Peeps New Easter Treats - Yay!!!

In honor of the new Peeps store online (http://www.peepsandcompany.com/) - here's a preview of all the great goodies Just Born has for us this year!  Autopsy photos, closeups and reviews next!

Enjoy!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!  I'm still struggling with my life balance - dating a great guy, running my business, trying to keep working out AND writing the blog.  It's all obviously not going to happen.  So far, the blog has been taking a butt kicking.  Sorry gang!  The good news is I'm not buying my own Valentine's Day present this year, and I'm sooooo lucky to have love in my life.  But, I know what it's like to be solo, so I'm not going to turn into a sap.  For those of you who are single - hang in there - there's always chocolate and fun and loads of life to be lived.  For those of you who have love - hold it dear.  For those of you hanging on to someone who doesn't treat you right - get the hell out.  They are not going to change and you deserve better.  For all of you - this is my Valentine's Day gift to you!!!

Dove introduced these dark chocolate and cherry swirl heart promises:

I love the way they look:

I wish I liked the taste as much as their cool apprearance.  Too much cherry for me.  I still think the Hershey's Cherry Cordial Kisses do this combo best.

And while I think the messages in the wrappers could be better, at least Martha Stewart is out of the picture.  I just don't want that felon in my candy. 

Woohoo!  My freinds at Just Born haven't let us down!  Milk chocolate and dark chocolate covered Peeps!

You know how I like to compare.  Before now, my favorite chocolate covered marshmallow heart was from Hershey (hate the evil Russell Stover):

I don't know what happened to the Hershey heart, but it looks like it had a very bad night:

Look at what happened when I autopsied the Peep hearts!  Holy cow - this color has never before been seen without the help of a black light (those of you under the age of 35 probably don't even know what that is).  It's raspberry marshmallow - possibly from the planet Zenon.

And here's the autopsied Hershey Heart:

The verdict?  The marshmallow in the Peep Hearts is fluffier; it's more chewy in the Hershey Heart.  So marshmallow wise, I gotta go with the Peeps.  The Hershey milk chocolate is the best, but the combo of the super sweet raspberry marshmallow and the dark chocolate is a winner.  Overall - the best is the dark chocolate raspberry Peep Heart.  But if you don't like raspberry - hello Hershey!!  If you don't like marshmallow, well, keep reading.

I was amazed by these (I thought they would be horrible) - from Tootsie, maker of Junior Mints - raspberry cremes:

When I first saw them, I thought - what a great idea!  Why didn't they think of different flavors before?  And where the hell is peanut butter??? 

I popped the poor autopsy subject picture here into my mouth, honestly expecting them to suck.  I have to tell you, they are great!  A lot of it is that awesome size (totally poppable) and the chocolate shell/creamy filling combo that makes the Junior Mint so addictive.  I find these impossible to stop eating.  Go Tootsie Roll!

Thanks for reading!  I hope all of you have a fantastic Valentine's Day - regardless of the state of your love life.  I think it's a great day to celebrate our love affair with chocolate and with life - something that will never change!  Love to you all!!

Random Acts of Kindness and PEEPS!

I have not died!  The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy and blogging had to wait.  I had a speaking engagement in La Jolla - so cool - you will hear about that soon - I even visited a nut farm while I was there.  I know - who the hell goes to San Diego and visits a nut farm?  I say - who doesn't?

I also am trying to recover from my arch enemy, the Naked Cowboy, announcing that he plans to run for President.  First he sues Mars, now this?  What an idiot.  Call me crazy, but I want my President to wear pants.  (or a skirt - but clothing, dammit!)

Back to business.

Even though I'm a motivational speaker and typically happy person, I get the blues sometimes.  I don't trust people who say they never do.  Just like I don't trust people who don't like to eat.  Suspicious, very suspicious.

Anyway, fall is the time of year that I always think it would be so cool to have a sweetheart.  You know - someone to go to the fair with, someone to watch football with, someone to snuggle up with.  And don't even get me started on the holidays!  So this weekend, as the first crisp fall weather rolled in, I was feeling a little blue.

I stumbled downstairs to get the paper - and what did I see on my porch?  A box from Just Born!  How do my candy buddies know?  I was so excited!!  There was a sweet (no pun intended) note from Cindy Glick - my fabulous factory tour guide.  Look at the note card:

Bwah, ha, ha!!  In the note she said "You may remember the tour you took of the Just Born candy factory."  Remember?  That was one of the highlights of my life!  Yeah, I've seen the Great Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock, the Grand Canyon, a nut farm - whatever.  Seeing those Peeps made was the coolest - hands down.  And when Cindy let me have one hot off the line?  Woohoo!  Remember?  I'll never forget!

Anyway, she sent me some of their new and amazing chocolate Peeps!  Look what she sent me:

There are 24 Peeps in each of those boxes.  I'm not alone anymore!!!  Woohoo!!  I can't tell you how nice it was to know Cindy was thinking about me.

She sent a box of dark chocolate covered marshmallow pumpkins:

Okay, he looks a little like a pig, but he's still better than a blob!

