Let the Season Begin...

Let it begin – the best candy season of all!  The minute the box of Valentine chocolates are taken off the shelves, I start stalking the drug stores, Target, grocery stores, etc., waiting and watching for the season to begin!  You know it – I am talking about all the wonderful Easter candy.  I get quite giddy with excitement when I see the first bags of jelly beans nestled in the shelves waiting just for me! I admit it, I am an Easter candy junkie.   

The season is short so I permit this one little form of indulgence once a year, come on, I deserve it right?  I start with a bag of Brach’s spice jelly beans, then load up on the classic flavor, turn to Russell Stover’s pectin jelly beans, then back to the spice ones. And that is just the jelly beans, don’t forget about Cadbury’s mini-eggs, the marshmallow eggs, vanilla cream eggs, the list goes on and on.   

Nothing is off limits, and yes, I even will buy some Peeps. I tell myself they are an Easter tradition, every kid should have them in their Easter basket (that is correct, of course my children still get Easter baskets – well, some form of something stocked full of candy, I need at least an appearance that I am buying all this candy for someone other than myself, don’t I?). Back to Peeps, I but they every year, but my kids have completely eschewed them, refuse to tear back the cellophane, pull apart a Peep and lick the sugar off their fingers (hard to believe, but it is true).  But this year, this year, I am hoping the boys in their lives will exclaim with happiness “oh Mary, I love Peeps.”  Even if they don’t it is okay, I’ll let the Peeps rest in the back of a cupboard for a couple of months, then I’ll stumble across them, smile and tear them open. There is nothing quite as heavenly as a stale yellow sugared Peep!

Dear reader, I am sorry this post is so boring, nothing poetic, thought provoking or memorable – it is just a rambling about my obsession over Easter candy.  But you need to cut me some slack here, like I said the season is short, I need to enjoy it while it lasts! 

P.S.,  it isn’t quite as obsessive as it sounds, truly.  I have my limits. For example, when I open a bag of spice jelly beans I toss (or leave for Steve to eat, he isn’t fussy) all the gross colors (black, orange, and purple) and keep only the good ones.  I do have some self control!!

What Flavor is Pink?

My favorite candy season is upon us - actually it started the day after Valentine's day - Easter candy!!!  I need to devote a whole post to Easter candy, and will soon, but today, while enjoying a few "classic" Brach's jelly beans at work, I asked myself "what flavor is pink?" I love pink (and white, for that matter) jelly beans, but pink is not an easy color to discern like the red, green, orange or yellow ones are.  So naturally I Googled the question.

I was suprised by the number of other inquiring minds out there asking the same question (including the additional question what flavor is white?).  Unfortunately, these were not of much help because they were focusing on Jelly Belly's and as you know, Jelly Belly has colored diagrams and flavor charts, so that was of no help.  So I decided to go to the source itself - Brach's website (yes, I know, DUH!!). 

Here is the answer:  Pink = strawberry and White = pineapple

I guess when you see it in writing it is a bit easier to identify the flavors, though the pineapple flavor was a surprise!  I admit, however, I am still a bit perplexed over pink!

There you go!   I don't know about you, but I feel a lot better now!!

My love affair with jelly beans begins!

I have loved-loved jelly beans my whole life. Anyone who knows me knows I look forward to “jelly bean season” like a runner prepares for a marathon! Plus, my closest friends know I always have a bag of Jellys Bellys with me at all times (my love affair with Jelly Bellys is more recent, more about that in a later post). But how and why I started really loving jelly beans wasn’t because of Easter, it began when I started getting allergy shots. How is that for an unlikely beginning!! 

When I was in elementary school I had allergies, and after having an allergy test it was determined that I needed weekly allergy shots. Like any kid, getting shots were not fun, let alone once week!  My mother would drive me to Wayzata every Saturday morning for my shot. I’ll never forget that first time when the nurse pulled up my sleeve and administered the shot. I was nervous and apprehensive, which I swear made the shot hurt that much more. Ouch!  Not fun. But to my surprise after the shot she pushed forward a candy jar full of jelly beans! These were the big, Brach jelly beans: red, purple, pink, orange, green, white, yellow and black! Oh heaven. As she pushed the jar toward me so I could take one (yes, only one – c’est impossible!) I reached in and pulled out the one on top – a big purple jelly bean. It was love at first bite.

Suddenly the torture of having a weekly shot along with the added mandatory misery of sitting around for 20 minutes to make sure there wasn't a reaction to the shot wasn’t so bad, because I was guaranteed my one rationed jelly bean! Each week I silently prayed a purple one would be on top and was invariably disappointed if I ended up with a green or yellow one.  Red was my second favorite color, with the white one a distant third (for some reason the white ones always seem strangely exotic to me – maybe because for being such a plain color they taste so good?).  To this day, 40+ years later, those are still my favorite three colors!  Hmm, why do I associate the Brach jelly beans with a color and not a flavor? Don’t know, don’t care, just give me my purple jelly bean!