Gossip: new M&M's, new Pods and new Mentos!

Another month and the new releases just keep on rolling! There are some really exciting ones this time around, so read on and keep an eye on those shelves!

Gossip: Mentos Cola returns and new Nestle KitKat flavours

Just a couple of new releases to report:

A previous limited edition Mentos flavour, Cola, has made a return for another period. We only saw it a year or so ago but it's back again. Somehow I missed reviewing it last time, so I will be picking up a roll for analysis soon.

Grape Mix has also become available in a roll (from its debut in the resealable share pack) so this will be reviewed soon, too.

In more exciting news, Nestle has just released images of their new KitKat flavours (plural) to distributors. Choc Mint Whirl and Choc Whirl are two completely new flavours and styles. It appears that the top layer of the finger will have a marbled effect, giving the product its name. So far I have found images of Choc Mint Whirl available across medium and king size bars, and family blocks, but Choc Whirl seems to only be available in the family block. I'm not sure if that's permanent or if it will be released to the other sizes as well.

Have you seen anything new and exciting released?

Gossip: Allen's Killer Pythons size change review

So this isn't a review per se, but rather a look at old vs new. Earlier this month, Nestle, the Allen's parent company, announced it was halving the size of their Killer Python snakes. The day after I read that article, I went on the hunt to find an old packet to do a comparison, but do you think I could find one anywhere? Both Coles and Woolies had the new stock in already. I took me until a few days ago, when I was in a Big W, to find an old bag hanging on the shelves behind the new stock (clearly someone doesn't know proper stock rotation). So, finally, let's compare!

Gossip: New Mars seasonal release, new Sour Patch gummis, and more!

I have new releases coming out of my ears! Let's jump right in.

Gossip: New Marvellous Creations products in store!

That was quick!

Have a look below for images of the new flavours in the large blocks and medium-sized bars, and the brand new bitesize flavours as well! The blocks were spotted in Woolworths and the bitesize bags in Coles, but I imagine they will be available across all channels relatively quickly.

Gossip: New M&M's, new Marvellous Creations, new Wonka - oh my!

Hey! - followers of my Twitter account and/or Facebook page get new release gossip as I find it on the shelves, but it can take me a little while to compile it all here for blog readers, so make sure you follow me on Twitter, or like the Facebook page to get up-to-date info!

Where oh where do I begin? It's been a little while since I've pulled everything together for a gossip column, but I think we should go straight to the most exciting one:

Mars M&M's in pineapple!

Gossip: Cadbury Dairy Milk Crackle and Mars Snickers Almond land on shelves, and Mentos Tutti Fruitti launched

First up: while travelling in rural WA a couple of weekends ago, I stumbled across one of Cadbury's five new Dairy Milk blocks: Crackle. (I laugh because it still hasn't arrived in my metro supermarkets yet!)

The block didn't survive the journey home so all I have is this wrapper, but I promise a review as soon as I can find another block!

While out on the same trip, I spotted a new Mentos flavour: Tutti Fruitti. Like many Mentos flavours, this one has been available internationally for some time, but seems to have only just made the jump here. I didn't have the chance to take a picture, so thanks to the internet for supplying.

Finally, Snickers Almond from Mars has begun to arrive on shelves. Again, this release isn't a world-exclusive; the US has been sitting on this flavour for years. Review coming soon!

Gossip: Whittaker's L&P Slab, New Snickers LE, New Big Boss Flavour and More

More new releases!

New Zealand chocolate brand Whittaker's is releasing a 'truly Kiwi' variety of their famous chocolate, called the L&P Slab. The small slab will be made from white chocolate infused with L&P soft drink flavour, and mixed through with popping candy. L&P is made from a mix of lemon and 'carbonated mineral water from the town of Paeroa'. Lemon-flavoured white chocolate? This will surely be a challenge to the tastebuds! The flavour has been available in NZ for a little while now, but soon it will be reaching Australian shores.

Remember Big Boss, the giant lolly cigars which are now just sticks? They were originally released in caramel flavour, and about five years ago we saw Tutti Fruitti (blue) released. Now a new flavour range is joining the ranks: Sours, which contain sticks in the flavours of Blackcurrant Blast, Atomic Apple, Gob-Puckering Grape and Wuss-Out Watermelon. (I love those names!) I think these may only be available as the single piece as sold in milk bars etc - I doubt we'll be seeing them in retail bags sold at larger stores. If you do manage to get your hands on them, please send me a review!

