Halloween Candy and Other Treats: The Favorites, the Best, the Worst, the Seasonal, the Weird

[Alex]

9 hours ago, cakewalk said:

Ditto candy corn. Gross. I can't think of anything else that even comes close. 

My favorites (of the non-chocolate candies) are Twizzlers. Just thinking about Twizzlers makes me smile. 

When I was a kid, my favorite chocolates were Chunkies, hands down. We hardly ever saw them in our Halloween bags, but sometimes we got lucky.

 

Open wide for Chunky Yes! My absolute favorite, too. So much goodness for only five cents.

[chromedome]

I'd completely forgotten about those. I used to love them, though I don't really think of them as Halloween candy. MoJos were another favorite of mine as a kid. Five for a penny, when I started school. Last time I remember seeing them, they were a nickel each. 

[Darienne]

We've been on the farm now for 22 years and not once have we ever had a kid at Hallowe'en.  It sure has changed.  They do it at school.  DH and I were kids so long ago...1940s...before razor blades in apples and the need to go through your kid's candy for contraband or to be outside to watch over him or her.  I grew up in a huge apartment complex, thrown up in Montreal for servicemen and their families.  Hallowe'en was WONDERFUL.  But then...life was so different then.  We had just stopped living on coupons for sugar and suchlike. 

Our own children lived in good neighborhoods as kids but I do recall being outside as our youngest went door to door.  

 

Candy?  Can't recall it at all really. Just delighted to get any.  And I've never eaten candy corn although it looks horrible. 

[Shelby]

Circus Peanuts and those horrid little boxes of raisins that had to have been given out by people that hated trick or treaters.

[lindag]

1 minute ago, Shelby said:

Circus Peanuts and those horrid little boxes of raisins that had to have been given out by people that hated trick or treaters.

OMG yes, Circus Peanuts....what the heck were they anyway?  Gross.

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, lindag said:

OMG yes, Circus Peanuts....what the heck were they anyway?  Gross.

I don't know what they are.  Cardboard marshmallows?  Blech.  So awful.

[kayb]

Yeah, the Circus Peanuts were pretty awful. I'm still fond of candy corn, as long as it's the Brach's brand. And I love a Tootsie Roll. My favorite when I was a kid was the Hersheys or Mars miniatures. My kids would shoot you and trample your cooling body for a miniature Reeses cup, though.

 

Mama always gave out homemade popcorn balls. We lived out the country and people would drive out from town to trick or treat at our house. My job was to wrap the finished balls, individually, in plastic wrap and tie them with black and orange ribbon.

 

I usually get a couple of big bags of the mixed candy to give out -- either the Hersheys or the Mars. Have a couple of families down the street whose small goblins are acquainted with Lucy the pug, who barks ferociously at all doorbell ringers, and not freaked out by her, and they're usually the only trick-or-treaters we have.

 

[lindag]

25 minutes ago, kayb said:

 

 

Mama always gave out homemade popcorn balls. We lived out the country and people would drive out from town to trick or treat at our house. My job was to wrap the finished balls, individually, in plastic wrap and tie them with black and orange ribbon.

 

.

 

Yes!  Homemade popcorn balls were always my favorite, but hard to come by.  Lucky if you got even one.

Next favorite was the full-size Snickers; scarce though.

[Darienne]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

Mama always gave out homemade popcorn balls. We lived out the country and people would drive out from town to trick or treat at our house. My job was to wrap the finished balls, individually, in plastic wrap and tie them with black and orange ribbon.

 

Thank you kayb.  You just brought back my memories ( sadly many are fading) of making little bags of popcorn with the kids when we lived in the city many years ago.  A happy family memory.

Not in the realm of the worst...but I do remember getting the occasional candy apple and knowing that I'd hit the jackpot of Hallowe'en treats.  Those wonderful Mothers who took that much time.  There were hundreds of us kids at Benny Farm.  I do mean hundreds.

[Toliver]

I agree with the assessment of those horrid Circus Peanuts as the worst Halloween candy. It was always such a bummer to get those in my candy bag. 

I did receive popcorn balls once in a while when I was a kid. I liked them but they weren't really candy. But when the evil idiots started altering homemade sweets, any homemade item at Halloween was frowned upon.

As an adult, I would enjoy nothing more than receiving a popcorn ball...a salty-sweet treat that preceded Kettle Corn by decades.

[TicTac]

'Rockets'

 

That little plastic sleeve of nasty chalky candy roll....

 

Ich!

[BeatriceB]

I don't remember Circus Peanuts, but yes! homemade popcorn balls were so great.

