After day one of ISM, the international Sweets and Biscuit Fair in Cologne I have no handy, condensed update.

I am officially overwhelmed, and if you know me and my ability to take in candy, you’ll understand how huge this thing is.

That building up there is filled with candy. There are 10 halls and 6 of them are taken with candy displays. I went through about two halls on the first day and it took me at least 90 minutes to just get my bearings. I don’t speak German, though I understand it pretty well for the basics and at least can read some of it. But I’m never prepared for the overwhelming crush of a big show like this.

I’m on the look out for trends, but it’s hard to spot because it is such an international fair and the companies and products are so specific. If there’s one trend I can spot it’s that every country makes it’s own version of the same thing. You like Chupa Chups? There are 20 other regional versions of them around the world made by other companies. Same goes for Mentos and of course things like Caramel Wafer Bars.

I’ll leave you with a photo, as I prepare for my second day:

It took me three tries to get into this little shop in Amsterdam called Puccini Bomboni. The first time I went to visit was Thursday and I arrived at 10 AM ... to find out that they’re open later in the evening at that location, so they also open later. So later that evening I decided to visit a different location that was closer to my hotel, only to find out that they don’t stay open late on Thursdays. Well, this time I read the hours on the door very carefully and returned on Friday morning at 9 AM and it was well worth the effort. (And I’d say that the several miles I walked just to get it was probably a good idea.)

I’ll have more about the chocolates later, but let me say that they are huge, delicious and I’m so disappointed I don’t have a shop like this near me.

Visit their website.

This is a little milk chocolate truffle from The Peninsula Chocolatier. My husband brought back a lovely box of fine chocolates from Hong Kong for me.

ISM Cologne is the world’s largest confectionery trade fair. For over forty years it’s featured the best in European candy and biscuits (cookies). About 1,500 companies from 70 different countries around the world come to display their wares to buyers, wholesalers and brokers.

I’ll be attending this year, with a full press pass to cover the show. The show lasts four days, starting Sunday, January 30th to Wednesday, February 2nd at the 4th largest convention hall in Europe, Kolnmesse. The exhibits cover more than one million square feet. (I’m bringing good walking shoes.)

More on the 2011 trade fair from Professional Candy Buyer magazine.

I’m really excited to go to Germany, which has such a rich and varied tradition of candy. They have such a wide array of confectionery traditions, from their invention of the Gummi Bear, traditional devotion to dairy milk chocolate and marzipan and globally known brands such as Ritter Sport, Haribo and Kinder (part of Ferrero).

My journey will begin in Amsterdam, where I plan to spend three days checking out the local licorice and chocolate scene. Then I head to Cologne via ICE (high speed train) on Friday. I’m hoping to spend a day before the show starts visiting local German stores to see how and where candy is sold to get a sense of how confections fit into daily life in comparison to North America. Cologne is also home to the Chocolate Museum, so I plan to get a world-class education on chocolate.

Posting may be a little lighter here for the next ten days or so, but after I get home with my lovely samples and photos, I’ll have lots to share.

I get advance tastes of new candies, but I often post about them months before they hit the stores. Here’s a little review of reviews of new candies:

Snickers Peanut Butter Squared from Mars is a new introduction to the Snickers family of candy bars. It’s not a limited edition and is available in single serve size and fun size bags.

The regular package is two squares of candy. It features nougat, peanut butter and caramel covered in chocolate. It’s a bit less of a textural marvel than the standard Snickers. Folks who like a softer chew may prefer it, but it left me wanting a real Snickers bar.

I saw these first at the checkout at Target.

See full review for Snickers Peanut Butter Squared. (7 out of 10)

The new Hershey’s Drops come in two varieties: Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Drops and Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Drops. They’re large chocolate beans with no candy shell, easy to pop in your mouth or share. The milk chocolate variety isn’t different enough from a typical Hershey’s Kiss for me, even if there’s less unwrapping. But the Cookies ‘n’ Creme is interesting because there are so few candies that use the white confection like this. (Though there is a Kiss version, too.)

I saw these first at Von’s (photo) in stand up bags.

