ZOMG, Candy!

Twix Coconut is the newest limited edition offering from the folks at Mars. It’s comprised of “creamy milk chocolate, crunchy cookie, [and] coconut flavored caramel.”

Mine came as a free sample in a press pack inside a plastic coconut and with a tiny USB that I first thought was a fun-sized regular Twix bar. Hooray for fun candy swag!

The Twix Coconut didn’t look or smell any different from a regular Twix bar. The chocolate and cookie were the usual Twix fare, mildly sweet for the former and pleasantly dry, crunchy, and buttery for the latter.

The caramel was where the difference lay. It had overtones of artificial coconuttiness. The flavor was nicely floral and nutty, but it tasted rather fake – more sunscreen than actual coconut.

I enjoyed the combination of the biscuit and the chewy, sweet, nutty caramel, but it wasn’t quite genuinely nutty enough to push it to the next level. I’m glad that I got to try this, but Twix Java is still my favorite twist on Twix. An O.

Update: Twix has offered to give one lucky reader a Twix Coconut to try for him or herself. Leave a comment about which Limited Edition Twix is your favorite or about what flavor of Twix you’d like to see by 11:59 PM EST, Sunday, April 24th. U.S. readers only please. One commenter will be randomly selected to win.

Please leave a valid email address in the Mail field, NOT in the body of your comment (unless you’re not afraid of spammers) so that I can contact you if you win.

Edit: This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Barbara!

Did you know that this week (March 20-26) is American Chocolate Week? To help us celebrate, the National Confectioners Association (NCA) is sponsoring a giveaway on ZOMG, Candy!*

They’ve just launched a new website, which looks like a good resource to learn more about how chocolate is made, where it comes from, and how to savor it. The website is called The Story of Chocolate, so this giveaway is all about your chocolate story.

To enter, leave a comment about your personal chocolate story, whether it be a chocolate memory, a family recipe that uses chocolate, or just an ode to your favorite chocolate. One commenter will be randomly selected to win a Chocolate Gift Pack from the NCA’s Chocolate Council (example above; actual assortment may vary slightly).

Only US readers are eligible to win. Make sure you leave a valid email address in the form, where only I can see it, NOT in the content of the comment, where anyone, including spammers, can see it. Entries close at 11:59 PM EST on Friday, April 1. Good luck!

*Note: I have received no monetary compensation for this post. The NCA has supplied me with my own Chocolate Gift Pack for future review.

Edit: This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Jen!

As promised, here’s my review of the Wasabi flavored Japanese Kit Kat from my globetrotting friends Nana and Justin. My review of the Sweet Potato version that they also sent along posted on Wednesday.

These also came individually wrapped, two to a package, and were a pale green. The famous Kit Kat wafers were dry and crispy and covered in wasabi tinted white chocolate. They smelled neutrally sweet.

The chocolate tasted first of sweet, milky cream. Then a light horseradish kick came through. All of that kick was totally through the olfactory system – when I pinched my nose, it wasn’t noticeable.

There wasn’t any noticeable chocolate flavor, just creaminess with a slight spiciness. It had just the right amount of kick to make it weirdly addictive and intriguing. Any more would have been overwhelming, while any less couldn’t have been noticed.

I give this an OM. It earned the extra M through sheer novelty, but I truly enjoyed the confection. Nana was less of a fan.

I have about a half dozen of each weird flavor to give away. My way of passing on Nana and Justin’s generosity! For a chance to win some Wasabi and Sweet Potato Kit Kats of your own, leave a comment on the ZOMG, Candy!’s Facebook discussion page for a chance to win at least one of each. I’ll randomly select three winners on February 11th, midnight EST, so get your comments in before then!

H&S Candies is helping me run a mini-giveaway – one lucky reader can win a box of their chocolates.

There are some cute Valentine’s Day recipes in the above widget. Leave a comment about your favorite Valentine’s Day-related treat by February 8th 11:59 PM EST. I’ll randomly select one winner from the comments and hope that H&S can get you your prize by Valentine’s Day.

Not so fine print: U.S. readers only due to shipping costs. Please leave a valid email address in the designated line on the comment form, NOT in the comment itself. That way only I can see it. Email addresses will only be used to contact the winner; they will not be kept or sold for any purpose, and I will not give your email addresses to H&S candies.

Good luck!

Thanks to everyone who entered my Milky Way Simply Caramel giveaway! The random number generator has selected commenters 1 and 22 to win a $75 gift certificate to SpaFinder.com and five Milky Way Simply Caramel bars to enjoy. Congratulations to Katie and Aaron!

Yesterday, I reviewed Mars’s new Milky Way Simply Caramel bar. Today, I’ll give 2 readers a chance to try it out for themselves!

