With the debut of the Origins Collection, Lindt has added two single-origin cocoa bars to its Excellence product line. The Excellence Origins Ecuador 75% Cocoa Bar is a 3.5-ounce, 75% cocoa dark chocolate bar. Made from “Arriba” cocoa beans, which derive from the lowlands of the coast of Ecuador, the Excellence Dark Origin bar combines fruity and nutty flavors. The Excellence Origins Madagascar 65% Cocoa Bar is a 3.5-ounce, 65% cocoa dark chocolate bar. The bar is made from “Sambirano” cocoa beans from Madagascar; the beans give it a light vanilla flavor.  Both bars have a suggested retail price of $3.79. Lindt will add a third bar, sourced from Peru, early next year.

Billed as the original coffee candy, JavaBon comes in Caramel Cappuccino, Vanilla Latte and Sweet Dark Espresso varieties. These all natural coffee treats are made exclusively from premium Sumatra beans. Rich, creamy and smooth in taste, the Espresso and Latte varieties boast filled centers. The candies are individually wrapped and come 32 per stand-up package.

Chocolate-flavored Hershey’s Bubble Yum is slated for a December debut. The chunk gum comes in a five-piece pack with a suggested retail price of 50 cents and a 10-piece pack with suggested retail price of 99 cents.

Sugar-free Before and After Mints pair a combination of cool and refreshing and fiery and bold flavor sensations in each eye-catching, designer tin embossed with a pair of lips. The two flavors are housed in separate compartments within each tin. Flavor combos include peppermint/cinnamon, peppermint/lemon, peppermint/tangerine and peppermint/wintergreen. The tins have a suggested retail price of $1.99.  Display/shipper options include pop boxes, clip strips, counter displays and sidekick units.  Teen People magazine trend setters voted the mints as the No. 1 package at the recent NACS show, reports company founder Brian Schroeder. Chocolate, raspberry and cherry flavor additions to the Before and After line-up are slated for rollout early next year.

CandyRific offers this new Giggle Head Pop as a tie-in with the “Shrek III” movie, which debuts May 18, 2007. The first ship date is April 1 for an on-shelf date of April 15. The pops, which feature the Shrek and Donkey characters, produce a giggling sound when shaken from side to side; a candy sucker is sealed in the removable handle. Giggle Head Pops stand tall in a brightly colored 12-piece display and also are available in several shipper and power panel configurations.

New from Goetze’s is the Strawberry Cow Tales 5-Pack, which features the popular strawberries and cream flavor combination. Designed to either hang on a peg or lay on the shelf, the five-pack bag is available in a 12-count or 24-count case. The 5-ounce package has a suggested retail price of $1.29.

For 2007, Brown & Haley will support the fight against breast cancer with two four-week promotional periods — one in the spring in the weeks before Mother’s Day and a second promotion tied into National Breast Cancer Awareness month in October. Brown & Haley will donate 5 percent of wholesale shipment amounts for the 15.4-ounce Almond Roca Buttercrunch Toffee Canister, 5-ounce Almond Roca Buttercrunch Toffee Box, three-piece Cashew Roca Buttercrunch Toffee and three-piece Almond Roca Buttercrunch toffee.

Flix Candy’s Pacifier Pop is going sour. Available this December, Sour Pacifier Pop is available in sour blue raspberry, sour green apple and sour watermelon varieties. As always, the 23 gram pop features a safety necklace and cap so kids can eat some now and come back later for more.

Hershey leverages the power of its York Peppermint Patties with a new item: York Mints dipped in dark chocolate with a mint shell. Packaged in a 1.35-ounce tin, York Mints have a suggested retail price of $1.99. Each mint contains 4 calories.

Goetze’s has introduced a new display size for its Caramel Creams count goods items. The 48-count, gravity-fed counter display holds 48 pieces of the 1.9-ounce Caramel Creams count good bar. Each piece carries a suggested retail price of 79 cents.

Perfetti Van Melle will produce a special package of its AirHeads bars for the March 2007 release of the Warner Brothers movie, “TMNT,” featuring none other than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The promotional AirHeads six-pack will feature a collectible premium tied in with the movie as well as special limited-time flavors.

New Jones Activated Energy Boosters are described as “high-energy candy.” The hard candy comes packaged in pocket-sized tins and was formulated to combine the taste and energy found in Jones energy drinks from Jones Soda Co. Tins will sell for $1.99 to $2.99. Merchandising options include 8-count trays, 24-count mixed counter displays, 144-count mixed floor displays, power wings and more.

