Ellen Byron

I took a deep, sugary dive.

A couple of weeks ago, I made a dangerous discovery at my local Dollartree. I was picking up the stick pretzels that I often buy there when I turned around and saw this…

And this…

And this and this…

It’s like every candy from my childhood suddenly burst to life in front of me.

I couldn’t resist purchasing a sample of them to see which lived up to my memories. I went with Snow Caps, Raisinettes, Whoppers, Sugar Babies, and Charleston Chews. The only ones to disappoint where the Charleston Chews, which is ironic because they were my favorite candy growing up. The rest of the gang was a cornucopia of sugary deliciousness.

In my perpetual quest to lose weight, I evaluated the calorie count for a serving of each and figured out that if I had a single serving, I could factor it into my daily menu as a treat. (In other news, I’ve been on a weight loss plan for almost a year provided by my health insurance and lost exactly zero pounds. Or ounces.)

I did my best to stick to three tablespoons of Sno Caps or 21 Sugar Babies, which proved to be my trigger treat. In the midst of my indulgence, I happened upon a recent study that said people who drank sugary beverages had a much higher risk of developing gastric cancer. I breathed a sigh of relief that I’ve never liked sweetened drinks and even gave up diet sodas years ago. Then I had a thought. My daughter had a friend who sometimes ate sugar by the spoonful. Horrifying as I found this, I was probably doing the same thing with my daily candy dosing. And it occurred to me that there would be a lot of overlap in the Venn diagram of sugar beverages and my candy collection.

I won’t be browsing the candy aisle anymore. And the leftover boxes have been emptied into our compost bin. But boy, was it fun while it lasted!

Readers, what was your favorite candy when you were a kid? Did you have a go-to treat when you went to the movies?

56 thoughts on “I took a deep, sugary dive.”

  1. I’m the first to comment here, since I’m in Paris where it’s 9 hours ahead of California. Speaking of sugary treats, last night my sister and I had for dessert une mousse au chocolat and une coupe chantilly (which is basically a gigantic scoop of sweetened thick whipped cream). Heaven.

    As a kid, I loved those Ice Cube chocolates, which I now realize has such an amazing mouth feel because of all the palm oil they contained. Sigh….

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    3. Ooo, words do not describe the Parisian dessert jealousy. Hope you and Laura are having a great time (of course you are, I’ve been following the posts!). Never have I ever had an Ice Cube chocolate, though. How did I miss?

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  4. I am a sugar addict. There’s not too much in the way of candy. I liked as a kid. Although my favorite was probably the zero bar, because it wasn’t real chocolate.

    I have grown up and now I like real chocolate. Hershey’s just doesn’t do it for me. I like European truffles myself. and I’m with Leslie on the chocolate mousse from France.

    even though I won’t be able to help much, I am taking a baking class this coming Saturday at Sur La Table. I’m probably gonna be supervising my friend, because that’s just what I do. she said we should cancel the class, but I already paid for it anyway and I want to learn the techniques, so I will be going to watch. We’re gonna be making the opera cake.

    maybe I can help make the ganache for the top. But I really wanna learn how to make candied hazelnuts nuts,

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  6. Life is no good without sugar. I’m unable to pick favorites, still drooling at the pictures of those gorgeous shelves. I’m lucky that my Dollar Tree moved to a new location that’s hard to access if you live in my direction.

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  7. Ah sugar! I do miss it.

    Ellen, I so relate to your weight battle. have been on an eating plan designed to lose weight for several years and finally after 6 years have started to slowly take off a pound or two, so I guess, hang in there!

    As for the candy aisle, oh I loved lemonheads, M&Ms, sugar babies, cinnamon bears and whoppers as a kid. Still love lemon, cinnamon, chocolate, but would much rather have it in a decadent dessert ala Leslie’s mousse au chocolat and une coupe chantilly! And in a nod to the day, dieting is labor! Happy days, ya’ll!

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      1. dark chocolate is better for you. Allegedly. But I’ll take it anyway. My favorite dark chocolate is truffles made by my own hands. It’s so much better when you know heart is in it

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  11. Yum!! I like my sugar chocolate flavored. I’ve always been a Snickers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup aficianado, and now I’ve discovered Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups. I’m going to go eat one right now!

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    2. Reese goes with milk! After all, the best drink with a peanut butter sandwich is a tall cold glass of milk. Agree to disagree?

