Grandma’s snack stash was always a weird one because for every snack that we loved, there were a dozen more that we absolutely avoided at all costs.
Avoided: The candy with a medicinal streak
The problem with horehound candy came mostly from the name. It didn’t really taste much like candy. It gets most of its flavor from horehound, an herb in the mint family, and it has quite a bitter taste. That made these candies taste more medicinal than sweet.
A lot of older adults knew it as a traditional sweet, and it was especially popular in places where homemade herbal candies were common. But most kids are less convinced. Yes, we’d leave them and go for the brighter fruit candies instead. At least they had more sugar in them.
The pastel roll with a surprise
Necco Wafers sure looked friendly in their pastel roll, but the texture was something else. They’re dry and powdery, almost like chalk, and each color had its own flavor. None of them were exactly child-friendly. Clove and cinnamon were the worst ones.
These candies are incredibly durable, and that’s part of the reason why they lasted so long in many older people’s homes. They’re great for storage. They’re not so great for a kid who’s hoping for something chewy or chocolatey.
The black candy gamble
You always knew what you were getting with black licorice because the smell alone was pretty strong. Then there was that strong herbal taste that stuck around long after you’d tried a piece.
Traditional licorice gets its flavor from licorice root. A lot of American versions use anise instead, but either way, it didn’t taste good. Black licorice was one of those candies that you couldn’t really sit on the fence about, as you either loved it or hated it. Most kids hated it.
The pretty one nobody could handle neatly
Ribbon candy was beautiful, sure. Eating it was a different matter entirely. These strips of candy looked almost like Christmas decorations at first because they were so bright. They also came in festive flavors like peppermint or cinnamon, even wintergreen.Â
They tasted worse than they sounded, though. Humidity didn’t make things any better either, as it just made the candy stickier and harder to bite. That’s why most kids would reach past it for something less complicated out of the snack stash.
The orange peanut that tasted like banana
A lot of kids had questions about circus peanuts before they’d even eaten them. Namely, why the candies were so orange. There was also the question of why they were shaped like peanuts and, once you’d eaten them, why they tasted like banana.
Classic circus peanuts are banana-flavored marshmallow candy that is dense and slightly chewy. They’re nothing like the soft fluffiness of a marshmallow that most people expect. One bite was enough for us to recognize that, actually, we didn’t like it.
The cookie that meant business
The main issue with molasses cookies was that they tasted so much more grown-up compared to regular cookies. They had that dark, almost smoky sweetness from molasses, along with a flavor like ginger or cinnamon. Some tasted like cloves.
We can’t forget about the texture either, as some were soft and chewy, while others were firmer around the edges. These cookies have been part of American baking for generations. They’re especially popular in New England, but probably not among kids. They’d rather have chocolate chip cookies.Â
The bar with the suspicious middle
Prune bars looked like perfectly normal crumb bars from the top. They were made from oats, brown sugar, and butter, after all. They also had a golden baked surface. But once you bit through, you’d get to that dark prune filling, and it threw the whole thing off.
Prunes aren’t bitter or unpleasant. It’s just that these bars aren’t usually what most kids are expecting, and that’s why their taste can be kind of jarring. No chocolate or raspberry, not even jam, just prune paste.
The holiday slice with everything in it
One slice of fruitcake could be packed with candied fruit, dried fruit, nuts, spices, and sometimes alcohol. The whole cake was often a lot heavier than you would expect. That’s part of the reason why we hated it.
It’s a Christmas standard here, sure, but that doesn’t mean it’s good. The truth is, most kids want a cake that’s full of sugar, not fruit. The fact that fruitcake keeps well and hangs around for days doesn’t help.
Adored: The strawberry-wrapper prize
It’s pretty hard to ignore strawberry bonbons sitting in a candy bowl. They come dressed for the job. The strawberry wrappers make them really stand out, and the taste of the candy itself worked wonders, too.
These bonbons did take a while to eat. But that only helped, as it made one piece feel like more of a treat. You knew exactly what you were getting with these, too, since there was no clove surprise or herbal twist. Just strawberry candy, simple as that.
The golden candy bowl regular
One butterscotch disc would last forever, and it’d sit in your mouth for ages. That was part of the fun. Yes, these candies took a while to dissolve, but then you’d get to enjoy that buttery and caramel-like taste. It’s why we enjoyed them.
You could keep them in a purse, and you could keep them in a bowl. You knew the flavor, you knew the deal, and you could make one piece last through half a TV show.Â
The cookies with the fork marks
Peanut butter cookies were one of those things you could spot before anyone told you what they were. It was pretty easy to see those little fork lines across the top. These marks were there to help flatten the dough, but as a kid, that part wasn’t important.
What was important was the smell. These cookies smelled very strongly of peanut butter and warm sugar. Some versions were soft, and others were crumbly enough to scatter everywhere, but either way, they tasted great.
The Canadian tray favorite
Eating a butter tart certainly got messy fast, but really, that’s one of the reasons we loved them. There’s also the fact that the filling was soft and sticky, almost runny, in all the right ways. You could have the basic kind with butter, sugar, and eggs.
You could also have the other variety with raisins, currants, or nuts sometimes. Canadians have been making versions of them for generations, and the hardest part was trying to eat one without getting filling on your fingers.
The pan where everything worked
There’s no need to choose between chocolate, butterscotch, coconut, nuts, or something gooey. Seven-layer bars give you all of them in one go. Our grandmas would start making them with graham cracker crumbs and butter, then pile on sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips.
They’d also include butterscotch chips, coconut, and nuts. The finished bars were a little strange, as they were sticky enough to cling to your fingers, yet crumbly enough to leave bits on the plate. Eating one square of a seven-layer bar often turned into eating two, then three.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
