The Ultimate Halloween Treat – Sour Patch Kids [Kicking Back with Jersey Joe]

Growing up, they were my favorite part of Trick-or-Treating.  I couldn’t wait to get home and rip through all the tons of cavity causing candy in hopes of finding the greatest treat of all – Sour Patch Kids!

Living in the Pennsylvania country, Trick-or-Treating was a time involved parental nightmare. We lived in the middle of nowhere, which meant that my mother was more than unhappy to get in the car and drive me from house to house.  I’m sure all the money she spent on gas far outweighed the cost of the candy!

After what seemed like hours of driving, I would quickly run home and go through all the loot! The news always said to have your parents inspect your candy, but since we were always going to friends or my grandparent’s homes, that was no big deal. (Stopping at my grandparents was best – they gave out cash! OK, just to me…)

Digging through my plastic pumpkin, I would dump all the candy out on the kitchen table: Peanut Butter cups… those were good, Hershey Bars – always a winner, anything Willy Wonka was a good score. The jerk house that gave out apples… Finally, I would find the holy grail of candy… Sour Patch Kids!

Sour Patch Kids were originally developed in the 1970’s and sold as Mars Men.  After experimenting with adding a candy coating of sugar to gummy fruits, the Allen Candy Company of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada began to officially produce Sour Patch Kids. They produced the product until 1995, when the line was sold to Cadbury Schweppes, the chocolate and ginger ale people, who made the confection until they were bought out by Kraft Foods in 2010.

Fortunately for all of us, Sour Patch Kids are sold in a variety of flavors. The main package includes Raspberry, Orange, Lemon, and my favorite Lime. The main line of candies are not shaped like fruit, instead they are shaped like little gummy kids.

Other varieties and flavors include:

Xploders – feature a blast of fruit flavor inside Raspberry Lemonade Rush, Grape Berry Surge, Cherry Berry Bash, and Apple Strawberry Burst flavors

Extreme – a mix of two different fruit flavors including Watermelon Grape, Orange Blue Raspberry, and Sour Apple Strawberry

Fruits – same as the original flavors with Watermelon, Grape, and Cherry added

Kids Berries – featuring Blue Raspberry, Grape, Cherry, and Raspberry Lemonade

Xmas Kids – holiday version featuring Raspberry and Lime flavors only

Chillerz – flavored with a menthol blast in Berry Punch Chiller, Frozen Lemonade, Strawberry Shiver, and Frosty Grape

Occasionally, the shapes are also altered to appear like miniature fruits and sold in individual flavors.  These varieties include Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, Peach, and Cherry.  A bag of Sour Patch Watermelon took a JetBlue flight to Vegas with me earlier this year!

For Easter, a special version shaped like bunnies are sold infused with marshmallow.

In 2007, 7-Eleven convenience stores introduced a Sour Patch Kids flavored Slurpee.

The candy was also a major sponsor of Kyle XY on ABC Family.

The candies first found fame around New York City and the east coast of the US, where they were introduced. Now, they are on sale from coast to coast, and in Canada and Western Europe.

So what makes these candies so great? It’s that incredible fruit and sugar explosion in your mouth with each and every bite.  The taste is a rainbow Swedish Fish coated in a sugary crust.  I often keep small bags in the cupboard for a little sugar pick me up after a long days work.  If I ever run out, they are almost always on sale at my work’s vending machine for 75 cents.  I scored a mega bag last night at CVS for $3.99.

A few old fashioned mom and pop stores still sell these for a penny a piece!  I used to take advantage of that all the time as a kid!

They also make a great treat at the movies.  When I was younger and fellow F and N bloggers Ryan Dixon, Joe Rusin, and I would head to the theater, I would usually try and pick up a box at the concession stand.  Ryan would usually try to mooch most of them away during the show.  But, they always seemed to taste even better after a big bag of popcorn and a bucket of Pepsi!

While they may be made of mostly sugar, their nutrition content is not that bad and they’re fat free!

For every 16 pieces:

140 calories

0g fat

25mg Sodium

36g Carbohydrates

25g of Sugars

Don’t try to find this information on the sourpatch.com website.  When you click on nutrition, you get a resource cannot be found error.  Oops!

As with any candy treat, eating this every once in a while shouldn’t really kill your diet.  Diabetics may want to be careful, but they are fine for just about everyone else.  Brush your teeth if you’re worried about all the sugar when done.

I found an interesting post online that turns the candies into an alcoholic drink.  It’s called a Tipsy Fiddler and is made by rimming a glass with blue Pixy Stick powder. Then, dump the remaining powder into the glass.  Add 2 oz. gin, a small handful of Sour Patch Kids, fill the rest with Sprite, and top with ice. I’ve never tried this or seen it sold anywhere, but it sounds like it would be incredibly sour!

Recently, the candy has hit a new high in popularity thanks to rapper Method Man.  He’s released a new song, World Gone Sour, which honors the candy treat by bringing them to life!

So, enjoy Halloween and when the costumed kids come ringing your door bell, pass out these wonderful snacks.  You’ll be the hit of the neighborhood!

THE 411

Name: Sour Patch Kids

What: Sugary coated jelly like fruit flavored candies

Sold: US, Canada, Western Europe

JERSEY JOE RECOMMENDS:  Go ahead and stock up on these.  They are sold year round and always are a great treat.  They’re very inexpensive and all the flavors should give you something new to try from time to time.  They also make a convenient snack for a little pick me up while traveling.

I hope that Kraft continues to experiment with new flavors.  I would love to see a Root Beer or Cola variety!

Also, check out their Facebook page, it looks like they run a great deal of contests.  While their official website advertises lots of fun on the package, it’s rather lame once you get there.

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Image credits: sweetmusic27, massdistraction, Chris Pirillo