Summer Time Candy and Sweets

While candy consumption is typically associated with the fall and winter holidays, Americans love to eat candy all year long. In fact, 71% of Americans say that their summer holiday celebrations will involve candy according to the National Confectioners Association’s?2022 State of Treating report . Among road trippers, 93% of Americans plan to take candy on the trip while 63% of beachgoers in the U.S. will bring candy to the beach. Here’s my take on some fun and unique sweets that I saw at the 25th anniversary of the NCA’s Sweets & Snacks Expo that is open to the trade only.

Gummies offer a taste of summer

HARIBO of America, Inc.’s HARIBO Watermelon Gummi Candy features the iconic summertime fruit – watermelon – with three layers of color and flavor. Gummi bear pioneer HARIBO is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its Goldbears with limited-edition mix of Goldbears with Blue-raspberry flavored party hats and limited-edition single-flavor varieties in Watermelon, Pineapple and Blue-Raspberry. Happy Cherries, Peaches, and Berries varieties are also offered.

Vidal Candies USA introduced Vidal Wild Raspberries Filled Sour Gummies and Sour Kiwi Slices Sour Gummies at the show. These new varieties are an addition to the company’s other fruity gummies including Spicy Mangos Gummies, Sour Kiwi Slices Gummies, Pineapple Rings Gummies, and Watermelon Slices Gummies.

Newly launched STARBURST Airs Gummies from Mars Wrigley reflect a cross between gummies and marshmallows to produce soft and squishy gummy. The Original Gummies variety pack features the same flavors found in STARBURST Original Fruit Chew Candy: strawberry, cherry, orange, and lemon while the Sour Tropical Gummies pack features kiwi strawberry, pineapple, passion fruit and mango flavors.

Ferrara’s SweeTARTS Gummies Fruity Splitz is the latest addition to the Sweet ARTS franchise that began with SweeTARTS Original bite-size candies. The soft & tangy gummies offer two flavored sides - “one side sweet & one side tart” - with flavors including Blue Punch, cherry, grape, orange, lemon, and green apple.

Fruity, chewy and hard candies

Cute is the best way to describe Jelly Belly’s new Jelly Buttons – button-shaped, chewy candies from the jelly beans maker. The Jelly Buttons come in a five-flavor assortment bag with Very Cherry, Grape, Green Apple, Peach, and Blueberry flavors.

With a mission to “Kick Sugar, Keep Candy”, SmartSweets Inc. added SmartSweets Jolly Gems hard candies to its line of gummies and chewy candies. Jolly Gems contain 89% less sugar than other hard candies, with 1 gram of sugar per 3 pieces. The Jolly Gems are sweetened with stevia and contain no artificial sweeteners, added sugar, or sugar alcohols, and come in a variety bag of individually wrapped pink lemonade, green apple, and peach flavors.

Morinaga America Inc. introduced HI-CHEW Infrusions Orchard Mix with Juicy Blood Orange, Juicy Peach, and Juicy Strawberry flavors offers more juiciness through infused concentrated apple puree and pieces of pectin jelly. Older fans of HI-CHEW may remember that it was difficult to find the fruity, chewy candy outside of Asian food stores prior to Morinaga opening its first candy making facility in the U.S.?in 2015. Now, HI-CHEW is widely available at 7-Eleven, CVS, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart stores.

Snack bars

It’s not a road trip without snack bars. Granola bar leader Nature Valley (General Mills) introduced the latest extension to its granola bar line - Nature Valley Crunchy Dipped bars in salted caramel, chocolate, and peanut butter chocolate varieties.

For those looking for poppable snack bar bites, Galil Foods sampled its RiiCE The Bites that combine light, crispy puffed rice and dark chocolate coating in Choco Orange, Dark Chocolate, and Choco Berry varieties. The same flavors are available in a bar format - RiiCE The Bar.

Campers looking for a no-cook breakfast can look to Lenny & Larry’s new The Complete KickStart Breakfast Bars with 8 grams of plant-based protein, probiotics (BC30), and 14 grams of whole grains. The bars contain 4 grams of fiber and come in Apple Cinnamon and Blueberry Lemon varieties.

Nutella fans looking for a ready-to-eat option can now enjoy Nutella B-ready that combines creamy hazelnut Nutella inside a crunchy wafer shell along with a sprinkling of puffed wheat crisps. Ferrero North America (related to Ferrara) aims to capture on-the-go consumption occasions by positioning Nutella B-ready?for "in-between meal moments”. Nutella B-ready won the 2022 Sweets & Snacks Expo’s Most Innovative New Product Award in the Gourmet and Premium Snacks category.

