Posts Tagged With: Candy

Here is a look at how “American” candy is packaged in Europe:

If you see a lot of American flags or the words “USA” on the packaging, I am going to guess it wasn’t actually produced in the US. I took this photo at the Plumule expat store in the Mall of the Netherlands earlier in December. Jawbreakers themselves are a really, really hard candy in the shape of a ball. It’s almost impossible to bite into at the start. Instead you are forced to suck on it for a while until it softens a bit, although that is when they are almost gone. They are also known as gobstoppers in the UK where they originated.

I liked therm a lot as a kid, although it can be annoying trying to get to the point where you can actually bite into them. Maybe that is what the stick is for? Either way, I prefer Warheads candy (Wikipedia). And now I am going down the rabbit hole looking at the Wikipedia page for Dum Dum lollipops…

As a kid I was always eating Now and Later candy (English Wikipedia). Or Spree candy, the chewy version. The best part about Now and Later candy is that it is hard now and chewy later, hence the name.

I have thought about these candies now and then over the years, but it was never a big enough craving to buy a bag while I was in the States. I usually think about the candy whenever I see Marco put a peppermint in his mouth and bite it immediately. He can never wait, not even a few seconds. I told him before “well if you had a Now and Later candy you wouldn’t be able to do that!” because the candy starts off so hard it is impossible to safely bite through at the beginning.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the local expat store, Kelly’s, started selling the Now and later candies last month. I immediately planned a trip to the store and dragged Marco along. Later that night I unwrapped a candy, inspecting it. It looked hard like the original candy, but perhaps quite like I remembered. I took a bite, and felt the familiar disappointment of an expat set in. By which I mainly mean the disappointment of moving away and things change while you are gone. It was still tasty, mind you. Just not quite the same as it used to be. It isn’t as hard anymore–maybe people sued over their broken teeth–which was unfortunate considering the name.

It’s still fun to things drifting over from the States, though. I think two of the most important things are Frank’s original red hot sauce (for me) and Frank’s red hot buffalo wing sauce (for Marco). You can even get it at the local grocery store, Albert Heijn. No extra trip to the expat store needed. So it isn’t all disappointment!