I’m not a stranger to “healthy” candy, nor are my views on it anything but direct: there really isn’t such a thing. So if you’re looking for a candy that’s going to be something I recommend you add to your diet, you can stop reading now.

That said, I do believe there is a difference between candy and candy that is better for you. And with childhood obesity on the rise, more and more parents are looking for these sorts of confectionery avenues. Kids are always going to want to eat sweets, so you might as well buy them the ones that are not as hard on their bodies.

Recently, I have reviewed products from companies that share this vision for candy, namely from Surf Sweets and BrightSpot, so it’s not all that surprising to hear of more and more companies adopting this mantra. The latest comes from Yummy Earth, who proudly boast a tagline that their candy is “The best stuff on earth.” Hmm… Snapple anyone?

The idea for this company is steeped in genuine love of both candy and children; the founders are two fathers who teamed up develop a candy for their children that didn’t rely on all the additives, preservatives, etc. that are common in most American candy.

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Chocri is a German company that plans to open for business in the US in the new year. Their website allows you to design your own chocolate bars – white, dark, or milk, with your choice of additions, which range from the normal (nuts, fruit) to the more exotic (gold balls, gummy bears, spices).

When they asked if I’d like to order some sample bars to review, I was all “heck yeah,” but as I delved into the site, I began to realize that I am not exactly the ideal customer for this sort of thing. Because A, I have very strong opinions about what flavors go together, and B, I am overwhelmed by too many choices.

So, on the one hand the only things I would be sure I would like were the totally traditional choices like milk chocolate with crispy rice. On the other hand I knew that was totally not in the spirit of the thing. What would be the point of getting a combination that I could get anywhere?

Beyond that, I no longer remember exactly what went on in my mind as I clicked around the options on their site – so many that they claim that more than ten billion combinations are possible. So when the following bars arrived, I thought some crazy person had ordered them:

• White with red rice and mango cubes
• Milk with coconut shavings, candied rose petals and a marzipan rose
• Dark with pecans, sour cherries and orange pepper

Well, on the bright side, they sure aren’t anything you could walk into a store and buy, right?

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I don’t know about you, but when I think Altoids, I don’t think fruit. They’ve done a good job promoting themselves as a mint company. When I saw these I thought, aren’t they just making trouble for themselves by branching out? You do one thing well – why not stick to it?

On the other hand, as I am sure I have mentioned a million times, I’m a sucker for mango. The idea of Curiously Strong Mango was something I couldn’t resist.

These are little bumpy round things, kind of like little sugar flowers, in a pale orange color. They don’t look like mangoes, and I am not absolutely sure they taste like mangoes. It’s clearly an artificial flavor, at most one that tastes more like mango than it tastes like another fruit. They’re not like the mango Hi-Chew I reviewed recently, for instance, where you taste them and aren’t surprised to read in the ingredients that there’s real mango in there somehow. They are more “Curiously Fruity,” like it says on the tin, than they are in-your-face MANGO.

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Everyone knows a Life Saver – the sweet, minty or fruity hard candy with the candy-with-the-hole shape. I’m no Life Savers connoisseur, but I do enjoy them. I like being able to pop one in my mouth for ten minutes of flavor enjoyment. I’m a Life Savers sucker – not a muncher.

I recently tried a different type of Life Saver, one that you almost have to chew, one that is completely different from the Life Savers I grew up loving. These are Life Savers Gummies – the gummy worm version of this iconic American candy gone modern.

What can I say about gummy candy? It’s… gummy. Beyond that, I’ll refrain from giving my personal opinion of candy gumminess. You know if you like gummies or not. Your opinion is the only one that matters since I’m not coming over to eat candy with you. (Unless you’ll be sharing some See’s Chocolate.)

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I think if you were to look at the latest generational candy trends, you’d see that the combining of flavors is in. Think of the recent additions to product lines like Skittles Crazy Cores and others.

As such, there was certainly no shortage of candy mixing at the All Candy Expo. Gum, mints, gummies… it’s all the rage. One completely sneaked by under my radar. The new Tropical Chewy Lemonhead & Friends by Ferrara Pan.

When I glanced at the box, I assumed that there were just going to be tropical counterparts to the Chewy Lemonhead and Friends variety I adore. It wasn’t until I popped one in my mouth and then examined the packaging closer that discovered these are in fact another candy with two flavors per piece.

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