It’s a little early for Sweets and Snacks Expo announcements for new products, but there are a few new items of note in the candy world.
Name: Justin’s Candy Bars
Brand: Justin’s Nut Butter
Description: Available in three gourmet flavors, Milk Chocolate Peanut, Dark Chocolate Peanut and Milk Chocolate Almond, Justin’s Candy Bars contain organic chocolate, nuts, caramel and nougat. Justin’s All-Natural Candy Bars contain 25 percent less sugar, 50 percent more protein and 100 percent more fiber than the leading conventional candy bar, Snickers, the company said.
Introduction Date: Exclusive at Whole Foods through June 2012, available wider after that.
Notes: I tried these at ExpoWest and have to say that these don’t taste like healthy candy. There’s no compromise on the flavor and texture. I’ll have a full review soon.
Name: Gummi Pet Cockroach
Brand: Jelly Belly
Description: Gummi Pet Cockroach will join Pet Rat, Pet Gator, Pet Dinosaur and Pet Tarantula this June. The candy is created with two different flavors: one for the “legs” and the other for the “body.” The Gummi Pet Cockroach candies will be available in blackberry and cherry, grape and lime, and orange and blackberry.
Introduction Date: June 2012
Notes: I really don’t have a problem with novelty shapes as a rule. But this one isn’t quite the right coloring, it looks more like a flattened spider and certainly the size is out of scale. Also, what’s intimidating about Cockroaches is their crunchy shell. Jelly Belly was so accurate with their flavors for the Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans (well, I hear that they were, I didn’t try all of them) it’s just a little disappointing that they didn’t go for the scary accuracy of big bugs instead.
Name: Dulce de Leche Ovation Sticks
Brand: SweetWorks, Inc.
Description: Ovation Sticks feature caramel truffle centers covered in all-natural dark chocolate.
Introduction Date: Available Now
Notes: The Ovation sticks are usually individually wrapped, which makes them ideal for serving in situations where you don’t want a big pile of opened chocolate. But for snacking for yourself, it’s a little daunting to either unwrap or observe all the wrappers you’ve created after a binge.
Name: Juicy Drop Taffy
Brand: Bazooka (Topps)
Description: The taffy packs in 2.36-ounce pouches containing eight pieces and a sour gel applicator, which lets consumers increase the sour flavor on the candy, the company says. The new items will debut in Blue Rebel and Knock Out Punch flavors.
Introduction Date: Available Now
Notes:
Name: Milk Chocolate Covered Gretzels, Twisted Toffee & Pretzel and Pecan-dy
Brand: Sanders Candy
Description: Milk Chocolate Covered Gretzels are cinnamon graham crackers shaped to resemble pretzels. Cashew Almond Pecan-dy is a mix of popcorn and caramel coated nuts. Chocolate Drizzled Cashew Almond Pecan-dy is the company’s popcorn and caramel-coated nut mix with dark and milk chocolate
Introduction Date: Available Now
Notes: The sweet and savory trend meets the comfort candy trend with Sanders. They redid all their packaging design recently, I think it suits them well and stands out.
Name: Gummy Cupcakes
Brand: Can You Imagine That!
Description: The fun-size gummy cupcakes with sprinkles come in a gift box and make a fantastic treat or sweet present. And, if you’re looking for something a little more dramatic, there’s the Giant Gummy Cupcake, weighing in at 1 lb. Both are available in a variety of bright colors and flavors of gummy.
Introduction Date: Available Now
Notes: It’s far more appealing to eat food shaped like food than like vermin (though I’m not really a big consumer of cupcakes). These are deliriously cute and I’m probably going to buy them just to take their picture.
Here’s a couple of really early teases as well from Mars:
September: MilkyWay Caramel Apple Minis are bite-size bars featurirng apple flavor caramel covered in milk chocolate. Packing in 11.5-ounce lay down bags.
September: The return of Candy Corn White Chocolate M&Ms.
November: Twix Sugar Cookie Minis combines Twix with sugar cookies. The 10.5-oz. packages will carry a suggested retail price of $3.99;
November: 3 Musketeers Hot Cocoa with Marshmallow Minis is a new limited-edition holiday flavor that will be available in a 10-oz. bag for a suggested retail price of $3.99.
Looking forward to the 3 Musketeers Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows!
I live is Massachusetts and I’ve already seen the Justin nut bars in my local Whole Foods…
Wow, I would have loved to be in the room, when someone decided that an edible cockroach would be a good idea.
And it looks like a tarantula too! Tripple EWWW.
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