Our first stop was the Ritter Sport importer booth, as they can always be counted on for exciting new products. They’ve got a new Cocoa Mousse with 9 squares instead of 16 (GASP!), a coconut, and a limited edition raspberry-cranberry yogurt (not pictured here, though I have a sample. Jim reviewed on Chocolate Mission).

I love seeing all the different varieties of Ritter Sport in one place. I hate how it reminds me of what we don’t have access to here in the U.S.

Caffeinated chocolate was a trend at this year’s expo. The Energy version of Good Day chocolate above was one of several brands who told me that X of their candy equaled X cups of coffee or X ounces of Red Bull.

I’m going to be one jittery candy blogger once I get around to reviewing all those chocolates. The things I do for you, dear readers! Still, can’t be worse than that time I ate all that sugar free chocolate…

Promotional licensing was rampant as usual (I saw Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, and Star Wars gummies; Jelly Belly’s got a new deal with Disney). Wild Ophelia, Vosges‘s little sister brand, has a line of Hunger Games bars that go beyond just slapping a logo and some characters on the packaging.

Instead, the flavors of the bars are supposed to line up with the different districts. The lumber district is a smoked chipotle chili bar, mining has mined salt, and transportation has runner peanuts. As a Hunger Games fan, I loved that they brought thought and wit to the tie-in.

T&H Organic Hard Candy was a new company in Innovation Alley that’s already been racking up awards. This year, like last, buzzwords like organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, nut-free, etc. are popular on the show floor.

I tried a T&H blood orange hard candy, which was delicious. They have a grapefruit flavor that I can’t wait to try later. Hooray grapefruit candies!

Another trend this year is miniaturized versions of well-known treats. There were mini Starbursts, mini Snickers, mini Kit Kats, mini Turtles… The list goes on and on. I think it’s an easy way for brands to capitalize on name recognition when introducing a new-ish product.

This is not about candy, but I just have to share: Perky Jerky is definitely the most delicious jerky. Like last year, I’m so thankful for the salty snacks of the Expo to break up my palate fatigue and provide some protein to keep me going! I can’t imagine what it was like when it was just the All Candy Expo.

I also asked Nelly a question during the Mike & Ike press conference (alas, it was neither “wanna go a take a ride wit me?” nor “how hot is it in herre?”), held a gold medal and had a fun chat with the very friendly U.S. women’s water polo team at Bare Fruit, and won a Tide pen from Airheads. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

If you missed it, Emma’s been holding down the live updates on Twitter and Instagram. Check out her great camera work!

1. I will be live-tweeting all the deliciousness on Twitter @zomgcandy.
2. We’ve created an Instagram account @zomgcandy, too.
3. We think we can take real cameras into the exhibit hall, so hopefully we’ll be able to upload hi-res, wider-angle shots at the end of each day.
4. Let us know if you have any requests via Twitter, Instagram, comments on this blog, or e-mail!

Last year, I got a bazillion samples that provided much candy blogging fodder in the months following. Below is a video of what we got at Day 1 of the Expo last year:

No reviews this week. Instead, Emma will be live tweeting our conference experience @zomgcandy, and I will post short updates on the site whenever I get the chance.

If you’d like to get an idea of what’s in store, here’s my coverage from last year’s Expo: Media Preview (don’t think we’re getting one this year. Or I wasn’t invited…), Day 1, Days 2 and 3, House of Blues industry social, and my tips for bloggers (which I will be following!).

Get excited! So much sugar coma in my future!

Today, I’m writing up their Sea Salt & Nibs bar, which brags that it was Best in Show in the Paris Salon du Chocolat. As far as I’m concerned, it was a well-deserved award.

The Sea Salt & Nibs was “63% cocoa, crunchy, & a touch of salt”, with 2/4 dots on Madécasse Chocolate’s intensity scale. It was formed in the same mold as the Pink Pepper & Citrus bar, except its back was covered in tiny bits of cacao nib.

