I had the distinct pleasure of sampling Amella’s Artisan Cocoa Butter Caramels and OMG they are decadent and scrumptious. These caramels have an incredible texture – just a bit chewy and so creamy and buttery that they just melt in your mouth.

Passion Fruit: Out of the three flavors I tried, the passion fruit was my least favorite and it was still excellent. The caramels include real passion fruit, cocoa butter, and Tahitian vanilla and are hand dipped in milk chocolate. The passion fruit flavor is really strong and tangy – if you’re into passion fruit these will make you do the happy dance. Since I think passion fruit is just ok, I’d have preferred more caramel flavor. But even so, yum!

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Hard butterscotch candies may be almost as ubiquitous as fruit-flavored hard candies, but there’s always been something different about Werther’s Originals. Perhaps it’s their delicate balance of sweet and salt, or perhaps it’s the fact that they’re made with real cream and butter, but in a candy market filled with generic butterscotch candies, there’s only one Werther’s.

Until recently, that is. Like many other classic candies, Werther’s are now available in an array of different forms – from caramel-coffee to sugar-free to caramel-mint, and now, these Werther’s Originals Caramel Chocolates.

Werther’s was making a big deal out of these at the All Candy Expo – when you went through the main entrance, the first thing you saw was a white-hatted “chef” armed with a tray of these glittering, foil-wrapped chocolate discs. Of course, I allowed him to provide me with a few samples, in both Milk and Dark. (I realized later that I’d been scooped – we’d already posted a review of the dark chocolate Werther’s Originals all the way back in November. D’oh!)

I was initially very curious about what “caramel chocolates” would involve – these seemed a little thin to have any kind of a liquid center, so my guess was that they contained crushed Werther’s hard candy bits. It turned out I couldn’t have been more wrong.

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When I think of lollipops, I think of, well… lollipops. I try not to read too much into the whole adult humor and related connotations that can be associated with such a candy. Apparently, the folks at Das Foods think differently than I do.

I was supposed to receive a shipment from them, but for some reason it never arrived at my doorstep, but as luck would have it, they were attending the All Candy Expo, which provided me an opportunity to pick up some samples on site.

It was hard to miss to the Das Foods booth; they hired four dancers from UIUC to perform a Das Lolli dance routine and socialize with the attending clientele. Since most of the people attending the convention were males, I suppose their ploy worked, as there was always a crowd at their booth.

Even the packaging (think something circular within a square, plastic wrapper that isn’t candy) or the taglines of “What’s your flava?” and “Shamefully delicious lollipops” are begging for an adult audience, which is odd given the premise that these are all natural lollipops made without preservatives, HFC, and chemical additives. Seems like a good thing to give your kids, but I’m not sure how you explain what exactly “Man Bait” is supposed to mean…

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Candy Addicts everywhere praised Nestle when it released its Nestle Crunch Crisp and Butterfinger Crisp, wafer spin-offs of the classic confections. It seemed only a matter of time until the gurus at Nestle decided to take their next most popular candy bar and give it a “Crisp” makeover.

That’s right. Baby Ruth. The All Candy Expo did not disappoint when I ambled by the Nestle booth and spotted this not-yet-released candy that is supposed to debut this year.

There weren’t any full-sized bars to sample, and I was only allowed to grab one snack-sized piece; luckily, the Expo is three days, and I was able to procure three of those small treats and report on them.

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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