Candy Blog

Last year I found out that Hershey’s was moving the manufacture of their classic Miniatures mix to Mexico. It took me several weeks to find a bag of the new ones and a bag of the old, American made ones.

The big difference in the packaging is easy to spot. The American made version was mostly clear so the mixture was easy to see and the center of the package had the brand and product information. The new Mexican made version is yellow and extremely easy to spot on the shelf. It’s still consistent with Hershey’s branding, but now opaque so no way to tell if the bag was light or heavy on a particular variety you liked.

The packaging on the inside, the little paper-backed foil wrappers were absolutely identical.

Beyond the bag and the small notation that they were made in Mexico, it’s hard to say that there’s any difference at all. I bought both bags expecting to find that something substantial was different.

So let’s just consider this post a photo comparison, because I couldn’t detect any difference otherwise.

Now, I don’t know that much about Hershey’s and the manufacture of their actual chocolate any longer. A few years ago they stopped roasting their own beans and sub-contracted that out. So they don’t even make their chocolate from bean to bar any longer. Further, I don’t know if they actually make the chocolate in Mexico, or just melt and mold it there. My guess is that or something in between. The Hershey’s chocolate flavor is more milk than chocolate. According to this article from the Washington Post, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate is only 11% cocoa. The rest is sugar and milk. But it’s the milk that’s hard to duplicate, American milk does have a distinctive flavor. 

Hershey’s Milk Chocolate is sweet, soft, fudgy and a little grainy. It has a distinctive tang to it, rather like yogurt or even feta cheese on a bad day (it can give it an off smell, like spoiled milk or baby vomit). There are caramel notes to it, a little peppery bite. It’s more confection than chocolate.

No difference in texture, taste or appearance between Mexican and American

Hershey’s Special Dark is the newest bar of the bunch. Hershey’s has made semi-sweet chocolate since the early days, but the Special Dark wasn’t introduced until 1971.

The smell is woodsy and sweet with a little dash of burnt black coffee. The texture is a bit on the chalky side, not quite a dry finish but not mouth watering either. The cocoa butter doesn’t feel like it supports the chocolate flavors and there’s a fair bit of dairy oil in there, which tends to wash away flavor as far as I’m concerned. This could be a lot better, but probably never will be. The fact that it’s such a small piece is the only good thing about it.

No difference in texture, taste or appearance between Mexican and American

Hershey’s Krackel bar as a single product is no longer available. I’ve seen bags sold at the Hershey’s stores (at Hershey World and the Hershey’s stores at Times Square) that are just the Krackel miniatures. But they don’t just make a regular sized Krackel bar any longer.

It’s a great idea, and was probably even better in its original version which was crisped rice and nuts in milk chocolate. It was introduced a year after the Nestle Crunch bar, probably to be a little different, but somewhere along the way they were the same product but different makers. The Krackel bar as sold now is a mockolate product, made with chocolate adulterated with vegetable oils instead of all cocoa butter. The flavor suffers as does the texture and I have little interest in these any longer. They’re more chocolatey than something from R.M. Palmer but also far too expensive for the cheap product that they are. Sweet, cocoa-ish but with a nice crunch.

No difference in texture, taste or appearance between Mexican and American

Mr. Goodbar has also gone through some changes over the years. Once a fantastic and simple milk chocolate bar studded with oodles of fresh roasted peanuts, it’s become a sad imitation of that. (Literally, it’s imitation chocolate.)

Hershey’s moved to a more nutty flavor profile, which seems to involve the scent of burnt peanuts being incorporated right into the milk chocolate, which is then diluted by some extra vegetable oils. It’s bitter, now has too much salt and lacks a satisfying mouthfeel and the nuts always taste too darkly roasted for me.

No difference in texture, taste or appearance between Mexican and American

It’s a testament to the manufacturing facility in Mexico that they can absolutely duplicate the American versions that we’ve been eating for decades without any noticeable differences. So that gives me confidence about the factory there, that it’s the same standards that we expect.