The chocolate had a softish bite with a light crunch from the nibs. They added a great cocoa depth without any of the bitter astringency that sometimes comes with cacao nibs.

The chocolate was intensely flavored. It started off mellow with a caramel cocoa depth, then took on powerfully bright citrus and cherry notes.

Every once in a while, I caught a crunchy crystal of sea salt. The salt brought a brief flash of saltiness while highlighting the fruity notes in the chocolate.

This was another tremendous bar from Madécasse. As corny as it sounds, every bite took me on a flavor adventure.

I am 100% sold on this brand and will be buying more bars the next time I’m at Whole Foods. A ZOMG!

If you’re curious how this works, the solution can be found here.

Pink Pepper & Citrus was 63% cocoa, pink pepper, & combava fruit. Combava fruit sounds super exotic, but I think it’s just another name for Kaffir Lime (still exotic, but slightly more familiar sounding).

The bar was prettily molded to highlight that it was made in Madagascar. It broke easily along its scores, but its texture was soft, with a matte mouthfeel.

This bar was astoundingly complex. I didn’t have to close my eyes or try too hard to really focus on the flavors; they came out swinging.

It started off with a deep earthiness, then yielded to a bright, citrusy fruitiness with an undertone of pepper’s just-shy-of-acrid essence (but not its heat). All this for only 2/4 dots of intensity on Madécasse Chocolate’s scale?

I’ve eaten a lot of chocolate in my day, and it’s rare to find bars that pack so much flavor complexity and just so much flavor, period. A ZOMG!

Stay tuned til Friday, when I cover Madécasse Chcoolate’s “Best in Show” winning Sea Sat & Nibs bar!

“Great food wants a great dessert, so I hied myself to the showroom of Mast Brothers Chocolate, a lodestar of the artisanal foods movement. This company makes it a point to wind-sail its cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic to Brooklyn, then to hand-sort these beans, then to let its chocolate ‘rest’ 30 days before sale. Only Leona Helmsley’s dogs have ever been so cosseted.

“The store smells like heaven; I would happily die there. For $10 you can buy a burlap sack used to haul the beans in, perhaps for use as a satchel. I told a freckled young employee in a peasant blouse: ‘I bet those sacks are very popular with single men. If all your stuff smelled like chocolate? Bingo.’ The girl nodded and enthused: ‘I got one for my birthday. Most of the people who work here have them.’ “

The lemon ginger yuzu pandas had a soft yet sproingy chew that was incredibly pleasant to chomp on. Just enough bounce to keep things interesting, but soft enough to be easy on the jaw.

The pandas smelled strongly of ginger with a lemony citrus undertone, and the flavor profile matched the scent. They started off sweet and gingery, then mellowed into a sweet lemon drop flavor with just a smidge of lemon zestiness.

The ginger flavor was strong and genuine, yet immensely palate pleasing. They captured all the wonderful essence of ginger flavor without its stinging bite, which was perfect for me.

These were unlike anything other gummi that I’ve bought (I know Haribo makes a lemon ginger gummi, but I’ve yet to see it in the wild), which is a shame because they were addictively delicious. For now, totally worth the premium and my new favorite gummi. ZOMG!

Indi Chocolate does bean to bar, but they also do bean to beauty product. I only review things that I can eat, so I picked up a couple of their prettily molded plain dark chocolate bars.

The ingredients couldn’t be simpler: Cocoa Beans, Cocoa Butter, Sugar. The chocolate snapped, but softly. It had no grit, but neither was it perfectly smooth – instead, it felt luxuriously velvety on my tongue.

The chocolate’s flavor was spectacular: lightly sweet with fruity berry notes and enough of an earthy, bittersweet undertone to keep things interesting. The finish was slightly astringent, but not overpoweringly so.

Indi Chocolate turned out to be a high quality treat with enough flavor complexity to keep me breaking off additional nibbles. An OMG.