Some of you may remember Kojak, the police detective television series that aired in the 1970s. The character of Kojak was played by actor Telly Savalas, and he often had a Tootsie Pop lollipop in his mouth. Kojak would smoothly deliver his signature phrase, “Who loves ya, baby?” with the Tootsie Pop stick dangling from his mouth. I always wondered what he did with the stick when it started to disintegrate, because that’s what the sticks would do on me - the paper would start to sort of ball up and fall off, sometimes in my mouth.

I’m not self-centered enough to believe that Tootsie developed Tootsie Pop Drops (“Tootsie Pops WITHOUT the Stick!”) just for me, but it’s a great idea, isn’t it? The drops are a nice little nugget, a bit smaller than a Tootsie Pop, but the perfect size to pop into your mouth. The Tootsie Pop Drops come in five flavors: chocolate, cherry, blue raspberry, orange, and grape. You would think they would taste identical to the Tootsie Pops, but I felt some of the flavors were slightly different. Maybe it has something to do with the round shape of the Tootsie Pops versus the more disc-like shape of the Drops? Hmmmm.

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I love the word “nutjob,” so when I learned there is a candy bar called NutJob, my hopes were high. NutJobs are manufactured by Bartons Candy, a candy company that was founded in 1898 in Vienna and then moved to the United States around 1938. The packaging of the NutJob chocolate bar is rather appealing and loud - there are some rock star cartoon peanut characters on the bright, metallic blue wrapper, and the text is pretty enticing as well: “Delicious double chocolate, creamy caramel … loaded with peanuts!” Doesn’t that sound tasty?

I was really hoping to like the NutJob bar, but it is far from delicious. When you hear the words “chocolate,” “peanuts,” and “caramel,” what springs to mind? For me, it’s a Snickers. This NutJob bar tastes nothing like a Snickers. First, the milk chocolate exterior is waxy and bland, with little resemblance to actual chocolate. The “loaded with peanuts” part? I could see peanuts, but I certainly couldn’t taste them. And the caramel? I could see that, too, but again, the whole bar tasted like it was somewhat rancid. It seemed to have nougat in it, but it was hard to tell, since everything was blended together. To me, the NutJob tasted like it was made with cheap, substandard ingredients.

So, I am clearly not a big fan of the NutJob, but as I was getting ready to throw it away, my husband asked if he could taste it. I advised him against it, but he decided he wanted to try it anyway, and guess what? He kind of liked it. Go figure.

• Bartons Candy Website

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Hello, Dove chocolate. Where have you been all my life? Apparently Dove first hit the streets with the Dovebar ice cream treat in the 1950s. Since then Dove offerings have trickled onto supermarket shelves, and now there are cookies, chocolates, and ice cream (and speaking of Dove ice cream, you should really try it if you haven’t. The pints have a top layer of chocolate, so you break through the chocolate barrier to get to the ice cream. I cannot emphasize enough how incredible this is).

But, I digress. The matter at hand is some new chocolate from Dove, namely three flavors of the Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate line. The flavors are Roasted Hazelnut, Blueberry Almond, and Peanut Toffee Crunch. Each 3.53-ounce box holds three individually wrapped bars, which psychologically might be a good thing, since you can avoid feeling guilty if you eat just one of the wrapped packages.

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I fondly recall candy cigarettes, both the gum and the chocolate versions, but I now wonder if it was some sort of ploy by the cigarette manufacturers to attract future users. Well, no matter! That was then, and this is now, and NOW there are wacky bubble gum cigarettes in interesting flavors from Archie McPhee.

I received four packs to review: Roller Derby (cherry-flavored bubble gum cigarettes), Captain Black’s Pirate (citrus-flavored bubble gum cigarettes), Hobo (campfire coffee bubble gum cigarettes), and El Diablo (cinnamon-flavored bubble gum cigarillos). Each box contains 12 pieces. The boxes, as you can see, sport appealing and quirky designs.

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Chewy Sprees can do no wrong in my book, but I am a little suspicious of this new Mix’d Berry flavor. None of the flavors are identified on the package, so who knows what could be, you know, mix’d (yeah, the cutesy spelling kind of gets me). The package says, “It’s a kick in the mouth!” What does that mean? Are they going to be sour? Overpowering? What? I guess there is only one way to find out.