See full review of Hershey’s Drops (7 out of 10)

Like the Hershey’s Drops, the new Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Minis are here to making snacking easier. They little cups are easy to pop into your mouth and don’t require layers of wrapping like the foil-wrapped, fluted-cupped miniatures. They’re going to be great for baking.

See full review of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Minis (7 out of 10)

I teased these last summer and I’m doing it again. New PEEPS Chocolate Covered Raspberry Flavored Marshmallow Hearts in single-serve packages. This year, PEEPS Brand Marshmallow Candies are melting hearts with their new PEEPS Chocolate Covered Raspberry Flavored Marshmallow Hearts. Delicious milk or dark chocolate cover raspberry flavored PEEPS to create a scrumptious chocolate and marshmallow experience.

I tried the Peeps Peppermint Trees for Christmas and found them to be poorly made. I bought six of them and all were oozing, cracked and sticky inside. (Even the ones that weren’t cracked still had deflated centers.) I’m hoping the quality control for the Raspberry version will be better, because I think it’s a great idea.

I don’t think they need the colored marshmallow centers though, it just adds more ingredients that do nothing for the flavor (in fact, I’m prepared that the pink will taste bitter to me).

Finally, another tease. Mars is introducing a new Limited Edition Twix Coconut this spring. Look for it to hit shelves in April 2011.

Like the Coconut M&Ms, these have no coconut in them. Instead it’s a traditional Twix with a cookie base, caramel stripe and chocolate coating plus a light touch of coconut flavor.

Related Candies

1. Peeps Dark Chocolate Covered Mint Marshmallow
2. Eat with your Eyes: Twix Coconut
3. Snickers Peanut Butter Squared
4. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Minis
5. Hershey’s Drops: Milk Chocolate & Cookies n Creme
6. Chocolate Covered Peeps
7. M&Ms Premiums

It’s hard to keep track of what’s new and what’s returning on store shelves for Christmas. I’ve found there aren’t that many new introductions, but there are plenty of tried-and-true favorites back again this year.

I think a lot of candy companies introduced limited editions as a sort of test marketing and found that bringing back fringe favorites on a regular schedule satisfies those who crave the special items but doesn’t detract from their regular product lines.

Here are a few candies that I’ve reviewed in the past and a few new ones I’ve spotted on shelves again this year. Just because something is not on this list doesn’t mean it’s not made this year, just that I haven’t been able to track it down.

• Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses (old review when they were made with real white chocolate)
• Hershey’s Mint Truffle Kisses
• Hershey’s Bliss - Creme de Menthe Meltaway (review)
• Hershey’s Mint Miniatures (white creme with nonpareils, Special Dark with mint and Milk Chocolate with mint - here’s an old review when the white chocolate was made with cocoa butter)
• Reese’s Trees (just like the Eggs)
• Reese’s Bells (foil wrapped bell shaped candies about the size of the regular miniatures)
• Reese’s Snow Board Santa (kind of like the big Reester Bunny around Easter)
• HersheyEts (review)
• Giant Hershey Bars (1 Pound)
• World’s Largest Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (1 Pound - review)

• Peeps Chocolate Covered Peppermint Trees (Milk & Dark Chocolate)
• Peeps White Snowmen (I like the snowmen because they’re one of the few varieties that doesn’t have artificial colors)
• Peeps Green Trees
• Mike and Ike Holiday Medley

• Paul Frank Nestle Crunch Bar (can be a greeting card - see above photos)
• Wonka Exceptionals Peppermint Shortbread (review)
• Wonka Gobstoppers Snowballs
• Wonka Frosty Nerds (watermelon, wild cherry & punch)
• Wonka Nerds Holiday Rope (photo)
• Wonka Holiday SweeTart Gummis (red & green and I think they’re shaped like Oompa Loompa faces - photo)
• Nestle Butterfinger Jingles (review)

