Halloween's Least Wanted: Shoddy Goods 068
5What were your favorite and least favorite Halloween treats growing up? Of course everyone knew that one house that gave out full-sized candy bars, but there was also that weird house that gave out random loose change.
As a kid I always loved the mini-boxes of Nerds since they’d last longer, so I could draw out the time I was rotting my teeth before having to go back to ‘real’ food.
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I like gummy/chewy stuff like sugar baby’s, dots, the chewy lemon heads in different flavors that you only find at weird gas stations, nerds. I’m not a huge fan of chocolate, but I do like some Reesie’s and Twix.
those weirdly crappy ‘peanut butter’ candies in the black and orange wax wrappers!
@chienfou the only place I found those this year are Dollar Tree.
@ironcheftoni
I hadn’t noticed them there. I DID, however, buy some mellocreme pumpkins!
Not a fan of black licorice. If I got Good & Plenty I just ate the sugar coating.
@heartny I actually liked Good and Plenty at some point in time and then I didn’t and then I did one of those things. And I have had real Dutch licorice. Never again that was nasty
@heartny I have a box in my pantry at this very moment. I love them
Not a fan of the Bit-O-Honey or any sticky candy. Oh, I’d still eat it mind you. I liked root beer barrels tho.
I didn’t like the powdery stuff, like Smartees or Necco wafers; really don’t like black licorice! I preferred candy bars, but not Butterfingers. Mounds, Almond Joy & Payday were good scores.
Sugar Babies for the win. Sugar Daddies were too difficult to eat. I’m also a fan of All Things Black Licorice, so Good N Plenty were up there. There is a licorice company that used to have peppermint coated black licorice, which I loved, but they discontinued it. Chocolate, of course, especially with nuts and/or caramel.
Not a fan of gum, particularly that weird-tasting pink stuff.
my grandma gave out full size candy bars. Which is why this meme makes me smile and think of her. She did live until she was 98. Maybe that was why.
@ironcheftoni I love that!
@ironcheftoni Yep Chocolate can do wonders!
I liked them all, with few exceptions. Mary Janes and Sugar Daddys were indeed hard to eat, for I was always a chewer not a sucker nor a licker.
Besides growing up in an era without fluoridated water or toothpaste, indeed we didn’t always have running water or an indoor toilet for that matter, tooth health suffered. Cavities abounded, and sticky candy was the bane of anyone who had a mouthful of metal amalgam fillings.
Sugar Babies were a softer form of caramel and could be chewed with only minimal filling removal risk.
I loved licorice then and now. With the exception of the Dutch black licorice that contains ammonium chloride that Europeans are so fond of. No. I preferred the sweet kind as in the black jelly beans, Good ‘n’ Plenty, black licorice twists, and Blackjack chewing gum if that was all that was available.
I liked Mary Jane’s and Bit 'o Honey as well owing to the peanut butter nuanced flavorings. And I didn’t get them very often but peanut butter twists were alright by moi.
I even liked the annual appearance of candy corn. BTW, when I first started to read Jason Toon’s latest, I thought that he was going to opine on the horrors of candy corn as so many, many others do.
Of all the candies of my youth, I did have some standout favorites. I liked Zero bars,
Zagnuts, Baby Ruths, Butterfingers, Almond Joys, and to a lesser extent Mounds, M&Ms (decades before there were peanut covered M&Ms), Raisinettes, Malted Milk Balls, Hershey Bars (preferably with almonds)…Hell’s Bells, there was hardly a candy that I didn’t like. With the possible exception of two-- vanilla creme filled chocolate drops and horehound candy canes.
Mother would lay in a supply of chocolate drops along with some spiced hard candy just before Christmas each year. The spiced hard candy (cloves and cinnamon) I liked.
Those awful chocolate drops were to be avoided until late in January or maybe even February of the next year, when, when, when, there was nothing left in the house but a few of those wizened, hardened, semi-crystalized chocolate drops.
To discover one of those on a cold, miserable, rainy day in mid-winter was about the best thing ever!
The horehound candy canes were a real shock to my tastes, which in those days of my youth, I’m sure were far more acute than now.
But like the chocolate drops, given long enough in the candy dessert period between Christmas and Easter, why one could develop a taste for them as well.
Who knew?
@Jackinga Here is a better picture of the chocolate drop from the days of yore.
@Jackinga
While we were in Italy several years ago I ran across Pocket Coffees.
OMG they were amazing. Basically a shot of (liquid) espresso enrobed in chocolate. You popped in your mouth and the liquid gave you that burst of coffee flavor followed by the chocolate. I bought a metric shit-ton to bring back to the States and share with friends.
Several ended up staying in my cabinet long enough that the centers crystallized and they were like little shrunken skulls. Totally different experience as you say. Of course, I still ate them!
@chienfou I can relate! I discovered a similar coffee candy, Kopiko, about 10 years ago give or take. They are available in two flavors: regular and cappuccino. At the time, they were hard to find. Now I see them more often and places like Walmart and Target have been known to stock them on their shelves.
When I see a big bottle, I usually buy it when my supply runs low.
But like a lot of such things, I will eat them on occasion and then not so much for a while. But after a long spell, what a joy to find a couple in a jacket pocket at an odd moment.
Back in the day when one of the grands used to play school sports, we often found ourselves seated with other supporters. I usually had a pocket supply of Kopiko and one lady in particular would see me coming and would inquire expectantly if I had any of “those” delicious candies. I used to laugh at that, and hand over a few.
Black licorice in any form, Good n plenty hit the trash can. I’m trying to remember what else I didn’t like. I definitely didn’t hate the peanut butter kisses as bad as Jason did. I’d eat them but they were usually later in the bag.
Omg I feel so seen. Every single year the candy left over was the Mary Janes. They are so gross. We also had houses that gave out random loose change, and one older lady who gave out homemade popcorn balls. Simpler times indeed.
Those peanut butter kisses taste burnt to me. Not chocolatey, not peanut buttery. Just burnt.
best: Atomic Fireball.
worst: candy cigarette.
/Showme a large bag of full size chocolate bars
/showme a large bag of full size chocolate bars
@mediocrebot @jouest Hmm, the bot had no problem with the brand names for these, and they weren’t even in the prompt!
@jouest @Kyeh Although M&Ms aren’t a chocolate bar (and their bags aren’t usually quite that shape), so don’t give it too much credit…
@jouest @xobzoo The thing is, the bot’s been refusing to do images with licensed characters like Big Bird or Wonder Woman, but apparently candy brands are okay.