Mike’s Candy Wrappers Blog

Congrats to the Hershey Company for winning the 2009 CPG Award for Innovation and Creativity by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), in conjunction with its Associate Member Council (AMC). They picked up this nifty award for their public relations campaign for the launch of their Hershey’s Bliss chocolate. This award goes to companies who have “demonstrated uncommon creativity, innovation and have made a significant contribution to the industry knowledge base”. (more…)

* First off…an apology. I’ve been neglecting my web site responsibilities. I haven’t updated the Candy Comments since the beginning of September. And I haven’t added any new wrappers to the wrapper page since early August. And I’m not blogging as much because I just don’t feel like writing. I’ll try to do better. (more…)

Recently, the Food Standards Agency in the UK urged chocolate bar makers to make their product 1/5 smaller. The idea being that while they don’t want to tell people what to eat, the smaller portions would help in the obesity fight. They’d like to see chocolate-based bars weigh 50g or less. That’s about 1.7 ounces, which is pretty much in line with the candy bars I see here in the US (most are between 1.5 and 2 ounces here). The Agency would also like to see solid chocolate bars weigh no more than 40g (about 1.4 ounces). (more…)

Another round of stuff I wanted to mention, but individually wouldn’t make a long enough post.

While looking for something else online, I came across an old article (2007) on telegraph.co.uk. It said that “Brain changes in chocoholics that occur when they see or eat chocolate are similar to those in addicts when they take drugs,” and “They also discovered the sight of chocolate contributed significantly to the activation of brain areas associated with reward.” I totally agree with this finding and they could have saved a lot of money just by asking me. All I have to do is see chocolate or a wrapper…even the sound of someone opening a wrapper makes me crave sweets to the point that I usually have to go eat something sweet. Perhaps running a website about candy wrappers was not the best choice for me. (more…)

OK, don’t think that I think I’m witty for the title to this post. I hate headlines like that and I’m being sarcastic and smarmy. And this being the Internet, sometimes you have to point out when you’re trying to be funny. That’s OK…I’m used to explaining my jokes. But the title is correct. You’ll soon see actor Seth Green in TV commercials for Butterfinger candy bars as he was named “Butterfinger Mouthpiece”. (more…)

OK, now I’m really worried about Dark Chocolate Reese’s. Since I can’t find them at my local Wal Mart anymore, I decided on my next trip to Sam’s Club that I would just buy a whole box (or two) and try not to eat the whole box in one or two sittings. Imagine my horror (horror!) when I walked down the candy aisle this week and they didn’t have ANY. OMG. Don’t even tell me Hershey’s is pulling them or something. I’m still seeing the commercials on TV, so what’s going on? (more…)

If you’re a middle school student in Berkeley, Ca, don’t bother looking for candy at the Friendly Market from 8 to 9 a.m.  The owner has agreed to not sell candy bars or soda to students of Longfellow Middle School during that time each school day.  The hope is that other stores follow as the school doesn’t like the amount of students that are coming to school eating candy and drinking soda.  (more…)

Someone at work knows of my love of chocolate and told me about Dark Chocolate Dreams, natural peanut butter blended with dark chocolate from Peanut Butter and Company. Oh my goodness, is this stuff great! The consistency reminds me of raw cake batter. Of course, it’s much firmer since it is peanut butter. But this stuff is awesome. This is supposed to be a candy blog, but I’m sharing this with you because it’s so yummy and close to candy. (more…)

A while back, I blogged about taxing candy. Illinois is now getting into the act. Recently, most candy went from being taxed 1 percent (or maybe 2.25 percent…the article I got this from is a little confusing) to being taxed 6.25 percent…a pretty hefty jump. This is because the Illinois Department of Revenue is now calling certain candy and soft drinks “general merchandise” instead of “qualifying food and drugs”. (more…)

I love Wal Mart and I hate Wal Mart.  I hate Wal Mart because I know they come into towns and wipe out the small business competition because who can compete with their prices?  I also hate the long lines at my local Wal Mart.  I think this is because they can’t keep enough cashiers hired so most check out lines remain closed.  I also hate the stupid people (I hate people in general) who wander around Wal Mart talking on their cell phones, leaving their carts in the middle of the aisle so I can’t get by.  Oh, and I also hate Wal Mart because as big as my local Wal Mart is (it’s a super Wal Mart with a grocery section), often they are out of what I need or they’re restocking and the restocking people seem like they don’t give two craps about you as there’s boxes everywhere and they’ll just about push you over so they can restock shelves. I hate my local Wal Mart because they had those self check out lines but apparently they couldn’t handle the shoplifting (according to someone I asked) because none of them are ever open anymore…they used to be the quickest way out of the place. (more…)