Mars/Milky Way has given me 2 “Simply Caramel Relax and Enjoy” prize packs to give away to ZOMG, Candy! readers. Each prize pack will include a $75 gift certificate to SpaFinder.com for a yoga class or massage and “Enough Simply Caramel Bars to indulge in for a month (5).”

I thought it was amusing that Milky Way considered 5 candy bars to be a month’s supply. On the one hand, 1 bar a week is a healthy, reasonable indulgence, and 5 chocolate bars/person is a generous gift. On the other hand, don’t they want people buying and eating more than that?

So, to enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment about how many full-sized candy bars you would consider to be a month’s supply. Be sure to leave a real email address (seen and used only by me to contact the winners). Deadline for entry is Sunday, August 15 at 9pm EST. I’ll randomly select 2 commenters to win. Good luck!

I hope you’re having a safe and happy Fourth of July holiday! I’m spending the long weekend on a mini-vacation with my family, so there won’t be a review come Monday.

In the meantime, check out my ZOMG, Candy! Facebook page! I’m running a candy giveaway through the discussion tab. I’d love to hear what you have to say, and I’ll bet you’d love to win some free candy!

Back on Tuesday, July 6th. Be safe, and have a great weekend!

Pretzel M&M’s are the newest addition to the M&M’s lineup. Unlike many of the other M&M’s varieties that I’ve reviewed in the past, these look to be a semi-permanent, non-limited edition addition. I got to try them out for free via the NCA and also via some M&M’s PR people.

Please note the cute and clever pretzel X-ray. There are only 150 calories per bag, but my bag only had 16 M&M’s. They are, however, significantly larger than regular M&M’s.

These guys are irregularly sized spheres, each with a little pretzel nugget in the center, which is then surrounded by a thin layer of M&Ms milk chocolate and coated with the M&M’s candy shell.

The bag called them “crunchy, salty, sweet”, and that’s just what they were. Each one packed a substantial crunch, partly from the candy shell but mostly from the pretzel nugget inside.

The pretzel brings a salty hit to the treat which lingers after the M&M is gone. The chocolate is mostly just sweet in the back of the throat. It contrasts well with the starchy saltiness of the pretzel.

At first, I found them a bit too dry, and they made me miss the airiness of the now-defunct crispy M&M’s. But that dryness made me want to pop a second as a chaser, and then a third, and before I knew it, the whole bag was gone.

Pretzel M&M’s are sneakily poppable, thanks to a winning combination of sweet and salty. An OM!

If you’d like to try them for yourself, they’re slowly being released around the country. M&M’s has a Facebook app to help you track where they’ve been spotted (if you’re not scared by all of Facebook’s privacy craziness).

OR you can try to win some free bags via me, via the M&M’s PR people. Just leave a comment here telling me which is your favorite variety of M&M’s by midnight on Friday, May 28th, EST. I’ll randomly select 2 commenters to win 2 free bags each! Good luck!

Edit 05/30: This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Maureen and Stephen, who were randomly selected as the winners!

The folks at Mobile Fun sell a neat array of iPhone covers, including the below cover that looks like a bar of chocolate.

They’ve generous offered to give one away to a ZOMG, Candy! reader. To enter the chocolate iPhone cover giveaway, leave a comment telling me your favorite thing to cover in chocolate (keep it PG please!) by midnight EST on Friday, May 7th. I’ll randomly select a commenter to receive the free iPhone cover.

Good luck!

Edit: This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Annalene, the randomly selected winner, who loves chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. Thanks to everyone who entered!

As best as I can tell, Fannie May is a Chicago candy institution, and I made sure to try them out when I visited Chicago a couple of years ago (reviews here and here). They’ve been around since 1920, and while most 90 year-olds aren’t terribly tech savvy, Fannie May’s entering their 9th decade with an online marketing/social media campaign. They’ve created a website that lets you choreograph dancing Fannie May chocolates and share the results with your friends.

As Fannie May puts it: “Think ‘Elf Yourself ‘ meets the ‘California Raisins’”.

I don’t think it will manage to go viral, but it’s fun and cute, and my Chicago-an friends are totally getting goofy dancing chocolate holiday cards. Like this one that I made.

If you’ve got a few minutes of internet time-wasting to spare, go check out the site! Each of the four chocolates have their own set of moves, some better than others. Then, come back here and leave a comment. Tell me which dance move is your favorite (either for the chocolates or in real life) or leave a link to your own Fannie May dance creation.

Leave that comment by 11:59 pm on December 27th. On December 28th, I’ll randomly choose 2 comments, and each will receive a $25 gift certificate to Fannie May, courtesy of Fannie May, which can be used in stores or online. One entry per person, please. Good luck!