With Halloween being right around the corner, I started thinking about all the candies I wish were still around.
Take a short walk down memory lane with 5 such products,
now discontinued,
that I wish I could still buy and devour.
These 4 candies and 1 gum may have be discontinued,
but they have a fond place in my sugar filled blood stream.
Summit Candy bar
Very little exists about my favorite candy from years ago. I couldn't even find an old wrapper on the net.
Anyway, Summit Candy Bar was a rival to Twix, in that it also had 2 sticks.
Comparisons end there.
Summit had two wafers covered in peanuts and was surrounded by a chocolate coating. Every bite was delicious.
If any candy on this list could be resurrected, I'd vote for Summit. I think the label was orange.
Reggie Bar
In 1976 slugger Reggie Jackson said, "If I played in New York, they'd name a candy bar after me."
The next season he was a Yankee and got his wish. Reggie Bar was "chocolaty covered caramel and peanuts."
Not good for the allergic folks but I loved it. And I was barely a Yankees fan back then.
If you'd like to try it bid there's one for sale on ebay.
Gatorade Gum
I remember this had a real harsh taste at first chew.
Gatorade gum was semi-hard but was loaded with the kind of strange lime-ish flavor a ten-year-old playing Little League could really enjoy.
If you're jonesin for a sample, some people say Orbit Lemon-Lime gum tastes like Gatorade Gum.
Mars Bar
The nougat, almonds, caramel and milk chocolate concoction known as Mars Bar was a solid 2nd tier candy brand until 2002 when it became Snickers Almond.
I liked it as kid, even though I wasn't a huge fan of almonds.
Mars Bars are still sold in the UK but they're not the same thing. The UK Mars Bar is more like our Milky Way. But if you're fond of the name only, you can find Mars Bars occasionally in specialty grocery stores.
PS - They're fantastic deep fried.
York Wintergreen Patty
Imagine this photo with a green tinted inside. That's York Wintergreen.
I know, sounds kind of nasty. Especially considering the original peppermint is so, so, so good.
But I like wintergreen flavors and, while York's Wintergreen Patty was a shock to the tastebuds at first bite, it was yummy.
I guess I'm the only who thought so since it's one of those candies that came and went in the blink of an eye.
These are the five I miss most. If you've got a favorite you missed, put it in the comments.
Then please check out 5 cereals that rip your mouth apart.
Oh, and here's an old candy joke for you...
Stumble This
Reddit!
Ahh, so THAT'S what happened to the Mars bar! I didn't hear about the Southern-fried delicacy variety until well after they were gone from the shelves...now that I know they're Snickers Almond, I may have found my weekend project...
There used to be a peanut butter Snickers bar. It had an orange wrapper and was delicious!
I used to eat Marathon bars and Charleston Chews (frozen) all the time as a kid. I wonder if they're still around.
I used to be addicted to Willie Wonka's Whachamacallits, as dirty as that sounds, until they suddenly started putting caramel in them. Then the magic was gone.
aww it's like taking candy from a Baierby.
Miss C - I agree, they used to be awesome. Nice and crunchy. No more.
Not sure about Marathon's Tim but I eat CC's all the time. They're def still around on the East coast.
Frozen, they rock!
I miss candy cigarettes and Big League Chew.
Kids need that kind of candy.
Twin Bings are impossible to find now, and there's no Shasta to wash them down anyhow.
Big League Chew is still very much around. Candy Cigarettes are still occasionally sold as "candy sticks" but the red dye at the end is no longer present (the red dye gave the impression of a burning ember) and the packages are decidedly un-cigarettey. In some foreign countries, you can still find good-old fashioned candy cigarettes, complete with cigarette-spoofing packaging.
Candy Cigarettes: The History found here: http://cardhouse.com/a/candy/candy.htm
Dave- You can still get candy cigarettes and Big League Chew... just check out your local ice-cream truck. Though, it may be too cold for that now.
Does anyone remember those limited time only Hershey's swoops? They looked like pringles, but were just made of chocolate? They had flavors too with drizzles of peppermint (York) or peanut butter (Reeses) on top of them. They were amazing.
I miss the ginger altoids too.
I buy twin Bings all the time.
That's some good stuff there Do Not Swayze.
Candy cigarettes. Blow the smoke than chew the gum which wore out in 5 minutes. Can't go wrong or kill yourself. Wonder why Nicorette doesn't make their gum in that form?