Following on from above, remember Fizzers? From the original flavours of Creaming Soda, Strawberry and Orange, the range has expanded to include lots of new flavours, and the newest is Blue Buzz Mixed Fruit.

Haribo will be launching a new product here in Australia: Mega-Roulette, a roll of small gummi pieces in assorted flavours. As with most Haribo products, Mega-Roulette is not new to the rest of the world.

It's that time of year, when Mars Snickers appears in a brand new limited-edition flavour. This year we're seeing Snickers Almond, available in both medium and king-size bars. The flavour has been available in the US for some time, but I don't think we've had it here in Australia before.

Gossip: Lots of new Cadbury flavours, plus more!

It's been a bit quiet here at Lolly Addict as I've been busy in school, but the confectionery and chocolate companies have kept the new releases rolling! Expect to see reviews of these in the coming weeks.

Cadbury is getting the party started with five brand new flavours to their large block range, plus the return of fan-favourite Black Forest. The new flavours are Dairy Milk and Picnic, Cherry Ripe, Dairy Milk and Toffee Crisp, Dairy Milk and Strawberries and Cream, and Dairy Milk and Milk Crackle.

Cherry Ripe has already landed (as part of the 90th anniversary of Cherry Ripe), and Picnic has just arrived. The other new flavours are sure to be close behind!

(This isn't official gossip, but while in IGA a few weeks ago I spotted some Dairy Milk and Tropical Pineapple blocks with fresh expiry dates (2015)  but old packaging. Any theories as to the sudden and silent appearance of these? They may just be old(er) stock that IGA has bought to clear out the warehouse. Who knows?)

Lindt's Excellence range just keeps on growing. This time around is a unique flavour - 'Zest of Lime' with dark chocolate.

Nestle's Wonka subbrand has just put out a new flavour and a new size - 'Cookie Creamery' in a medium bar (45g).

I also just discovered today that Cookie Creamery will also be released in the larger ~140g blocks, so that suggests to me that we may also see the other Wonka block flavours released in the medium bar size too.

I'm starting to think that Woolworths has some sort of deal going on with gummi manufacturer Haribo. Late last year we saw the pallet lot of The Smurfs come and go; now we've got three new (to Australia at least) flavours.

Finally, way back in August of 2012, Starburst released 'Mixed Berries' as one of their Limited Edition bags, which I reviewed. It seems the flavour has made a comeback into the regular lineup, as spotted at an IGA store recently. If you'd like to read the review, just click the link there.

Gossip: Cadbury Cherry Ripe 90-Year Anniversary

Cadbury's famous Cherry Ripe bar celebrates its 90-year anniversary in 2014, and to celebrate Cadbury are putting out two limited editions of the coconut cherry bar.

There will be a new 'Cherry Ripe Ganache' in the medium bar range:

The bar is described as a Cherry Ripe bar 'enhanced by a layer of dark chocolate ganache'. Yum! It may come in a pink wrapper or a red wrapper as pictured above. Which do you like more?

And Twitter user @nevereverKatie has identified the second release; a large block of Old Gold dark chocolate with pieces of Cherry Ripe filling scattered throughout.

Will you be trying these when they land in your area? Isn't it amazing - what a milestone for one of Australia's favourites!

Gossip: New Starburst Packaging, New Skittles Packaging

Remember those new Starburst bags with the odd packaging I picked up earlier this year? It turns out that they were the first wave of new packaging to be introduced across the whole Starburst bagged range. These bags were spotted in IGA.

I also spotted new packaging for Skittles 45g bags - now they're handy boxes!

If you've seen new products or packaging while out and about, I'd love to hear about it! Email the blog, or post on my Facebook page, or tag me in a tweet (@LollyAddict)!

Gossip: New Cadbury Blocks Packaging, New Mentos, and Marvelous Creations Ice Cream!

First up, reader Haley has alerted me to the fact that Cadbury's popular Marvelous Creations range has branched out into the realm of ice cream. While it's not strictly a lolly product and thus won't be reviewed, I thought some readers might be interested in hearing about them! Let us know in the comments if you have tried them, and think the ice creams are better or worse than the chocolate blocks.

Staying with Cadbury, while out today I spotted that Cadbury is putting is 200-220g block range through yet another packaging overhaul. This time we're seeing the removal of the bold colour that currently takes up the bottom half of the front side, and the introduction of an art-inspired product name.

The new design also includes the sentence case version of the Dairy Milk logo that we first saw when the new packaging for the Bubbly blocks was introduced late last year. What do you think of the new design? (You can sort of see the old design of the Crunchie block in that picture.)

