Hershey's brand new, limited edition Dark Chocolate Raspberry Kisses are clearly intended to be for Valentine's Day, as the little red hearts decorating their wrappers are a reliable indicator of the holiday that they are affiliated with, despite the fact that they aren't mentioned on the Hershey's Valentine site. When I first saw them, I expected these candies to be a dark chocolate shell with a raspberry filling of some kind, either a jam or a cream. The combination of raspberries and dark chocolate is right up there with strawberries and chocolates, so the prospect seemed promising and I hurriedly opened the bag when I got home.

Like Hershey's Kisses or know someone who does? Even though Hershey's is not at the very pinnacle of the chocolate heap, many chocolate lovers have a soft spot for Hershey's kisses. It could be the fact that they are bite-sized and individually wrapped or that everyone just likes their cute, signature shape, but whatever the reason, even a die-hard dark chocolate fan can find it hard to pass on a kiss from time to time.

To Hershey's recently introduced their Kiss of the Month Club in celebration of their 100th anniversary in 2007. The gift series - which comes in 3, 6 and 12-month packages - starts off with a 100th Anniversary Candy Dish that is shaped like a giant kiss and filled with chocolates. The rest of the gifts vary from month to month and the treat inside each two-box gift tower will be surrounded by kisses. Some of the things to look forward to include Vanilla Thumbprint Cookies topped with HERSHEY'S KISSES Chocolate Truffles (March), Three KISS-shaped Brownies topped with Mint Icing and YORK Bites (June) and Peanut Butter Fudge in KISS-shaped trays (August). The Kiss-shaped trays are made of silicone and can be reused to make more kiss-shaped treats. Prices start at $95 for the 3-month subscription.

It looks like Hershey's has just rolled out a new limited edition chocolate for the upcoming Christmas season. Before I took a good look at the package, I momentarily thought that the Candy Cane Mint Kisses might be tiny mints that were shaped like Kisses, but it turns out that they are a white chocolate-based treat. The white kisses are flavored with mint and have red stripes on the outside. Embedded in the chocolate are tiny red nonpareils, which add a tiny crunch to the candy and look vaguely like bits of candy cane, though they actually have no discernible flavor of their own. The chocolate is very smooth and the mint is not so overwhelming that it would stop you from reaching for a second, but the Kisses seem to be slightly richer than average. Overall, these seem like a good holiday candy option to put out in a candy dish for occasional treat, but they're not so good that I would want to have a bowl all to myself. If they ever decide to put bits of candy cane in them, however, I might have to reconsider.

The house that gave out Hershey's Kisses on Halloween was inevitably considered to be the "cheap" house, the one that wouldn't spend the extra dollar to upgrade from the tiny chocolates to miniature candy bars. As Hershey's developed lots of tasty new varieties, the prospect of getting Kisses began to seem a little more palatable to candy-hungry kids. Hershey's new Costume Kisses are something that just about any chocolate-lover (kid or not) would want to get for Halloween. Sold in sets of two, the chocolates are decorated by hand and packed up in an attractive gift box.

At the moment, they only appear to be available on the online Hershey's store and, because they are hand-crafted, they might not make it into retail stores. They're still plenty of time to order them and, though you might want to keep them for yourself, think how popular you'll be with the neighborhood kids if you gave these away to trick-or-treaters!

[via Candy Addict]

The band KISS recently announced that they are opening a coffeehouse in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The shop, described by the band as "the most outrageous coffee and dessert shop ever constructed" will open its doors to KISS fans and the curious on Tuesday, June 27th - though those going just to take a look might want to be careful, since the shop is said to be "an official KISS Army recruiting office," though Gene Simmons said that "even the non-enlisted will find our treats and java rockin' good!" 

There will be KISS memorabilia, costumes and 20-foot tall smoking KISS boots (outside, not in the eating area). On the menu will be the KISS Cocoa, a variety of branded coffee blends and KISS Frozen Rockuccinos, icy blended beverages that are probably the signature drink of the shop and come in flavors like French Kiss Vanilla, British Toffee Invasion, Moka and Firehouse S'mores. There will also be a variety of cookies, brownies, cupcakes and other pastries and desserts.

From the look of their website, it seems as though they are already looking for ways to expand and possibly even for franchisees.

 

 

I've always been told that the flashier a wine bottle's label is, the worse the wine is. With that, here's a bottle with the image from Kiss's 1976 album Destroyer. Inside is a 2004 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. There are only 1000 bottles and each retails for $100 via Celebrity Cellars (Sarah Gilbert posted about their Madonna wine a few months back). When was the last time you saw the words "loud, brash," and "unapologetic"  alongside "firm tannins," "notes of cassis," and "a subtle framework of oak" in a wine ad?