Candy Review: Quality Candy – Gilliam Stick Candy

Friday, September 11, 2009 - by Cadence

Gilliam Candy Company has been around since 1927 but it’s only been under the Quality Candy banner since 2003. Lucky for me Gilliam joined the Quality family because I got to try their Stick Candy.

I remember these hard candy sticks from when I was a kid. The tantalizing colors and stripes would glisten from the shelves and they all looked so luscious it was really hard to pick just one.

I’m afraid you may have the same problem with these sticks. I sat ogling my stick candy in gluttonous glee before I finally chose a few to sample. For those of you who don’t like trying to guess what flavor the stick will be, they’ve got the names of the flavors printed on the ends of the sticks. But if you want to go for the mystery and choose by color, just don’t read the wrapper!

You won’t have a shortage of colors and flavors to choose from – here’s the list of flavors I got a look at: banana, blackberry, blueberry, bubblegum, cherry, cherry cola, chocolate, cinnamon, clove, cotton candy, grape, horehound, island punch, lime, orange, orange pineapple, passion fruit, peaches & cream, peppermint, pina colada, pineapple, raspberry, root beer, rum & butter, sassafras, sour apple, spearmint, strawberry, tangerine, tutti frutti, watermelon, and wintergreen.

Obviously, it’d take me a month to try all these so I narrowed it down to five: bubblegum, horehound, rum & butter, sassafras, and sour apple.

I tried the bubblegum because just the thought of it made the kid in me giggle. This flavor tastes like bubblegum with some barley sugar and a little bit of fruitiness thrown in.

I tried the horehound because I didn’t know what “horehound” meant. Miriam Webster said it’s a kind of minty plant or a candy made out the plant, but this wasn’t minty at all. Mostly it tasted like barley sugar to me and I found it really mellow and pleasant to eat because it was just the right amount of sweet. I had trouble putting this one down.

I tried the sassafras because I think the name is fun. I know that many root beers say “sassafras” on them, but this tasted kind of like black licorice to me with some root beer in the finish.

I LOVE butterscotch so I couldn’t wait to try the rum & butter. This stick isn’t actually a butterscotch wannabe. It has its own, distinct sweet rum flavor with some buttery flavor sneaking in here and there. I found it light and enjoyable.

Finally, I tried the sour apple. While this definitely had a mild apple flavor, I wouldn’t call this sour. I prefer my sour apple flavor to be strong and quite tart, but if you like your apple flavor on the light and sweet side, you’ll enjoy this.

Overall, these were way fun to eat – the flavors were satisfying and the colors and shape evoked a sense of nostalgia that just added to the fun factor. As a bonus, they last a good long time so they should keep you occupied for quite awhile.

• Quality Candy Company Website