Neon Sour Glo Worms, gummi bears and gummi worms, all packaged in 4.5-ounce theater boxes, are available from Candy Lovers Delight. The suggested retail price range is from 99 cents to $1.19.

Billed as “the mints that get around,” AttachMints are compactly packaged and feature a clip that allows them to be attached to cigarette packs and other items. Spearmint will be the first flavor to be introduced to the market, followed by peppermint, wintergreen, orange and cinnamon. Each box of AttachMints has a suggested retail price of 99 cents. The mints are shipped in a 24-count display box.

The newest ‘baby’ in the Madelaine Chocolates’ family is a solid, creamy, premium milk chocolate star, foiled in pink or blue announcing the birth of a new baby girl or boy. Made with the highest quality chocolate, the bite size stars boast “A Star Is Born” in bold white letters. A Star Is Born is available in clear gift boxes, seven pieces per box, and is sold in bulk, 15 pounds per case, as well.

The Shrek Cool Pop, which features the Shrek and Princess Fiona characters from the movie, boasts bright colors, a powerful fan motor and a long-life replaceable battery. And that’s not counting the candy sucker housed in the handle. Shrek Cool Pop comes in a 12-count display, as well as in several additional shipper and power panel configurations. Suggested retail price is $2.99.

Supreme Chocolatier has expanded its House of Bauer Bavarian Meltaway line with the introduction of three new products. Available in Milk Chocolate Mint, Dark Chocolate Mint and Bavarian Hazelnut, the individually wrapped Meltaways are packaged in 5-ounce standup window boxes that feature gold hot stamping, embossing and a high gloss finish. All three products are available in 12-count cases or 48-count shipper displays. The suggested retail price is $3.99.

New Ice Breakers Sours pellet gum comes in pink lemonade, apple and watermelon flavor varieties. Packaged in a rectangular plastic container, each pack contains 25 pieces and has a suggested retail price of $1.99.

A historically inspired product line, American Heritage Chocolate celebrates chocolate’s role in the lives of Revolutionary War era Americans. The line includes chocolate sticks, a chocolate bar, and a chocolate spice drink and tin.  American Heritage Chocolate is available only at the museums and historic sites of Fort Ticonderoga, Colonial Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, Monticello and The Smithsonian.

With Spin Drops, kids spin the dial to reveal candy lollipop drops featuring different edible pictures of popular licensed characters. Each pack contains eight lollipop drops in assorted fruit flavors. Each 5-gram pop is fortified with Vitamin C and is fat-free. Spinning out for 2007 are Care Bears, Disney Princess, Pirates of the Caribbean and Scooby Doo varieties. The suggested retail price is 99 cents to $1.29.

Madelaine Chocolates has enhanced its line of chocolate Easter rabbits by creating a new "home" for every flavor and size. These traditional favorites sit in clear, shelf-ready displayers with small, easy-to-fit-in footprints. In addition, Madelaine has introduced a new color-coordinated system in which a color is associated with each variety — i.e. yellow for milk chocolate, green for dark chocolate, orange for creamy white chocolate, and purple for solid white chocolate. The 2.5-ounce, 6-ounce, and 8-ounce rabbits are packed 12 per displayer; the 15-ounce size comes six per displayer.

Guylian has updated packaging for its No Sugar Added Chocolate assortment and added a 70% Extra Dark variety to the line-up. The new package design features graphics that are cleaner and more consumer-friendly. In addition, the vertical format is designed to make more efficient use of shelf space. Guylian's No Sugar Added Chocolate bars are packed to 72 to a case. The new shipper accommodates 48 units. The suggested retail price is $2.49 each.

Joanie’s Smiles, a new gourmet chocolate company that specializes in producing high quality chocolate bars infused with organic teas, recently released six varieties of organic chocolate fusions. The array of inventive chocolate bar flavors such as Cranberry-Ginger Tea, Wild Raspberry Tea, Coconut Green Tea, Herbal Chai Tea, Rosemary Hibiscus Tea and Pistachio-Green Tea are all made from organic ingredients, herbal tea leaves, and real fruit. The company will donate five percent of its profits to “Operation Smile.”

Endangered Species Chocolate unveils Random Weight Bars, premium baking bars made of all-natural milk chocolate with 52 percent cocoa content. Unlike the common jagged blocks of baking chocolate, Random Weight Bars are pre-weighed and molded into measurements of 3-ounce, 5-ounce and 7-ounce blocks.  

Also new from Endangered Species Chocolate is the versatile Box Chocolate, which contains six individually cut pieces of all-natural dark, milk and white chocolate laid out to form the ESC logo — a cacao tree bearing three cacao fruits.