Want to find candy from your childhood that’s still in production? Aside from Candy Addict links, try the very bottom shelf in the candy aisle at your supermarket. The bottom shelf usually has the less popular comestibles, or maybe it’s for the customers who know what they want and where to get it. Either way, that’s where I noticed a fun candy from my childhood: original Spree. (I said “fun,” not “delicious.”)
So, what’s so fun about Spree? Well, you have to know what these candies do when they get wet. That’s right: they bleed off their super bright colors like you’ve got your own personal dye factory. Apparently, some girls used them for makeup before they were allowed such stuff, but of course we boys had a much “better” idea. We systematically collected all the red ones and made fake gun-shot wounds on our white t-shirts. Obviously.
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For a long time my official “car candy” was Altoids. I liked the regular flavor, but my husband preferred wintergreen, so we kept two tins on hand (but his disappeared first, since his habit was to crunch through several Altoids at a time!). Oh, but I digress. My current car candy is the tart and lovely Life Savers Fruit Tarts. These come in two varieties: the purple tin contains Grape Berry, Green Apple, and Strawberry Watermelon; the gold tin has Watermelon, Cherry Lemonade, and Mandarin Orange. I usually alternate between the two tins.
The little fruit tarts are sugar-free but not, according to the tin, a “low-calorie food”. Whatever. The tin is very clever and cute. You press down in the center of the lid, and the sides release and pop open. The close, you replace the lid and just pinch the sides, and they snap back into place. Should I confess that I could not for the life of me figure out how to get these tins open? My husband had to show me. In my defense, though, these are car candies, which means I was too busy driving to read the instructions.
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