Just in time for Halloween, the Twilight film franchise has released New Moon themed Halloween candies. The folks at the National Confectioners’ Association sent me three flavors to try.

Do you remember Sky Bars? For those of you who have never had the pleasure, a Sky Bar is a chocolate bar made of different sections, each of which contain a different filling. So in one chocolate bar, you got caramel, vanilla, peanut butter, and fudge fillings. Awesome.

Well this classic candy is getting a modern makeover. Instead of putting all the fillings in one bar, now some of the segments have their own, individually-wrapped candy bar with different Twilight New Moon characters on different flavors. I tried the Edward caramel and the Bella creme. Edward’s chocolate is etched with a family crest and says “Cullen.” Bella’s is shaped like a heart and says “Bella.” Both are good-sized chocolates.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Sky Bar, so I can’t compare these to the originals. But I can say: yummy! The caramel flavor is loaded with a soft, sweet caramel that’s more liquid than chewy. The creme has almost the same consistency and the flavor reminds me of a Cadbury creme egg – really sweet but I somehow love it anyway.

Between the packaging, the cool shapes of the candies, the generous size of the chocolates, and the taste, I’d say these would be a huge hit with Twilight-loving Trick-or-Treaters.

I also tried the Twilight Sweethearts “Forbidden Fruits” conversation hearts. My box said “2 of 3″ and featured Edward. They are a bit glittery, and say things like “Soul Mate,” “With You,” “Live 4 Ever,” and my personal favorite, “Bite Me.”

For me, conversation hearts have always been more about having fun with what they say than how they taste, and this box was no exception. These still have the same chalky consistency I remember, but the flavors are much stronger. Flavors include orange obsession, tempting apple, passion fruit, and secret strawberry. They all tasted very sweet, very artificial, and, oddly enough, vaguely medicinal to me. I can’t say I enjoyed how these tasted. Fun to play with, yes. Fun to eat, not so much.

Since these come in a big box, they are not really suitable for handing out at the door on Halloween. But they’d be a lot of fun in a candy dish at work or at a party.

Given a choice, I definitely would choose the Sky Bars over the Sweethearts. Either way, enjoy your Twilight New Moon Halloween goodies!

Necco makes both the Sky Bar treats and the Sweethearts.

Candy Addict received this product as a sample. No payment was received for this review and all opinions represent an unbiased view of the product.

• Necco’s Website

Instance #1: About a million years ago (or seven months, give or take), I was offered the opportunity to sample and review Amano’s Jembrana dark chocolate bar. I eagerly accepted but, whilst awaiting my chocolate shipment, eventually forgot about it. Sometime after the holidays, I was reminded of the pending review and, having never received the samples, had no choice but to forfeit the article.

Occurrence #2: Out of the blue I received an email from Amano’s (lovely) PR people informing me that they had recently sent me their trio of new creations and I should keep an eye out for them. And, you know, if I wanted to write a review of ‘em, that’d be cool. Woo-hoo! A second chance! And free chocolate! Rarely does one get either of those, let alone both. About two weeks later, still sans samples, I realized that I had moved since the first time Amano tried to send me something (unsuccessfully, as you’ll recall). Well, free chocolate for the new tenants of my old apartment, at least.

Encounter #3: An actual encounter! After reporting back to Amano with my new address, they quickly sent another package and, it turns out, the third time IS the charm, because this one physically made it to my apartment. In Los Angeles. In May. That’s right, melt-o-rama. But I couldn’t bring myself to relay this back to the company. (I mean, at some point they were gonna start thinking I was just stealing all their chocolate, right?) So I popped these suckers into the fridge after their long journey and figured I’d check back with them later.

When later finally came, I was introduced to three almost (well…) good-as-new bars: the Jembrana 30% milk chocolate, Ocumare 30% milk chocolate, and limited edition Montanya 70% dark chocolate.

