---

It’s always so sad during the first few days past Halloween. The anticipation is gone, the costumes are gone, that wonderful haunted feeling….gone. The candy isn’t though, thankfully! In fact, the post Halloween candy sales are almost as exciting as the holiday itself. Ok, maybe I exaggerate a bit…

I found this unusual candy at Walgreens on sale. Seeing the ominous size of the package, I can see why. It’s huge! What drew me into this specific candy as opposed to all the other offerings was, well, come on, look at it! It’s a bona fide candy spin off! A candy of a candy! That’s something you don’t see everyday.

 

Inside this monster of a bag, there’s individual packets of the gummi corn. The amount in each varied greatly, so I don’t know how much quality control paid attention to these. The kernels themselves are very attractive. They’re the size of real candy corn but the colors are brighter and more ghoulish. The texture is firm when you handle, they’re not limp and squishy like most gummis on the market. In the mouth, the chew is firm, more like those “fruit snacks” than gummis.

 

Scary Cherry (pink and red): Very artificial and bitter. SOmething about it reminds of of Valentine’s Day “red” flavors. It’s berry like, but nondescript.

Ghostly Grape Punch (purple ad blue): This taste like a milder version of Welch’s grape jelly. Pretty tasty, especially considering I’m not a big fan of grape flavors.

Phantom Pineapple Orange (yellow and orange): I get light notes of both the pineapple and orange. It’s sweet and a little zesty, like both fruits. It reminds me of a fruity popsicle.

Bizarre Berry Kiwi (pink and green): I taste melon, a vague kiwi essence with a strawberry sweetness to it.

I have to give it to Brach’s, they made a tasty treat here and I’m happy I caught it before it disappeared until next year. But, like all spin offs, it doesn’t measure up to the original.

Rating: Will Eat Again

 

Links:
Brach’s Website

---

Happy Halloween! Today is the candy lover’s holiday! Even though I’m no longer of age to go trick-or-treating, it’s still my favorite holiday. I think the fact that I can still satisfy my need for a sugar high tonight plays a big part of it.

One of my favorite candies is Halloween specific, and I’m referring not only to Brach’s candy corn, but more specifically their Mellowcreme Pumpkins. To even out my craving, I love buying bags of the Autumn Mix as it has a little bit of everything.

 

The mix has the traditional candy corn, along with indian corn and my beloved pumpkins. I sometimes find myself hesitating to eat them up right away as they’re so cute to look at. Then I gather my wits and remember how good they taste.

Candy Corn: Nicely shaped little kernels of corn with a yellow base, orange center and a white tip. The flavor is very sweet and sugary with a hint of honey, which makes Brach’s candy corn stand out to me from the other brands. The texture has a slight sugary graininess to it which I enjoy.

Indian Corn: Same shape as the candy corn, but with a brown cap that’s flavored with real cocoa. You can taste the difference, as the flavor is subtly chocolatey and it comes across as more complex as the regular kind.

Mellowcreme Pumpkins: They taste like the candy corn, but there’s just more to it as these are much larger.  The shape is very tall for pumpkins, as they’re not as round and squat as the real things. I prefer this, as it makes it easy to eat these in two bites. I adore how they make the effort to color the stem part green. So cute! I can’t get enough of these…

I’ve already got my bags of these hoarded away safely in my kitchen cupboards (shhh! Don’t tell anyone!) and I try to get enough to last me until next Halloween. Candy corn at other holidays just isn’t the same (looking at you Reindeer Corn!) along with the fact that the mixes lack pumpkins. I just hope I bought enough.

Rating: HOARD

 

Links:
Brach’s Website

 

---

Last year Brach’s, my favorite brand for candy corn, surprised us all with new flavor varieties of this iconic fall candy: Milk Maid Caramel Apple and Milk Mail Caramel. I reviewed these last year when I was writing for CandyAddict, and you can see my impressions of them there. I was pleased to find in my local Target that Brach’s is continuing the tradition and released a new flavor: Milk Maid Chocolate Caramel Candy Corn.

 

The candy corn still smells sweet, but now there’s a really strong buttery smell to them. The kernels are really pretty to Different shades of
The flavor is very interesting. It’s immediately sweet and the flavor is immediately the caramel. It comes across as a very intense, salty, fake, buttery flavor. The cocoa appears in the finish and aftertaste working hard to mellow out the strength of the butter flavor. I know it sounds odd, but this works. The caramel and cocoa flavors match well and neither come across as overpowering. My only criticism is that the caramel has a stronger presence than the cocoa, but I can live with this.

I love candy corn to begin with, so these will be a nice addition to my eating rotation so things won’t get too boring.

Rating: Will Buy Again

 

Links:
Brach’s Website

 

 

---

I loved these as a kid. They were one of the most colorful offerings in the bins at the grocery store my Mom would shop at, so naturally I was attracted to them right away. I’d chose them as my treat on occasions when I wanted something hefty and chewy that delivered a good flavor punch. I also would reach for these when I wanted chocolate but wasn’t allowed it. Something about these just satisfied the craving so I didn’t end up making myself crazy.

The Royals, or Milk Maids as they’re called in some areas, are really just little logs of sweet caramel with a flavored creme filling. Colorfully coded by type, you can easily tell at the store which flavors the masses prefer. When I bought mine the bin was woefully lacking in the blue Vanilla variety. Oddly enough, you can also guess as to the manufacturer’s favorite (or least favorite, I should say) because when I found my grab bag of these, not a single Maple flavored one was in the mix. I found that mildly annoying.

 

Chocolate (brown): I mainly taste the caramel in this one, it’s sweet with a few milky notes thrown in. The chocolate creme center only delivers a mild cocoa flavor and left me craving a bigger chocolate hit. Overall it reminds me a little of a tootsie roll with a softer texture.

Raspberry (dark pink): The rasberry flavor is very light and floral with a juicy kick to it. It’s not as strong as I hoped but it does work nicely with the caramel coating.

Vanilla (blue): The vanilla filling gives a great robust flavor and an extra milky punch to the whole caramel. It’s really lovely.

Orange (orange): This one is really cool because the combination of the sweet milky notes of the caramel with the orange center makes it taste of a creamsicle.

Butter Rum (yellow): The strong butter flavor tastes artificial to me. However, the slight “burning” flavor of the rum goes seamlessly with the caramel which I find really nice.

Maple (red): The one I was looking forward to the most! The maple flavor is detectable, but it’s more of a fake pancake syrup flavor as opposed to the real thing. It adds a nice woodsy and brown sugar flavor which really compliments the caramel.

 

I can see why I haven’t really visited these since my childhood. The flavors are mediocre and when you’re a kid eager to get a sugar hit, theses deliver enough flavor to satisfy the taste buds too. I find as an adult, I crave something more sophisticated than what these have to offer. I think my Mom summed it up perfectly when she saw my bag of Royals in my shopping bag: “Oh, I love those, but I haven’t had them in years!”. Some candies are best in memory.

Rating: Not Worth It

 

Links:
Royals/Milk Maid Webpage