If you are easily charmed by the sight of a ribbon-bedecked momma rabbit gazing pridefully upon her brood of eight bunnies (also adorned in pastel-toned, sex-appropriate bowtastic neckware), then you too might be inclined to shell out $12.55 for See’s holiday-inspired box of chocolate what-nots and diddley-doos – officially called the Easter Assortment. This bodacious looking cardboard treasure trove is so cheerfully decorated, in fact, that it successfully tricks you into thinking that you are paying for the mother lode of all Easter candy collections.

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Before attending the All Candy Expo, all the registered press people were sent dozens and dozens of press releases from various companies advertising their products and inviting us to drop by their booths. That is where I first heard about Landrin Waferatto USA.

The company’s roots date back to the nineteenth century when Georg Landrin began preparing confections for the Imperial Court of Russia. The reputation of his delicacies spread throughout the country and Europe, earning his products notoriety for their quality ingredients and taste.

Landrin USA was recently founded with the intent to market a line of truffles with designs and packaging inspired by couture fashion and art – i.e., appealing to women. I remember checking out some of the photos from their press release to discover all their boxes adorned with orchids, chiffon prints, the elegance of a perfume box, and they somehow unfolded into vases when you opened them.

Elaborate much? Maybe. But the principal and design is aesthetically sound, which is why it’s a current silver finalist for two of the 2009 Sofi Awards (Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation). But part of me didn’t want to like these. They were too pretty. They were too girly.

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Tootsie’s Junior Fruit Cremes are probably the most notorious candy to hit the shelves this year, or in recent memory for that matter. Many other candy bloggers have reviewed/lambasted them, and the results have all been the same: abomination (and that’s the nice way of putting it).

So why do you think I wanted to try these after everyone warned me not to? Well, why did anyone go see Sylvester Stallone in a new Rambo movie? In the sagacious words of Mr. Owl, “The world may never know.”

The only thing that prevented me from buying these was that I could not find them anywhere in Austin. Recently, however, I had visited Oklahoma City for work, a place I have never been to before. One of my favorite things about going to a new city is seeing what sort of candy they stock in their supermarkets, gas stations, and drugs stores, as any good candy addict is aware of the regional differences. At the Dollar Tree store, among the outdated and probably expired Carnival Skittles and Coconut 100 Grand Bars (both of which I still bought and consumed), I finally came across Junior Fruit Cremes!

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Again with the limited edition Hershey’s Kisses! Will they ever end? Let’s hope not, because all the special flavors give us an ongoing excuse to purchase them. Anyway, the other day I was leafing through piles of Sunday newspaper advertisements when something in the Target circular caught my eye–Hershey’s Limited Edition Kisses in orange creme flavor! The circular claimed this flavor was a Target exclusive! How does Target do it? I mean, you know that Target has the exclusive red marshmallow Peeps, right? Red! How cool is that! But I digress. I scampered off to Target in search of the orange creme Kisses and was promptly rewarded.

Aren’t they lovely? They taste quite lovely as well. They reminded me a bit of the limited edition Dreamsicle (or was it Creamsicle?) flavor of Frangos. The orange creme Kiss is white chocolate with stripes of orange-flavored white chocolate. It has a pleasant orange flavor that blends nicely with the white chocolate. I detected a hint of vanilla, too. Though they are tasty, they are also quite sweet, so you can’t eat too many of them without getting sugar overload. Now I am kind of craving orange creme soda, Creamsicles, and those little orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream cups. I think these orange creme Kisses may have started something …

• Hershey’s Kisses

Buy Hershey’s Kisses online:

• at CandyDirect
• at Amazon.com

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Ask and you shall receive! At least that’s how I feel after discovering that Hershey’s has released two more limited edition kisses in time for Valentines Day. The two new flavors are Special Dark Raspberry and Strawberry Creme, the latter being the cause of my extreme excitement. It was only a few short weeks ago that I shared my enjoyment of the Special Dark Strawberry Kisses with you and even mused about a white chocolate version. There seems to be greater forces at work here…

After scouring my usual haunts in search of this new Strawberry Kiss, I finally found them in Target, where it was cleverly displayed near the registers. I had a hard time keeping myself from tearing the bag open right then and there! I knew patience is a virtue, so I decided to wait to try them after dinner when I knew I could appreciate their flavor to the fullest.

The visuals, at least, do not disappoint. Hearts and lace aside, they are really romantic looking Kisses if I’ve ever seen one. Similar to the Hugs and the Candy Cane Kiss, these have the standard white base but are now decorated with brink pink stripes. The smell of strawberry when opening the bag is similar to the dark chocolate strawberry version. Upon tasting the Kisses, I can now say with confidence that they did use the same strawberry flavoring as the Dark Strawberry. I was let down though by how the white chocolate mixed with it. It has a cheese-cakey sort of taste to it, not the sort of sweet creamy vanilla flavor I associate with white chocolate.

These Kisses are yummy, but not to the extent that I had imagined. These beauties are worth picking up regardless, especially since they are around only for a limited time.

• Hershey Kisses Website

Buy Hershey’s Kisses Strawberry Creme online:

• at Candy Direct

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