I can’t say for sure that all Miniature Mixes are made in Mexico, but all the ones that I can find on store shelves in my area are ... but I’m closer to Monterrey, Mexico than Hershey, Pennsylvania, so it could be a regional thing. If you want to support American jobs then I say find a candy mix that is made in the USA. My biggest reason for not buying these is that they’re just not that good. Half the candy in the package is mockolate for chocolate prices. Read the whole package before buying if you care. I listed a few in the “related entries” that are also made in Mexico.

Related Candies

1. Wonka Fruit Marvels
2. Classic Gums: Black Jack, Clove, Beemans & Teaberry
3. Hershey’s Special Dark Miniatures
4. Hershey’s Miniatures
5. Now & Later
6. Yummy Earth Organic Pops
7. Short & Sweet: Butterfinger Jingles and Mint Miniatures

The new line of Wonka Exceptionals includes new chocolate bars to replace the classic Wonka Bar and the completely new Wonka Fruit Marvels.

The Wonka Exceptionals Fruit Jellies are a bit more classic. They’re simple cubes of real fruit jelly made from all natural ingredients in Mexico. They come in single flavor boxes, the initial varieties are Grapefruit, Goji Berry and Red Apple.

They are packaged similarly to the Fruit Marvels. The label sleeve is over an eye-popping magenta and maroon box. Inside the box is an unlabeled purple mylar bag. It’s a lot of layers, and while I enjoy the fancifulness, it’s really wasteful.

The package simply describes them as fantastically flavorful soft jellies dusted with sugar. I also got a press release that said:

Made with natural ingredients, no artificial colors and 25 percent real fruit juice, these cheery confections are perfect for everyday indulgence or casual gift giving.

The ingredients go like this:

Sugar, corn syrup, water, pear juice concentrate, and less than 2% of pectin, natural flavor, beta carotene and citric acid.

The beta carotene is the only ingredient that isn’t marked as all natural, though it’s certainly not an artificial color.

I’ve had a lot of pate de fruits over the years, which are full fruit jellies. They’re usually thickened with the actual fruit instead of corn starch though sometimes there’s additional pectin (depending on the fruit). Though the new Wonka Fruit Jellies don’t quite rise to the level of pate, they do a good job with the texture and are less sweet than gum drops or fruit jellies like Boston Fruit Slices.

Grapefruit is light yellow, none of this pink grapefruit stuff for Wonka.

The scent is a beguilingly authentic grapefruit peel. Grapefruit is a favorite smell for me, even clinical testing backs up its use for aromatherapy - the smell of grapefruit soothes, engenders trust and youthfulness (for women being sniffed by men, anyway). I like it because it smells like something I want to eat. It’s a mix of balsam, lavender, lemon and windy beach.

The half inch jelly cubes are rough and dusted with sugar. They’re a little messier than a gum drop but not as dusty as Turkish Delight. They’re soft to the touch but firm enough that they can’t be squeezed flat very easily. The moist jelly has a nice give, it’s not a sticky as a gum drop, these are more of a jam you can eat.

The flavor is mostly about the zest and grapefruit peel but there’s a light juice note with a little tangy snap. They’re not too cloying or sticky sweet, but not quite intense enough for me to call them a true pate de fruits.
 
While I’ve had a lifetime of experience with Grapefruits and Apples, my interaction with Goji Berry is pretty limited. I’ve had dried goji berries quite a few times in the past three or four years. The dried berries are leathery and chewy but not terribly flavorful. Goji berries (also known as wolfberries) have a near-miraculous ability to fill my spam box with offers of all sorts of products. I’m sure goji berries were sad to see the rise in acai.

The berries are related to tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. They have tiny little seeds in them but they’re edible and provide a little bit of texture, though not quite like, say, kiwi or fig seeds do.

The package says nothing about where the flavor for these comes from, just that it’s natural. The whole point, as far as I can tell, of people eating goji is because of its high antioxidant properties, so just flavoring something with goji seems like a miss.

They’re sweet with a little tangy note. Kind of like raisin and orange. Not really that interesting to me.

