I would like to take a moment, if I may, to talk arithmetic. Addition, specifically. Addition is good; it means more – more numbers, more money, and in the best scenarios, more candy. Addition can be a tricky thing, though. Like with ingredients, for example. That whole too-much-of-a-good-thing thing. It’s sometimes hard to tell where that line is exactly, where a good thing becomes a very, very bad thing. I mean, if you start with a good ingredient and you add another good ingredient and the result is better, and then you add yet another one and get an even better result, I can see how one might be led down a dangerous path.

However, despite the understandable nature of such a misstep, it is snackably (I love how Candy Addict lets us just make up adverbs like that when we want to) unforgivable and, by my assessment, the very one made by CJ’s with a selection of their Bitz – an offshoot of their flagship Stix – products. Too bad, too, it’s a mathematical travesty, really.

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The Heath bar is not one of Hershey’s more talked about products, but it certainly is known throughout the world. Without thinking twice, people recognize it as “that toffee in chocolate bar.” That simple description is pretty accurate. Yes, the Heath Bar is a piece of English toffee, made of almonds, sugar and butter, coated in milk chocolate.

The bar debuted back in 1928 as the lead product for Heath Brothers Confection. Like many retro candies that amassed a following from that time, the Heath Bar sprang onto the national scene during the Great Depression, when candy was consumed in large amounts due to its abundance and reduced cost.

Sales for the product took off during WWII, after the army became one of the leading purchasers because the bar had an amazing resiliency and could be carried to the battlefield. After the war, soldiers helped spread the news of the candy. It wasn’t long after that this candy became entrenched in the confection world by becoming a leading ingredient in everything from cookies to ice cream.

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My awesome friend Greg from Houston and his friends are total foodies. What does this mean? That they are willing to drive 3.5 hours from Houston to attend the Austin Hill County Food and Wine Festival, even if it means driving through a hurricane to get there.

I am not a big fan of wine – with the exception of amazing New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs – but if there is gourmet food, then count me in! So we arrived at the festival Sunday afternoon, and as I was swishing my glass of overly sweet champagne in desperate need of a little O.J., I spot a chocolate booth.

Wiseman House Chocolates, a local Texas chocolatier, stood at the front of the main tent and just dared you not to stop by with their elegant display of product and fully uniformed workers. I sauntered as quickly as one can in 90ºF with a glass of champagne in hand, eager to pick at the lovely samples they were doling out.

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Hershey’s probably manufactures the most types of chocolate distributed under a ubiquitous name within one product line. And though I have tried most of them, I can’t say I have a favorite. If I were forced to choose, probably the Hershey’s with Almonds bar, but that says a lot more about my affinity for almonds than it does about Hershey.

Scanning the candy aisles as always, my attention landed on a bag of Hershey’s Nuggets. The bag advertised “Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate with Toffee and Almonds.” Hmm… I thought. These sounded like the nugget form of the Hershey Symphony Bar, but I hadn’t had one of those in ages, so I was willing to experiment. Plus, almonds and toffee are redeeming in their own right.

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Brach’s is probably most well known for their caramels and candy corn, but they make a vast array of other products. Like Russell Stover and Palmer, Brach’s is a candy company that exists outside of the big three, but with a pretty ubiquitous presence in the market.

Because most Brach’s candy is sold as bulk mix-and-match penny candy or in discount packs, I never really bought them as a kid, thinking they were inherently inferior (I always bought the candy with the prettiest and/or shiniest wrappers). But after falling in love with their caramel apple candy corn, I viewed this facet of the candy industry with a refreshed perception and was ready to sample a variety of their products.

Their website lists 109 different types of candy they manufacture, so it was difficult choosing what to review. Because I was limited in my selections, I chose to forgo eating some of their better known products, such as their bridge mix, so that I could review a variety of products that differentiated themselves from the staple chocolate-covered raisin. All these were purchased at my local H.E.B.

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