchy. Those presumed raspberry bits are actually crushed raspberry flavored hard candy.

It took me a while to get used to the texture, but it wasn’t creamy enough for me.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Albanese Confectionery Cappuccino Biscotti

These little milk chocolate covered nuggets smell sweet and like a light coffee drink. They’re about the size of a garbanzo bean, though some are twinned (not that it keeps me from eating them). The nugget inside isn’t quite as hard and crunchy as a biscotti, but they’re plenty crunchy. They’re almost like graham cracker nuggets.

The combo is quite nice, easy to eat and keep munching.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Albanese Confectionery Dark Chocolate Cranberries

It’s not an illusion in the photo, these are very dark, like clumps of tar. The chocolate covered dried cranberries are not as flavorful as I’d hoped. Honestly, I’ve tried a few products over the years and none of them have really satisfied me. The cranberries, while soft and chewy, they’re just not tangy or flavorful. The chocolate is sweet, but not dark and flavorful enough ... though the texture combo of the creamy melt and moist chew is good.

They’re probably jam packed with antioxidants, but I’ll probably stick with chocolate covered raisins, if only because they’re cheaper and provide pretty much the same experience.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Related Candies

1. Albanese Gummi Butterflies
2. Short & Sweet: Fancy Food Bites
3. Cookie Dough Bites
4. Java Twix
5. Best Regards: Craves

I was in love with these gummis sight unseen. I saw the teaser on the All Candy Expo website New Product Showcase. There was no photo ... but the description alone Gummi Butterflies: Bold colors and delicious flavors. Flutter away with the newest version of the World’s Best Gummi! convinced me that these were going to be gorgeous.

Everything Albanese makes in the gummi category is lovely.

Their Krunchy Bears (and other ring & heart shapes) are pure delights to look at and offer a new twist on the gummi + crunch. They offer at least 15 different flavors of gummi bears not to mention other gummi items like green army men & fighter jets, and at really reasonable prices.

If I have any complaints about the company, it’s that they don’t have a very good website featuring their candies and the online ordering section doesn’t have all their products.

When I got them in my set of sample items from All Candy Expo, I practically squealed because they were just what I hoped they were.

They’re large gummis, about 3 inches across at the widest. Thick and soft (mine were a little bent in spots, but they were stuffed in a tiny ziploc), they remind me of Gel Gems. So that’s what I did with them, I went into the guest room, wiped the window to clean it and then slapped them up on the glass.

I could see these being great fun to have in the car with kids on a road trip. Edible window decorations. (Though do keep some window cleaner handy, as they get things greasy eventually.)

I felt rather evil as I was essentially eating the wings off the butterflies, but it’s the only obvious way to eat them. (Though a non-obvious and perhaps more interesting way to eat them would be to fold the wings and take a bit out of them ... then put them back up on the window, or perhaps cut them apart and piece them together much like I did with franken-bears as a kid.)

I wish their pineapple was in this mix, but maybe it wasn’t vibrant enough in color.

Other new products introduced this week:

Gummi Sugar Plums: Visions of these flavorful Sugar Plums will be dancing in your head all year long!

Theater Size Boxes: Fantastic value, attractive, eye catching theater boxes will be a real hit with customers! Available in our popular and unique 12 Flavor Gummi Bears and Super Sour Mini Neon Gummi Worms.

There’s no word how the Butterflies will be sold, but I’d expect them to turn up in the same tubs & packages that they use for their other novelty items like the Army Men and of course in bulk bins.

Related Candies

1. Meiji Gummy Choco
2. Gummy Fishies
3. Brain Candy! (gummi brains)
4. Haribo Fizzy Cola
5. Gummi Lightning Bugs
6. Endangered Species Chocolate

As the All Candy Expo for 2008 comes to a close, writers from all over are heading home and this little trickle of stories is just the start of what will be a summer of fun coverage of new products & trends:

Related Candies

1. Crackheads
2. Caffe Acapella - Coffee Confections
3. The Traveling with Candy Balancing Act
4. M&Ms Line
5. Jacques Torres