When I was about 15 years old, my dad got me a "bucket of coal" for christmas. It was a little metal bucket with several lumps of black licorice and a little hammer to break it up. All in all, about 5 pounds of black licorice. Just to be a contrarian, I ate it all. By the time I finished the "coal", I ended up liking black licorice. Can't say it's my favorite, but I do like it.
I live in an area where coal mining is in its history and the local museum includes a mining area and they sell this "coal" in a similar way. Kids love it.
Candy cigarettes were a staple of my childhood Halloween plunder. Pell Mell, Kamel, Lucky Lights. They probably deserve an honorable mention for divisive Halloween treats.
Yeah... those would be divisive for a different reason. And, frankly, unlike the other three, most of us in the millennial generation and below have probably never eaten one. I'm in the older half of millennials and I'm trying to remember if I've ever even seen one in person, though I have heard of them from older generations. Thankfully, I think we've reached the point in society where most people agree that marketing cigarettes to children isn't the best of ideas.
@@vbscript2 There were two kinds of candy cigarettes, hard chalky candy sticks with a red colored tip, which you can still buy rebranded as "candy sticks", and the much cooler cylinder of bubblegum in a paper wrap, with powder between the wrap and gum. Those actually looked like, and were the same size as, cigarettes, and you could blow "smoke" out of them. I'm pretty sure they're not made any more at all.
I LOVED candy cigarettes! But my folks would rarely let me have them, apparently because they were afraid they would get me started on the real thing! Well, I started smoking, anyway--not because of them, but because of peer pressure in my second year of college!
@@vbscript2 Well, I'm a boomer (born 1955) and I do remember eating candy cigarettes in my childhood. They were kind of chalky and, IIRC, a bit minty. They were made of a white candy with a red tip intended to look like the burning end of the cigarette. Fortunately, in spite of the best efforts of that unholy alliance between Big Tobacco and Big Candy, I never took up tobacco smoking. My paternal grandfather dying of emphysema (he was a heavy smoker) when I was maybe 10 or 11 was a major factor in that.
@@one-eyedsam2186 I also recall long cylinders of chocolate inside a real rolled cigarette paper. You slipped the chocolate out of the papers to eat it.Just don't leave them in the sun. If the chocolate melted into the paper they were trashed.
So I have a peanut allergy. I fondly remember finding circus peanuts when I was little and thinking “wow, I can eat these!” and so I loved them from then on. It’s still a favorite of mine today.
Candy Corn don't taste the same as they did when I was a kid in the Sixties. Probably made with fructose and fillers now..... and I never liked candy "peanuts".
Dad, born in 1927, loved circus peanuts. I didn't really like them, when I was a child, but as an older guy, I kind of like them now. I previously thought, that Dad liked them, because it reminded him of his childhood, or they were the only candy available then, so he'd developed a taste for it, but maybe, as we get older, our tastes change? For instance, as a kid, I didn't like licorice or even coconut, but as a grown up, I like them both. Perhaps these candies survive, because adults are projecting, what they like as adults, onto children?
I am 83 years old. When I was a kid in rural Arkansas and Texas, there were no close neighbors or anywhere to go 'trick or treating'. Sometimes there would be a Halloween party at school. Usually a fund raiser of some sort. I know we bought candy corn and licorice a few times, but no one like either one. I didn't know what the Circus Peanuts were called. I think I recall tasting them sometime. Our spending money was usually hard won, so we learned early on to spend it on necessities, caps for our cap pistols, then later BBs for our BB guns. Usually the picture show on Saturday night was a necessity. It cost .10 cents to get in. A large box of popcorn was .10 cents and a paper cup of Coke was .05 cents. With little brothers and sisters older kids had to make sure we made enough during the week for everyone to go. I was surprised to know that licorice is still being made. I thought something had happened where it was no longer made.I still don't eat candy. I don't like the taste 'sweet'. I think some 5 percent of the world's population don't like the taste. Just plain sugar has a bitter after taste. I don't like pie or cake, either On December 10th, in 1943, my 5th birthday, my new Dad, (no step involved, had adopted me), but I digress In the mess hall at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas, he made me a real, honest to gawd jelly roll. The raspberry filling was a bright red against the white cake. I thought that was to most beautiful thing I ever saw. Still do. He cut it with a sewing thread. I didn't think it was right somehow, to eat something that beautiful.' Dammit I' m a sentimental old fool, crying over a jelly roll that's been gone 3/4 of a Century. Ok, my keeper is here with my meds. Gotta hide this website. She thinks I'm looking at porn.
What a lovely story about your life, Jean! My dad is 85, and we kids and grandkids love to sit around him and let him unspool glorious stories about his football days, wearing shirts handmade by his mom, gathering scrap metal for the war, and milking the cows at his dad's dairy farm. Older folks are such a treasure in our world. Good health to you!
