Well it looks like sales are down at Hershey's for their famous kiss. The chocolate giant has seen sales drop by four percent just this year, despite the huge chocolate holiday that just passed. Of course this cannot be tolerated.

The company plans on revamping one of it's oldest products. They're going to look into new packaging and new marketing strategies. Apparently celebrating the Kisses' 100th birthday with postage stamps and "other festivities" wasn't enough. (By the way, either it wasn't effective or I was buried under a rock. I had no idea this happened).

I know how Hershey's can improve sales on their Kisses. They can improve the quality of the product. I can name five chocolates off the top of my head that I'd rather put into my mouth. Work on the quality and then we'll talk about sales.

[Via topixfood]

Way back in 2005, Cybele reviewed Orange Creme Hershey's Kisses at Candyblog. The orange-flavored white chocolate kisses didn't last too long at the time, but Hershey's has just re-released them, labeled as a "limited edition" offering for their year-long 100th anniversary celebration.

The original review noted - and I completely agree - that these chocolates taste a lot like orange creamsicles in the way that they blend orange and vanilla. The chocolate has a tempting orange scent and melts into your mouth smoothly and easily when you bite into one. Unfortunately, these kisses also have an almost overpowering sweetness to them that makes it difficult to eat any more than one at a time without having something to wash them down with.

The concept for these kisses is a good one. I'd try mixing these up with dark chocolate kisses (or other dark chocolates) for some variety and to subdue the sugar.

The bag makes no mention of how long the release will last, but I wouldn't be surprised if they stick around at least until Easter at the beginning of April.

Still looking for some chocolaty Valentine's Day gift ideas? Why not try some kisses? We're not talking about Hershey's Kisses, although they are offering plenty of Valentine's themed candies, including Chocolate Truffle-filled kisses and Cherry Cordial Creme kisses. We're talking about upmarket kisses from Jacques Torres.

This Valentine's Day, Jacques Torres is offering a lot of sweet treats for lovers. In his stores, the offerings will include Jolie Kiss Chocolate Boxes (pictured) which are hollow kisses in dark, milk and white chocolate filled with chocolate X's, O's, hearts and mini kisses. He will also have Champagne Kiss Truffles, which are made with Taittinger Rosé champagne and chocolate ganache, then topped with a pink lip graphic. For those doing their shopping online, the Champagne Kiss truffles can also be purchased here.

Other, non-kiss treats include heart-shaped boxes filled with romance bonbons and other lovely truffles, three types of body butters - Love Tonic, Caramel Body Butter, and Raspberry Body Paint - to share with your significant other, and a huge basket called the Sweetheart collection for those who can't narrow down their options.

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.

Meringue kisses are very easy cookies to make but can be tricky to get right. Helene, from Tartelette, made these Holiday Meringue Kisses to give away as part of some holiday gift baskets and provided a great tip to anyone who wants to try making them at home. The secret to achieving crisp meringue cookies that won't turn to grainy mush from moisture accumulation is to let them cool overnight in the oven by simply turning the oven off once they have baked. The residual heat continues to very gently cook the meringues, drying them to a lovely, light crispness. I have tried this technique myself a few times with good results, although I would warn everyone to put a note on the oven as a reminder that something is in there. I have had other people turn on the oven without checking it (and have foolishly done it myself, as well), only to smell burning meringues a few minutes later.

Helene tinted hers red and green for a Christmas-y look, but you can also try other small additions, such as adding peppermint extract to the cookies before baking or drizzling them with a bit of melted chocolate when they are done.

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.

Hershey's Kisses 100th Anniversary is SWAK (Stamped with a Kiss). To commemorate Kisses' 100th B'day, the US Postal Service and Hershey's have teamed up to print a new stamp in the USPS "Love" series called "With Love and Kisses" that will be released mid-January 2007. The UPS started printing their "Love" series of stamps in 1973 and this is the first year with chocolate. I think it's a really great stamp and one that I predict will be a big seller, both in general, to use on letters to those in the military, and most especially for Valentines Day. Did you know that Hershey's Kisses have been produced year round since 1907, except during the WWII war years of 1942-1949 when silver foil was rationed.

Do you have someone special that you want to send love and kisses to?

I have only heard the term "mollete," which is Spanish for "muffin", used to refer to a type of bread or a sort of sandwich (often featuring cheese and beans) made with that bread. Apparently, it is also a type of cookie that is rolled in pinenuts. This batch of Kissed Molletes was baked by Joe, at Culinary in the Desert Country. He substituted pecans for the pinenuts and the cookies use both whole wheat flour and whole grain yellow cornmeal, so they are quite hearty, but the crunchy exterior gives way to a moist, tender interior once you bit into it. The cookies are topped with the seasonal candy cane kisses from Hershey's, which gives them a very festive look and makes them a perfect addition to a Christmas cookie plate. If you want to try the recipe for yourself, you can either pick up a copy of the cookbook that it was derived from or simply try making Joe's recipe.

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]

Hershey's has been doing well with their filled Hershey's Kisses. Both the limited edition and non-limited edition candies have been well received and have their loyal fans. To the list that includes peanut butter kisses, dulce de leche kisses, cherry kisses and (my personal favorite) caramel kisses, we can now add another flavor: coconut creme.

The new Kisses are limited edition and feature a classic milk chocolate kiss with a coconut filling. They were released for the summer, so it is likely that they'll only be around for another month or two. The filling tastes much like a coconut macaroon: moist, very strongly flavored, sweet and slightly grainy from what appears to be real coconut bits. To put it bluntly, they are delicious, especially if you are a coconut fan. The combination of chocolate and coconut is great and the flavors and textures play off one another beautifully. I don't know that I could eat a lot of them at one time, but the chocolate to coconut ratio seems much more balanced - and more appealing - than a larger bar, such as Mounds.

I would like to thank Hershey's for finally deciding that filled Kisses were a good idea. Over the past year or so, they have released many varieties of the tiny treats, including Caramel and Dulce de Leche, in addition to special edition Kisses, which have included Cherry Cordial and the excellent Toffee and Almond. But I must say that the new Peanut Butter filled Kisses might just be the best of the bunch, particularly for peanut butter fans. The peanut butter is incredibly creamy, without being gooey or granular and overly sweet, as it is in Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. The ratio of chocolate to filling is just right and the size of the Kiss makes it perfect for grabbing by the handful for an afternoon treat. Overall, these are an exceptional variation of the original Kiss and I, for one, hope that Hershey’s keeps them around for a while.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]