I have a special place in my heart for candy.  Also, I have a special place in my stomach for candy.  And thanks to advancing age and a mostly sedentary job, a special place on my hips for candy, too. 

I think that my all-time favorite candies would be either Skittles or M&Ms, due to the sortable nature of them.  I would pour all of the bits from their bags, then place them into color-coded piles.  I would determine the pile with the smallest number of candies, then eat down the other piles until all the candy piles had the same number of pieces.  Then I would begin to eat the candies one by one, in ROYGBIV order, until they were down to one piece of each color.  Finally, I would finish off the candies by eating the final colors in order of my least favorite color or flavor to my most favorite.  For example, the final Skittles would be consumed purple, green, yellow, red, orange (orange being my favorite color); M&Ms would disappear light brown, brown, yellow, orange, green) (green being my favorite M&M color, this being the time when there were no red or blue M&Ms but there was a tan M&M).  M&M’s had to be eaten by color order only because they all had the same flavor, while Skittles offered a distinct flavor and could be eaten in order of taste preference.  There, aren’t you glad you read all that?

On our long road trips to Wisconsin, my parents would fold the backseat down in the station wagon, toss my brother and I back there with some candy, and drive for 24 hours.  As long as I had books, a few packages of Hubble-Bubble gum, my diary, and ample candy to choose from, I would be happy for the entire ride.

Halloween, the religious holiday of candy, was always looked forward to by my brother and I.  We’d spend the whole evening trick-or-treating, then we would dump our piles out next to each other and barter and trade.  Since I was older, I never had any problem convincing him that I would “semi-reluctantly” offer him three…no, four orange-wrapped peanut flavored taffies for one, lonely full-sized Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, or one package of Starburst.  Can you believe I’m not a used-car saleswoman today?  But really, what communist created those godawful peanut taffies, anyway?  Those were always so gross.  Right up there with Bit-O-Honey’s, if you ask me.      

Ever since we discovered the foreign sweets section at our favorite supermarket, we have been hooked on candy from other countries.  We’ve sampled candies and cookies from Poland, Switzerland, and Great Britain so far, and overwhelmingly prefer the taste of these items over comparable American candy.  I like the Aero bar.

The main ingredient in all of the foreign sweets is always: sugar.  Not corn syrup.  Even candy from global leaders like Nestle use sugar in their candy, as long as it’s candy for the non-American markets.  Their candy tastes better, too.  It’s not as sweet and it doesn’t hurt your teeth. 

And the labels are funny, too.  Check out what the husband brought home on his last trip to the supermarket:  The Yorkie.

Now even though the warning label clearly stated “Not for Girls,” I had to try it.  I am somewhat of a rebel, after all.  And you know what?  It tasted like a Nestle candy bar, except less sweet.  Delicious!  I hope that tasting this bar does not somehow reduce my lifespan.  I couldn’t find any more information on why the Yorkie was only for dudes.  You can see that my son was very wary when I attempted to try a piece.

Speaking of candy, we recently ventured to tiny Philipsburg, Montana to visit the Sweet Palace.  Mmmm.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to call my dentist.