Finally, Mentos has issued another limited edition single-flavour roll of dragees in Grape. I'll have these reviewed soon!

See a new product on the shelves! Give us a yell by sending your gossip to lollyaddictaust@gmail.com

Gossip: Mars Pods Cookies and Cream

As spotted in the current Coles catalogue, Mars Pods have put out a new flavour - Cookies and Cream.

Anyone else seeing a bit of a trend in these flavours lately? It's been a while since we've had a new flavour from Pods - the last was back in early 2012, with Honeycomb Pods - so it's good to see something new!

Let me know if you see it in the wild! lollyaddictaust@gmail.com

Gossip: New M&M's, New Skittles Tropical and new Starburst!

It's all happening at the moment!

Reader Chris has already spotted the brand new M&M's seasonal release in the wild, and the flavour is 'Vanilla Shake'.

Interesting! I love vanilla so I'm looking forward to reviewing it! Thanks for sharing, Chris!

In addition, Starburst (distributed by Wrigley's) also have not one, not two but three new releases out on the shelves already! Photographed below is 'Very Berry Chews', 'Snakes and Ladders' and 'Noughts and Crosses'. The latter two are an interesting play on the classic games.

I didn't even know Skittles were releasing a new seasonal release, but I suppose it is that time of year! New 'Tropical' flavour mix is in a bright blue package. Have you tried it yet?

Lastly, I have new releases from Lindt and The Natural Confectionery Company that will be reviewed very shortly - stay tuned!

Gossip: The National Confectionery Company Wild Things

I just came across this image on the National Confectionery Company's Facebook page - looks like we might be getting a new release soon!

I haven't been able to find any information on these new jellies, so if you see them while you're out and about, please let me know!

Gossip: Mentos New Rainbow

Who has spotted the brand spankers Mentos New Rainbow roll about town? Kiwi, cranberry and yuzu (a citrus fruit from eastern Asia) are the three additions to the standard rainbow flavours. Will you be trying it?

Gossip: Cadbury Twirl Caramel, Cadbury Dairy Milk Raspberry and Lemonade Block and Tic Tac Grape

Keen-eyed reader Chris has alerted me to some new arrivals on the market, two of which are from Cadbury. (With so many new releases, I wonder when Cadbury will run out of ideas!)

Cadbury Twirl will be released in the limited edition flavour of caramel - check out that cool stripy package!

There is also a limited edition on the 200g Cadbury Dairy Milk block range, this time with a Raspberry and Lemonade filling. I'm particularly interested in reviewing this block, as both are new flavours for the Cadbury blocks.

Finally, Tic Tac are joining the new release band wagon with a new seasonal release. Earlier year we saw Green Apple, and now we've received Grape - and if you look closely at the package, it actually contains both green apple and grape Tic Tacs. Let me know if you've tried any of these!

Thanks to Chris for the photos of the Cadbury new releases.

Gossip: Cadbury Boost Toffee Crunch and Golden Biscuit Crunch

Don't know a thing about this, but apparently Toffee Crunch is the next seasonal release flavour for the Boost chocolate bar from Cadbury.

Image stolen from 7eleven.com.au

Here's another I know little about, but I spotted it in Coles recently. Cadbury Golden Biscuit VCrunch is a 200g block that is made in Australia, and described on the pack as "Dairy Milk milk chocolate with vanilla and choc flavoured creme filling and vanilla biscuit".

Gossip: New Cadbury Bubbly Blocks and a New Flavour - Strawberry!

Reader Suzanne alerted me recently to the arrival of another new product from Cadbury - new Bubbly blocks, including one new flavour - Strawberry!

Photos courtesy of reader Suzanne.

Although these are made in Australia, there's several points of interest on these: the first, and perhaps most important, is the new Dairy Milk font - is this a new logo change we're seeing here? I've been unable to find any information on this change (Cadbury didn't even reply to my emails) so I'm unsure if this is a permanent change that will slowly be rolled out, or if it's something special just for the Bubbly products.

Secondly, the transition to the foil packaging (away from the cardboard-and-foil combo) also includes a different moulding pattern for the Bubbly range, from squarish pieces to a rounded, more bubble-like pattern. While in line with the name, the pattern is also similar to the rounded block shape that Aero introduced earlier this year. Hmm!

Suzanne let me know that she found a block of strawberry-flavoured Bubbly, which is a new flavour to the Bubbly range in general. This isn't a flavour that Aero has in its range, so for once Cadbury seems to be a bit ahead of the game!

Have you tried it? Let me know how you like it in the comments below!