Jembrana Milk Chocolate

Made from the cacao beans of the Jembrana region of Bali, Indonesia, the flavor profile of this bar boasts hints of licorice, spice, and honey. It felt somewhat cool in my mouth and had a distinct sweetness from the honey without being cloying. Even as a decided dark chocolate fan, I enjoyed this bar and thought it not at all too sweet.

Ocumare Milk Chocolate

Hailing from Venezuela’s Ocumare Valley, this chocolate has natural plum and cherry notes. I found it less sweet than the Jembrana bar and very smooth and creamy. Impressively creamy. This is an especially great milk chocolate for dark chocolate fans.

Montanya Dark Chocolate

This 70% cacao bar from the mountains of Venezuela reports hints of apricot, nuts, marshmallow, and spice. I love marshmallow and was excited by that promise but, unfortunately, didn’t detect the flavor. The chocolate was cool and sweet up front (I did actually taste that apricot), and then got slightly more bitter.

Due to the tragic melting, all three bars were exceedingly soft (no snap whatsoever) and greasy (I used multiple napkins for finger-wiping); however, based on the texture reports from Amano’s other previously reviewed bar, I think chocolate fans will enjoy these. Especially milk chocolate fans looking to edge closer to the dark side of candy or, conversely, dark lovers looking to slum (she said, kidding) in the ranks of milk.

(And just for the record, had I not thoroughly enjoyed these chocolates in the state they were in, I would have asked the company for a fresh sample, so as not to unfairly judge and malign their product. Yes, I would do that for you, readers. And yes, I do think this chocolate is that good.)

• Amano Chocolate Website

Buy Amano Chocolate Online:

• at Chocolate.com

Another guest review from our friend Laura Kaspick.

Like fellow Candy Addicts Caitlin, Robbie, and Laurie, I recently had the pleasure of attending the All Candy Expo. One of the products I was most excited to get my hands on was the Limited Edition Coconut M&M’s. As soon as the show floor opened, I eagerly made my way to the Mars booth to get myself a sample. Imagine my disappointment when I was told they wouldn’t be available at the Expo! Although I did recover (it’s pretty tough to be in a bad mood when surrounded by free candy), I was still thinking about my loss when I attended a Mars press conference later that day.

Midway through the presentation, Mars president Todd Lachman turned his focus to upcoming product releases, including the Coconut M&M’s. I half tuned him out as I wasn’t interested in hearing about Coconut M&M’s, I was interested in eating Coconut M&M’s! But I quickly snapped to attention when I heard “…and actually, here in my pocket, I happen to have a sample…” and then which lucky member of the audience do you think he threw them to??? ME!!!! I couldn’t believe my good fortune, and now I am going to share my good fortune with you by telling you what you have to look forward to when they come out this summer.

The Coconut M&M’s come in a cream colored package, about the shade of the Almond M&M’s bag. The picture on the front features sassy “Green” sitting on a tropical white sand island, with poor lovable “Yellow” falling out of a palm tree in the background. The candies inside are green, white, and brown with pictures of umbrellas, palm trees, suns, or flowers accompanying the standard “m” emblem. They are fairly uniform in shape and are about the same size as the Peanut Butter M&M’s.

With no description to guide me, I assumed that each piece would be a soft coconut center surrounded by milk chocolate and the familiar thin candy shell. Instead, they are coconut-flavored solid chocolate. I’m pleased to report that it is a smooth, subtle coconut flavor, not at all fake or chemically, despite the words “Artificial Flavor” printed on the wrapper. And the chocolate is real chocolate, which Mars promises in all their products. I really think these will appeal to coconut lovers and coconut shy-away-froms alike, as they deliver the coconut flavor without the controversial coconut texture.

Yep, I’m a fan, plus I’m always happy to see the latest and greatest innovations in the candy world. (Although, credit must be given where credit is due – the folks at Jelly Belly first introduced this concept when they came out with their Coconut Chocolate JBz.). So give ‘em a try, and if you’re a fan too, be sure to get them when you can (probably in August) as this tropical experience will only be here for a limited time.