I open up the package, and I must say the colors are stunning. Bright and cheerful, these little candies are calling out to me, and it’s all I can do to keep myself from shoving them all into my mouth. There are four flavors in the Mix’d Berry Chewy Spree package: purple, pink, red, and turquoise. Wikipedia claims that the turquoise (okay, so they call it aqua) is blueberry. I am still confused as to whether Mix’d Berry means there is more than one berry flavor per color (you know, like cranberry-raspberry flavor) or if it just means there are four berry flavors in a package. I am not confident I will be able to determine this by tasting them, but I’ll give it a try!

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Julie’s Corner Store in Lacon, Illinois isn’t your typical candy shop. In fact, it’s not a candy shop at all. In addition to fudge, the store sells everything from antiques to reproduction tin toys to tools (I saw sandpaper for sale!). You can bet the fudge is just as interesting as the store.

Julie’s uses fresh ingredients and real butter and cream. I got a nice review pack from them with a variety of flavors: chocolate peanut butter, chocolate, vanilla praline, orange creme, and chocolate mint. The box reminded me of something you’d get at a beachfront candy store, the kind of place that has hand-pulled taffy and seafoam candy.

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You may have noticed that we here at Candy Addict go a little nuts over the Hershey’s Limited Edition Kisses. Well, a good friend of mine recently went to Hawaii, and she brought back a bag of the Hershey’s Kisses with Macadamia Nuts. I haven’t quite figured out if these are limited edition or simply limited to sales in Hawaii.

These Kisses feature Mauna Loa macadamia nuts (Hershey’s acquired Mauna Loa in 2004) and were first introduced in Hawaii in 2006. There’s a milk chocolate and dark chocolate version. Happily, I got the milk chocolate version!

Okay, here’s where I fess up that I am not a huge lover of macadamia nuts. Given a choice, I would generally select a non-nut version of a candy, but if I have no choice? Bring on the macadamia nuts! Now, in my favor, these Hershey’s Kisses with Macadamia Nuts don’t boast a strong nutty taste. You might think these Kisses would have a whole nut in the center, but then you would be wrong! These milk chocolate Kisses have teeny little chunks of macadamia nut in them. They are so minuscule, in fact, that they are practically negligible. I do think, however, that there’s a hint of macadamia nut in there that lends a subtle, nutty flavor to the creamy milk chocolate.

So, these might not knock your socks off if you’re a big fan of macadamia nuts, but they are still tasty and will appeal to a large audience.

• Hershey’s Kisses website

Buy Hershey’s Kisses online:

• at Candy Direct
• at Old Time Candy
• at Amazon.com

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My friends often wonder how I can consume so many sweets and not weigh a million pounds. Well, I run. But here’s something they might not know - I eat candy when I run! Back when I trained with some ultrarunners, I learned to eat while running. Typical endurance foods such as PowerBars just didn’t taste that great to a Candy Addict like me, so I started taking more appealing yet equally energy-boosting treats, such as Snickers bars, red licorice, M&Ms, gummi bears, and ooh, Jelly Belly jellybeans!

Well, manufacturers of energy foods have gotten smarter, and they’ve started producing endurance treats that actually taste good (that means they taste like candy). Clif, the makers of Clif Bar, have developed a carbohydrate and electrolyte replacement product called Shot Bloks that are rather like gummi candies. Offered in a number of flavors, including strawberry, cola, orange, lemon lime, and cran razz, these little cubes are designed to give the athlete a boost of energy. Some of them contain caffeine, but all boast organic brown rice syrup and are sweetened with organic evaporated cane juice.

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I am always on the hunt for new and interesting candies, which means waiting in line at the supermarket isn’t all that painful for me, since there are plenty of candies to study. Most of the candies by the checkout tend to be mints, gums, or otherwise intriguingly packaged candies, and for some odd reason, most of the candies I snag there end up in the car. It’s car candy, which means I don’t eat that candy anywhere else but in the car, and frankly, it doesn’t really taste right if I don’t eat it in the car.

The car candy category for me is comprised of some gum (usually in a nice container) and minty-ish or fruity candies. I am particularly partial to Ice Breakers in the fruit sours varieties or the Life Savers Fruit Tarts.

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I’m an easy target for the impulse buys at the grocery store checkout counters. I think it’s a good time to scan the candies and see if there’s anything new, and then of course if something catches my eye, I have to try it. Take, for example, these Ice Breakers in Iced Tea Lemon flavor. I have long been a fan of Ice Breakers candies, and I usually have a container of the Ice Breakers sours in my car. I am also a fan of black tea, so these Ice Breakers sure seemed like a winning combination!

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