Halloween Candy -- Too Sweet, No Taste!

FryBoy

New member
Maybe it's just part of being a curmudgeon, but it seems to me that Halloween candy -- and presumably regular everyday candy bars -- are far sweeter and have much less actual flavor (e.g., chocolate) than they did when I was a kid in the 1950s and early 1960s. Most are so sweet and so lacking in flavor that I find them rather unpleasant.

Perhaps it's just me, as one's tastes do change over time, but I do like good candy, such as just about anything from See's (a California chain of old-fashioned chocolate shops that for my money is better than Godiva). My guess is that the change is probably due to cheap high-fructose corn syrup, which the manufacturers have used to replace more expensive ingredients, such as real chocolate, nuts, coconut, and so forth.

Anyone else notice this, or is it just me again?
 

Deelady

New member
Oh how I miss See's Candy!!! I know you can order them online but its always been just a tad over my budget when you have the shipping as well.....
 

buckytom

Grill Master
you nailed it, fry.

most average chocolate was creamy, cocoa-y, and sweet when i was a kid. the cheap stuff tasted more like sugar and often stale cream and cocoa. but it still wasn't bad. i was a kid, afterall.

corn syrup allows a cheaper route than sugar. you can make something sweet without much effort, so you can minimize the amount of other flavorings. thus the overall loss in taste, imo.
 

smoke king

Banned
You are spot-on FB. DW and I had a discussion not long ago about Hershey bars. When I was a kid in the 60's, there was nothing better than a plain Hershey bar. I can't stand the taste of them these days. I had assumed that maybe my tastes had become more refined, because I still love good chocolate-Sees, Ghiradhelli, Dove etc. But the high fructose corn syrup thing makes more sense. Good observation!
 

FryBoy

New member
We never get a lot of kids trick-or-treating anymore -- only two groups this year, one with about 6 kids around 12, and a family with 2 little ones. Some years we get maybe 10 groups, never many more. Nevertheless, I always buy a couple of bags of candy, just in case, and I hand out 2 or 3 pieces to each kid. This year we had a lot left over -- Krackle bars and mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. We ate a couple of the leftovers and agreed that they sucked -- too sweet, no distinctive flavor, and they left me feeling a bit queasy. I thought for a moment about keeping them for my grandkids (4 & 6) as "special treats," but decided my flesh-and-blood deserve better. This morning I dumped all the remainders in the trash compactor and turned it on so I won't be tempted to try one more.
 

High Cheese

Saucier
I'm not a fan of sweets but I hate when I eat something and it's soo either sweet or chocolatey that my throat burns. So nasty.
 

Ronjohn

New member
I thought we had a great idea this past Saturday... I was just giving out refined sugar. All packaged up nicely (You know, skip the middle man and all that stuff. Go with outright sugar).

Then the police showed up. Something about packets of white powder, and them not thinking it was appropriate...

Ah well. I'll just put the rest of it in this double espresso. :bouncy:
 
Top