• M&M’s Website

Buy M&M’s Online:

• at Amazon.com
• at Candy Crate

Though a new limited edition flavor of M&M’s is nothing out of the ordinary, I was surprised by Mars’ latest release of Strawberried Peanut Butter M&M’s, an upcoming promotion for the newest Transformers film.

When I think of limited edition M&M’s, I immediately think of variations on either the original or peanut variety. In fact, I was so expecting this to be the peanut sort that it wasn’t until after I tasted them that I asked myself “Where’s the peanut?”

You rarely see Mars play with the almond or peanut butter M&M’s flavors, leaving all their marketing and sales to the more popular varieties. I mean, I can’t even remember the last time I saw a commercial for peanut butter M&M’s. So when I discovered it was one of their less-advertised flavors that was being given a limited edition makeover, I was pleasantly surprised.

I picked up a complimentary bag of these at the All Candy Expo, but I have also seen them in drugstores, so they’re readily available for purchase.

Unlike the regular peanut butter variety, there are only three colors of pieces: brown, red, and yellow speckled with red. Though the colors were fairly uniform, sizes were not. Some resembled the size of the milk chocolate variety while others were bulky like the peanut type.

The taste of the strawberry flavor is minimal, more present as a floral overtone with a strong aftertaste rather than as an actual component of the candy itself. It also happens to be only in the chocolate shell so it’s a bit drowned out by the chocolate and peanut butter flavors.

I liked the fact that these had a firm crunch, but were soft, being much fresher than most M&M’s I can think of, but the flavors didn’t really work for me. I actually enjoy the regular peanut butter M&M’s quite a bit, and much of that simplicity was lost here amidst the strawberry.

It’s not as if the idea of fruit and peanut butter doesn’t mesh well, because I still enjoy a nice peanut butter and jelly sandwich; however, these are more akin to eating that peanut butter and jelly mixture straight out of a jar.

A good peanut butter and jelly sandwich is grounded in the bread, which lessens the intensity of the other flavors. I find myself missing such a harmonizing element, as the chocolate doesn’t really succeed on that front.

These aren’t horrible by any means, and I do enjoy them more than milk chocolate M&M’s, but I couldn’t help but eat the whole bag thinking something was slightly off…. Perhaps this could be remedied if actual jelly were combined with the peanut butter center instead of it being artificially mixed with the chocolate.

Regardless, I am glad to see Mars is exploring their entire line of product, and hope they continue this trend with their almond variety.

• M&M’s Website

Buy Strawberried Peanut Butter M&M’s Online:

• at Amazon.com

I come to you today with a Barbie bonanza.

You may notice that our first Barbie is of the non-edible variety. I have a sneaking suspicion that there are some Candy Addicts lurking over at Mattel because why else would they come up with a Hershey’s-chocolate-inspired Barbie? The official explanation on Barbie’s box says: “For well over a century, Hershey’s has been the chocolate of choice! Now Barbie doll celebrates the sweet story of Hershey’s excellence.” But I’m sticking to my theory that there are a bunch of chocoholics hanging about at Mattel. Which, by the way, just makes me think that must be a cool place to work even more than I already did.

The Hershey’s Barbie Doll is part of the American Favorites collection. I can see the Hershey’s inspiration in the color and shape of the dress as well as the cute Hershey’s sash – they remind me of a Hershey’s Kiss. For a Barbie collector or a candy memorabilia collector, this doll is a treat!

Now, over in the edible section, we have Dylan’s Candy Bar’s Then & Now Chocolate Square Pack of Barbie milk chocolate squares. The squares feature pictures of different Barbies throughout the years and I gotta tell you some of these Barbies are a hoot. The 1986 Barbie picture had me howling and wincing at the same time. Not that I’m admitting to wearing eye shadow like that – ahem.

Besides being fun to look at, the Dylan’s Barbie chocolates are quite tasty. They’ve got a good chocolate flavor in the same quality ballpark as Cadbury or Dove. However, I found the texture a bit perplexing. It wasn’t bad, it was just a bit weird. The chocolates are kind of chewy and, instead of dissolving quickly in my mouth, they kind of took their time. Since they taste good, it wasn’t a problem for me but I found the slight chewiness a bit disconcerting.

