Halloween Dollar Candy

Yep, it's Candy Time! Work has been a bit busy lately and I haven't had as much time as I would like to dedicate myself to The Holidaze, but this is my favorite time of year and, really, not much can stop me from Halloween cereal, treats, drinks, decorations, haunted houses and, in tonight's case, candy!!

When you go back to the root of Halloween, you'll most likely find candy as the number one reason behind your love for it.  When you're a kid, there are two things you care about on October 31st -- Dressing up in your costume and Trick-or-Treating.  Who didn't love walking from house to house, ringing the doorbell in hopes that somebody would open their door and greet you with candy!  Sometimes, you'd get a Milky Way.  Other times, you'd get a Snickers.  Hell, I even found a dollar every now and then.  As a kid, I pushed right past that.  As an adult, I'd love to go Trick-or-Treating for dollars.  That's why there's a donate button on the right-side column ;)

Now that I'm too old to go Trick-or-Treating, I don't care about the big bags of candy or mini Hershey bars.  Don't get me wrong, they taste great, but I look for candy that ignites an emotion.  I want something that represents Halloween more than I want tasty snacks.  In fact, I don't even care if it tastes good at all.  I just want to look at fancy Halloween art and cool candy.  Taste, at this stage, is just a bonus!

There are three varieties of Halloween Dots that come out every year.  Last year, we covered the Candy Corn and Bat Dots.  One was good, the other wasn't.  Go back and check which was which.  But by looking at the sign above (found at Stop & Shop) you can see there is yet another flavor that I never got to last year... Ghost Dots!!

I never picked this box up last year because I wasn't thrilled with the flavors.  Bat Dots were a cool Blood Orange.  Candy Corn was obviously Candy Corn flavored.  But Bat Dots?  Boring assorted fruit!  I totally get why they went this route.  A ghost is mystical.  You can't see him until he decides to present himself to you.  That's the catch here.  Since every Dot is the same color, each and every one is a mystery.  Is it Orange?  Is it Lemon?  You won't know until you chomp into the happy ghost and find out.  The concept makes sense, I just like unique flavors.

So why did I buy them this year?  Well, for one, I already tried the others.  But more specifically, that box is awesome.  I love the smiling ghost Dot with his transparent arms and body.  I like the way he hovers and looks as if he's wearing an invisible cloak.  The glow around the logo is ghoulish and the purple box works so much better than black.  

The box is cool, and so is the color of these Dots.  Who doesn't love eating green candy?  But, like I said, I'm not really into the assorted flavors.  However, at least they actually chose a unanimous color and didn't choose the rainbow path.  That would have been a deal breaker.  Really, the only thing that sells this box is the art, the color, and the "mystery."  Other than that, I'd say go with one of the following dollar boxes!

I absolutely love this box art!  Black background, Orange text and border, along with a man wrapped in toilet paper.  No, I know, he's supposed to be a Mummy, but that's not as fun.  I'm pretending that he's a 25-year-old guy who talks about Halloween candy and chose to wear 3 rolls of toilet paper to embrace the Holidaze.  The world needs more guys like that, don't ya think? ;)

I bought this box because of the art, but also with the hope that this "Mummy Mix" is black and orange.  Even though I know it's assorted, just like the Ghost Dots, I would absolutely love seeing black and orange Mike and Ike candy pieces.  You couldn't ask for better colors and fruit flavored black candy is a hell of a lot better than fruit flavored green candy.  This could be legendary, but the fact that the names of those flavors are rainbow has me on alert.  What do you think they're going to be?  Let's see!!

Booooo!  And not the type of Boo a ghost makes, the type of Boo I make at a Knicks game!  This was a disappointment.  With a box so cool, how in the world do you not sync things up on the inside?  There are a few orange pieces, and the purple can pass for black, and that would have been close enough for me.  But they didn't change a thing but their box.  Again, BOO!

I love Hot Tamales, but never enjoyed Mike and Ike.  Had it not been for the box design, I would have never ever purchased these.  And now that I know they haven't changed the candy colors to be more Halloweeny, I will never buy them again.  Even though I don't like the taste of Mike and Ike, I would have suffered through them just to say I had some black and orange candy.  But now, I'll probably let them sit on my counter until I make some type of gingerbread house...in December.  These aren't going anywhere near my Haunted House!  Ah well, if you do happen to enjoy Mike and Ike candy, then you're lucky to get such an awesome box with a candy you love.  That obviously creates a better 'daze!!  Luckily for me, I have more candy!!

Lifesavers Gummies presents us a simple box, but one that features three monsters that make it perfect.  Frankenstein (I don't call him Frankenstein's Monster,) Dracula, and a real Mummy!  They're drawn so well and we know they're evil because they live in a Haunted House surrounded by bats.  We can't be sure if they're using their bags to Trick-or-Treat or steal our candy.  One thing is for sure, if they want to take out Lifesaver Gummies, there's no doubt they'll do it!  And in the case of Mike and Ike, I'll make them take it just to get it out of my kitchen.

