From UK to Mars (Candy Co.), Valentine's Day compels new products

11-Feb-2019 - Last updated on 11-Feb-2019 at 09:57 GMT

Here's our round-up of some of the chocolate treats available for Valentine's Day

For this year’s lovers’ holiday, three U.K. brands have added color and art to their treats, while big brands mix up flavors, shapes and even pair with retailers for exclusive product offerings.

UK treat-makers dolling up for Valentine’s Day

At Sloane’s Hot Chocolate, the standard dark chocolate recipe gets a boost from ruby pearls, which lend fruity and sour notes. The clear jar, available for £10 ($12) on Sloane’s website or Amazon, showcases the color combo and includes four heart-shaped pink and white marshmallows.

Konditor & Cook - Valentine's Mini Cake — The mini cakes from London's Konditor & Cook bakery can be personalized.

For fans of bite-sized chocolates, Paul A Young unveiled a line of new treats with kitschy names released just in time for February 14. The 'Paris Mini Break' combines dark chocolate with crisp baguette pieces, covered in a red wine and Roquefort ganache. 'The Ikea Trip' brings lingonberry jam and sweet liquorice caramel inside a milk chocolate shell.

Beloved cake company Konditor & Cook will adorn their five stores with treats inspired by pop art, available through February 14. The Valentine’s Curly Whirly features a dark chocolate sponge cake with cream cheese frosting and a personalized pop-art plaque, plus ‘luscious’ blue or pink lips. Getting sassy, the Dodgy Jammers let the ‘tangy’ raspberry jam peek through a vanilla butter biscuit in letter form, similar to the phrases of popular conversation hearts.

Big brands getting in the spirit

Godiva has taken cupcakes to heart in its Valentine’s Day treat box, which includes 9 chocolates inspired by cupcakes. Flavors include dark chocolate mousse, white strawberry, milk coffee and caramel, and dark chocolate with matcha tea mousse ($29.95 per box).

Though M&M’s has made bags of the candy-coated chocolate favorite for a while now, the Mars company has brought back a fan-favorite flavor, White Cheesecake, for Valentine’s Day 2019. The candies are larger than standard M&M’s and available exclusively at Walmart ($2.84 for 8oz bag).

Even Oreos have found a place on the Valentine’s Day shelf with Nabisco’s limited edition 'Love, Oreo' packs. Stuffed with light pink cream that tastes a bit fruity, according to Taste of Home, each cookie comes imprinted with a message on one side – 'Dunk in Love,' 'Let’s Twist' – or little hearts, rather than the Oreo logo ($2.99 for 10.7oz package).

Retailers are looking for exclusives

Reese's Lovemojis capitalize on the popularity of text emojis, though the peanut butter cup shape remains the same.

Reese’s have gone modern with starry- and heart-eyed emoji cups the Hershey’s brand calls "Lovemojis," available exclusively at Target. The package shows the recognizable bright yellow emoji color on individual wrappers, but the actual peanut butter cup itself looks the same ($3.59 for 10.2oz bag).

Other brands followed a similar approach of sticking with the standard shape but trying a new flavor, such as Lindor’s Red Velvet White Chocolate Truffles ($4.49 for 6oz pack) and Ghirardelli’s White Chocolate Crème Brûlée squares ($4.49 for 4.8oz pack).

Others change to the day’s favorite shape, like Dylan’s Candy Bar which sells a diamond-shaped box full of milk chocolate hearts ($9.99 for 3.8oz box).

Dove’s upped the shape and flavor, creating Pink Champagne and Milk Chocolate Swirl Hearts ($3.69 for 7.9oz bag).