If you like Barbie-themed candies, Dylan’s has an array to choose from – the website gave me the giggles and some great ideas for presents for my niece.

Overall, it’s a good month for Candy Addicts with a Barbie fetish!

• Hershey’s Barbie Website

• Dylan’s Candy Bar Website

This Easter, a new chocolate rabbit has hit the scene. Packed with milk chocolate and peanut butter goodness, he is no ordinary Easter Bunny. He is, in fact… the Reester Bunny. And though the market is already well-saturated with rabbit-shaped treats, he’s ready to kick butt and take names – all three of him.

That’s right – Reese’s new Easter treat comes in not one, but three sizes: a big heavyweight bruiser, a middleweight sold in packages of four, and these little guys, only a couple of inches long. The design of all three is basically the same – a flat milk chocolate rabbit filled with – you guessed it – peanut butter. Each bunny is individually wrapped in silver foil stamped with the image of the bright orange, overall-wearing Reester Bunny.

The Bunny himself is a little generic, like the Easter Bunny from a random low-budget Easter special. Actually, his orange color and yellow cheeks make him look like a rabbit version of Garfield. He’s smiling, but there’s something vaguely startled or worried-looking about his eyes, as if he’s just realized it’s Monday or he’s out of lasagna.

As unremarkable as his design is, Hershey’s certainly has done an excellent job of capturing it in chocolate form – under the foil, the molding on these is excellent. Rather than being a generic chocolate rabbit shape or even a nondescript chocolate blob, they’re definitely recognizable as the Reester Bunny.

Taste-wise, these are definitely a Reese’s product – their peanut-butter centers are that same grainy, slightly salty PB we all know and love from Reese’s peanut butter cups. There’s definitely a higher ratio of chocolate to peanut butter than in other favorites like the Reese’s peanut butter cup and the Reese’s Easter egg – it seems like they need a thicker layer of chocolate for the detailed molding job. They’re certainly not skimpy on the peanut butter, but seeing as Reese’s products are usually all about the peanuts, I think this is the least amount of peanut content I’ve ever seen in a Reese’s product. The chocolate is quite firm and a little snappy, unlike the soft, thin layer of chocolate around the original peanut butter cups.

Overall, I can’t find too much to complain about here – once again, Reese’s has demonstrated the variety of completely different-tasting candies that can result from simply adjusting the ratio of two different ingredients. So squeeze over, boring plain chocolate rabbits – the Reester Bunny’s coming to town.

• Reese’s Website

Buy Reese’s Products Online:

• at Candy Crate
• at Candy Direct
• at Amazon.com

Whenever I want to eat eggs for breakfast, I usually have to leave the house to do so, as the smell of eggs cooking makes my poor fiance sick. However! My fiance’s aversion to eggs does not extend to chocolate eggs, thank goodness, which means our house becomes an egg-filled wonderland of chocolaty goodness each Easter season. For the egg-shaped candy is the staple of Easter sweets; bypassing even the chocolate bunny over the past few years as the go-to shape for deliciousness. The trick is separating the truly delicious chocolate eggs from the eggs that deserve to go down Willy Wonka’s Eggdicator shoot. Lucky for you, I’m here to help.

I have eaten nearly every type of chocolate in the universe, and I have to say, often the loveliest chocolates are the ones you can buy right in the drug store. It seems a bit wacky to say, but the higher-end chocolate eggs I’ve eaten usually come off as a bit waxy or bitter. Throughout the year, when I need a simple chocolate fix, I keep two staples in my dish: Hershey’s Bliss Milk Chocolate Meltaways, and Dove Dark Chocolate Promises. Both candies are delicious, readily available, and perfectly milky and sweet. So my hopes were high when I received a box of Dove Milk and Dark Chocolate Easter eggs.