 

I loved Chunkies, too, as well as the mini Snickers, Baby Ruths, Reeses and so on... BUT my mother would sneak in during the night and take whatever delicious chocolate confections we had left to eat herself, and then try to gaslight us in the morning by saying we ate them all ourselves and forgotten (yes, she was a pretty awful mother in some ways). All that was left were boring things like SweetTarts, Red Vines, etc. and the really bad things mentioned above. I was a bit of a hoarder even at that early age, and had always taken a little inventory of my stash before bed so I knew she was lying.

 

 

[Kim Shook]

I like almost everything that everyone else hates, except for Circus Peanuts.  And anything banana flavored.  Yuck.

[Beebs]

I've had candy corn for the first time as an adult. I'd heard about them as a kid, and had imagined they would be crunchy, kind of like corn nuts, but sweet. Sadly disappointed.

 

Worst candy - Rockets. I believe they're called Smarties in the US. Powdery rolls of ick. Avoid the houses giving out Rockets.

 

(Real Smarties in Canada, on the other hand, are delicious candy coated buttons of chocolate - eat the red ones last! They're naturally coloured now, but I rather miss the bright artificial colours.)

 

Twizzlers - close 2nd for grossness. Also those orange wax paper-wrapped toffee things that are supposed to be soft, but never are, and only get stuck in your back teeth. 

 

I like Tootsie Rolls.

 

Best treat - full-sized bar of Coffee Crisp! 

[Anna N]

36 minutes ago, Beebs said:

Best treat - full-sized bar of Coffee Crisp! 

 Absolutely.

[MelissaH]

Anything with raisins in it might as well go into the xmas stocking of the bad boys and girls instead of coal. At least the coal would help keep you warm.

[Toliver]

My brother would take his daughter (my niece) trick or treating and then would hide her candy when they got home. She grew up thinking the best part of the day was the experience going from door to door saying "Trick or Treat!" and showing off her costume, not realizing that it was the candy that really was the prize for the night. Surprisingly, she's not a candy-eater to this day. 

[Alex]

1 hour ago, MelissaH said:

Anything with raisins in it might as well go into the xmas stocking of the bad boys and girls instead of coal. At least the coal would help keep you warm.

 

Even Chunky? Or Raisinettes (my all-time favorite movie theater snack)?

[lindag]

I like raisins in baked goods but not in my candy.

[MetsFan5]

What about the people who give apples or toothbrushes? Like why bother? I always loathed those people. 

[lindag]

54 minutes ago, MetsFan5 said:

What about the people who give apples or toothbrushes? Like why bother? I always loathed those people. 

 

Never got toothbrushes but did get apples which were promptly thrown away.

[Katie Meadow]

One thing remains clear about Halloween candy: the goal for those stocking up for the big night is to buy candy that is cheap and cheaper. Which bags of candy provide the most bulk for the least money? Is there any wonder almost all of it is bad? After having given out candy for a zillion year and having a child who gathered it eagerly there is one thing I learned: kids, with some exceptions of course, like most of us, want chocolate and value those mini Baby Ruth,, Butterfingers, Mars Bars, Reese PB cups, etc. above and beyond most candies. They love volume, and they appreciate the CONCEPT of a mountain of candy, but they are no more enamored of candy corn, lifesavers, etc or most of the worst candies mentioned above than we are. In other words, whatever stuff you covet for yourself when your kids display their haul is the stuff you should be buying if you want to make anyone happy. 

 

Unfortunately many of us try to buy awful candy not only because it is cheaper, mainly because we know we are less likely to eat it up ourselves before  the 31st. That's why I never buy m&m's. It's the only mini-packaged candy I actually like. No one in their right mind gives apples or boxes of raisins or home-made anything. Those days are long gone. All candy needs to be commercially wrapped in safe packaging to save parents the extra anxiety. Sewing a costume and sending your kids out into the dark of night is more than enough stress.

[IowaDee]

Off topic but my all time favorite as a greedy little kid was the lady who held out a huge bowl of pennies.  We were allowed one fist full and that was it.  I just knew I would scoop up enough to buy all those things I had been wishing for.  Probably was able to grap 25 cents tops.  But next year, i would get enough to buy a bike I just knew it.   Never happened.  And call me another candy corn hater.  And a raisin lover in any way, shape or form.

[Alex]

Michigan is a pretty decent place to live, at least for the moment, but this is so sad. From the Detroit Free Press:

Quote

Michigan's most popular Halloween treat is candy corn and I'm so disappointed

 

[gfweb]

7 hours ago, lindag said:

I like raisins in baked goods but not in my candy.

 

I'd rather find a cock-a-roach in a baked good. I really despise raisins.