Today is January 31st, 2014 – so here on CollectingCandy.com we want to recognize the celebration of the Chinese New Year! For those that don’t know, in the 12-year cycle of animals that make up the Chinese Zodiac, today marks the beginning of the year of the Horse. But on the site today we’ll be marking the holiday with limited edition Chinese New Year Hershey Kisses from Canada along with an array of other related and super-cool goodies!
Not long ago, I asked my artist pal Glen Mullaly up in Canada to do some confectionery reconnaissance for me to see if there was anything unusual offered up there that he thought I might like. I was surprised when he sent me photos of a pair of special edition candy offerings designed to mark the Chinese New Year. I’d never seen limited editions for that holiday here in the United States, but in Canada they had them and boy were they neat. Upon learning of my excitement, Glen grabbed a couple and sent ’em my way.
My favorite of the two is the ornate box Glen found that was created for the Chinese New Year edition Hershey’s Kisses. Here are a few shots I took of it:
Canada – Hershey – Hershey’s Kisses – Chinese New Year celebration box – January 2014
Made of a glossy, deep red cardboard, the box design is quite gorgeous with striking gold foil details:
Canada – Hershey – Hershey’s Kisses – Chinese New Year celebration box – top view – January 2014
Canada – Hershey – Hershey’s Kisses – Chinese New Year celebration box – side panel scan – January 2014
The other piece Glen found and sent my way was this special Chinese New Year edition Kit Kat Orange 8-pack.
Canada – Nestle – Kit Kat Orange – Chinese New Year celebration – 8-pack candy package and sleeve – January 2014
Notice the cutaway slot located at the center on the pack’s outer sleeve – that’s designed for the “red envelope” or “red pocket”, a traditional form of gift giving during the Chinese New Year holiday. Here’s a scan of the thin cardboard sleeve after I removed it – it features the beautiful graphics utilized for today’s title image:
Canada – Nestle – Kit Kat Orange – Chinese New Year celebration – 8-pack outer sleeve – January 2014
While the outer sleeve featured the Chinese New Year graphics, it contained a more standard and non-specific limited edition Kit Kat Orange foil package:
Canada – Nestle – Kit Kat Orange – Chinese New Year celebration – inner pack revealed – January 2014
Here’s a scan of the inner pack after being opened and flattened:
Canada – Nestle – Kit Kat Orange – Chinese New Year celebration – 8-pack inner foil wrapper – January 2014
The contents of the 8-pack surprised me as it revealed eight 2-stick Kit Kats, each packed up old school – first with the chocolate wrapped in foil and finishing with a graphical paper outer wrapper. Here’s a scan of one of those wrappers:
Canada – Nestle – Kit Kat Orange – 2-stick – chocolate wrapper – January 2014
I think both of these Chinese New Year editions from Canada are pretty great. The holiday certainly lends itself to attractive packaging with a beautiful array of graphical elements to draw from. It does make me wonder how long it will before before we see confectionery companies offering Chinese New Year editions here in the States?
So Happy Chinese New Year to all those that celebrate it – I hope the Year of the Horse is going to be a great one!
Since we are on a Chinese theme today, I wanted to continue with a series of pieces from my collection that came from China. Some of my favorite candy packages to collect are brands I know offered in the native languages of the countries they were sold in. One of my favorite pieces in my collection is an M&M’s pack from the Middle East.
With the following candy pieces, I find them especially appealing due to the Chinese characters used.
Last year, I found it fascinating to learn a little about M&M/Mars’ history in Russia – so I wondered if it was a similar story here. After a quick bit of research, I was able to determine that Mars established its Chinese subsidiary in 1994.
Here are some of the Chinese language packs in my collection:
China – Mars – Skittles Original Fruits – candy package – 2008
China – Mars – Skittles Sour – candy package – 2008
China – Mars – M&M’s Chocolate – candy package – 2013
China – Mars – M&M’s Peanut – candy package – 2013
China – Mars – Snickers – foil chocolate candy bar wrapper – 2013
Mars isn’t the only western confectionery company making inroads into China – Hershey has also been aggressive in getting its product into Chinese consumer’s hands:
China – Hershey – Hershey’s chocolate bar – camera offer – chocolate candy bar wrapper – 2013
There’s something really cool about the ornate Chinese characters that makes even a plain Hershey wrapper something groovy to look at.
If anyone out there has traveled abroad and saved candy packages like these, I’d love to hear about it. They make for pretty neat pieces to save.
That’s everything for today – I hope you dug it.
See you next time!
I dug it!