As I walked into the Holland Peanut store, I was greeted with a familiar smell that instantly brought me back to the days of elementary school and sugar rushes. I walked past the endless shelves of candy, I noticed some really strange and unappetizing foods. I searched for the five worst candies at the Peanut Store and picked five of my fellow senior reporters try out and judge the candy 0-10. They would soon find out that they were going to be victims.
Before we started, we had to determine what we would be judging the candy based on. I asked the judges what makes candy gross to them. They all seemed to agree that it isn’t only taste that makes candy less appealing.
Judges:
- Maggie O’Brien- “Mixing certain textures can make it worse, but definitely the taste is the main aspect. Not all sweet flavors go together.”
- Maddy Eppard- “Definitely the taste is a big factor; I agree that textures and weird combinations make it really bad sometimes.”
- Paul Stryker- “If the texture is really mushy it can make it really bad. Gummy is alright.”
- Brooke Drost -“Texture can be bad if it is too squishy. Specific flavors like banana or liquorice can be bad in itself. Also, the appearance of the candy can create a bad expectation.”
- Jevic DeVries -“Too much sourness or not enough can make or break it. It’s all all about the sour.”
Raspberries and Blackberries
Description: Raspberry and blackberry gel candy coated in hard candy dots to create the appearance of the real fruit. These can be found on Amazon and in specialty candy stores.
O’Brien- (6) “The texture is weird and it tastes like an old person”
Stryker- (5) “Oh-oh no the blackberries are not good… I hate the texture of both, but the raspberry is better than the blackberry.”
DeVries- (7.5) “That’s good; I actually really like the red ones.
Drost- (7) “The texture is a little weird for me”
Eppard- (7) “I agree (with Drost).”
The rating for these candies was an average score of the raspberries and blackberries combined. In all, the texture of these was terrible around the board, but the blackberries also had an unpleasant flavor that brought the score down. Two students watching said that they actually enjoy the raspberries and normally buy them at the Peanut Store.
Monkeys
Description: Soft banana taffy with soft black liquorice in the shape of a monkey head. This is about the size of a dollar coin. It can be found in Dutch candy stores or online.
Drost- (3) “Oh I don’t wanna eat this can I spit it out?”
Eppard- (3) “Oh no I don’t like that. No. Ew.”
O’Brien- (2) “I like banana candy sometimes but I don’t like this.”
Stryker- (7) “I mean- It’s edible. Not the worst thing I’ve ever tasted, I’d eat another one.”
DeVries- (4) “I think the banana really equals it out. This can’t be the worst candy.”
This candy had a very high expectation of tasting bad from appearance and smell, but was not as bad as they thought it would be for the most part. However, it was still not good. These were either mediocre or just bad in the judges’ opinions.
Extra Salted Dutch Black Liquorice
Description: Hard black liquorice with twice the amount of salt than normal. These are about the size of a penny in diameter. These can be found in international food aisles in a grocery store or in Dutch candy shops.
Drost- (0) “It smells so bad… It just sizzled on my tongue!”
Eppard- (0) “Ewww” *nervous laughing*
O’Brien- (0) “The smell is overwhelming. The second it touched my tongue I had to spit it out. This is a negative six”
DeVries- (0) “That is the worst thing. Who can finish one?!”
Stryker- (0) “I have two in my mouth; I’m gonna do it.” (This became a challenge to Stryker)
The very second that the group put this candy in their mouth, there was an instant sound of spitting noises and exclamations of “Oh my gosh! No!” It was obvious that this was a really gross candy. There wasn’t much hope for finding one worse. This got straight zeros across the board. This naturally made the whole class want to attempt and fail at actually consuming a whole one.
Warheads
Description: A super sour hard candy about the size of a penny. Very common in stores nationwide.
Eppard- (4) *Audible discomfort*
Stryker- (9) “I love sour; this is definitely a nine”
Drost- (4) “This was so gross at first, but after a while it tastes like a jolly rancher”
O’Brien- (8) “It tastes like chemicals, but is better than the liquorice.”
DeVries- (3) “Yeah it’s sour.” *Visibly in pain*
This candy, especially coming after the extra salted liquorice, was not too terrible overall. It was more of a painful candy than a gross one, but still generally worse than the blackberries and raspberries.
Juicy drop gum
Description: plain sweet gum with sour watermelon gel. About the size of the enter key on a chromebook. Found at any candy store or online.
Drost- (3)
Eppard- (3)
Stryker- (4) “It’s just a bad texture.
O’Brien- (6) “The taste and texture of the (gel) is so gross. The gum is kinda okay.”
DeVries- (10) “I like it a lot actually this is my favorite by far.”
This was a very mixed response. Only DeVries enjoyed it, and then the others were mostly indifferent or just did not enjoy at least one aspect of the gum.
According to the judges, the extra salted Dutch black licorice was undoubtedly the worst candy from the Peanut Store. All of the judges gave straight zeros and described it as one of the worst things that they have attempted to eat. The most surprising response was to the blackberries and raspberries. Most of the judges had a fairly positive response to a candy that was recommended by a worker as being gross.
If you head to the candy store this fall, stick to the chocolate and gummy worms and avoid the black liquorice. You’ll be happy if you do.