The Dove Milk Chocolate Easter eggs are perfect (aside from an annoying foil wrapper that takes WAY too long to remove); the chocolate is the same as your standard Dove Promise: rich, milky, with a touch of sweetness that helps to keep the chocolate from coming off as too decadent or chalky. The eggs are smaller than a typical Dove Promise, but they are delicious and surely a welcome addition to any Easter basket or candy bowl.

The Dark Chocolate Almond Easter eggs, however, weren’t nearly as good; the dark chocolate, for some reason, isn’t as smooth as a Dark Chocolate Dove Promise; perhaps the addition of the roasted almonds tips the candy towards the bitter scale. The overly roasted flavor of the almonds doesn’t mesh well with the dark chocolate; there is a sweetness that is sorely missed here.

Dove also makes giant bunnies and eggs in their signature chocolate; I’d recommend the milk chocolate, as it’s a creamy, lovely candy experience that is worth breaking into, piece by piece. Willy Wonka’s Eggdicator would certainly approve.

• Dove Chocolates Website

Buy Dove Chocolate Online:

• at Amazon.com

I will never again look at some dish made from a weird combination of international cuisines and say “Only in America.” Because now I’ve had Green Tea Tiramisu Kit-Kat from Japan.

I have been watching the Japanese Kit-phenomenon from afar with great interest, since the flavors are often somewhat, well, unexpected, like the pumpkin version reviewed here. Finally through the good graces of our friends at J-List, I’ve had a chance to sample some for myself, in several different sizes and shapes: Tiramisu and Green Tea Tiramisu in delicate little individually wrapped sticks, Azuki bean in a two-stick size bar, and Sakura nuggets.

I love a cookie or candy with crunchy wafers in it, so Kit Kats are right up my alley. Concentrating on the texture, I was very pleased with most of these, both of the tiramisu-flavor sticks especially. They are nicely delicate and have just the right proportion of wafer to coating and filling.

The azuki was my least favorite. I swear, I try so hard to like red bean sweets. I like nearly everything else about Japanese food, and I know that my dessert pleasure is sorely limited if I don’t like red bean. The filling in this doesn’t have the texture of bean, and it’s often the presence of actual beans in a dessert that I find off-putting. But unfortunately it turns out that’s not all there is to it. Sorry, Kit Kat, I am sure it’s not your fault that I don’t like red bean combined with chocolate either.

I was much happier with the Tiramisu. If Kit-Kat makes you think ‘chocolate,’ be aware that there’s little chocolate in this – the wafer filling has a mild version of the chocolate-coffee flavor elements of a tiramisu, and the coating is white and creamy. I can’t decide if it tastes slightly cheesy like a tiramisu should, but in the end I decided I don’t care.

In contrast to my troubled relationship with azuki, I am madly in love with green tea flavor sweets. So although Green Tea Tiramisu struck the purist in me as terrifyingly multicultural, I was most looking forward to this one, and it didn’t let me down. I’m not sure how much tiramisu-flavor is really in this, but it it’s one of those things with the sort of distinctive but mild green tea flavor that I find perfectly dreamy (and I don’t think I’ve every written that word to describe anything else in my entire life). It’s good that this was packaged in small pieces or I would not have known when to stop.

I will note that I got two second opinions on these, and both test subjects – including one who is almost as big a Japanophile as I am – preferred the plain tiramisu to the green tea. Well, good, more for me!

The sakura nuggets, to me, were the least successful shape, but I can see that someone else might think they were fun. I am not sure what sakura is supposed to taste like – I have never eaten a cherry blossom. Another taster said “the white one tastes like nothing, the pink one tastes even less. They just taste like something sweet.”

I can’t argue with that although, it’s not like that is a bad thing, right? These were definitely not bad if you like white, creamy, and sweet, which I do. They are not as exciting as green tea, but what is? Let’s just say I had no trouble eating the whole bag.

Although these different flavors were successful to varying degrees for me, the whole exotic flavored Kit Kat concept gets two thumbs up from me. I am usually extremely skeptical about newfangled variations on old classic things, but this is totally an exception – I can’t wait to see what they think up next.

