Tuesday, September 18, 2007

All Candy Expo - Tuesday Wrappers

DSC09980I appreciate everyone’s patience with me not being my normal organized self. It’s been tough without consistent internet access. Right now I’m typing this while sitting at the Chinatown branch of the Chicago Public Library. Thank you free wifi!

Today I spent far more time on the floor focusing on my list of things that I wanted to see than yesterday. And of course I’m keeping an eye out for all the items you requested. But it’s tough ... I’ve started making candy friends (folks who run these companies, sell candy and of course fellow writers) and I find myself torn between visiting with them and gabbing and going out and finding new things. I know, you all feel really sorry for me!

I had a great conversation today with a gentleman at the Tootsie booth (I went back in search of the name of the Junior Mints Deluxe product that I mentioned earlier). It was fantastic to talk about all their products, the company’s history, their positioning in the market and the new items that they’re coming out with. I’m especially interested in their new holiday offerings including a Candy Cane Tootsie Pop (they had these last year) and the Junior Mints for the holidays that include candy cane crunchies on them.

I had a fun time looking at some of the licensed items (which I don’t ordinarily pay attention to). Folks will be happy to hear that Hershey’s will bring back the Dark Chocolate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in a tie in with the new Batman movie (of course it will be a bat-shaped Reese’s!).

I found another line of completely branded Bratz candy cosmetics. I wasn’t much for Barbie as a girl (I was more of a Lego fan), but I can see the appeal of these products, which are basically edible lip glosses. (Hey, women basically eat their lip gloss anyway, why not have it be actually made from edible things?) I’ll have more on that when I get home and can photograph them.

I spent a little while at the Nestle booth and was so pleased to talk to them about their product lines, especially the Wonka items and the dearly departed Tart ‘n’ Tinys. The bad news is they’re also discontinuing the bulk Banana Runts (you’ll still be able to get them in the regular Runts mix). They have a new Berry Mix Chewy Spree product as well, which I’m eager to try and picked up some samples of.

I tried lots and lots of black licorice today and had a great time talking to Kenny’s Licorice, which does an amazing job in the standard twists (they make the Root Beer ones!), an Australian style and a new release of an Organic line that will include black and red.

I also got to taste RJ’s New Zealand Licorice, Tubi’s Tire Tread and Lucky Country. I’ll have a licorice day (or perhaps week!) soon.

In another version of Licorice, I tried the J. Morgan Confections Licorice Caramel. Holy moly ... it was creamy and spicy and smooth. So satisfying. They have a whole line of butter caramels (and even some fudge). They amply sampled me up, so I’ll have more to say about this Utah confectioner.

On the fortified side of things, Hall’s cough drops came out with some fun new all natural lozenges, as well as a Ginger lozenge (in the regular square packs) and some zinc fortified lozenges (they’re going to send me samples, hopefully before cold season starts).

In other fortification, I picked up something called Java Pops by McJak company which have 60 mg of caffeine in them and come in a variety of coffee inspired flavors. They’re the gourmet style pop, dense and heavy. It’ll take me a while to get through them (since I can’t eat them all at once!).

Tonight I also went to a reception to honor the new Lemonade Stand mix of Mike and Ike. The limited edition (or perhaps seasonal) item has a fundraising tie-in with Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a fundraising program to benefit Pediatric Cancer Research. It’s a really sweet promotion for a tangy product. I’ll have more on that later.

There are so many other things on my list I fear that I’m not going to get to them all tomorrow. I’ll do my best, I don’t want to let you down!

I’m not publishing all the All Candy Expo coverage on the front page of Candy Blog, so be sure to look at the little “featured news” block on the upper right to make sure you don’t miss any of my briefer postings.

Related Candies

  1. All Candy Expo - Monday Noon Update
  2. This Week in Candy - Chicago Bound
  3. Navigating a Candy Expo
  4. What is the All Candy Expo

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:45 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     All Candy ExpoCandyFeatured News

Comments
  1. Figures I’d miss the one place that’d have root beer flavored licorice! Where on the floor was Kenny?s Licorice? I’m just happy that I got to try Lucky Country and Tubi’s Tire Treads. RJ’s's didn’t impress me much. raspberry

    Speaking of Root Beer, did you get to talk to Pure Fun at all?

    Comment by Sera on 9/18/07 at 4:01 pm #
  2. oh gosh, they’ve had the candy cane tootsie pops for years in southern arizona.  i’m 21 and remember having them at christmas basically forever… so in terms of functional memory, probably at least 12 years or so…  i love them!

    now, if only they made a mini version…

    Comment by emma on 9/18/07 at 4:45 pm #
  3. Oh wow. You were really close to where I live smile I always go to Chinatown to get my lychee gummies, hi-chews and white rabbits.

    Too bad the All Candy Expo is not open to mere mortals. I’d even be willing to pay to go in and look around.

    I’m interested to hear more about the new Mike N Ikes.

    Comment by Karen on 9/19/07 at 5:25 am #
  4. wow, all sorts of new products to get excited about—what a consumer i am!  smile  thanks for the interesting updates!

    Comment by ruffy on 9/19/07 at 7:08 am #
  5. Candy Cane Tootsie Pops sound really good. I look forward to finding some!

    Also, my blog is linked in my comment now. Still haven’t finished typing up that list of all I grabbed, though!

    Comment by Ginny on 9/19/07 at 8:53 am #
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