The Babble List: The Best Candy Ever
We rank the 25 all-time greatest Halloween treats.
by Brett Singer
October 14, 2008
6. Skittles
For Halloween, seek out the mini-packs (sometimes called "fun size," implying that somehow the regular size is not fun?). The only knock on these bite-size fruity things is that they need to find a way to steal the formula for whatever substance they slather onto M&Ms: the slogan could be "melts on your hands, clothes, mouth — whatever." But hey, what's wrong with multi-colored fingers if you're having fun?
Bonus #1: check out this weird Skittles commercial. Bonus #2: For some reason, the official Skittles site features a flash game where you can capture cows with a spaceship. Not sure what that has to do with Skittles, but there are worse ways to waste thirty seconds of your day.
5. Bit-O-Honey
These aren't the most popular candy, but maybe that will change now that Jerry Seinfeld has unofficially lent his name to them. He says he wasn't saying it just to promote his movie, and why would Jerry lie?
4. Sugar Babies
Some prefer Sugar Daddies, but for my trick-or-treat money, it's all about the Babies. They may share a name with a horrible Broadway musical that starred Mickey "being nice is just my public image, I'm really a creep" Rooney, but Sugar Daddies also have a firm hold on my sweet tooth. In case you aren't familiar with them, Sugar Babies are tiny candy-covered caramels — think jelly beans, but made of caramel. And covered in that mysterious "candy shell" we all love so much. Sugar Daddies, on the other hand, are a big block of caramel, no coating. Not bad, but a little hard to finish.
3. Weird Tootsie Roll Flavors
Vanilla? Grape? Orange? Only on Halloween are such wacko flavors acceptable. They are also only palatable in small, trick-or-treat-bag-sized doses. Officially called "Tootsie Roll Midgees," they come in lemon, vanilla, cherry, orange and lime . Genius? Or an abomination on par with the majority of the films that star Ben Affleck? You decide.
2. Raisinets
Look mom! I'm eating fruit! Yeah, I know it's covered in chocolate. But under the chocolate is fruit! Really, dried fruit. Raisins. They used to be grapes. That's a fruit, right? Hey! Come back here with my trick or treat bag! Mooooom!
And, from the home office in my living room, the number one Halloween candy is…
1. Brachs Autumn Mix
Liking candy corn puts you in very good company: the majority of the famous folk in this 2007 People Magazine story cite it as their favorite Halloween treat. Since I'm competitive by nature, I'm taking things to the next level with Autumn Mix.
I literally eat these by the (large) bag. This delightful confection is made with honey (in addition to the usual high fructose corn syrup, carnuba wax, and other stomach-churning crappola), which may account for its better-than-average taste. The standard candy corns are accompanied by corns of a different color (formerly known as "Indian Corn" basically candy corns with a chocolate bottom) and also candy pumpkins, which are about twice the size of a corn. Bonus link: if you want to know how candy corn and its cousins are made, check out this story — according to which, "candy companies will produce nearly 35 million pounds of the corny candy this year. That's about 9 billion individual kernels of corn." Note to candy makers: that may not be enough.
Since there's no way I'll get everybody's best treats onto this list, let us know your favorite seasonal sugars in the comments!
©2008 Babble
About the Author
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Brett Singer is a writer and father living in Manhattan with his wonderful wife and two terrific sons. Other writing work includes his new site, daddytips.com.
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