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  12. Oh, the memories you unearthed! As a kid I loved the little candy dots on paper rolls, the wax “bottles” filled with sugar water, Whoppers, and Fizzies (not just in water–we used to lick the tablets, like a precursor to Pop Rocks). I’m a sugar fiend and liked a lot of the chocolate candy bars (I’ll still have the occasional butterfinger or Reese’s PB Cup, although I’m full on Team Dark Chocolate now). My favorite chocolate treat remains dark chocolate pretzels. I had them for the first time in the 1960s at the candy counter of May Co. on Wilshire & Fairfax, which is now the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (I still call it May Co.).

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  13. Ellen – You unearthed those fun memories for me too! We called them “penny candy” back in the day when we ventured to the Five & Dime (precursor to the Dollar Tree name and inflation through years) with a shiny nickel in our palms, anticipation off the chart. Caramel creams (still available today) and Records (black licorice with some kind of red hard candy ball in the middle) were my favorites. There was also some kind of banana square too. And then those strips of paper with some kind of sugary dot attached to them. If I remember right, they were all a penny and you felt like you got a lot for your money.

    Thanks for the tip on Dollar Tree. I’ll be checking out their candy aisle. 🙂

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      1. Thanks for the tip on the Cow Tails. Sounds just like my caramel creams from the good old days. Will definitely check them out and report back!!!

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        1. Ellen – I’m reporting back that my local Dollar Tree has a full supply of Goetze’s Caramel creams, which I’m thinking are the same as your Cow Tails.

          And Lisa- yes, Bullseyes sound familiar too.

          Whatever they are called, the 10-piece bag is almost gone. I couldn’t hold back from diving into my childhood treat.

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  14. Loved this nostalgic trip down sugar lane! For some reason, when I was a kid, I was a member of the Sweetarts Kids Fan Club (as advertised here). Somewhere in my childhood bedroom, I still have that Sweetarts wallet and membership card. Eventually the company was taken over by Nestle, and the kids fan club was dissolved as quickly as a Sweetart on the tongue. Alas.

    I still prefer fruity over chocolate candy. Swedish Fish or Dots are a go-to. Or a licorice candy.

    Great post, Ellen!

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      1. It was very niche, peak early 90’s, I think.

        And oh yes, those are very tempting! I’d check out the supply at my local DollarTree, but it’s in the same plaza as my doctor’s office. I don’t think they’d approve!

        But in seriousness: thanks for sharing this. My mom was looking for a fun Christmas idea for a friend and I had suggested getting movie theater gift cards, popcorn and candy so her friend could take her grandchildren to the theater. (Grandkid sitting can get expensive…) I’ll be sure to tell my mom to check out the Dollar Tree for candy options!

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  15. My sweet tooth has been my downfall for a long time. I’ve been trying to be better this summer, which is semi-working. I’m not having dessert every day. I’ll take a win where I can get it right now.

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  17. Great post, El! I’m still a Sno-Caps fan at the movies, and I alternate them WITH the buttered popcorn and Sprite. As a kid, I was also with you with the Charleston Chews, which they sold every night at our summer camp store. They were pretty melty–think I regularly got the marshmallow on my pillow and woke up with it in my hair. Also 3 Musketeer bars (no longer the same, sadly).

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  18. My movie theatre candy were those mini Butterfingers. I only saw them at the movie theaters when I was a kid, so it was the only time I had them, and added to the anticipation and joy of the cinema.

    Overall, though, it was Reese’s peanut butter cups that were my favourite – always the first to disappear from the Halloween haul.

    When I was a kid, I was very weight conscious (I used to dance, and since I ate regularly and am naturally curvy, was erroneously and absolutely convinced I was overweight), but somehow, to me, candy didn’t count. I was literally an adult in my thirties when someone disillusioned me, with a disbelieving laugh, and the horrible words: “Candy still has calories.”

    Worse than finding out about Santa. 😂

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  19. I guess that I am much older than you all. The only time that I had candy when I was younger was when I went to my father’s movie theatre except for Halloween. I loved Cherry Charm Suckers, Milk Duds, Junior Mints, Tootsie Rolls, Slo Pokes, and of course hot buttered popcorn. I quit drinking diet drinks (Coke’s employees won’t even drink those) and went back to real Cokes I do not like Pepsi but Dr, Pepper is also great. Try mixing half Dr. Pepper and half Coke. Not diet. Wonderful. And I haven’t gained weight but actually lost some.

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