Limited Edition Foods

Snickers has joined the energy foods craze with its Limited Edition Charged bar, which is infused with caffeine and taurine. 

Cybele at Candy Blog gives it high marks for caffeine efficiency and cost, but notes the high caffeine content leaves a potent and nasty after taste that may be disconcerting to folks who would like more of a candy experience.

Sera at Candy Addict reported similar problems with a bitter aftertaste, and was dismayed that the amount of caramel in the Charged was lower than that of a regular Snickers bar.

Mars focused its marketing of the Charged bars on the college market, giving away over half a million bars at college basketball games this season.  The company is fond of coffee flavored bars this year, as it is also marketing a limited edition Java Twix.  Unlike the Charged bars, the Java Twix has gotten mostly good reviews from the candy press.

One of the strange things about limited edition foods is that some of them are not so limited.  Thanks to the wonders of food technology and the long term shelf-life provided by food preservatives, some limited edition foods can be on the market months or even years after they are released.

This seems to be the case with Junior Mints Inside Outs.  Jummy from Life Tips Daily recently wrote me about these mint candies, which she found on the shelf in a store Waterton, New York a couple of weeks ago.  I had not heard of these candies and assumed they were a new limited edition food, but a quick internet search revealed that Cybele of CandyBlog fame wrote about them over two years ago!  So even though the package says limited edition, these candies have been with us for quite some time.

Perhaps they are still on the shelves because they were not that popular.  Cybele reports the Inside Outs were high in transfats and low in taste, which is not a good combination, and Victoria from Candy Addict blogged that they made her feel sick which is not a great endorsement.

Junior Mints are owned by the same company that makes Tootsie Rolls, so it’s not surprising that they can last a long time on the shelf.  If you are a Junior Mints fan and want to try something different, perhaps the Peppermint Crunch versions that come out around the holidays would be a better choice.  Although Cybele did not really like those either, so perhaps sticking to the traditional Junior Mints is the safest bet.

Packages of all green M&Ms hit the shelves recently as part of a promotional effort geared towards Valentines’s Day on February 14.

The green M&Ms have enjoyed pop culture mystique for at least three decades, as there have long been rumors that the green candies serve as an aphrodisiac. Rumors of rock stars requesting bowls of all green M&Ms in their dressing rooms and astronauts wanting to take them into space have added to the mystique, and M&Ms is certainly promoting that pop culture legend with its “Green is Love” campaign for the limited edition green M&Ms packages.

The packages feature a go-go boot clad Ms. Green, the flirty female version of the M&Ms characters that the brand added to its advertising campaigns a few years ago. They also feature a faux warning to purchasers: “Consumption of The Green Ones® may result in elevated romance levels. If you experience this effect, contact your significant other immediately.”

Keema’s Kandies has a chocolate covered peanut brittle out, and they covered in red, white, and pink sprinkles for Valentine’s Day. The peanut brittle is handmade and hand packaged in Holland, Michigan.

January 26, 2008 is National Peanut Brittle Day in the United States. True peanut brittle fanatics will tell you that there is a vast difference between fresh peanut brittle that is made at home, and those that are sold in stores. They also like to discuss the differences between the types of peanuts you can use, or the types of syrup to make the toffee. Personally, I just like the stuff and am not particularly picky about where it comes from.

But if you prefer to make your own peanut brittle, there are hundred different recipes out there … my recommendation, based on a catastrophic attempt many years ago, is to go with the traditional versions. Peanut brittle in the microwave is not for beginners.

Snickers likes to say their candy bar is satisfying enough to serve as a meal in a crunch, and if that is true then the new limited edition Snickers Nut’n'Butter Crunch is like a meal brick. The butter in the name refers to peanut butter, although as the wrapper says you won’t find actually peanut butter in the bar just nougat that has been given an enhanced “peanut butter taste.” The result is a dense and chewy Snickers that will stick to your ribs, although in today’s health conscious society that phrase is not really considered a good thing.

The candy bar snuck its way onto shelves, which is a bit odd for Snickers and certainly made it a surprise for folks who follow the candy industry, like Cybele at Candy Blog. Some sources report that the release date was changed, and perhaps that is the reason this limited edition candy received less fanfare.

It’s never too late to look back at where you have been, especially when you are trying to map out where you are going.  Before we delve into the hot new limited edition trends that are on the way in 2008, let’s take a look back at some of the limited edition chocolate we got to indulge in during 2007.

