Let’s continue on in the “Seven Things” series.

I sometimes have a sizable problem. I like sugar and sugary things. A lot.

And I am occasionally surprised, at this point in my life, that I am not a diabetic. But I have tried to moderate my sugar splurges. Still? Candy usually equals yes.

Tonight, let me just share a few about some of my favorite candies. Because these are real important.

1. Almond Joys

Those Mounds deals are pretty dang good, with that coconut sitting there in the chocolate waiting for you to eat ’em. But you throw an almond in there, and I am probably gonna down the whole family pack of them. Definitely, in no specific order, in my top 3.

2. Peanut M&M’s

This is another case of putting a nut in some chocolate, and you have manufactured raw yum. I also appreciate, in this product, the candy shell, which makes the Peanut M&M a time-released burst of raw yum. You suck on the candy, find yourself falling into the chocolate, and slowly dissolve that to finish the experience with a satisfying chew down of the peanut. Yes- more please.

3. Cinnamon Bears

When I was in high school, bulk bins at a local grocery store allowed you to grab and bag various weights of different candies, which you measured out based on how much scratch you had in your pocket. If you had $1.32, you could get a $1.32 bag of candy. You just had to have a little math skills to help you here. At that time, I discovered the chewy and mouth-burning delicacy of the cinnamon bear. An oversized gummy packed with sugar and a nerve-tingling sear, I could not get enough of these dental disasters, because when you ate on one of these cinnamon bears, you chewed on it for quite a while.

4. Sugar Daddies

I don’t remember when or how I fortuned upon these remarkable sugar slabs on a stick, but they were amazing for the fact that trying to chew then when they warmed up was like trying to remold a drying adhesive in your mouth- and it felt like you were going to rip some of your teeth out chomping on them in the process. But that caramel flavor was enjoyable, and you worked up some savory saliva as you tried to consume the thing, so you felt like you really had earned it when you finished it- with all of your teeth still intact.

5. Bit-O-Honeys

Thanks to the Woolworths in the town of my parents’ youths, I was exposed to an exhaustive spread of whatever imaginable candies I could have wanted when we’d visit that town- and that store- when I was a kid. And I am pretty sure it is there that I had my first sampling of these enjoyable honey-tasting chewy snacks. I think my Grandfather liked ’em, which probably nudged me towards that adoption. But really, they just tasted so good. And for a long time as a kid, these were the bomb and my special treat candy, as I came across them here and there in rarity.

6. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

When I grew up, I let loose of the super chewy stuff, but discovering the peanut butter cup brought me into a new phase of mature dental debauchery. These things- they just tasted so good. For a number of years, I probably ate a two-pack of these a day at work. I mean, it was kind of like a peanut butter sandwich I’d have for lunch anyways. Protein, people- protein. And a simple and smooth satisfaction.

7. Licorice (Coins and Cats)

A nod here has to go to one of my favorite movie theater treats when I was younger- a box of delight I never really enjoyed except periodically when I went to the movies: Good & Plenty’s. Good & Plenty’s taught me that I liked licorice- at least in its sugary American form. Well, fast forward some lots of years, and my brother moved to a Nebraska city where there was a store dedicated to licorice products. And there, I found black licorice candies in the shapes of coins and cats. And the full on licorice coins and cats were good enough that I ended up ordering five pound bags of the coins and cats from that store long after visiting it, online, from my home in Albuquerque. The licorice is delicious, and the coins and cats also look cool.

Honorable Mentions:

a. See’s Candy Sticks

Nothing wrong with a colorfully striped sugar stick that I still remember getting from the mall confectioner at, at one time, two for a dime. A happy memory from my childhood, enjoying those sticks. We would suck ’em down on one end until they came to a point, like a prison shiv, before we bit the lethal part off and chewed it up before starting to shape the shiv all over again. Priceless.

b. Salt Water taffy

This is another childhood favorite, in part because it is nostalgic for me- because my dad loves salt water taffy. And years ago, when he would take a trip for work which took him near a known or favorite taffy shop, he would often return home with a bulk bag of the chewy candy that our whole family would enjoy- for a pretty short time, because it went fast. Licorice. Mint. Strawberry. Heck- I’ll take whatever you got in that bag.

c. Lifesaver Christmas Books

I gotta say- I and my siblings received these little Christmas treasures with about as much joy as we would have a new pony. A staple of our childhood stocking stuffers, you were overjoyed to see the little cardstock-bound volume which, when opened, guaranteed that you would enjoy minty and fruity flavors non-stop for the next four or five days.

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Image Credit: Untitled by Noel Conway via Flickr.com (under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0).