It’s no surprise that chocolate sales pick up around Valentine’s Day.  Giving one’s sweetheart a box of chocolate candies has been associated with the holiday for generations.  During Valentine’s week, consumers will buy more than 58 million pounds of chocolate candy, ringing up $345 million in sales and accounting for 5.1 percent of total annual sales according to Nielsen.
Sale of sparkling wines also pop during the week: more than $8.6 million in sales are recorded during the week, the fourth-largest holiday for sales of bubbly after New Year’s, Christmas and …

Mars Snackfood is introducing a new line of premium M&M’s, The New York Times reported Thursday.
The premium sweets, which have shed their traditional candy coating, come in five new flavors: mint chocolate, mocha, triple chocolate, raspberry almond, and chocolate almond. 
The Times reported that Mars hopes the new M&M’s will capitalize on the current demand for higher priced chocolate.  The story noted that Premium chocolate sales grew 17.8% for the year ended June 14, compared with 1.4% for non-premium chocolate, according to Nielsen.