Welcome to what is, inarguably, the most delicious time of the year — that beautiful window wherein all of the holiday candy gets massively discounted, and all of the Valentine's Day candy hits shelves, resulting in a chocolate lover's suburban grocery store paradise. I happened to be visiting one of these oases when I encountered an offering for 2018: Lava Cake Hershey's Kisses exist, and are basically the personification of Big Chocolate Energy.
The bag that I spotted was in the seasonal section of a Giant grocery, but a quick Google search has informed me that they are, in fact, already available to look at on Walmart's website. Per the online description, the flavor is "[d]ecadent dark chocolate with gooey chocolate filling," inspired by the lava cakes for which they get their name. Each Kiss comes wrapped in a Valentine's Day-inspired pink hearts foil wrapping, with a black ribbon denoting the flavor — it's basically millennial pink gone goth (or, as early scholars would call it, "dark pink"). Also per the online description, they are "Perfect for Valentines Day gift baskets and candy dishes," which I suppose is the more civilized way of saying "Perfect for putting in a candy dish to pretend to share, when really every single last one of these morsels is going straight into my mouth."
The website also comes with a live-action shot of one of the kisses cut in half, which quite honestly is so decadent it made me blush.
Like any candy lover worth my salt (which, incidentally, might be a fun thing to pair this chocolate with), I purchased the bag that I stumbled upon in the wild. You know, for science. And it is because of my due diligence in the scientific realm of chocolate that I can tell you that, interestingly, the "lava" portion of the Kiss has almost the same consistency as caramel. That being said, it is truly, truly chocolate in taste, and pairs quite well with the dark chocolate outer shell (even if it's not quite as majestic looking in real life — but as someone who aggressively curates their Instas and only shows my true self on Stories, I feel this chocolate's truth). I'm not sure if it necessarily evoked "lava cake" when I ate it, but it is definitely delicious, and this is coming from someone who's way more into milk chocolate than dark.
In my humble candy opinion, these would be delicious with a sprinkle of sea salt and some strawberries on the side. I think these would also be prime for putting on top of cookies and baking, just to see what happens to that inside layer with its unusual consistency. Just make sure that whatever you do with it, you act fast — Valentine's Day is a mere month and a half away, and per Walmart, this flavor will disappear right with it. You can't order it on Walmart's site, but you can check its availability in stores here, and check your local grocery store's candy aisle (that is, if I haven't bought it out for more "science" yet).
