Back when I was doing the Great Chocolate Experiments, I tried a few unusual combinations of chocolate and fruits like sun-dried tomato and dried mango. But chocolate and kiwi is a new one on me, so I was intrigued when I received this Whittaker’s Kiwi Fruit chocolate bar from a friend (the same friend who was my Research Assistant for the Great Chocolate Experiments, if anyone’s keeping score). My friend’s brother left her with a few too many edible souvenirs from his trip to New Zealand, so I was happy to take this one off her hands – for the good of this website, of course.

Described on the package as “A New Zealand Favourite,” this paperback-sized block of milk chocolate (a whole 250 grams, or around half a pound) is divided into tiny bite-sized squares. Break one off, and you’ll find it’s studded with little green chunks. Dried kiwi? Not according to the ingredients, which contain only kiwi fruit and apple purees, making it more likely that the green bits are a jelly formed from dried fruit puree – fruit leather, in other words. (Chocolate-covered fruit leather – why didn’t I think of that?)

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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 remember that when I first lived in New Zealand I was always experiencing cultural differences that the native Kiwis failed to comprehend about American culture. I mean, they didn’t eat staples like peanut butter and questioned the point of ketchup.

But by far the one thing that drove my Kiwi friends bonkers was my love for cherry. I adore it – ice cream, candy, soda… you name it and cherry makes it better. For some unknown reason, cherry just wasn’t popular down there.

Well, it’s a good thing then that my friends didn’t attend the All Candy Expo and amble by the Gimbal’s Fine Candy booth. Gimbal’s is an interesting small candy manufacturer. They produce a variety of products from jelly beans to Lavaballs, with their factory being certified Kosher and gluten, nut, dairy, egg, soy, gelatin, and transfat free (not all of these products are vegan since some contain bee’s wax).

But of all their products, the one that blew me away the most was their Cherry Lovers. Cherry Lovers is a bag of heart-shaped chews consisting of nine different flavors of cherry. That’s right, nine! Think that’s impossible? See for yourself….

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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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As a very early riser, I do most of my writing, candy reviewing included, at the crack of dawn. While I’m not averse to a little candy first thing in the morning, it’s sometimes a nice change to be reviewing a candy that actually tastes like breakfast.

These Fruits & Yogourt gummies are a new addition to Dare’s popular Realfruit Gummies brand – gummies with natural fruit flavors and colors. We’ve previously reviewed them in fruit-snack form as part of our Back-to-School Fruit-Snack Roundup. As far as candy goes, they’re about as guilt-free of a choice as you can get – and pretty darn tasty too, since they actually contain juice and puree from the fruits they’re flavored like, not just a lot of nutrition-light “filler” juices like apple and pear.

So the originals are pretty tasty, but I’m usually wary of candies with “yogurt” in their name. Usually, it’s nothing more than an attempt to make a product look healthier than something coated in chocolate, when said “yogurt coating” is actually just an unholy amalgamation of hydrogenated oil and yogurt flavor – so it’s not only nutritionally equivalent to chocolate, it’s nutritionally equivalent to very BAD chocolate, without even the scant health benefits of the real thing.

That’s not the case here, though – the ingredients list “yogurt powder,” which is made up of modified milk ingredients and bacterial culture – nothing wrong with that, especially since they’re also fat-free. From the moment you open the bag, they really do smell like fruit-flavored yogurt.

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