More on Valentine's Day

Ah - after my rant on excellence, I feel compelled to share a little Valentine's Day love. The candy is FINALLY out in full force - yahoo!! Just a quick post tonight to share a few of the love offerings from our favorite mass producers of chocolate.

As to the excellence of these products, most food critics would not say they are excellent - they do not challenge the palate, etc. etc. BUT I think we have to use a different measure for them. These are produced in mass quantities - they are inexpensive, easy for most people to get their hands on, and consistent. They are the fast food of chocolate. And, hey, I like them just fine. Let's see what they are doing for the holiday:

These are cute - Kissables in Valentine's Day colors. And they taste pretty good. I think they would be perfect for trail mix, on ice cream, in cookies - maybe even tossed in the kids' oatmeal - wheee!

I actually like Hershey's Miniatures, especially Mr. Goodbar - it really is packed with peanuts. And sometimes this is all the chocolate I want. (Now I know this can't even come close to competing with fine Swiss chocolate, remember - fast food.) What I really like about these are the VERY cute Valentine's Day wrappers - adorable!

Tootsie Pops has a Valetine's Day entry - all cherry pops...

with cute Valentine's Day wrappers - this one says "Sweetie Pie!" "Love Me!" and "You're Mine!" Exclamation points by Tootsie.

Now I haven't looked very closely at a Tootsie Pop wrapper in a VERY long time, so I don't know when they changed the artwork. It still has the Indian, the football player, and kids engaged in various other activities, but they are more stylized than they used to be. And some have giant heads, out of scale with their bodies. I don't know what it all means.

But they are good, although it seems there is less Tootsie Roll and more Pop than there used to be. But sometimes I think my childhood candy memories are distorted, so I cannot be sure.

This is a great Valetine's Day assortment - what could be better than Snickers, M & M's and Twix?

These are some pretty small Snickers, but they are good. The Twix bars have some sayings on them - pretty lame ones I might add - "It's not a mix up... You're my Valentine!" and "Let's mix it up!!" Apparently the writers felt it was important to use the word mix in all of them. I have no idea why.

Overall, I say this is a good batch of Valentine's Day candies. All that is really happening here is new packaging, but I like it! Mars, Hershey, and Cupid - what a trio!!!