Candy

This post is partly inspired by a recent Plinky.com prompt, and partly by a recent shopping trip this weekend. Nothing fancy– just the usual errands, and a quest to find 1) white non-sheer knee-high socks and 2) hair shears. I’ve got my costume for next Halloween all planned out, and need white knee socks to complete the outfit. I also tried my hand at trimming my split ends this past week, and while that endeavor actually went pretty well, I noticed that my current hair shears are no longer as sharp as they used to be. I tell ya, though– it’s HARD to find white knee socks and hair shears in this town! I must’ve hit every drugstore between our place and the local K-Mart, to no avail! Gonna try my luck at Wal-Mart this weekend, while I’m down in LA for little man’s dental appointment. Wish me luck!

Anyway… that was a tangent. While at CVS, I came upon the bins of post-Halloween candy for sale. I grabbed up Twizzlers, Tootsie Rolls, Now & Laters and a 25-cent bag of candy corn. 4 decent sized bags of candy for under $3? Yes, please! :-D As I surveyed the mass of candy now in the house (keeping in mind that we still had leftovers from our own trick-or-treat giveaway stash, plus candy that was there even before Halloween), I started thinking about all my favorite candies and how I liked each one, and was surprised at how many of them I actually prefer STALE:

– Gummi Bears. This is one of the rare times when I’m a brand whore (anyone that knows me knows that I readily eschew brand names for store/generic brands in a heartbeat when it’s cost-effective).  Haribo gummi bears simply cannot be beat. They’re okay fresh, but leave the bag open for a day or two and allow the bears to develop a chewy outer coat, and YUM.

– Red Vines. I prefer these to Twizzlers, but I can deal with Twizzlers on a bite-sized (i.e. Halloween fun-size packets!) basis. Either way, nothing beats the taste of a chewy, slightly stretchy piece of strawberry-flavored licorice that has been sitting out for a day or two.

– Marshmallows. I like my french fries with a crispy outer shell and a soft, mealy inside. Same goes for marshmallows– a perfect marshmallow for me is slightly hardened and chewy on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside. And bite-sized, not jumbo!

– Tootsie Rolls. I don’t know about you, but fresh Tootsie Rolls always seem to stick to my teeth far worse than stale ones. Does that happen to anyone else?

Then there are the rest of the favorites that my sweeth tooth gravitates toward, such as:

– Smarties (aka Rockets in Canada, Fizzers in the UK). I don’t know why, but I’m a sucker for pastel-colored, chalk-like candy. The kind that crumbles into a powder in your mouth like… well, chalk!

– Candy Corn. I like eating them in an orderly fashion– first the big yellow bottom, then the orange center, and finally, saving the best for last, the white tip.

-- LifeSavers Mints, particularly the Wint-o-Green (spearmint) flavor. Peppermint seems to strong for me, but spearmint possesses that perfect blend of sharp mintiness and sweetness. A couple times a year, I buy the big 3 or 5-pound bags of them at Wal-Mart, and keep them in my desk drawer at work :-D

And now that I have finished writing this post, I think I shall mosey into the kitchen and find some candy to nosh on :-)

How about you? What are some of your favorites?