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New Improved Flavor! Companies everywhere seem to think that changing their products will increase sales. From the “new” Coke to putting purple horseshoes in Lucky Charms, big businesses love to change. And doesn’t it seem that the best tasting treats get changed the fastest?

In the late spring of 2008, the 117 year old Wrigley company – best known for its gum – was purchased for $23 billion by Mars, Incorporated. Mars is well known for making candy (such as M&Ms, Snickers, and Starburst) but also markets rice, coffee, and pet food.

Since acquiring Wrigley, Mars has made quite a few changes. Doing away with the traditional five-sticks-per-pack narrow rectangular package, they now offer Wrigley’s gum in a Slim Pack™ – a larger rectangle that now contains 15 sticks. Anyone could live with the new package, but the new “improved” flavor? Well, let’s just say I wish I’d stocked up on gum prior to the Mars acquisition.

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Lifesavers were always one of those candies I shied away from buying as a kid. I found their flavors too artificial, and often only enjoyed one or two flavors per roll. I could never justify buying them since I really just didn’t like them that much.

However, browsing the candy aisle in Walgreens, I gave into curiosity and decided to purchase some of the LifeSaver spin-offs, Crème Savers. Crème Savers debuted in 1988 and come in a variety of flavors, but I was particularly drawn to the alluring bag of the desserts collection containing Apple Pie A La Mode, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Cinnamon Bun.

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As a self-acknowledged chocoholic, I can’t resist trying new chocolate candies that appear on the market. When I saw the ads for the Milky Way Midnight, I got all excited. Everyone knows that dark chocolate is supposed to be good for you. With this new formula, I could almost count this new Milky Way as health food! I promptly boogied on over to the drugstore to get one.

As I bought my Milky Way Midnight, my excitement mounted. Even the wrapper was fun. It looked all exotic and mysterious. I peeled back the wrapper, bit off a good chunk… and immediately regretted taking such a big bite.

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Not to be outshone by its fellow Mars cousin, Twix, Snickers is reissuing its own dark chocolate spin-off that seems to only appear around this time of year: Snickers Dark Almond. Playing off the whole miniature, trick-or-treat-sized Halloween candy idea, Mars has released a bag of minis entitled Snickers Dark Mix, which I bought at Target.

The Snickers Dark Mix is comprised of Snickers regular (which makes me wonder how they can then call the whole bag dark), Snickers Dark, and the aforementioned new flavor. I have never really been a big fan of the original Snickers, but have always enjoyed the Dark line, so I was willing to give these a chance.

Lately, it seems to be all the rage in the candy world for marketers to modify or remodel their confectionery lineup by replacing the milk chocolate with dark chocolate. Do I have a problem with this? In theory, no I do not. Being only half-American and spending a lot of time outside of the country, I tend to prefer dark chocolate.

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Everyone has their comfort candies they return to from their childhood. They are the sort of candies that aren’t gourmet by any means, but something you have enjoyed for so long that life without them would just seem strange. For some that candy is Snickers, Milky Way, or 3 Musketeers; for me, my heart has always belonged to Twix.

There is just something amazing about chocolate and caramel over a cookie. I can’t rationalize my love for this bar. I dislike most popular candy bars thinking they are too sweet or use inferior ingredients; however, as much as I pretend my mouth is a sophisticated tool of discernment, it craves these things.

You can therefore appreciate my excitement when I saw a Twix Minis Mix bag at Target, specially designed for autumn. It featured the classic as well as the Limited Edition Dark Chocolate and Triple Chocolate bars. I hadn’t tasted either of those in years and couldn’t wait to sample them again.

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As you wander around the candy aisles this October, you’ll no doubt notice an array of Halloween-themed bags, with pumpkins, spiders, and bats climbing atop your favorite candy bars. But another color might catch your eye amidst the array of bright orange Halloween bags: the color pink, the official color of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Throughout the month of October, several major candy companies are joining the fight against breast cancer by releasing limited-edition products designed to raise awareness as well as funding toward breast cancer research. My M&M’s will be donating 10% of its “Promise Blend”, an online-only mix of pink and white M&M’s imprinted with a “running ribbon” on one side and “For the CURE” on the other, to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer. As with all My M&M’s products, personalized messages are also available on the Promise Blend M&M’s, to allow customers to send messages of encouragement and inspiration to loved ones.

