The Junk Food Junkie’s Guide to The Best and Worst Halloween Candy
Posted in Candy, Halloween |If you are the person in your household in charge of supplying the candy, there is certainly no shortage of options. There are, however, surefire winners and losers. There was always a house in my neighborhood that handed out cans of soda. There was a theory that one year they forgot to buy candy and so handed out what they had. We loved it, though, and they got a reputation. Every year after that, the soda was present. I am not a big advocate of giving soda to children, but it is good in a pinch and it certainly will make going to your house memorable.
Full or king-size anything is always a good approach. Trick-or-treaters always want as much as possible, so the bigger the bar, the better the reception. On the flip side of that, the mini or “fun” sized bars are often sold around Halloween. Usually there are bags of mixed varieties of candies in the little sizes. If you buy these, trick-or-treaters are going to expect to receive more than one.
Leaving your home and putting out a bowl of candy for revelers to help themselves from is always a risk. Yes, it’s more fun for trick-or-treaters than no one being home, but the kids who get to those houses early always take huge handfuls. This leaves those who come out later, or have your house at the end of their route with nothing, or with the less desirable candies.
What might those undesirable candies be you might ask? Again, everything is a matter of opinion, but the things always left sitting in the bottom of my plastic pumpkin (or plastic bag once I got older) were Bit-O-Honey and its counterpart Mary Jane. I enjoy honey in tea, baked into sweets, and in many other forms, but something about these candies does not go over well. I have never known of a single person, when I was a kid or now, who would willingly or excitedly gobble up these candies. They always seem to surface around Halloween and no other time, but there isn’t anything particularly seasonal about them, and they’re certainly not in the Halloween spirit.
Another unpopular pair is Almond Joy and Mounds. Some people don’t mind coconut, but I am not among them. I always break open chocolates in mixed boxes so I don’t accidentally end up ingesting the shredded white stuff also found inside these bars. Mounds and Almond Joy also don’t seem to be too popular with kids. If they come in a mixed bag with the likes of their more popular cousins Snickers, Milky Way and Three Musketeers, they could always be left in there to see if kids go for them, especially if you don’t want them for yourself! It is probably not a good idea to supply simply Mounds or Almond Joy to costumed visitors.
Any seasoned (and even some who aren’t quite so seasoned) Halloween lover will tell you to pace yourself. Once you get home, evaluate your treat situation. Kids often like to take things to school and arrange trades, exchanging candy they received in multiples or the “undesirables” with stuff they actually like. This tactic can easily be applied to those who are now out of school by bringing such tradable candy to work. A good way to ration out Halloween candy is to pack little “goodie bags” for yourself to enjoy throughout the day. And remember, Halloween candy can be saved, frozen, and enjoyed long after the leaves have all fallen off of the trees.
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