Free Candy With Your Caffeine Fix

By Patrick Ball

It’s a match made in guilty pleasure heaven.

This week, Peet’s Coffee & Tea’s Newton Centre location is handing out complimentary samples of UNREAL candy bars with beverage purchases. It’s a promotion that will run for three weeks this summer, bringing together the specialty coffee and tea shop with an upstart candy company started by a 13-year-old Brookline native.

Along with the Newton Centre location, Peet’s Coffee & Tea shops in Harvard Square, Brookline, Lexington and Wellesley will be providing free candy with beverage purchases the weeks of July 22 to 28, Aug. 5 to 11, and Aug. 19 to 25, according to a press release.

Varieties sampled will include UNREAL’s version of the peanut butter cup, the chocolate caramel nougat bar and chocolate caramel nougat bar with peanuts. They’ll be handed out one per person, per transaction and until supplies run out.

If those candies sound familiar, they should. The idea behind UNREAL is to “unjunk the world” by recreating classic candy bars with better-for-you ingredients.

From the press release:

Started by a 13-year-old Brookline native, UNREAL is on a mission to unjunk the world. UNREAL is starting by giving people a junk-free, all real version of their favorite candies, with the same great taste, sold for a similar price. They've reinvented America's favorite candies, but took out all the chemicals, hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, GMOs, and excess sugar. UNREAL added the real good stuff, like real milk chocolate, real caramel, real nougat, and real cane sugar – and they sourced Earth-friendly ingredients.