Note: the Goji variety of the Fruit Jellies uses cochineal color, so they are not vegan.

Red Apple was much more appealing than I expected. It’s quite red, which was refreshing instead of the more common acid green that candies end up being.

The flavor notes are reminiscent of apple cider. There are notes of apple peel, a mellow and honey-like sweetness along with a light tart bite.

My hesitations with these are because of the excessive packaging, but for a natural fruit jelly product they’re priced rather well but still quite a bit steeper than other gummis or jellies. (They’re about twice the price per ounce compared to the Wonka Sploshberries.) The size of the pieces is perfect, I just pop them in my mouth, no messing biting & putting half aside. I do love grapefruit, which is a hard flavor to find, and apple lovers may enjoy a real fruit experience too. Goji can go, hopefully replaced by something really inventive ... maybe we’ll finally find out what a snozzberry is.

Related Candies

1. Au’some Snerdles Super Mario Power Up Box
2. Wonka Fruit Marvels
3. Meiji Poifull
4. Bissinger’s Pink Grapefruit Gummy Pandas
5. Wonka Puckerooms
6. Wonka Sluggles
7. Dr. Doolittle’s Pastilles (Lemon, Grapefruit & Wild Berry)
8. Terra Nostra Pocket Bars

I’m not a huge fan of marzipan, but cover it in chocolate and I’ll definitely give it a try.

The newest variety of M&Ms is just hitting the stores. Pretzel M&Ms were introduced at last year’s NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) show. I love the fact that they brought back the skittish and paranoid Orange M&M character for these, he used to be the mascot for the discontinued Crispy M&Ms (which also came in a blue package).

The new product is just what it sounds like: a salty pretzel sphere covered in milk chocolate then the colored M&M candy shell.

The little X-ray of the M&M shows the pretzel inside him. Well, it shows a twisted pretzel, what’s inside here is pretzel nugget.

Though the bulk of the package is similar to the Peanut ones, the weight is not. There were 16 candies in my package but it weighs only 1.14 ounces. (Milk Chocolate M&Ms are 1.69 ounces.) The front of the package has the new “what’s inside” nutritional info: 150 calories. That’s a great tally - a respectable and filling snack but not so many calories to displace a nutritionally balanced diet. The back of the package says that there’s 30% less fat than the average of the leading chocolate brands. This appears true, there are 132 calories per ounce, where most of the chocolate candies I review are between 142 and 160 calories per ounce. The pretzels are a lot of air and of course made of flour, a carbohydrate.

The candies vary in size; they’re about 2/3 to 3/4 of an inch in diameter. They come in five colors: Red, Green, Blue, Brown and Orange. (Milk Chocolate and Peanut M&Ms also come in Yellow.) As near-spheres they’re vexing for snacking at my desk. When I tried to line them up and separate by color they just rolled around ... the Milk Chocolate obloid spheres definitely have the advantage there.

They’re crunchy, a little salty and sweet. The crunches are different - there’s the candy shell which is light and sweet, then the malty and salty pretzel center. The milk chocolate gives a little cocoa and milk flavor along with a creamy note.

I didn’t love them completely, I don’t know what was missing for me, maybe it was that there wasn’t enough chocolate for me. I also prefer dark chocolate on my pretzels to milk chocolate. Still, they’re a great addition to the line and more snack than dessert. They’re an excellent movie candy since they’re not too filling, have a savory and sweet mix and of course the are easy to share. They should be placed in every movie concession stand for the summer season.

Pretzel M&Ms are available at WalMart now, they’ll be in wider distribution starting in June 2010.

Related Candies

1. Limited Edition M&Ms Coconut
2. Candy Tease: All Candy Expo 2009 - Mars
3. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzel Bites
4. Revisit: Take 5, Sunkist Fruit Gems & Snickers Almond
5. M&Ms Premiums
6. Disneyland Candy Palace - Candy Case Chocolates
7. M&Ms Line

A co-worker brought these back from Spain for me last year. They came in a tall box, but what was fascinating about them was how they did actually look like black truffles.