I miss the candy i can't find anymore.
October 31, 2001 4:18 PM   Subscribe

I miss the candy i can't find anymore. all these candy links got me searching for my favorites, Beemans Black Jack, and Clove Gum. What other Extinct candy do you miss? anyone need a Summit Break?
posted by th3ph17 (40 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
There are several nostalgia candy sites, the best one is http://www.sweetnostalgia.com/. A lot of candy is not so much extinct as in low demand. Damn the Food Network and all it teaches me!
posted by nramsey at 4:45 PM on October 31, 2001


I just wish I could find Jelly Babies in the States....
posted by rushmc at 5:00 PM on October 31, 2001


I recall a type of hard candy that was sold on long strips of what one might describe as "cash register tape paper". The candy itself was in the form of rows of small dots squirted three or four abreast. You peeled one button off the paper and ate it. They were never wrapped either (I'm sure that's a big no-no these days). Vendors kept them on a large spool. They probably still exist somewhere, but I've never seen'em.
posted by RavinDave at 5:09 PM on October 31, 2001


That gum you like is going to come back in style.
posted by blissbat at 5:36 PM on October 31, 2001


Beemans Black Jack and Clove Gum aren't extinct. I still buy Black Jack on a weekly basis, and the store I get it from sells Clove Gum as well.
posted by da5id at 5:40 PM on October 31, 2001


RavinDave, the www.sweetnostalgia.com site mentioned by nramsey has the dots you want--at the bargain price of only $3.29! Buy 'em and show your friends! Put 'em on cupcakes! Decorate your PC! (ooo, sorry, I got carried away...)
posted by datawrangler at 5:44 PM on October 31, 2001


I still buy Black Jack on a weekly basis, and the store I get it from sells Clove Gum as well.

I was hoping I wasn't living in a time warp - the sandwich shop around the corner from my house sells Clove and Black Jack. Love 'em both...
posted by RevGreg at 5:44 PM on October 31, 2001


Ravin Dave - Dots, They sell them at most Bob Evan's around here, but I think BE is a midwest thing ICBW
posted by Mick at 5:44 PM on October 31, 2001


Sir - thin candy bars of gooey marshmallow nougat covered in milk chocolate. The last time I found one was over 20 years ago...I'm still digesting it, I think.
posted by MrBaliHai at 5:48 PM on October 31, 2001


Groovy Candies, kind of cool...
posted by Dean_Paxton at 5:55 PM on October 31, 2001


Where are my Regal Crown Sours? Grape or cherry are the best!
posted by ideola at 5:59 PM on October 31, 2001


I used to love Reggie Bars, yep the candy bar named after Reggie Jackson. I'm surprised but after a few minutes of googling, I can't find a single page or image of the old bars.
posted by mathowie at 6:06 PM on October 31, 2001


Believe it or not, you can find a lot of those old candies at Cracker Barrel restaurants. I know they have the BlackJack gum, Skybar candy bars and a bunch of other stuff. Whether it's actually worth going into a Cracker Barrel or not, you'll have to decide for yourselves.
posted by bighowdy at 6:27 PM on October 31, 2001


Oh man...don't get me started. How about Barret...the sour powder in the pale yellow cylinders? Anyone remember the wax pan flute thingy? Wax lips? Bobby Hull's Golden Jet chocolate bars? Koo Koo? Wig Wag?

I'm sure everyone from any era looks back thinking their youth was the greatest time for candy but, boy - the early 70's was it baby.
posted by davebush at 6:55 PM on October 31, 2001




not extinct, but certainly misunderstood, hard to find, and I would argue quite underappreciated . . . I give you . . .jujubes!
posted by donovan at 6:59 PM on October 31, 2001


Valomilk can be hard to find.
posted by bjgeiger at 7:00 PM on October 31, 2001


pixie stix rule! They are not the ideal candy in this day and age:

"schoolbus quarantined due to mysterious powder; film at eleven."
posted by willconsult4food at 7:21 PM on October 31, 2001


Mmmmm... Skybars....
posted by davros42 at 7:42 PM on October 31, 2001


Marathon bar! Eight-plus inches of chocolate, caramel, etc. One reason it was my fave: in 1976 (10 yrs old), I found a Saturday Night Special (a gun) in the alley behind our house...gave it to my mom, and she rewarded me with a Marathon bar. Being only 10, it was as good as a million-dollar reward!

Oh - and we drove to the cop-shop and turned in the gun. Heady stuff, for a kid.
posted by davidmsc at 8:48 PM on October 31, 2001


This isn't candy, really, but in my younger years I used to eat a lot of Carnation Breakfast Bars. I still get cravings for those every so often. I've not seen them in forever, though.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:16 PM on October 31, 2001


I really, really miss Ocean Spray® Fruit Waves candy. It was an all-natural cranberry and grape/strawberry hard candy, and it mysteriously vanished from store shelves in 1997. I miss it! I want it back!