Chocolate

Consumers are increasingly looking for multi-textural experiences in chocolates – crunchy, creamy, chewy, crispy – by loading up chocolates with all manner of fillings and inclusions.

“Exploding with indulgence” is how Australian licorice maker Darrell Lea describes its line of Australian-made chocolate blocks that are new to the U.S. Darrell Lea Rocklea Road Block Milk Chocolate is filled with marshmallows, coconut and crunchy peanuts while the Caramel Craving Milk Chocolate block contains chewy caramel fudge and crunchy caramel chips. The massive sharing-sized (ranging from 5.6 to 6.4 oz, or 150 – 180g) chocolate blocks are Non-GMO Project Verified, use 100% sustainably sourced cocoa, and are Proudly Palm Oil Free.

The Hershey Company included America’s favorite salty snack – potato chips – in its new Reese’s Big Cup with Potato Chips as a sweet, salty and crunchy afternoon pick-me-up. Its Reese’s Snack Bar with peanut butter creme, crisp whole grain brown rice, crunchy roasted peanuts and smooth milk chocolate won the 2022 Sweets & Snacks Expo’s Most Innovative New Product Award in the Sweet Snacks category.

Mars Wrigley introduced the M&M'S Crunchy Cookie that is a hybrid of the iconic M&M'S candy and a chocolate chip cookie. The M&M'S Crunchy Cookie candies have a cookie center covered in milk chocolate, that is wrapped in the colorful, M&M'S candy shell. Another new M&M’s product is M&M’S Nut Brownie Mix that blends M&M'S Peanut Chocolate Candies and M&M'S Fudge Brownie Chocolate Candies.

Cookies and snack cakes for the kid in us

Many Americans will remember eating Twinkies and Ding Dongs snack cakes as an after-school treat. Hostess Brands, Inc. introduced Hostess Bouncers as "poppable” bite-sized, cream-filled snack cake versions of its Twinkies, Ding Dongs, and Cinnamon Donettes for the lunchbox occasion.?

Mondelēz International, Inc.?brought 2000s nostalgia when it reintroduced OREO Cakesters in January 2022 at the last remaining Blockbuster store in Bend, Oregon after having discontinued the snack cakes in 2012. The soft snack cakes had premiered in 2007 to look like an OREO cookie with a layer of crème sandwiched between two chocolate-flavored snack cakes.

Keebler Fudge Stripes Minis Dip’mmms, launched in January 2022, is likely to bring back childhood memories of campfire s’mores and of Dunkaroos, the vanilla cookies and chocolate frosting dip popular in the 90s that General Mills brought back in 2020. The Keeber Fudge Stripes Dip’mmms from The Ferrero Group (who acquired Keebler from Kellogg Co. in 2019) include mini fudge striped cookies with a marshmallow frosting in a single-serve portable tray that offers the taste of a s’more when combined.

Indulgent ice cream

Lavender lovers will enjoy Ruby Jewel’s Lemon Lavender ice cream sandwiches that sandwich ice cream made with local (Oregon) honey and lavender along with rBST-free milk between lemon cookies made with real butter.

Fans of celebrity chef Christina Tosi who founded the Milk Bar bakery chain can have Milk Bar’s ice cream pints shipped to their home, anywhere in the U.S., or visit Whole Foods stores (where the ice cream launched in June 2021). Attendees were able to taste the ultra-creamy, custard-style Milk Bar Cereal Milk Ice Cream with cornflake crunch that is designed to taste like the bottom of a cereal bowl. Other indulgent flavors include Birthday Cake, Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow, Pie, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Crush. Milk Bar also sampled its line of Truffle Crumb Cakes, crunchy-on-the-outside snack cakes inspired by its signature Cake Truffles and nostalgic pantry cakes.

Check out my The Food Institute article on how gummies and TikTok stole the show at the Sweets & Snacks Expo .

Virginia Lee is a market researcher who has advised companies on innovation and market entry opportunities in consumer packaged goods at Euromonitor International, Innova Market Insights, and Brightfield Group. She has presented on food, beverages, beauty, CBD, and health & wellness at CBD Expo, ProFood Tech, Flavors and Fragrances, Natural Products Expo East, and Cosmoprof Cosmetica Brasil. Connect with Virginia on Twitter and Instagram at @VirginiaALee.