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I know that chocolate candy will get old. The oil/cocoa butter will turn rancid, as will the nuts if there are nuts in the candy bar. Milk chocolate has the added problem of milk which also shortens the shelf life.

You can use semi sweet or bitter chocolate, and candy bars for about 18 months. Most will have an expiry date. Puting them in Mylar bags with O2 absorbers or a mason jar and vaccum out the air should help improve the storage time somewhat. Keep in cool dry place.

I have read that M & M s will last longer than regular chocolate, but have no first hand experience. Likewise your hot chocolate mixes have the issue of the milk which will taste funny shortly after the best buy date.

So I only purchase that kind of stuff in the amount I know we will use for that 12-18 months. The vaccum packed long term #10 cans have chocolate milk that will last for 10 years, so that’s what I have for the long term bought a couple of cases.

The thing I am buying the most right now is just regular baking cocoa. That stuff seems to last for ever. I had some opened that got lost at the back of the cabinet for five years. It works fine for chocolate cake, hot chocolate, fudge, frosting, etc.

You can make your own chocolate candy, but you’ll have to have fat. Bottled oils vary in their best by date about 1-2 years. However, lard can be stored a long time, though not in the way they package it these days.

But if you melt the lard and put it in sterile mason jars and let it cool and become solid, you can use a vaccum attachment to vaccum out the air, and that will last practically forever. Might work for crisco solid shortening too.

Any way for long term storage, I keep it to one ingredient per package so that I can stock up more on the stuff that lasts the longest.

Since the crop failure was this year, I hope to stock in about a year’s worth maybe 2- will buy replacements as I use it and find it on sale. I am hoping that will give enough time for the cocoa harvest to get better, and then the prices will come down a bit. Like the peanut butter did.

By the way, I grew peanuts this year. Now I can make my own peanut butter. Cocoa? No way where I live to grow it.