The Best New Treats From Your Favorite Candy Companies

As the best-selling cinnamon candy in the U.S., Hot Tamales is spicing up a whole new category of candy: red licorice. These soft, chewy treats taste like they've been soaked in Fireball (though they're not boozy). Find them in stores this January.

Many brands use the Expo as a chance to introduce the world to a brand-new candy, and Flipz is no exception. Last year, they unveiled Birthday Cake Flipz (a white chocolate-covered pretzel that looks Funfetti-speckled). This year, they're striping chocolate-covered pretzels with caramel and sprinkling sea salt on top, taking the salty-sweet treat to the next level. It will start popping up in stores this August.

The heat sneaks up on you with these decadent dark chocolate squares. At first, all you can taste is rich, semisweet cocoa and buttery caramel—so much so that you might think they've forgotten the spice in this particular treat—and then, two-thirds of the way, it hits you: A slight kick of chili pepper, like you're drinking Mexican hot chocolate.

The downfall of candy jewelry is that it typically tastes like chalk. The downfall of this gummy version, which lets you build your own custom charm bracelet with each pack, is that you might devour it before you can ever get it on your wrist.

This treat sparked a social media firestorm when a photo of the packaging leaked online, and for good reason—it mashes up two nostalgic treats in one candy. These extra-thick peanut butter cups are studded with mini Reese's Pieces. The "Why didn't someone think of this sooner?!" mashup was so popular it beat out 320 other products to win the Best in Show award at the Expo. You'll start seeing it in stores everywhere mid-July.

Yes, you read that correctly: Sriracha cotton candy. This twist on the classic carnival treat is dusted with that famously fiery sriracha spice—not enough to make your eyes water, just enough to make your sweet little granny say, "hot damn!" and ask for another bite. Find it at candy shops or online.

If the rainbow-colored exterior doesn't hook you, the flavor surely will: These chewy candies are tart and fruity, and despite what the package proclaims, it's not so sour that you'll only eat them on a dare. (Fair warning: They're dangerously addictive, even if you're not the sour candy type.)

Crunch, in any form, has been a huge trend at this year's Expo, and Kit Kat's latest doesn't disappoint. It basically takes the traditional treat and doubles it in size, so you only get two bars instead of four, but they're more than twice as thick (five layers of wafer, and a thick coat of milk chocolate!).

These treats have been sold in select candy stores since 2013, but you can expect to see them pop up all over the U.S. Shaped like a miniature slushie cup, the domed lids pop off to reveal the slushie or ICEE swirl to be a lollipop, which you can dunk into candy powder flavored to taste like the frosty convenience store treat.

Those mouth-puckering treats you triple-dog-dared friends to eat in middle school are back in an awesome new incarnation: gummy worms. They're< not nearly as sour as the original hard candy, but they'll still make you squirm.

If you love Crispy M&Ms, you've got to try these crispy, candy-coated balls. Each pack comes with a mix of three flavors: rainbow-speckled birthday cake, a tan glazed donut, and a fudgy chocolate brownie. At first, all you'll notice is the sweetness and crunch, but as you chew, the dessert flavors really come out, leaving you with donut, cake or





brownie breath. Not a bad thing.

Jelly Belly's ever-expanding range of flavors has now gone organic, meaning no GMOs or artificial flavors. The colors aren't as vibrant, but the flavors are every bit as bold—and tastes like (sweetened) fresh fruit. Each pack comes with 10 flavors, which includes cherry, coconut, blueberry, lemon and peach.

This Godiva chocolate bar is so new they only had a mockup of the official packaging on hand—the bars we sampled were wrapped in plain white packaging. Each domed square of milk chocolate is studded with tons of mango crystals, adding a little crunch and a wave of fruity flavor. It won't be in grocery stores for a few months, but in the meantime, you can pick up its newly released counterpart, the dark chocolate blood orange bar.