One of the most highly anticipated, and unique, limited edition foods this year is the one that is featured in the banner for this blog: the limited edition Reese’s cup that celebrated Elvis, featuring banana creme in honor of The King’s treasured peanut butter and banana sandwiches.  Whether you liked bananas or not, these unique treats were unforgettable.

There were other interesting limited edition chocolates in 2007 as well, including expensive hand numbered chocolates and less expensive but equally exciting candy bars such as the limited edition Twix Java.  Word from the candy expos is that we can expect even more exciting limited edition chocolate in 2008, and I look forward to writing about it for you.

Everybody seems to be selling a limited edition food centered around peppermint this holiday season, and San Francisco chocolate maker Ghirardelli is no exception. The company is selling its limited edition peppermint bark, featuring white chocolate and flavors that remind the taster of a high quality candy cane, for the 2007 holiday season. The candy can be purchased in small squares or in larger bars from stores around most cities and from various places on the Internet.

The peppermint bark is by far the company’s most famous holiday limited edition, but Ghirardelli also sells its holiday chocolate in a three pack of holiday squares. The package, shown here, features the company’s two other limited edition chocolate squares which are flavored like eggnog and cinnamon spiced almond respectively.

People get very creative with Ghirardelli squares, which are known for being excellent additions to recipes. One couple is even selling a pancake recipe that features the peppermint bark on E-bay.

The latest limited edition Twix, the Twix Java, is winning rave reviews from bloggers and candy reviewers. Brian at Candy Addict has declared it is the best limited edition he has ever eaten, and while Cybele at Candy Blog does not go quite that far the bar gets high praise over there as well.

While I have not tried one yet, reports indicate that the limited edition Java Twix successfully maintains the texture and concept of the original version while blending espresso in with the traditional caramel flavor. The cookie base is chocolate in this version, but the essential elements remain the same making this one of the most anticipated candy releases in years.

If you want to try it for yourself start scouting the stores because these Twixes probably won’t last long. While the official launch date is early December, serious shoppers would not be out of line if they started shopping for Twix now. If you find one, post a review and let us know if you think this is now your favorite limited edition food.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of Pez, the candy that started as a mint and transformed itself into a sugary pop culture staple. To help Pez collector’s celebrate this anniversary, we are dedicating the Classic Food Friday post to the wonder that is Pez.

Pez was invented in 1927 in Austria as an adult peppermint, and its name is short for pfefferminz which is the German word for peppermint. The creator of Pez quickly expanded the marketing for Pez to advocate sucking on the candies as an alternative to smoking. This seems fairly prophetic, since billions of dollars are now spent on products that claim to help people stop smoking, and only adds to the mysterious aura of Pez.

Perhaps even more famous than the Pez candies are the Pez dispensers, which started as a hygienic way to carry mints and morphed into collector’s items that fascinate consumers the world over. To date approximately 300 different Pez dispensers have been created, and there are avid collectors who have books and conventions on the subject of collecting said dispensers of Pez. At any given time you can find fanatical Pez dispenser trading on Ebay, which has seen a Pez dispenser sell for over $30,000.00 USD. There is even an auction site to help you track your Pez auctions called AuctionPez.com.

If you can’t find what you like in the official Pez dispenser collector community, there is a counterfeit Pez dispenser community that trades “fantasy Pez” dispensers. Basically Pez obsessed folks create Pez-like dispensers for their favorite pop culture icons and then sell them to others. After 80 years in the cut throat candy business, Pez is still going strong.

Pez, Pillsbury Doughboy, Kiss, dispensers, Austria, mints, smoking, collector

Each October M&Ms brings back its Pink Promise M&Ms, one of the many products that appear this time of year in the national effort to promote breast cancer awareness and raise money for research funds.

Marketed as a special “Promise Blend” in the United States, the pink M&Ms feature the Susan B. Koman Foundation’s moving ribbon and the words “For the Cure.” The company has promised to donate at least $500,000, or ten percent of the profits from the Promise Blend M&Ms, to the Komen Foundation and its efforts. M&Ms is also temporarily painting its NASCAR vehicle pink to show support for the Komen Foundation and breast cancer awareness.

For each package of pink M&Ms purchased in Canada, fifty cents will be donated to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. The company has donated $300,000 towards the Foundation in the past few years, and says it hopes to match that amount in 2007.

M&Ms, chocolate, candy, breast cancer, research, pink, Canada, Breast Cancer Foundation