shelf halloween candy review #5

As promised, I present to you the next installment of the weekly Halloween candy review. For those of you keeping count, this is the second time this week that such a post has been published. Since we missed our posting time last week, that one was posted earlier this week. The one you are reading now is on time and should get us caught up. If this is your first time seeing the weekly candy review, just check here, here, here, and here for the privious entries. This week I was able to take a few minutes in a favorite location of mine to find Halloween candy: the drug store. I don't know what it is ,but the corner drug stores typically have a better selection of holliday candy. On this particular trip I went to Walgreen's in hopes of finding a better specimen than my last one. I found success in 'Bubbagum'. I was digging through the standard fare of candy corn and Hershey's miniatures and came upon something just a little different. As you can see in the picture, 'Bubbagum' is a set of ill cared for teeth and a piece of gum. The teeth are slightly different in each package and there is a differnt character on each. Mine was an alien wearing a trucker's cap named 'Alien Hayseed'. Reading the packaging, I soon discover that the teeth are made of hard candy and are quite edible. I opened the package and saw that there was purportedly a 'tattoo' included in the gum wrapper as well. So far we have a rub on tattoo, a piece of gum and a set of edible candy teeth. Not bad for $1.50. The gist of this candy is that you chew the gum and then place it in the interior of the teeth as a sort of sweet Fixodent. I opened the gum and pulled out the little tattoo which has a thin paper layer on one side to keep it from peeling off and tattooing the gum. I peeled this layer off from sheer curiosity and found a flaw in this plan. After being pressed together inside the gum wrapper for so long, the tattoo sticks to both layers of paper and parts of it come off. The kids won't be happy about that aspect, but it's no problem since that was just a bonus and the tattoo is low quality anyway. Mine was supposed to be some sort of rock star I think but as you see in the picture, his right side tore off at opening. This severely cripples him and I assume that unless he plays drums with his feet and Def Leopard has an opening, his career is over. The gum is a decent sizes and is traditional gum flavor. Most kids could get away with splitting it in half and having two pieces as it was pretty big for an adult. The gum doesn't last to long ,but it isn't bad as gum goes. Next I put the gum into the back of the teeth as instructed as you can see. The final step was to wear them. They stick pretty well although I would recommend that your kids take them out to talk as constant 'gum bumping' will make them fall out. Once they've finished having their fun, your kid can take the gum out and chew it up, but it's not over there. They will still have the teeth to eat. It's listed as a 'hard' candy yet it's not all that hard. It's kind of like a tootsie pop in texture. The creators did a good job in immitating a nasty set of teeth without sacrificing flavor. When I first saw that they were edible I thought they would be of the wax variety. The 'wax candy' was never a favorite of mine. I despised it. There was never any strong flavor and it was suprisingly waxy. This is nothing like it. It is pure sugar ad food coloring. I liken the flavor and texture to those little candy strawberries with the goo inside that show up every christmas. The teeth have a weaker yet similar flavor. If broken into several pieces, your trick-or-treater can enjoy the teeth for a while as well. Chewing them up or sucking on them, they still taste good. The bottom line is that even though 'Bubbagum' is a little pricey at $1.50, it's still a good deal and you trick-or-treaters will love it. Honestly, I feel that something like this may even come close to rivaling the full size candy bar as 'best item in bag'. If you are so inclined to make a kid's Halloween memorable, buy a couple and give them to kids with the best costume. I found 'Bubbagum' at Walgreen's and I have seen them at CVS. None of the grocery or major chain stores have them in my area. This is just one more piece of evidence to prove that drug stores are the king in the holliday candy realm. Stay tuned for a JC Loophole to bring you belated roundup (I hear that Bogey is involved) and another candy review for next week. In the words of Kip Dynamite. "Peace out."



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I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.
~Author Unknown