This past week I had the pleasure of having my father visit for the holidays. It was a great time. We explored the city, dined at my favorite eateries, and enjoyed the sweet tooth I genetically inherited from him by popping into various confection stores and leaving very, very full.

When it was time to bid adieu to him, we pulled into a gas station near my house so he could fill the rental car up and avoid the surcharge. Despite this gas station being located down the street from me, I hadn’t set foot in it a long time, but remember finding a slew of great candy during earlier visits.

As he paid the clerk, I browsed the candy aisle and scanned it for something out of the ordinary. Maybe because it was Christmas Day (I can’t really figure it out otherwise), but there amongst all the different flavors of Skittles sat the newest spin-off, Skittles Crazy Cores.

I first learned about the upcoming release of this candy back in the fall, but I hadn’t seen these in any major supermarkets or drugstores, which made my spotting them in an independently owned gas station particularly Christmas miracle-esque.

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Photo by Anthemic Tangle
One of the best things about Halloween for me is the post-Halloween candy sale. I get to try out all sorts of fun stuff while extending the Halloween spirit for as long as the candy lasts.

Being a Jolly Rancher fan, I immediately gravitated to the Jolly Rancher Creepy Pops. Plus, I love lollipops so I couldn’t wait to try these.

Photo by Anthemic Tangle

The bag has four flavors: wacky watermelon, spooky blue raspberry, ghastly grape, and eerie apple. Each pop is individually wrapped but you can tell what flavor you’ll be getting because you can see the color through the wrapper.

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Remember those plastic wrist bands that everyone was wearing a year or two ago? First available in yellow and bearing the inspirational message “Livestrong,” they were sold by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to raise money for cancer research. The campaign was so successful that other organizations also began to sell bracelets in various colors – pink for breast cancer, green for kidney donation, and so forth.

Even satirical newscaster Stephen Colbert got in on the action – after breaking his wrist, Colbert attempted to convince celebrities and fellow newscasters to wear “Wriststrong” bracelets in support of awareness against “wrist-related violence.” (The proceeds were actually donated to a fund that aids in the rehabilitation of injured American soldiers.)

Perhaps due to the wide availability of flea-market and dollar-store knockoffs, the bracelet fad has faded. However, the candy industry, usually pretty fad-conscious, has only now given us these: Boo Bands edible gummy bracelets. The individually-wrapped bracelets come in blue, red, orange, and purple, and bear the inspirational messages of “SPOOKY,” “TRICK,” “TREAT,” and, of course, “BOO!” (Oh well… who wants to be preached at by Halloween candy anyway?)

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I can be a vulture when it comes to candy. I have a predetermined list of stores I scout out weekly and gaze upon their candy sections. Supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations, etc…. I usually do this to see if there happens to be a sale on candy, or even if I know there is a new product debuting that I should keep an eye out for. You can imagine my surprise whenever I discover a new candy product that I wasn’t expecting.

Yes, this is a rarity, but it happened this past week at a Walgreens. As if it was supposed to be stocked with all the other theater-sized box candy, a new version of Mike and Ike stood among its cousins of Tangy Twister and Jolly Joes: Italian Ice. I knew to expect the release of Lemonade Blends a few months back, but nowhere had I heard about Italian Ice debuting. In fact, it isn’t even listed on their website.

Quickly, I purchased the box along with a box of the new and original Tropical Typhoon, which boasted an assortment of new flavors, as advertised on its box.

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I am a big believer in the idea that candy should, above all things, be fun. And there is perhaps no candy on earth as fun as the candy with Fun right in its name – the legendary Lik-M-Aid itself: Fun Dip.

If you’ve never had Fun Dip before, you are missing out on one of the greatest candy experiences of all time. There’s nothing particularly fancy or high class about Fun Dip; it’s the kind of candy you fall in love with when you’re in elementary school and never quite grow out of, the kind of candy that is both simple and wonderfully ridiculous, the kind of candy that makes dentists cringe and kids flip out with sugar-induced happiness. Fun Dip is candy at its best: sour, sweet sugar that tastes great and is super fun to eat.

The taste of Fun Dip is extremely similar in taste and texture to that of Pixy Stix. In fact, eating a packet of Fun Dip is a bit like eating a bowl of Pixy Stix sugar, which, I must say, is pretty awesome.

Fun Dip currently comes in three flavors: RazzApple Magic, Cherry-Yum-Diddly, and Grape-Yumptious:

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