Mars has launched a “Real Chocolate Relief Act” this week, providing coupons for free, fulls-sized Mars candy bars to visitors of their website every Friday!

Every Friday from now until September 25th, they will be giving away 250,000 coupons, good for a full-size Snickers, Milky Way, M&M’S, Twix, Dove or 3 Musketeers.

Michele Kessler, vice president of Mars Snackfood US, said “Brands like M&M’S, Snickers, Dove Chocolate, Twix, Milky Way and 3 Musketeers are loved by Americans. That’s why we’ve created the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act. It’s our way of giving Americans a small treat during challenging times.”

The giveaway starts each Friday morning at 9:00am EST on the RealChocolate.com website.

[image: mars]

If you’re looking for something a little different for this year’s Valentine’s Day, keep an eye out for new Cherry Dark Chocolate 3 Musketeers, which is the standard fluffy nougat flavored with cherry and dipped in dark chocolate. How divine does that sound?

They come in 9 ounce bags of minis for a limited time for about $3.29. I haven’t been able to find them yet, have you?

[image used with permission]

Snack giants Keebler, Little Debbie, General Mills and Austin are recalling peanut butter treats in the wake of the salmonella-tainted peanut butter scare from last week.

Though there have been no complaints about illnesses from the Little Debbie snacks specifically, the company is still recalling peanut butter toasty sandwich crackers and peanut butter cheese sandwich crackers made since July 1.

General Mills is recalling their popular LARABAR Peanut Butter Cookie and JamFrakas Peanut Butter Blisscrisp snack bars.

The Hy-Vee supermarket chain is recalling bakery products that contain peanut butter, and Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products, which sells through Wal-Mart has recalled several brands of peanut butter cookies. ZonePerfect Chocolate Peanut Butter bars and Peanut toffee bars have also been added to the list.

South Bend Chocolate Co. has also issued a voluntary recall of certain candies manufactured with possibly tainted peanut butter.

Many other snack and candy companies are coming forward to say their treats are safe, such as Mars, Tastykake, and Hershey.

There have been nearly 500 cases of illness and six deaths linked to the salmonella outbreak.

Basically, steer clear of ready-made peanut butter snacks for a while (jarred peanut butter is not affected by any recalls — yet).

[image: flickr]

Cadbury is recalling over one million chocolate bars made in their factory in Beijing after they were found to contain melamine. The 11 recalled varieties were sold mostly in Asia and the Pacific, and Hershey, producers of Cadbury in the US, say the chocolate sold in the US is not affected and that they don’t purchase their dairy products from China.

The affected Cadbury chocolate include Cadbury Dark Chocette, Cadbury Eclairs, Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut Chocolate, Cadbury Dairy Milk Cookies Chocolate and Cadbury Hazelnut Praline Chocolate.

Kraft, the makers of Oreo, and Mars, who make M&M’s, are both questioning the findings of an Indonesian test that found traces of melamine in samples of their products made in China. Both companies say they’ll comply with the recall but plan to do their own testing as well. The same products were cleared of melamine in other Asian countries.

Dairy products and baby formula in China were recently found to be contaminated with melamine - the same stuff that caused the deaths of thousands of pets in the US last year - after companies added it to watered down and substandard products to falsely boost their apparent protein levels. So far 54,000 babies have become ill and four have died.

More information here.

[image: flickr]

Scientists are still spending time on chocolate, except this time around it’s not to tell us that it’s bad this week, good the next! Apparently they’re analyzing the more than 400 million parts of the cacao bean in an effort to help diminishing crops and possibly make chocolate taste better.

The dissection of the genome began this past Thursday and is expected to last five years. Mars, Inc. is funding the program by more than $10 million which doesn’t seem like much when you learn that fungal diseases cost the farmers approximately $700 million annually.

The research will allow them to see what parts of the bean are susceptible and give the scientists and farmers a better understanding of the bean. They also plan to release their findings publicly when it’s over because there will be more information than just one company can cover. Good for Mars!

It’ll be really interesting to see how this pans out or if, like a fair amount of research projects that get a lot of attention when they first start, it’ll just fade into history without any conclusion.

I’m also conflicted on the taste aspect. Quite a few companies are already getting it right (and the ones who aren’t used to but care more about the bottom line now), and I think “improving” on the taste of chocolate means it’s simply going to change it. I think it’s great that they want to make the crops more fungus resistant but I just don’t see how you can improve on the taste. What do you think?

[image: sxc]

I’ve been looking for these everywhere and finally found a box last week!

Snickers Charged is a limited edition 1.83oz bar that includes 60 milligrams of caffeine as well as taurine and B-vitamins in addition to the milk chocolate, peanuts, caramel and nougat of a regular bar.

The packaging, which I assume is supposed to portray power and energy, is silver with a charging rhino. My first impression was that it was leaning a little too much toward a power bar look, something I’m not interested in, so it didn’t appeal to me much at all. If it weren’t for the mention of caffeine on the box and wrapper I probably would have bypassed them altogether!

Anyway, I really enjoyed the bar itself! I’ve been disappointed with past limited edition chocolate and candy bars, but I liked the Snickers Charged. While I’ve never been a huge Snickers fan - if given a choice at the checkout or candy aisle I’ll usually go for some Reese’s - and it’s been a while since I’ve had a regular Snickers, it tasted pretty much what I remember Snickers tasting like in general - a, well, satisfying mix of smooth chocolate, peanuts, nougat and caramel.

I didn’t find it to have a metallic taste or bitter aftertaste and while caffeine doesn’t affect me to the point that I walk around wired I did notice a bit of a pick-me-up not longer after I was finished. In all, I really liked the Snickers Charged and think I might pick up another box next time I’m out before Mars yanks them from the shelves!

[images: personal collection; all rights reserved]

With Green M&M’s, that is! Mars/M&M’s have decided to shake up the standard pink and red in the candy aisle by introducing single color packs of green, counting on the myth and innuendo of “the green ones” to make an impact this Valentine’s Day:

What is it about The Green Ones? Legend has it The Green Ones are an aphrodisiac; rumors of their special powers have been circulating since the ’70s. In fact a certain perm-bearing early ’80s rock star had it in his contract for three pounds of Green M&M’S Chocolate Candies backstage for, uh, “inspiration.”

The color green has a strong place in history, long associated with love and fertility. Green is also associated with energy, youth, growth, hope and new life. In the 15th century, green was the preferred color for wedding attire and the Celtic symbol of fertility was The Green Man. Today, green is considered an emotional stabilizer and pituitary stimulant.

In the past, Mars has acknowledged the myth of the green ones and have assured consumers that they contain nothing special or different than the other colors. I think it’s great that they’ve decided to finally embrace it!

The Green Ones, available in plain and peanut, go on sale this week at retailers across the country and will be available until Valentine’s Day, February 14.

[images: Mars promotional]