A list of favourites and forgetables to get you pumped for October 31
By Brittney MacDonald, Life & Style Editor
Fall is a time of multi-coloured leaves, cozy knitwear, and pumpkin spice lattes. It’s also a time for Halloween and ridiculous amounts of candy! When you were a kid, there were definitely things you were excited to see go into your trick-or-treating bag, as well as a few you weren’t quite as excited about. So here’s a list of the best and worst candies to grace/tarnish the fine name of All Hallows’ Eve.
- Full size anything. Be they candy bars or bags of chips, bigger is better!
- Hitting up those retirement communities could be hit or miss. On one hand, you’d get the sweet old people that would hand out the best butterscotches—but on the other hand you could wind up with the ones who went to Costco and bought a variety pack devoted to dental hygiene. Why these people hate fun, I don’t know.
- Salt and Vinegar or Ketchup chips. As Canadians, we’re proud of our great variety of chip flavours, but on Halloween it’s got to be the Ketchup and Salt and Vinegar flavours that take the cake. So much more special than regular, and always delicious.
- All-Dressed chips. Yes, they’re just as Canadian as all the other wacky chip flavours we entertain up here in the north, but really? Does anyone actually like All-Dressed chips? To be honest, if you haven’t got a beer in hand to cut all that tang, this flavour is about as much fun as getting pepper-sprayed in the tonsils.
- Staying true with our theme of being a proud Canadian, Smarties are unique to our country. Everywhere else, a smartie is actually what we call a rocket—yes, those delicious, powdered sugar monstrosities. Our smarties are the best because you can either share them, or just horde them all to yourself.
- Salt water taffy. This is the other danger of going to all those retirement communities. They’re sticky, they make a mess, and they’re impossible to chew. All in all, they’re a terrible candy that you feel obliged to eat when you’ve exhausted all other options—meaning you’ve already picked out all the good stuff.
- Horror-themed gummies. True, they may not taste any better than your average gummy worm, but there’s just something so much more satisfying about biting into an eye or toe.
- They may seem fun and adorable, until you realize that most Halloween packs feature only Halloween colours. That means that 50 per cent of your jellybean haul will wind up being black licorice flavoured, and therefore inedible.
- Mars bars. Everyone is excited to see a Mars in their basket/bag. The combination of caramel and whatever that chocolate fluff is makes them a holiday favourite. Plus, they’re guaranteed to be peanut free, so everyone can enjoy them.
- Crispy Crunch. When I was a kid living with a chocoholic for a sister, these were generally the only chocolate bar left-over if I didn’t try and hide my others before she got to them. The perils of growing up the youngest, I guess. The experience of biting into a Crispy Crunch is similar to one of biting into glass; you feel like a badass after you’ve swallowed, but you’re not entirely sure it was worth all the cuts to the roof of your mouth.
