As the holidays roll on, it can be hard to keep track of matching the right date to the right occasion, and for many, the amount of times when life tells us to bring out the food and party streamers can be overwhelming. However, one way to make sure that you never miss a holiday is to take a look down the candy aisle at any given supermarket. The amount of special edition candy, candy that only comes out around a certain time of year, has grown exponentially even in the past several years. When asked about it, many Seahawks have differing opinions about the candy.
Ninth grader Zeke Kalbas has strong feelings about his love of special edition candy, saying, “Yes, yes, yes. I like specialty candy. I love the, I don’t know if these things count, but the Lindt Lindor balls … They’re like the best candy ever.”
Eighth grader Alex Miles agrees with Kalbas, saying that he prefers “special edition, [but] sometimes I prefer the original version. If it’s very rare, I kind of want [the special edition].”
Sometimes, the fun of a special edition candy can be for purely aesthetic reasons, as sixth grader Aiden Kong says, “I like the special editions because I think they’re just a more fun shape.”
Seventh grader Libby Federico has a different view, saying, “I prefer the original version because there wouldn’t be a special edition without the original.”
Some holidays have devoted followers, and the consensus at Seabury seems to be that Christmas is the best holiday in terms of candy, a view that Kalbas agrees with: “Christmas flavors are always 10 out of 10 for me, because of the caramel and the mints and all that,” he says.
However, one type of Christmas candy does not always bring in the same enthusiastic fans. Different shaped Reese’s are controversial, with Federico saying, “I just feel like there’s not really a point to a different shape if they don’t have a different flavor, and the [different shapes] somehow don’t taste the same.”
Kalbas agrees, saying, “The original shape is the best shape because the other shapes, there’s too much peanut butter and too little chocolate, and then it doesn’t taste right.”
For Miles, the size of the Reese’s matters more than the shape: “Yeah, differently shaped Reese’s … Like, let’s say it’s shaped like a big box – that’s a lot of Reese’s calories. Well, in my opinion, the bigger, the better, the more the sugar.”
With so many varieties of special edition candy, it can be hard to know the right time to buy a certain type of candy. Kong says that he doesn’t go out of his way to look for special edition candy, just buys it “if I see it.”
Kalbas does the same, saying, “If it’s there and I see it, I might buy it and eat it because it tastes good.”
Federico credits her knowledge of special edition candy back to elementary school: “Typically, the reason I’d be eating special eedition candy would be from Valentine’s Day, when everyone in the class would hand out candy, and also my stocking at Christmas time. So I’m not saying that I’m the one who would be going out [to look for it],” she says.
Even with so many types of special edition candy, some flavors stick with you forever, both good and bad. Kalbas remarks on his least favorite special edition candy, saying, “I’ve tried … some M&Ms that were cookies and cream or something for Christmas, and it was not good. Stick with the regular.”
Miles agrees that some special edition candies aren’t for him, saying, “If there is [a special edition candy] I don’t want, [it’s] Jolly Ranchers.”
Federico adds, “I know they have different Nerds gummy clusters for every single holiday, so some of those are not very good … but the originals are amazing.”
Whether you are an ardent fan of special edition candy or a casual bystander, we can all agree that candy helps us connect with others during special moments. After all, as Miles says, “[It’s] literally one of the reasons I even go to parties – because they have candy.”
