The positively scrumptious Nut Goodie, a disk of chocolate and peanuts with a Maple-infused cream filling that has rendered me speechless with glee.
I'd suggest that you give those out for Halloween -- except that you'll never actually give any away once you taste them.
Halloween is the one night of the year when our own private candy obsession leaps out of the closet and into the streets. But for the true freak, the joy of Halloween resides in being able to discover and share candies you may not have heard of before, local and regional confections that will not only thrill your palette, but dazzle your neighbors.
So this year forget those snack-sized Snickers bars and clichéd sacks of candy corn, and give these delicacies a shot ...
Chick-O-Stick: Looks weird. But it tastes amazing.
The Chick-O-Stick, Lufkin, Texas
Back when I was growing up, in the late '70s, Atkinson Candy Company's Chick-O-Sticks were all the rage. I'd gobble down two of them and call it breakfast. (Though not if my parents were around.) Turns out, the Atkinson family has been making the Chick-O-Stick down in Lufkin -- halfway between Dallas and Houston -- since the Great Depression. So what is the Chick-O-Stick? It's a bright orange cylinder of candy, basically, dusted with coconut, and filled with honeycombed peanut butter. Looks weird. Sounds weirder. But it tastes amazing.
Slim and supple Mint Patties.
Mint Patties, Saint Paul, Minn.
Pearson's Candy Company has one of the most storied histories of all American confectioners. Formed in 1909, the company produced such legendary bars as the Seven Up (yes, seven different flavors inside a single chocolate bar!) and the Chicken Dinner. Its flagship bar is the positively scrumptious Nut Goodie, a disk of chocolate and peanuts with a Maple-infused cream filling that has rendered me speechless with glee on numerous occasions. I'd suggest that you give those out for Halloween -- except that you'll never actually give any away once you taste them. A better bet would be Mint Patties, which are a slimmer and more supple version of the York Peppermint Patty. They're about the size of a fifty-cent piece, which is officially small enough to be considered a Candyfreak diet food. For the hardcore Pearson's fan, the Nut Roll -- a log of nougat smothered with salted peanuts -- is a good bet, too.