I've had Lifesavers Gummies before.  I remember the first time I ever saw them.  If I remember correctly, there was an awesome commercial featuring the Gummies bouncing around to show off their durability.  Obviously, we needed to know how soft they are compared to their counterparts.  They're great.  They taste good and I've never had any complaints.  So, for the first time ever, I had to get the Spooky Shapes edition.

Here, we have a lime green Moon, a maroon witch, a forest green pumpkin, a red ghost, and a maroon black cat.  There aren't any flavors listed anywhere on the box, so I can only guess which each one is supposed to be.  Ya figure we have lime, cherry, strawberry, and possibly watermelon?  I can't be sure, but I can tell you that they're all tasty.  My only gripe, and this isn't Lifesavers Gummies' fault, is that they aren't more like fruit snacks.  Obviously they have to my gummy textured, but I just can't get over how cool these would be if they were more like the "Sharks" fruit snacks!  Those were, are, and will forever be my favorite fruit snacks and I'd love to see a Halloween version.  Instead of looking for the rare Great White shark, we could go hunting for an orange pumpkin or a black black cat!  Actually, come to think of it, this idea seems too simple to not have been done.  This will now become a 2012 mission -- to find Halloween Fruit Snacks!!

While there may not be a white shark in my box of Lifesavers Gummies, there was that monster shrouded in a sea of tiny shapes.  It's the classic Lifesaver Gummi that somehow made it into my box rather than it's traditional home.  I feel bad for the guy.  Despite his size, he stands no chance up against the Spooky critters lurking around him.  They'll eat him up quicker than I do.

Boogers!!  Flix Candy brings us gummy BOOGERS!  The box is awesome, especially the demented chef, but Boogers? How gross is that?  It's so gross that I actually picked this box up and put it back before convincing myself that this is just candy!  I couldn't get that into my head.  For Halloween, we'll find brains, arms, legs, teeth, and eye candy.  With them, I have no problems accepting that they're a fun novelty.  But these Boogers really played with my mind.  Look at the description!  "Tangy Gummy Boogies that Look & Feel Real!"  I appreciate the fact that they called them "boogies," because that's funny, but it just sounds so disgusting.  But since it didn't say "taste real," I convinced myself that they're candy, even if it's "SsssNot Your Regular Gummy!"

Ever had a gummy bear?  They taste great.  I've never met anybody who doesn't enjoy a gummy bear every now and then.  Well, imagine putting a gummy bear in your mouth and struggling to keep your vomit down.  That's what this was like.  Not because they taste bad, because they don't.  But because I kept thinking that a tiny Mexican in a sweatshop picked their nose for days to create my box of boogers.  I knew it wasn't true, but they gooey feeling and texture after I chewed had me fooled.  But, luckily, I'm not crazy enough to actually believe I'm eating Boogers for long and I was able to enjoy a few of these without any mind games.  Believe me, if you can get past the Boogers theme, or if you just enjoy eating disturbing items, then this is the perfect Halloween candy for you!

Out of all the dollar Halloween candy I found so far this year, Caramel Apple Sugar Babies candy is my number one choice!  I don't know if they're new, but they're new to me and this box caught my eye immediately.  I love the bright green and yellow colors.  The confetti, despite what seems to be bacon falling from the sky, evokes a party atmosphere.  But the clincher?  The sugar babies appear to be coated in a green shell!  Did they actually change the candy to match their Fall box?  Or are they messing with my senses to make me waste a buck?  Either way, I had to find out!

They're GREEEEN!!  Yes!  They weren't lying and It's sad how excited it made me.  They look like baby pears or peas on steroid, but no, these are Caramel Apple Sugar Babies and they couldn't look cooler.  I mean, maybe they could have made them red, but green is cooler for Halloween.  Now, I haven't had a Sugar Baby or Sugar Daddy in years, but even though they've always gotten stuck in my teeth, I've always liked them.  Now that they're green, this is a win!

The flavor is so distinct and easy to describe.  At first, you taste Sour Apple.  It's like eating a Charms Sour Apple Blow Pop.  Only, this time, there's a caramel Sugar Baby in the middle, rather than bubble gum.  They taste great and, believe it or not, the green candy coating lessens the amount of caramel that gets stuck in your teeth.  So not only have they enhanced the look, they've enhanced the texture.  I guess you could say that these are technically Sour Caramel Apple Sugar Babies, but I just choose to call them GOOD!  Buy them!

So those are the dollar Halloween candy boxes I've found so far.  Some are good, some not so much.  But they each bring a little something different to The Holidaze and, at the end of the day, that's all that matters!  Check out what you want and try as many as you'd like.  None of these are horrible and, really, you can't go long with any Halloween candy!  Go out, buy more, and enjoy!  If you find any that I haven't seen, let me know @HolidazeBlog or leave a comment!