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To announce the unveiling of the NEW DOVE® Chocolate Center of Excellence, Mars Snackfood US and Candy Addict are giving away 20 limited-edition packages of DOVE® Brand chocolates made in Elizabethtown, PA. No purchase necessary!

Full details are below, but here is the quick summary: Send an email to dovegiveaway@candyaddict.com with a subject of:
Dove Pure Chocolate. In the email, include your first name and last name, your e-mail address and date of birth. That’s it! Limit one entry per person. The first twenty qualified entrants win. See full details.

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The new M&M’s Premiums line has arrived, and as soon as you see a box you’ll realize that these are no ordinary M&M’s. These M&M’s are something special. From presentation to taste, M&M’s Premiums are quite impressive, hitting the mark in both style and substance.

The presentation is fantastic, starting with the outer packaging. The typical M&M’s bag has been swapped out for a sleek, upscale-looking box that is resealable on the outside as well as on the inside, as both the outer carton and the plastic inner pack of M&M’s come with resealable tabs to keep the candy locked in and fresh.

It’s a small but wonderful innovation, as it allows buyers to carry, share, and store the M&M’s without worrying that they’ll spill. You can also pour out a handful for a friend and then save the rest for later without having to resort to the old school M&M’s pack method of rolling the bag as tight as you can and shoving it in your pocket, which is nice.

The M&M’s themselves are also quite striking: with pearly shells of soft mint green, royal blue, shimmering copper, raspberry red, and a dazzling lavender, the M&M’s provide a lovely visual that I’m sure will be quite popular for parties, gifts, and holidays. Their decorative quality is fancier than your typical holiday-themed M&M, which makes them appropriate candy decor for weddings and other formal events as well. They really are quite lovely. Almost too pretty to eat.

Almost. But come on, now. A pretty candy shell isn’t going to stop me from shoveling M&M’s into my mouth in the least dainty way possible. I can’t help it, man! I’m a Candy Addict!

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Have you ever thought about why a certain fluffy candy bar is called a 3 Musketeers? Imagine that you’ve never heard of this product. Or that, like my friend’s niece, you’re four years old.

“What is that?” she asked me, looking at the famous candy bar.

“I don’t know,” I pretended. “What do you think it is?”

She took it down from the table, turned it around in her little hands, and stared at it from every angle “Well, what does this say?” she asked.

“Three Musketeers,” I answered.

“What’s a MUS-KUH-TEER?” she said, in three segments.

“Well, a musketeer is a flashy guy who wears a cape and fights with swords.”

She processed this for a while. “Why are there guys with capes and swords in here?!” she suddenly blurted out, happily.

“That is a great question,” I said, “I’ll find out for you.” She made a skeptical face, so I returned her attention to the guessing game. “So, what do you think this silver thing IS, though?” I asked.

“Candy?!” she said, almost screaming. (Good thing she’s cute.)

“How did you know that?” I asked.

“Cuz everything on this table is candy!” She had me there.

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It seems to be a bit of a trend these days, with classic candy bars either pumping up one of their base ingredients, or simpler candy bars adding in an additional component. Variations on classic bars are nothing new - bars going white, peanut butter suddenly appearing, bits of rice cereal being stirred through, and so on. For the purposes of this review I had a look at two bars which had either added or increased their caramel value - the Crunch Bar with caramel and the Milky Way now with more caramel.

Crunch bars are an integral part of my childhood, since my Mom always had a Crunch bar in her purse (and probably still does). One of the things I like about it is that it is so thin - the snap of the Crunch bar really appeals to me, since I think it goes well with the crisped rice. It is still one of those bars I will reach for when I want a sugar hit but not full on diabetic shock.

In the past, other giant bars like the Kit Kat Chunky have been disappointing, so I wasn’t sure how this one would go. I took a bite of it and there was no mistaking the caramel taste - it isn’t just a token inclusion. The usual Crunch elements are there, too … but the whole thing got a bit of a “ehhh, not so great” reaction from me. I really missed the thin-ness of the original Crunch bar, and I didn’t think the caramel did a lot for this one. Nice, but not all that exciting or fabulous.

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