before posting this, i conducted the usual investigation to see if it really was news (it’s not) and/or what other stuff might be out there. during this exhaustive search, i discovered an A+ blog, Candy for Dinner, w/ an admirably hardcore focus on breaking candy news (much more diligently than i have time for, altho said blog has such a plethora of hershey’s scoops, one wonders about an inside hershey’s connection). anyway C4D had this Hershey’s with Corn Bits bar wks ago; but it’s been foto’d here already and gets points for being weird. the corn bits are tiny, not sweet, and stick around on the teeth for a second or two. it’s clever intellectually, in that it evokes nestles crunch but with a different grain. can’t wait for the barley

what a way to start ‘07: marc, the indian scout of NYCE, scrounged up what is perhaps the quintessential, the penultimate, the emblematic NYCE product: Hershey’s ltd-ed coffee kisses. let us quantify (or is that qualify?): 1. limited edition + 2. coffee. these coffee kisses are the pinnacle in a flurry of elegant, limited-ed flavors intro’d by hershey’s over the holidays (incl. dark-choc/strawberry & dark-choc raspberry). but coffee. the aroma when you open the bag bursts right out: more folger’s than intelligentsia (props to chic coffee guru spinnakr) but still admirably dark & espresso-y, w/ a flavor similar to that Pocket Coffee stuff

pls forgive the presence of yet-another item on yet-another ltd-edition seasonal mint sweet, but it seems best to get them done w/ and this one’s unique in its class: Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses, a white-choc kiss w/ crunchy candy bits mixed within. they’re unique enough that it’s easy to keep eating them, possibly even beyond the point where you still like them. but - and let me state the obvious here - they’re good 4 people who like mint. anyway, see, that wasn’t so bad, and now next wk can start fresh w/ fully-linked items on new restaurants (a new sushi place in richardson), ice creams (bluebell’s doing French vanilla cappuccino), & maybe coffee drinks (dunkin donuts just intro’d a very starbucksian “gingerbread latte”)

was there ever a product that begged more for the silly snowflake-frame photo treatment?

Perhaps addled by the success of its various ltd-ed kiss releases, Hershey’s seems to be under the impression that the so-called kiss shape (cuz it’s not exactly shaped like a kiss, it’s more teardrop, right?) is some kinda valuable commodity. A few mths ago, the co. issued kissables, basically an M&M in the “kiss” shape. Now: teeny-weeny Hershey’s Kisses Mini Cookies. * There’s choc chip, Double Choc, & multi-colored Confetti Sprinkles. They’re so tiny that there’s lotsa crunch but not much going on taste-wise; the choc-chips are so small, they have minimal impact. It’s basically playing off the cute factor which makes you wonder how long they’ll last.

*brought to NYCE HQ by the “plano guy”

Surely you can see why Hershey’s was driven to intro a peanut-butter kiss. I mean, so far, they only have the milk choc, the milk choc w almonds, the rich dark choc, the filled w caramel, the nut-laden Hugs, the filled w dulce de leche, & the ltd-editions cherry cordial & mint choc. That’s only like 8 flavors. They’re missing out on a major category of customer. Namely, the Reese’s fan sick of reese’s inside out, reese’s white choc, reese’s big nut, reese’s big nut w peanuts, reese’s extra choc, reese’s extra PB, & the new reese’s pb cup w/ caramel (hey, 2-for-1 blog item!). Given all that, a pb kiss seems almost a no brainer. And that’s not even getting into the old-time cookie recipe w/ a pb cookie & kiss on top.

Action on the kiss front. Two new flavors for this winter: one w/ PB, which appears to be a permanent (not limited) flavor, and what might be the best Hershey’s kiss of all time, cherry kisses, filled w/ cherry cordial crème, i.e. the goo in those choc-cov cherries but minus the cherry. Whaddo you think, does this not spell large? Or is it maybe a girl thing. Haven’t actually seen cherry kisses in tx yet; but they were spotted in NC where they got candy addict* so fired up, he started an online petition. Personally, I think there’s enough kiss spinoffs already. And cherry seems distinctly Xmas-y. But maybe that tune‘ll change after tasting them.

*who gets credit for this lovely photo

That Hershey will eventually do a permanent coffee-themed choc bar seems inevitable. It keeps dabbling w/ the flavor in ltd editions (all lovingly documented on NYCE): The revered coffee Kit Kat, the luscious Hershey’s caramel cappuccino bar, and this, Hershey’s mocha almond, a coffee-flavored choc bar w/ chopped almonds. Like its mocha-esque peers, this has a potent long-lingering coffee flavor. Meanwhile, hey look, factoids: In 2004, nearly 1,000 new candy items were intro’d - 20% of all new food prods, sez the Natl Confectioners Assoc. These all moved from the jrs to the big-leagues: Reese’s Big Cup, Reese’s white choc, white choc kit kat, Snickers almond, and most recently M&M Mega peanuts.

Atoning for decades of stodginess, Hershey’s has been releasing new prods w/ a vengeance. None very tasty, but intriguing nonetheless if you’re obsessed w/ new. One kinda-new line of bars has four perforated squares filled w/ sweet goo (most of which have been too 1-D to write about, i.e. “Double Choc” w/ zzz plain choc goo). The exception: Hershey’s Caramel Cappuccino bar. Four squares, yes. Filled w/ goo, yes. But delicious COFFEE-flavored goo. Not only duzzit support one of the foundations of NYCE, but the coffee flavor’s potent & complex, almost as good as the legendary Coffee Kit Kat.

Once stodgy, Hershey has refashioned itself into a nimble entity w/ new prods and ltd editions – currently 7, and that’s Hershey bars alone (not reese’s, not almond joy, not kit kat, not etc). Some were intro’d in june and haven’t appeared locally but this has: Hershey’s Nut Lovers, milk choc w/ peanut, almond, cashew, & pecan. It’s a flat bar (vs. blocky) and a neat idea to stud a hershey’s bar w/ a buncha nuts, even if the nuts are small & scattered. (it’s also, oddly, a reverse spinoff of a Miniatures product.) Meanwhile if anyone sees the ltd edition mocha almond, do drop a line

how about a kiss (see item below)