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.

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Jer’s all natural Toffee Break Gourmet Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars have very promising ingredients: organic peanut butter (unhomogenized, using Valencia peanuts), dark chocolate, sugar, sweet cream, salt and butter. (Notice: no trans fat or hydrogenated oils, and no artificial ingredients.) Sounds good, right? Well, you haven’t read his PR.

In the Jer’s Handmade Chocolates press release FAQ that accompanied my sample, founder Jerry Swain asks himself, “Now that you own your own chocolate business, why do you think people enjoy your story?” I won’t bore you with the answer – it’s as banal and self-congratulatory as the rest of the document’s fatuous verbiage. But hey, even hot air balloons sometimes carry good candy, right? So let’s check these out.

The Toffee Break package contains two small-to-average-sized, individually wrapped candy bars (50g, 1.75 oz each). Unless you live in San Diego, you’d have to buy these online. On Amazon, when you include shipping, they cost $35 for 4 packages (for a total of 8 bars). That works out to $8.75 per 3.5 oz package of two bars. Geez, these better be good.

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Even though I didn’t go to the All Candy Expo, I’m still reaping the benefits. Robby has been kind enough to share his stash with me and now I get to share it with you.

I love chocolate – like any self-respecting Candy Addict I consider it to be one of the major food groups. So imagine my delight upon hearing about the new Snickers fudge bar. I love Snickers, I love fudge, and putting them together? Wahoo! My tummy did a little happy dance at just the thought of it… and I gotta tell you, the reality is as good as I’d hoped.

What they’ve done is to replace the regular caramel with fudge and the regular nougat with peanut butter nougat. I was a little worried that would make the Snickers too sweet, but my fears were without basis. When I bit into this, I tasted sweet creamy chocolate followed immediately by a really strong peanut flavor. The peanuts temper the sweetness and both blend with and provide a counterpoint to the fudge. And the fudge, it makes the Snickers even more creamy than usual. So I got the creaminess of the chocolate, fudge, and peanut butter nougat mixed with the crunch from the peanuts for a really cool texture, along with the blended peanut butter/fudge/chocolate flavors – all smushed into one delectable bar. I loved it!

If you’re a Snickers fan, or you like the peanut butter and chocolate flavor combo, you’ve got to try these! Keep an eye out for them, because they’ll be coming soon (probably around August).

• Snickers Website

To me, one of the most exciting announcements at this year’s All Candy Expo was the addition of three new additions to the Pieces lineup. Never knew there was a Pieces lineup? Well, there is now, with Hershey’s Special Dark, Almond Joy and York Pieces joining the familiar Reese’s. But are these new additions worthy successors to the mantle of everyone’s favorite candy-coated peanut butter treat? (The Hershey’s folks threw in a sample pack of Reese’s Pieces too, so I’m doing a bonus review of those as well.)

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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.

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