Hershey's Mint Miniatures

The Mint Miniatures are milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, and white confection infused with peppermint flavor. They smelled strongly of mint, even when they were still sealed inside the bag. I stored them separate from my other candy because I was afraid the mint would infect the other goods.

Mint Milk Chocolate: These are very strongly minted. Seriously. The blast of cool peppermint is really too much for me. I didn’t enjoy the intense mint mixed with so much sweet chocolate. Rating: 4/10

Mint Sweet Chocolate: The mint flavor is more subtle here. Mint seems to compliment darker chocolate better, and this is much more pleasant that the milk variety. Rating: 5/10

Mint White Crème with Candy Bits: These are basically flat Candy Cane Kisses studded with red and green nonpareils, so I’ll just refer you back to that review. I know I gave those a better rating, but I'm sick of white confection.. I want some white chocolate! Rating: 6/10

Overall, I wasn’t too crazy about these, which I think is reflected in the quick review. The best tasting were the white, but I only had a couple because, like the Candy Cane Kisses, they are made with inferior ingredients.

Nutrition Breakdown: Servings size is 4 pieces. Each serving contains 170 calories, 10g of fat, 20g of sugar, and 3g of protein.

Name: Hershey’s Miniature Mint Collection
Brand: Hershey’s
Store: Walgreens
Price: $1.00 (8.5oz)

KitKat Holiday Assorment

I’ve always underappreciated the KitKat. It’s never been a go-to candy for me, but every time I have one I remember how good they are. After eating my way through this assortment I’m a bit more interested in the KitKat and the wacky flavors you can find across the world. This assortment is pretty classic though: milk, dark, and white KitKats.


Milk Chocolate (red): This is your classic KitKat, but the smaller size throws off the proportions a little. There is more chocolate to wafer here, but that’s certainly not a bad thing. It’s sweet and perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. Scrumptious! Rating: 9/10

Mildly Sweet Dark Chocolate (dark brown): I’ve never had a Dark KitKat, but I’ve heard people rave about it. I have to admit that I was a little under-whelmed by this. It was good, but I wasn’t blown away. The initial flavor reminded me strongly of coffee, but that morphed into a semi-sweet chocolate chip flavor, which overtook the wafer. I think this would be very nice in a regular size, with more wafer to chocolate. Rating: 7/10

White Candy (white): Note that this is white confection, not white chocolate. That’s because it’s made with various vegetable oils, not pure cocoa butter. I’ve come to expect that with most mass-produced white products. Still, I did enjoy these. It has a strong vanilla flavor that works well with the wafers. Rating: 7/10

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 5 pieces. Each serving contains 210 calories, 12g of fat, 20g of sugar, and 3g of protein.

Name: KitKat Assorted Minis
Brand: Hershey’s
Store: Target
Price: $1.66 (11oz)

Candy Cane Kisses

I heard a lot of good things about the Candy Cane Kisses last year, but I never got around to buying them. This year I made sure to pick up a bag. They really are quite cute. Red stripes stand out against white confection, which is dotted with red nonpareils. They are dressed in silver foil wrappers adorned with red canes.

The white confection is sweet and tastes strongly of vanilla. The infused peppermint flavor is refreshing and festive, but not overwhelming. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed, because I expected candy cane bits, not nonpareils. But the nonpareils add a nice crunch, and don’t stick in your teeth like candy cane bits probably would.

Ingredient Watch: These aren't white chocolate, as they aren't made with pure cocoa butter. There's a good amount of palm, shea, sunflower, and safflower oil here. These also contain PGPR.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 9 pieces. There are 220 calories, 12g of fat, 25g of sugar, and 4g of protein per serving.


Bottom Line: Tasty and fairly addicting. Too bad these aren't pure cocoa butter; a good melt would blow me away.

Rating: 7/10

Name: Candy Cane Kisses
Brand: Hershey's
Store: Target
Price: $2.00 (11oz)

Hot Cocoa Creme Kisses

I've been curious about these. How can hot cocoa work as a flavor? What sets hot cocoa apart is the fact that it is hot; aside from that you just have chocolate milk. Still, I think they probably captured the flavor as best as they could. I suppose they could have thrown in some marshmallow flavor. After all, who doesn't have marshmallows with their hot cocoa? But no, no marshmallow here (and it may be better that way).

These are reminiscent of a regular Hershey's Kiss, but a bit milkier. It's smooth, milky chocolate creme surrounded by classic Hershey's milk chocolate. They're sweet, but not throat burningly so. I find them rather comforting, actually. I think that fits in with the hot cocoa theme. They really remind me of homemade chocolate buttercream icing.

