What ?! No Cannabis ?
Isn’t that a violation of the FTC act ?
I imagine there are all sorts of gross tasting treats at the dispensaries, but I haven’t checked. Surely they sell tomacco.
Regarding why Circus Peanuts exist, my recollection in the suburbs of Boston was that there was always a section in the corner store with these off-brand candies. The ones I recall were clear plastic bags with a red paper foldover top (the part with the printing and the hole so it could hang on a peg).
I don’t remember most of their offerings, but they were always the cheapest, often most volume candy in the store. That is, you could get a bag of these for less than a Snickers bar, but had way more. And the Circus Peanuts seemed like the most candy per nickel.
Remember, kids are dumb and have no taste. They will always take the huge bag of gross marshmallow over a small amount of something good.
I used to live close to a turkish delight…factory? plant? manufacturing facility? - Liberty Orchard’s Applets and Cotlets. Toured it as a kid, with free samples. I thought the applets were just okay but the cotlets were fantastic. Still enjoy it once in awhile and still prefer the cotlets.
They are similar to Turkish Delight, and I kinda liked one of them.
Our US version of these are Pinwheels, and they are just plain disgusting. I didn’t even like them as a kid.
Think of this as a public service announcement. Today was another day of incessant rain, so we went out to a retail park just to get out of the house. There’s a B&M store - I used to refer to them as Landfill Stores - and I have to say they’ve changed. They do a lot of cheap grocery stuff now, and as for the Candy section…
Of those candies mentioned in this thread they had: Fruit Salad; Liquorice; Liquorice Allsorts; Parma Violets; Turkish delight; Fry’s Turkish Delight; and Army and Navy Tablets, which are a - shall we say substitute? - for Fisherman’s Friends. They also had Midget Gems, which I had forgotten about. Most brands have been renamed Mini Gems for obvious reasons, but I don’t think these had. What I remember about them is that unlike most jelly type candies, which would pull your fillings out, these were so hard that you could break a tooth.
So: a cornucopia of horrors. I recommend B&M to you.
j
I assume “B&M store” means something other than a bricks & mortar store?
AI (sigh) says
B&M most commonly refers to the British variety retailer Billington & Mayman, named after its founders, although it’s sometimes nicknamed “Bargain Madness” or “Bargains & More”…
It’s not exactly high end. But it was raining and it’s got a roof.
j
Liberty Orchard makes Turkish delight candies as well as 9 versions of various fruit applets and cotlets. The Turkish Delights pictured on their website look just like the applets and cotlets and the ingredients for both are much the same.
Going back to earlier discussions, I’ve been trying to think of sweets, in the UK, that are just given out in quantity. “Trick or Treat” isn’t (yet) quite the thing it appears to be in the US, so all I can come up with is that some hotel reception desks will have a bowl of something like mint imperials or vaguely fruit flavoured boiled sweets for guests to pick at. Oh, and it’s tradition for pantomime dames to chuck handfuls of miscellaneous sweets at the over-excited audience (and it’s not just the kids).
I wasn’t sure whether the spherical ones were what is called hundreds &
thousands here in the UK, but apparently they are.
I thought hundreds & thousands were more elongated but those appear to
be called strands here, and vermicelli elsewhere.
That reminds me of liquorice comfits.
A.k.a. sprinkles or jimmies.
Yes, they’re like liquorice comfits, but much smaller and without the liquorice !
mmmm - liquorice comfits !
I have now tried them. The chocolate is actually very good. But the filling is SO sweet. I have no idea how they can get so much sweetness into such a small thing.
Will not buy again.
There’s a Swiss version: Munz Banana | Maestrani
We prefer the applets. And the single flavor packages are only available at the company store or by mail order.
I’ll nominate Sportmint. Think Starbust, but minty, and a lot more plasticky in texture. I bought them once. I like mint. I like Starburst. Don’t like them.
Here those would be Beacon Sparkles. Yuck.
Boiled sweets sounds so unappetizing. It makes me think of sweetbreads. Yeah, no..boiled or otherwise. Nope.
No hate for the Chocolate covered Cherries 
.
Those are puke inducing.
A small diversion, but I have to give a shoutout to Made In Washington:
(https://madeinwashington.com/) who sell the Aplets & Cotlets mentioned in my previous post:
( What's your culture's version of circus peanuts? - #101 by bobsmom101
I wanted a non-Amazon source for some Valentine presents for the grandkids and looked at their catalog. They have a lot of really nice stuff, candy, other food items (salmon, cheese) and gifts like glass flowers and hummingbird feeders. Small, woman-owned business, and did I mention NOT ASSOCIATED WITH JEFF BEZOS, reasonably priced and very friendly when I had a minor problem with my order. The grandkids got the box yesterday and sent me a photo – very attractively packaged and the kids say the chocolate (their mom let them have one treat each) was very good.
And they are called “sprinkles” in much of the US, unless you’re in Massachusetts and they call them “jimmies” for some reason, which I never figured out in 12 years of living in Boston.