on candy

On one of the “blogs of note”, Scribbit, there was an entry on candy. It was a delightdul little bit that brought back memories and showed some nifty stuff too (check out that gummy bear candelabra!) Overall, however, I can’t say I share the author’s tastes in candy, apart from a few notable exceptions, such as RPBC and Twix bars (but I wouldn’t go as far as she does in my appreciation of the latter.)

On candy, then:

My memories connect candy and chocolates to events and to people. Grandmas always have candy at the ready, don’t they? And I've left behind a lot of candy that I've "outgrown", like the phases in my life.

My first independent shopping experiences involved candy. And cigarettes. Yep, you read that right, smokes. Back in the day, when minors were allowed to do a whole bunch of stuff that is verboten today, there were no age restrictions on buying cigarettes. Every other weekend, my aunt would come over for the weekend. (Inversely, we went to her place the weekends in between.) She smoked Peter Jackson cigarettes; as soon as I was old enough to walk to the corner store on my own, she would give me money to run that particular errand for her. I clearly remember that a pack of Peter Jackson’s was $2.50. She would always give me $3.00, which meant a 50-cent tip every time.

Now, we often had chocolate at our house, so this money usually went to hardcore sugar concoctions. I occasionally strayed to those little sprinkle-coated chocolate “pennies” (that were actually 2 cents a pop), or those powder-filled fruit thingies, or banana-flavoured popsicles when the weather was right, but my habitual shopping list went as follows:

- 1 pack of Fun-Dip – grape and orange flavours – price 15 cents
- 1 pack of Fun-Dip – lime and cherry flavours – price 15 cents
- 1 pack of Sweet Tarts – grape flavour – price 10 cents
- 1 pack of Sweet Tarts – cherry flavour – price 10 cents

Thank goodness for O-Pee-Chee!

Which brings me to celebrate another great creation, this one from Wonka, of which I have written about before: I love Nerds! Just about any flavour, too…and it’s even better when they clump together into mega-Nerds that are tough to shake out of the little square opening in the top of the box! They used to be a luxury item at 35 cents a pop, and that price has since more than doubled…but I still splurge once in a while, usually in the summer, when you think back to days of youth when keeping busy throughout your vacation was your biggest challenge.

I developed a taste for raspberries and gummy bears in high school. Then I tasted gummy bears in Germany, where each colour actually tastes something different, and I haven’t been able to have regular, indistinguishable North American gummy bears since.

I don’t really like jelly beans. Never have. But one of my best “coaches” (he refused to let us call him “boss”) had a Jelly Belly dispenser on his desk, so it became a staple during meetings. Every one on the team had favourite flavours, and there was very little overlap – another sure sign we were a great team.

Then they fired the boss (he took his dispenser with him) and broke up the team, and I don’t think I’ve had jelly beans since (this was 2006.) But I still think of him when I see Jelly Bellys, particularly the Orange Sorbet ones. They were his favourite.

I have fond memories of splitting tins of Quality Street chocolates and toffees with my mom and dad around Xmas time. Like three kids at Halloween, we called dibs on our favourites; again, there was little overlap – or was someone just being nice to their kid?

Here was the breakdown: Dad had the flavoured chocolates (orange creme, strawberry creme), no contest. Mom had all the light green triangles; looking it up, they were chocolate noisette pâté…I had the toffee pennies, the toffee fingers…those are the ones that stand out: I think a combination of who stayed up late and sheer gluttony determined who got the other kinds!

I just read that Quality Street were among Saddam Hussein’s favourites. Well, that’s just…ugh. I haven’t had Quality Streets since my mom passed away anyhow, and now, I really don’t think I will again.

Speaking of Xmas chocolate, I hate mint, but once a year, at some holiday party or other, I will have After Eight squares, or their later stick form, just because it’s the holidays. And I will enjoy them thoroughly.

My mom always used to buy those little boxes of Neilsen’s chocolates – rosebuds and macaroons. I used to empty the former when I was really young, but my taste migrated to the latter by the end of grade school. I don’t think I’ve had rosebuds since…at least, not when there are macaroons to be had.

I remember MacIntosh toffee, how hard it was and how it stuck to your teeth and how yummy it all was. Haven’t had that in ages, either.

I discovered Turtles in late adolescence and haven’t looked back. It may be the only kind of widely-available chocolates that still truly thrill me at Valentine’s Day.

OK, enough for now…I’ll post on chocolate bars at a later date.

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