• Life Savers Tin - holds 7 rolls of three different varieties - comes in Butter Rum, Cherry or 5 Flavor package design
• Life Savers Sweet Story (the box that looks like a book and has a collection of Life Saver Rolls in it)
• Live Savers Sweet Story - Gummies
• Life Savers Hard Candy Holiday Mix (cherry, apple & candy cane)
• M&Ms Mint (revew)
• M&Ms Cherry Cordial
• Dove Peppermint Bark (in foil wrapped Promises & boxed bark review)
• Dove Promises Snowflake Assortment (round pieces in milk, dark & caramel with snowflakes molded in them)
• Snickers Nutcrackers (review)
• Snickers Peanut Butter Santas (review)
• Mars Heritage Tins - pencil box sized tins filled with miniatures - designed like classic candy bar wrappers - come in Snickers, M&Ms, Twix and Milky Way)

• Brach’s Christmas Nougats (Peppermint & Wintergreen - no one has seen Cinnamon on shelves - review)
• Brach’s Gloria Mix (classic straw & filled candies)
• Brach’s Holiday Mix (classic filled candies)
• Brach’s Holiday Mints (pillow mints with a green minty jelly filling)
• Brach’s Spicettes (gumdrops in green & red)

• Tootsie Roll Candy Cane Pop Drops (review)
• Tootsie Roll Candy Cane Pops (review)
• Tootsie Roll Banks (Tootsie & Midgees)
• Tootsie Roll Holiday Midgees (I have no idea what these are - the package doesn’t say)
• Christmas Dots (review)
• Andes Peppermint Crunch (white chocolate with crunchy peppermint candies)
• Andes Cherry Jubilee Thins
• Andes Toffee Creme Thins
• Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch (review)

• Ribbon Candy (I suspect this is just a repackage of Sevigny’s, as so few companies make this now)
• Marshmallow Snow Man (large ones - come in regular milk chocolate covered and chocolate covered in milk chocolate)
• Peppermint Bark Snowman - new this year, I picked some up, they’re made with real white chocolate
• Marshmallow Santas review
• Coconut Wreath review
• Strawberry Cream Santa- review
• Milk Chocolate Coconut Santa - review
• Maple Cream Santa - review
• Peanut Butter Santa - review

• Swedish Fish (red & green) in bags or theater boxes
• Sour Patch Kids (red & green) in bags or theater boxes
• Cadbury Solid Milk Chocolate Balls (like the mini-eggs)

• Giant Toblerone Bars
• Terry’s Chocolate Oranges (Milk with Mint, Dark with Orange and Milk with Orange)
• Maxfield’s Assorted Chocolates (I haven’t tried these boxed chocolates yet, they’re less expensive than Russell Stover and probably on par with Elmer’s - photo)
• Godiva Gems Peppermint Truffles (photo)
• Fannie May Mint Meltaway & Pixies (individually wrapped - pixie review & meltaway review)
• Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark (review)
• Ritter Sport Peppermint (review)
• Florida Tropic Oranges in a variety of flavors - review
• Zachary Confections Egg Nog Candy Corn
• Zachary Confections Candy Cane Corn
• Zachary Confections Christmas Mellocremes
• Ferrara Chocolate Oranges (review)

What are you looking forward to most? And what are you having trouble finding this year? What did I leave out?

I reviewed Candy Blox a few years ago (here).

I did a candy buffet for the Night of Writing Dangerously write-a-thon/fundraiser for National Novel Writing Month back in November. I thought that the Candy Blox would be a perfect little treat for folks looking for something to play with and eat.

What surprised me was that they’ve changed a little since the last time I tried them. They’re much brighter and quite a bit more dense. There are fewer colors (yellow, blue, green & red) but that makes them look much more like Legos. They’re still stackable and realistic.

I’m a big believer in gifts of insanely large quantities of mundane products. So if there’s a Lego fan in your life, why not 11 pounds (that’s the box it came in, I ordered it from Jack’s Wholesale Candy & Toy in downtown Los Angeles)?

Oh, the other thing I found out? When researching the vegan status of all the candies I offered at the buffet, I had to write to Tootsie, who makes these, and they said that the Calcium Stearate comes from an all vegetable source. So these are actually vegan!

Sometimes I meticulously photograph things with the intention of doing an exhaustive review.

And then I eat them.