• Japanese Kit Kats at Jbox.com

Package disclaimer: “Not recommended for pregnant women, children, or persons sensitive to caffeine.” (This includes YOU, weird pregnant guy expecting your second kid in June!)

Huh? This is just wrong: A candy bar aimed straight at the shaved heads of wacky, Jack-Ass-style twenty-somethings. In this fast-paced and hectic age, do we really need more buzz? I guess someone thinks so.

The Nestle advertising blitz and buzz (can you sense the trend here?) features online videos of highly energized male and female actors playing the part of young adults shaving one another’s heads and spray painting stencils of the Butterfinger Buzz logo onto their freshly revealed scalps. The ads seem to shout: THESE COOL YOUNG PEOPLE ARE CRAZY AND YOU NEED TO HANG OUT WITH THEM RIGHT NOW!! A paintball gun is even used – that was crazy sick YO! No, just stupid. All this for a candy bar? And not a very good one? Come on.

At the very least, the campaign seems forced. Certain candy icons should never be messed with.

I first noticed the awkwardness of the Butterfinger Buzz package with its two separate, single-serving bars jostling around in a super-kingsize sleeve that made the bar appear broken. The candy within looked like the classic Butterfinger with its bland and thin mockolate coating (the peanut buttery center is the star here, always has been), and the first bite revealed the usual crumbly-crunchy peanut butter candy innards.

On closer inspection, I found the Buzz’s interior to be distinctly darker than the classic Butterfinger, more of a burnt orange in color that reminded me of a blood orange. With an even closer view it looked similar to a slice of prosciutto.

I had fun comparing the candy bar’s sedimentary center to other foods, but I tried to focus on the taste because that’s what it’s really all about – appearances are superficial.

The texture was more dense than the classic non-caffeinated version and was like chewing a semi-moist clump of red Georgia clay, or how I imagine that might feel. Halfway through the first bar I noticed a disturbing bitterness. Don’t get me wrong, I like bitter just as much as sweet – I’m a big black-coffee drinker – but this was unpleasant. I finished the first bar with some difficulty, and didn’t even bother with the second.

The Butterfinger Buzz claims to have as much caffeine as “the leading energy drink” (80mg for both bars), but since I barely finished one serving (one bar) I didn’t notice much of an increase in my energy level. However, a caffeine-sensitive colleague of mine scarfed an entire Buzz and actually felt quite a rush that afternoon. It was annoyingly entertaining.

I advise you to scamper out and buy a Butterfinger Buzz so you can judge for yourself. But hurry, these limited edition bars are only available through April 2009 or while supplies last.

As the ads say, “Get your BUZZ on!” (But not if you’re a child, sensitive to caffeine, or a pregnant human.)

• Butterfinger Buzz Website

However, there are some options for the anti-pink and red brigade this Valentine’s season, as the folks at M&M’s/Mars are once again promoting their all-green M&M’s packages, an homage to the urban legend that celebrates the, uh, romance-enhancing properties of the green candy shells. On each package of Green M&M’s is Ms. Green herself, sassy as ever, reminding us that green is, in fact, the “New Color of Love.”

So if you’re looking for an alternative to the typical reds and pinks of the season, Green M&M’s are a fun and tasty option. They taste just like regular M&Ms, for those wondering, just like any other holiday mix; it’s only the color of the shell that sets them apart from your typical Plain M&M’s bag. And hey! If you buy too many, you’ll have a perfect filler for your St. Patrick’s Day candy dish.

As for Green being the “new color of love”? Who knows. But the important thing to remember here is this: if you have a Candy Addict in your life, skip the flowers and the “I Wuv U” bear and grab something truly sweet instead. Because everyone knows that romance is always best expressed with lots and lots of delicious candy. Flowers will die, giant teddy bears will make you look like an idiot on the subway, but candy, in any color, in whatever shaped box, is what true love is all about.

• M&M’s Green “Color Of Love” Website