The dark chocolate ones are my favs - the darker chocolate seems to offset the sweetness of the marshmallow better.  Even if you don't like Peeps, I think you should try these.  The chocolate takes it to a whole new level.  And if you like Peeps, you'll REALLY like these!

I picked up a couple of milk chocolate covered pumpkins to show you:

This one looks mysterious. 

Love the bright orange color - and look at all that marshmallow!  When it comes to marshmallow, Just Born doesn't mess around.  I've seen these at most drugstores and some convenience stores if you're trying to find them.  The Easter chocolate covered chicks sold out fast, so you might want to get one of these babies now!

And look at these - dark chocolate covered MINT flavored marshmallow Christmas trees:

And milk chocolate:

Here they are side by side - and they will stand up on their own.  In case you want to build a holiday forest to surround your holiday gingerbread houses. 

Dark chocolate autopsy (whoa - that is some serious green, right?):

Milk chocolate autopsy:

These are different in that they have a mint flavor.  I wasn't as crazy about the mint - I like the non-mint flavor better.  This tasted a little toothpasty to me.  But when these come out, I'd love to hear what you all think.  I'm not a huge mint lover, so I might be wrong here.  Let me know.

Simple things can make a big difference to other people.  After a REALLY bad date the other night, I went by Walmart to get chocolate for an upcoming seminar (and to feel better by looking at Halloween candy).  I was walking in and a young man passed me and said "Super fine" and he was talking to me!  He made my night.  (I also had a flashback to the 70's, but what the hell.)

Recently I had lunch with my good friend Don Johnson and he brought me a Time magazine printed right around my birthday (not to give away how old it is but the original price was 35 cents).  He didn't have to do that - but it was really sweet.  I forget that other people are thinking of me and that I'm not alone.

It's so easy to do something random and kind - here are some ideas I'm going to try over the next few months (chances are other people might be feeling kind of blue too this time of year):

Post something nice on someone's wall on Facebook.

Pay a stranger a sincere compliment.

Give someone an unexpected gift - it doesn't have to be expensive - it could a a wildflower you picked for them.

Leave a nice tip for a service person - better yet, tip someone who never expects it.

Be open - talk to a stranger rather than listening to your iPod or talking on your phone. 

Give someone candy!

You'd be surprised how much a simple act of kindness could mean to someone.

More Halloween to come!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sweets and Snack Expo 2010 Begins!

Hi Gang!  I'm back from the whole bus incident and ready to rumble!!!  Look at the load of candy I got today (this is my bed at the Hilton COVERED in candy!):

I took a bunch of pictures so you all could get a feel for what the Expo looks like:

It's so bright and vibrant and amazing - these really don't do it justice. 

There were some new products I got to try, but they didn't have takeaway samples. So no autopsy or other photos.  These are new - coming out in the fall:

Milk chocolate covered blueberries by the maker of those crazy Queen Anne Cherries.  These are pretty darn good - I really liked the tartness of the blueberries.  They are still pretty sweet, but well worth trying!

Ghirardelli didn't have anything new, but how cool is this display?  This would be a cool sculpture for my house!

Asher's debuted their new dark and milk sea salt caramels.  Very, very good.  Not too soft and not too chewy - perfect consistency:

Peeps is going full bore with the chocolate covered goodies:

There are going to be milk and dark chocolate covered pumpkins, chocolate covered mint flavored trees, and chocolate covered raspberry flavored hearts.  Mark Summers from the Food Network (he did a late session just for us media folks today) loves the dark chocolate Peeps just like I do!  Yay!!

I didn't get to sample any of these, so I can only refer you to my review of the chocolate covered Peeps for Easter.  (YUM!)

Okay - how damn amazing and cool is this???

The Mona Lisa out of Jelly Bellies.  I would like this to go with my Ghirardelli sculpture please.

The Hershey's booth is impressive:

But no samples of the new candies - Hershey's Drops and Reese's Minis.  I have to say, I thought Hershey could have done way more in the samples department.  No samples of the new dark Kit Kat either. Teases.

Good grief, does Ed Hardy have NO shame?

On more popcorn?  Puleeze!  I'd say he's gone from cool to tool.

These were an interesting idea - a marshmallow with some dark chocolate drizzle:

I wanted to like these - the guys in the booth were really nice.  But these just didn't work.  There wasn't enough chocolate to really taste.  Maybe if they were completely coated?

This is Bubble Chocolate (http://www.bubblechocolate.com/) it's aerated chocolate (basically chocolate with a bunch of bubbles in it):

It comes in dark and milk, and quite honestly, I didn't like it.  Maybe if the chocolate were better?  I dunno - it just didn't work for me.  The people in the booth said it's really popular in other countries.  Nevertheless, I didn't like it.

I got to see a great opening session this morning with Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi.  He showed some fantastic ads and his big message is stop planning, start acting.  The world today is all about speed.  Of course, if you're not careful, that kind of thinking can get you hit by a bus.