...And everyone knows that SweeTARTS are the superior non-chocolate candy out there-- Ask any candy raver.
posted by Down10 at 11:33 PM on October 31, 2001


Choo-Choo Bars. Licorice. Yummy.
posted by spinifex at 12:48 AM on November 1, 2001


gatorade gum. how i miss it. i preferred the orange variety.
posted by meep at 2:57 AM on November 1, 2001


Wow! Thanx nramsey, datawrangler and Mick for the tip on my favorite candy. I love MeFi serendipity; hadn't thought about "dots" for years. Will definitely be following up on this!
posted by RavinDave at 3:22 AM on November 1, 2001


Anybody remember the Space-Food Sticks from the early 70s? (mmmmmmmm.......)
posted by davidmsc at 4:23 AM on November 1, 2001


Not candy, but...why is ginger ale (Canada Dry, Vernor's, whatever) never in U.S. vending machines? I asked a vendor filling up cola and uncola supplies. His response: "Nobody buys it." But, if it isn't on sale, how can I buy it?
posted by Carol Anne at 5:26 AM on November 1, 2001


Some vending machines around here carry Vernor's, but then again, this is Detroit, where the stuff is made.

When I was a kid, it was hard to find a vending machine in Ontario that didn't have Canada Dry ginger ale. That was when I first learned all ginger ale isn't Vernor's.
posted by Oriole Adams at 6:40 AM on November 1, 2001


In fact, very little ginger ale is Vernors. You can't find the stuff here in the east where I live. Every time I go to the midwest, I come back with a car-load of the stuff. It's time for another road-trip; I'm down to 18 cans in the garage.... A friend of mine in Rochester, NY, tells me it's available there, and my brother found some in the Baltimore area, but that's about as close as it gets to New Jersey.

Not many people know that Vernors is very different from most ginger ale. Canada Dry, Schweppes, etc., are "dry ginger ale"; Vernors is of a variety known as "golden ginger ale". The only place I've seen another variety of golden ginger ale is in New England and the maritime provinces of Canada. I think Polar makes a golden ginger ale along with a dry ginger ale, and Stop & Shop house brand (recently come to my area!) also has a golden ginger ale. They aren't Vernors, but they'll do in a pinch.

For some reason, Vernors doesn't take well to plastic bottles. The canned stuff tastes better than 2-liter plastic bottles, to my mind. Very few bottlers bottle Vernors in glass these days. Pop the Soda Shop in Arizona carries a wide variety of sodas in glass bottles, including Vernors. My loving fiancee bought me a case for Valentine's Day a couple of years ago. The shipping is a bear, but it was worth it. We actually passed by the location of the store near Phoenix when we were in Arizona last January. If we had driven out instead of flown, I would have bought their entire stock of Vernors to bring home. :-)
posted by geneablogy at 8:22 AM on November 1, 2001


Thanks for reminding me about Gatorade Gum, meep. Every single pack I ever bought of that stuff was stale and crunchy and technically disgusting, but oh how I loved it.
posted by jess at 9:18 AM on November 1, 2001


davidmsc: Anybody remember the Space-Food Sticks from the early 70s? (mmmmmmmm.......)

Yeah, those were great. Unfortunately, they came out right about the same time as "Shake-A-Pudding" and "Fizzees". Terrible thing to lay those choices on kids. Messed me up for years.
posted by RavinDave at 9:26 AM on November 1, 2001


I miss Chunky Bars. Nothing beats chocolate, peanuts AND rasins in the same cube shaped candy!
posted by Hugh2d2 at 9:27 AM on November 1, 2001


I have to second marathon Bars, i think about those things all the time. I think they were 1' long tho, I remember a yellow ruler on the back, and how much bigger they were than all te other candy bars except for Charleston Chews. Cadbury makes a similiar candy bar that I had about a decade back, but it was significantly smaller.
posted by thirteen at 9:47 AM on November 1, 2001


When did they stop making Chunky bars? I thoght I saw one the other day.
posted by thirteen at 9:53 AM on November 1, 2001


thin candy bars of gooey marshmallow nougat covered in milk chocolate -- MrBaliHai

Definite yes. Especially frozen.

Now for the Shameful Secret Favorite portion of our program: spearmint licorice whips. (In retrospect, it's probably a Good Thing that these have disappeared. You had to be furtive when eating these and it's hard to stuff an entire sickly-green whip into your mouth when surprised.)
posted by joaquim at 10:19 AM on November 1, 2001


I forgot to add that Charleston Chews fit the marshmallow nougat/chocolate coating description and are still available. They aren't quite what I remember, though.
posted by joaquim at 10:23 AM on November 1, 2001


REGGIE! REGGIE! REGGIE!
posted by basilwhite at 11:35 AM on November 1, 2001


hershey made and discontinued my favorite:

Bar None

just like the name says, the best.

apparently they still sell it overseas. when i asked about why they discontinued it here, they cited lack of demand. thus, i blame all of you people.
posted by donkeysuck at 12:20 PM on November 1, 2001


That's what's strange, to me at least about the candy industry... It's all based on demand (and possibly tradition).

Obviously, the market is not dependant on fads and availability of ingredients (there's more sugar, corn syrup and artificial flavors on Earth to make candy forever), but merely on the popularity of the sales. So even if a candy is great and you really like it and want more of it, it won't matter—if no one else buys it, it will no longer be made.

Check out the Dead Food Board at TopSecretRecipes.com for a few more surprise products that didn't make the cut.
posted by Down10 at 1:17 PM on November 1, 2001


How about Zotz? Those things that had the white powder that would fizz in your mouth when you bit into 'em? Haven't thought about those in years.
posted by alumshubby at 1:20 PM on November 2, 2001


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