Photo Credit: Flickr User Michele M. F.
For many of us, trick-or-treating was one of the great rituals of childhood. Fewer things were sweeter (sorry) than getting home and dumping your sack of sugar-laced loot on the table for sorting and scarfing down. I especially dug chewy candy such as Milk Duds or Gummy Bears.
(And if you’re wondering what the worst candy was, the answer is the off-brand sugar-free bubblegum my mom handed out one year. It was like chewing pencil erasers coated with insecticide. I’m surprised our neighbors didn’t storm our house with pitchforks and torches like villagers in a Frankenstein flick.)
For this month’s poll, I asked some of my co-workers at Sur La Table headquarters for their favorites.
“I don’t have substantial memories of Halloweens past to be honest. My yearly binge from the cornucopia of candy by the door was routinely followed by what I can only describe as an insulin-induced coma. But now, as an adult, with a newly acquired trait of self-control and a palate which has been tested to be in the upper quartile of bougie French trust-fund babies, Twix. Twix in the morning, Twix in evening, Twix at suppertime.”–Nolan Adams, Merchandising Coordinator
“Snickers is hands-down the best Halloween candy to get. Any candy that has chocolate is going to be better than a Starburst- or Skittles-type candy.”–Clare McCormick, Assistant Buyer, Bakeware and Books
“My favorite candy on Halloween was always Blow Pops, especially grape. My mom had a serious hate for bubble gum, so Blow Pops were an extra-special treat.”–Jina Jansson, Operations Manager, Visual Merchandising
“Kit Kat! I still love the chocolaty crunch. Although a neighbor would always give out full-size Butterfingers! That was a special treat.”–Sarah Hatridge, Assistant Buyer, Cookware and Cutlery
Photo Credit: Flickr User Susana Fernandez
“Hands-down fave, not even a close second in the race: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.”–Cindi Cochran, Manager, Culinary Program, Content
“Wow, it’s hard to choose just one favorite but mine was probably Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Why? Well because it was the one type of candy bar my mom couldn’t pilfer from my Halloween candy stash (due to her peanut allergy), so that made them seem extra-special.
We also loved those hard pink cubes of Bazooka bubble gum, which started out super sweet and quickly progressed to flavorless in a matter of minutes. It was fun having bubble-blowing contests for those first five minutes!”–Beth Sullivan, Web Content Administrator
“My favorite Halloween candy was and still is Razzles. Why? Because of their versatility and unique ability to evolve from one genre to another WHILE being consumed. First, it’s a candy–THEN it’s a gum. The Razzle begins its confectionary journey as a chewable soft candy with a range of delicious tropical flavors and then just when you think the candy has done its thing… Razzles ain’t finished with you yet. Through the power of both science and candy wizardry the Razzle TRANSFORMS into a chewing gum to continue to delight and amaze. Razzle refuses to be pigeonholed as one thing or another and crosses candy borders to become the one uniting force between the often separate and sometimes contentious worlds of candy and chewing gum.”–Andrew Cage, Store Operations Manager
“Does it have to be candy? My favorite childhood memories of Halloween treats are of a fruit and a tavern drink. From 1982 to 1985 we were living in the foothills between Reno and Virginia City, Nevada (where I went to school). Virginia City was (and remains) a pretty weird little town of 800–900 people, and host to some authentic but touristy old saloons such as The Ponderosa and The Bucket of Blood. They’d kept the town looking as much as possible like the Old West town that it once was. Come Halloween time, we’d trick-or-treat up and down Main Street to all of the businesses, and I remember getting a homemade sarsaparilla–I’m pretty sure it was from the Bucket of Blood. Farther up the road there was a lady who handed out pomegranates that I think she grew herself. Although this was in the age of urban legends of razor blades in apples and poisoned candy, getting a pomegranate was simply too cool to pass up, especially on Halloween. No matter what we each dressed up as, we’d end the night looking like freshly fed adolescent vampires–our faces dripping red with pomegranate juice while we haunted the ghostly movie-set town jacked up on sugary drinks served by burly Western bartenders.”–George Guy, Graphic Designer
Photo credit: Flickr user Jeff Turner
“My post trick-or-treat Halloween candy-sort hierarchy:
- Chocolate (arranged from full-size to fun-size, pure to stuff inside)
- Sugar, Cool (Pixy Stix, Starburst, Skittles, Nerds)
- Sugar, Edible (candy corn, Jolly Ranchers, jawbreakers)
- Trash (circus peanuts, Dubble Bubble, that stuff wrapped in orange and black wax paper??)
I still stand by these standards today. However, the best was Bubblicious gum. Known for its brief but intense flavor, you could blow big sticky bubbles which obviously should be kept away from hair but less intuitively had a knack for sticking to lips.”–Felicia Chao, Production Manager, Catalog
So those are some of ours. What was your Holy Grail of Halloween candy? Tell us in the comments. And if you have a hankering for something sweet, we can help.
Bill Tuttle
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Smarties, hands down. What’s not to love about sour, fruit-flavored chalk?
I’m all about the 3 Musketeers! I hope my kids get some for me to steal this year. :-)
I was a Sweet-Tarts kid. I’m generally a fan of tartness.
Chick-o-Stick–fun name, addictive, and vegan to boot!
I’ll second the shout-out for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. We haven’t had a trick-or-treater stop by our building in years and I still somehow end up with a bag or two every Halloween. You know, for the kids.
Twix 4 life!