Look for a Caption Competition soon with a prize of Candy Cigs.
Baier-If you had a caption competition with a prize of candy cigs. I'd have to take the day off work just to focus on my captions.
I think the Nicorette Candy cigs is a good idea.
I'm in if you want to market it.
I think we should sell them to kids. No-one has to know about the Nicotine.
Dave - I just found a whole box of them on ebay and got them. can't say if they're be in chewable condition (old candy?) but they'll probably still puff fake smoke.
Soon as they arrive, I'll start the photo competition.
For those interested in deep frying, as mentioned with the Mars bar, it's quite easy, and absolutely one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. All you need is some type of corn flakes, a breading/batter (I use fish chic as it's available in the restaurant I work at during the summer http://www.drumrockproducts.com/fis_chic.htm but anything like that works), water, and a frying system. Here's how it's done:
-Crunch up the cornflakes until you have a crumbly mix that you could dip something wet in and roll around
-Take some of the batter/breading and mix it with water, so you have an adhesive to stick the candy to.
-Dip the candy bar into the batter water, and then roll in around in the corn flakes. If necessary, two two layers--but make sure that the candy is NOT exposed. You can also do a regular powder-batter layer and then put the flakes on top of that.
-Fry. If the chocolate is exposed it'll leak into the fryer.
Take out and enjoy while still warm. Now, I haven't made these in a while, but anyone who's familiar with frying can get the jist of it. Using the batter by itself works, but the cornflakes make it taste a thousand times better.
I remember marathon bars, big ribbon of chewy caramel covered in chocolate goodness, was shaped odd but was so damn good, I had not seen those in ages..
http://www.victoryseeds.com/candystore/confectioners/news/news_marathon_bar.htm
Baier - Thanks for the info ... I'll have to keep an eye out for the Chews when roaming around. They used to come with chocolate flavored marshmallow inside as well. Did you see any of those, or just the regular?
Friggan - That's a cool link. I might just join in on the effort to bring back the Marathon bar.
Tim - How'd you like a box of chews? Enjoy
http://tinyurl.com/6ofr3z
You know, I never even thought to google this. Charleston Chews available at Amazon. Never thought of it ...
Thanks man.
Of course, that's about a 3 month supply. It takes a small commitment to finish one of those without distraction.
I wonder if anyone else remembers Thrills gum. It tasted like soap though so I'm not sure why I liked them, they were just different.
Baier--forgot to ask if this was you back in the day...
Nah SO, just some randow vintage kid who looks hooped up on sugar. (Like I was.)
Comment on York Wintergreen patty. They are no made by Haviland, a Necco company and the filling is pink in color, as opposed to green. I would buy boxes of 24 at their outlet store in Cambridge Ma.
What I miss are Hollywood bars, and Welchs Frappe when I was a kid.
Seven-Up...seven different flavor fillings in one candy bar...like a whitman sampler melted together.
Coconut watermelon slices with raisins for the seeds.
Razzles..hard candy similar to smartees with bubble gum in the center.
G, I never heard of that candy. Sounds like an interesting mix.
Razzles I think I did have as a kid. Good stuff, as I remember.
Have a gander at this, B.
http://www.candywrappermuseum.com/sevenup.html
I remember the Summit bar as being about the lightest candy bar I ever tasted (although at the time, it was hard to get past the Willy Wonka Scrunch bar or Peanut Butter Oompas -- no similarity to the current Willy Wonka company. And anyone remember the World Series bar from circa 1976?)
Here's an alleged company employee's explanation of the Summit bar's failure;
"FWIW, to put good moisture hermetic sealing in perspective, many moons
ago I worked as a design engineer for M&M Mars, the candy company. I
was involved in the Summit bar (remember that one?) production line
packaging machinery design. The sugar wafer used in that product was
highly hygroscopic. The main reason that product failed was that we
weren't able to achieve sufficient shelf life despite trying all sorts
of quite expensive multi-layer metallized wrapping "paper". Even the
multi-layer metallized stuff was moisture-permeable enough that the
wafer would go soggy after a couple of weeks."
@Britty - I live on the west coast of Canada and I still see Charleston Chews all the time... chocolate and original. I'm pretty sure we still have Mars bars too, but they made them "peanut free" - didn't think they had peanuts in them before, but I guess there are no traces now anyways.
@Tim - I remember thrills! The purple soap candy!! Haha they were definitely something else.
Whoops, I meant @Tim for the first one, and @Annadeus for the second.