Ingredient Watch: These contain PGPR.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 9 pieces. There are 210 calories, 13g of fat, 23g of sugar, and 3g of protein per serving.

Bottom Line: This remind me of comforting, homemade chocolate icing. That can't be bad.

Rating: 7/10

Name: Hot Cocoa Creme Kisses
Brand: Hershey's
Store: Walgreens
Price: $1.00 (8.5oz)

Mint Truffle Kisses

The Mint Truffle Kisses are a new addition to the Kisses lineup. I think they're either limited edition or seasonal... I guess it depends on how well they sell this year! They are wrapped in either silver or green foil; each bag has a mix of both. They are dark chocolate filled with a creamy mint center. To my surprise, the center is bright green. I guess I should have looked at the picture on the wrapper.


These are very strongly minted, more so than either a York Pattie or Andes Mint, which I find myself comparing these to. The center is dense and creamy, not fluffy and sweet like a York Pattie. The dark chocolate is a nice addition, but it's really overtaken by the mint. I think the chocolate comes through more in an Andes Mint.

Nutrition Breakdown: Serving size is 9 pieces. There are 210 calories, 14g of fat, 22g of sugar, and 2g of protein per serving.

Bottom Line: These are good, but I'd rather have an Andes Mint or York Pattie.

Rating: 6/10

Name: Mint Truffle Kisses
Brand: Hershey's
Store: Target
Price: $2.00 (11oz)

Cadbury Sugar Shell Chocolates

These Cadbury chocolates are the Christmas version of Easter's Cadbury Mini Eggs. I'm already a big fan of the Mini Eggs, and these aren't much different. They are little spheres of Cadbury milk chocolate – sweet, dairy, and smooth. They're quite yummy... and addicting!

The shells are crispier than an M&M. They don't have much flavor, but I don't expect them to. The colors are green, red, and white, and I can't help but notice that my bag is overwhelmingly green.

The name of these bugs me. Or rather, the lack of name bugs me. I'm not sure what to call them. The bag just says Cadbury Solid Milk Chocolates with a Crisp Sugar Shell. Okay. I don't see why these can't be Mini Ornaments. After all, Cadbury now has an Ornament Creme Egg. You can read my post over at Sugar Savvy about that.

These contain PGPR. That makes me sad. I really love these but bad ingredients knocks it down a couple points.

Bottom line: I adore these far more than I should. But PGPR is a real turnoff. Still..

Rating: 8/10

Name: Solid Milk Chocolates (with a Crisp Sugar Shell)
Brand: Cadbury (under Hershey's)
Store: Walgreens
Price: $1.00 (8.5oz)

Hershey's Whole Bean Chocolate

I picked this up without knowing what it was. It was on sale for $1, so I thought, “Why not?”

I did a little research and found that this is part of Hershey's "Goodness" product line. Here's the deal: It's healthy chocolate! Healthy milk chocolate! The wrapper boasts 40% less sugar than the leading milk chocolate bar (which I assume is the Hershey bar). It also has 7g of fiber, 4g of protein, and 25% of the DRV of calcium per serving. Those stats aren't bad. Each serving still has 215 calories however, so it's not exactly diet food. The extra fiber comes from added inulin fiber, and the extra calcium comes from calcium carbonate.

Don't get too excited just yet though. I, at least, have a big problem with this bar. It contains sucralose, an artificial sweetener, aka Splenda. I do NOT like artificial sweeteners in my food, especially in my candy. I want sugar in my candy! Natural sugar! Artificial sweeteners have a terrible aftertaste. But more importantly, they irritate my stomach. I can't even have sugar-gum anymore.

This bar also contains PGPR, which, according to Wikipedia, is an emulsifier made from the castor oil plant. Ew. It's a cheap substitute for the cocoa butter in chocolate. A lot of mainstream bars contain this now, but this bar retails for $2 and is supposed to be “Whole Bean!” It shouldn't contain PGPR.

So I almost chucked this out, but I was curious and decided to have a piece.

Well, it smells like a Hershey bar. It even tastes a bit like a Hershey bar, just milder. It starts with that classic Hershey's tang, then morphs into something that reminds me of chocolate milk mix. It's not bad. It's smooth and melts well. I didn't notice any aftertaste, but I only had 2-3 bites. It's what the wrapper claims: "sweet, smooth milk chocolate.”

So I'm not going to rate this. I can't rate it fairly. The ingredients totally turn me off. The taste is fine, and it could be nice for people trying to decrease their sugar intake.

But if I want less sugar and more fiber/protein, I'm not going to look for a candy bar. I'll go with a nice granola bar like Kashi, which doesn't contain unnatural sweeteners!

Name: Whole Bean Chocolate
Brand: Hershey's
Price: $1.00
Store: Big Lots