Our Hits And Misses From The 2015 Sweets & Snacks Expo

This was just a portion of our haul from the 2015 National Confectioners Association Sweets & Snacks Expo. Salt and sugar overload!

Award: "Most likely to make us care about pretzels again." Unique pretzels "shells" are hollowed out snacks dressed up in a variety of flavors. It's not as dense as a regular pretzel (a good thing) and each bite is heavily dusted with flavoring. We've never been hard pretzel fans but these might have won us over.

One trend this year that was booming was a variety of trail mix options. The Cracker Jack'D (awful name, by the way) options weren't bad, but were more like candy than a regular trail mix option. Snak Stash (another annoying name, the word is "snack" even if it isn't Google friendly) offered up more traditional options with a twist. The Java Jolt was the clear winner of the bunch, with chocolate covered espresso beans balancing out the mix.

Another continuing trend is the rise in jerky and other meat treats. The beef steak and sauce was one of the saddest things we've ever ate. It was a wet, limp excuse for a snack that we'd assume is similar to a dog treat in taste and texture. Matador's jerky had really good flavor, but was oddly uniform in shape. Perky Jerky had a decent taste but was too sticky in texture. And the Big'un was not big on flavor or leaving much of an impression on us at all. Step it up, meat snack makers.

Award: "Best way to get an instant sugar rush." Leave it to the Italian chocolate importers to dish up the sweetest of sweets in our treat bag. ChocoSugar is just that: a pure cube of sugar covered in chocolate and shaped like a spoon. Eaten alone it's a pure sugar rush to the head, but stir it in some espresso (Italian, of course) and you've got a sweet treat. The Cono Snack is like an ice cream cone but instead of ice cream, the mini-cone is filled with pure hazelnut spread. La dolce vita.

Award: "Best grown-up version of a classic stoner snack." We spent many a college night covered in Doritos crumbs, our fingers tinted orange as we faded after a long night. Growing up means leaving some of those snack habits of our youth behind. Thankfully Deep River offers a great version but made with organic whole grain corn and no artificial ingredients, offering up a grown-up, healthier version of a junk food favorite.

Award: "Best way to get your greens." If you want a new way to get your greens, these Veggie Pasta Chips offer up an intense vegetal flavor combination of spinach, broccoli and kale. These crispy snacks are deep in flavor and a great healthy option if you wan't something new to try. Would be wonderful with hummus as well.

Award: "Best snack to choke out your enemies in the most delicious way." Fire Corn isn't lying, they dose up a real punch of heat with their white cheddar jalapeño popcorn. The flavors are great, but the freeze-dried jalapeño peppers will evaporate into fiery dust, easily choking you up if you take a deep breath mid-chew. Just be mindful and enjoy the flavorful snack with caution.

Award: "The most "basic bitch" snack that we couldn't help but adore." Pumpkin Spice is the trendy flavor of basics all around the world. And if done poorly, it makes whatever it touches taste like an autumn scented candle. Cosmos Creations have cracked the code with their latest flavor, so new it didn't even have packaging yet during the expo. The puffed corn snack balances sweet and spice perfectly, creating an addictive snack we wanted to hate but couldn't help but love.

Award: "Best gummy candy." Japan has long been offering up some of the best gummy candy products around. Kanro Puré gummy candy has a nice sour coating mixed with some of the freshest fruit flavors we've ever tasted in gummy candy. Flavorful and tart, these heart-shaped treats we'll be buying again soon.

Award: "Best chocolate and peanut butter bite." There are a bevy of mediocre, too sweet chocolate options at the expo, but thankfully a few rise up to satisfy our sweet tooth. Big Little Fudge is the perfectly sized bite when you are craving dense, classic fudge flavor. Their Great Divide version offers up one of the best combinations around— chocolate and peanut butter. It's rich and creamy but just the right bite for when you have a chocolate craving.

We weren't impressed by the other Chocofresky's flavors due to chalky texture and fake, chemical flavoring. But their mint malted milk ball option was refreshing and cool, like an after dinner mint mashed up with a Whoppers.

Jelly Belly have long been offering up a variety of odd flavor combinations, some wonderful and some truly horrifying and awful. Their latest option is a breakfast staple in bean form. The maple is heavy but a buttery taste shines through. If you dig maple candy and jelly beans combined, a few of these should hit the spot.

Award: "Most unique flavor combination hiding behind poor packaging." Hard candy combining bright citrus and fresh pineapple taste with a hit of heat are hiding behind some of the poorest package design we saw at the expo. These tiny flavor balls remind us of grown up Nerds, but the snack size packaging made a mess. Since you can't reseal the packaging, these tiny balls spilled out easily. We're still finding them rolling around our office. Would be ideal in a tin, but a mess as is.

Award: "Worst thing we ate at the expo/best candy disguised as a cough drop." These look like cough drops, they have similar ingredients as many other cough drops but nowhere does it say these are, in fact, cough drops. They are supposedly candy. This is a lie. They are cough drops that are lying to you and want you to feel sad about candy. Don't trust them. But if you've got a cough, give them a try and let us know if they work out.