I have such fond memories of the Circus Peanut. Next to chocolate, it was my favorite candy as a kid in the Fifties. I didn't eat it so much as a young adult, but now as an Senior Citizen, it is even better. For a Winter afternoon snack, a cup of hot coffee filled with cream, and a couple of the Circus Peanuts, I couldn't ask for a better treat. Thank you for sharing this oddball bit of candy mystery/history.
I have a love/hate relationship with them! I love the taste but hate the texture! (I'm 65) Also they were my mom's favorite as well as black licorice(that I also love)
My grandmother was born in 1912, year the Titanic went down I think. I would always be going into her room and getting circus peanut candy, orange slice candy and spearmint or big red gum from her.
I'm 63 years old, and those are 3 of my favorite candies from childhood, and I love them still. They're just a few of those little things in life that bring us as close as we'll ever get to time travel.
I once used candy corn as a practical joke on my mother. I cut off the white tips from several of them, put them in my mouth, pretended to hit a door hard, and spit them out. Mom thought they were my teeth. It was hilarious. She was not amused.
Lol when my brother-in-law were little 7, 8 years old, we put ketchup on our hands screaming to our mother that we cut ourselves. Just like yours, she was not amused.
LOL I used to put the oral thermometer under the hot tap water to get out of going to school. It worked until one time I got caught doing so " OHHHH YOU LITTLE DEVIL" and from then on my mom would endure the full 3 minutes of her already VERY busy morning standing over me to get my accurate temperature.
I used to buy actual licorice *sticks* to chew as a kid, from an old fashioned pharmacy (with a sandwich counter and soda jerk!). Yes, actual sticks/roots from the licorice shrub; the original "no sugar added" confection!
I just had some circus peanuts last week. I had no idea they were banana flavored. It is interesting what happens when you colorize things a different color, than the flavor!
@@matildagreene1744 , According to a friend of mine who went to culinary school, they're supposed to taste like what bananas used to take like before the Cavendish banana became the standard eating banana.
My grandfather used black licorice flavoring to spray on his fishing lures. He swore by it for catching bass and crappie. He passed more than 30 years ago. His tackle-box still smells of it.
My beloved grandfather was a merchant seaman who always smoked a pipe. A favorite childhood memory was my imitating him with a candy pipe made of black licorice...two "old salts" together. RIP, Pop-Pop!
Liquorice pipes were a childhood staple for me. But salmiak (salty Liquorice) was always a favorite. For Finns it's pretty common to pack a lot of salmiak when going abroad since it's difficult to find outside northern Europe.
I used to love licorice pipes... It's been many many years since I've had one, but yeah, those were a staple for me, along with Swedish Fish, candy corn, circus peanuts and marshmallow peeps.
My mom, dad, brother and I used to sit back after Sunday dinner and “smoke” our licorice cigars. We had a contest every week to see who could make their cigar last the longest.
Growing up in a large family (7brothers, one sister) in the 60's in Cleveland, Ohio, we ate a lot of these candies because that's what my parents could afford to give use that could be shared so none of us felt left out. Didn't realize how poor we were until I finally got my first job as a teenager. Don't regret it though, taught us thrift and gratefulness.
I’m pushing 80 so, I do like black licorice. When I was a child and I could skim off a few cents from my Mother’s groceries change… I went to the variety store and bought black licorice whips… a lot longer that today’s black licorice… it was value for my skimmed off money… 1 cent for 1 whip , about 1 foot long. Since they were not wrapped they got kind of hard and lasted longer. I could get back home while consuming just one whip😂.
We never had store bought candy when I was growing up, only Mom's homemade desserts. I did get a nickel a week for my cleaning allowance and I would hit the local corner store for 5 penny items and black licorice was one of them. Candy corn and Circus Peanuts came later when I was older because they were in a bag and cost $.99c. They were found in the grocery store.
First off I eat candy corn one color at a time and have since early childhood. Now to the nitty gritty. I think the reason we keep these around is it brings us back to a simpler life. It reminds us of going polliwoging, lightning bug hunting. Simple times where the only thing to worry about is getting home before the street lights came on. A time where an empty box today is a fort and tomorrow it's a rocketship. A time when a broom handle was a horse named Silver or Champion. Where an empty lot was a football field or a baseball diamond.
Lightning bugs are gone, being unsupervised until the streetlights come on is enough to justify a visit from CPS with neglect, empty boxes are now covered in ads and suffocation warnings, broom handles are now roombas, and an empty lot we played football in is now trespassing signs... It truly is a different time
Side note. I spent a year on a ship operated by a developing nation. There was no sugar whatsoever on that ship. I had never had a sweet tooth and especially was never impressed with cake. But after that year the first sweet thing I had was a piece of cake and it was mind blowing. It completely changed my perspective on why sweets like cake or your examples were such a big deal in a time before sugar and high fructose corn syrup had worked it’s way into everything we eat.
I'd agrue sugar tastes better than corn syrup. I think the syrup makes things a bit too sweet and overpowers the other flavors of which it is put into. Know what i mean?
Many of the candies that are hard to find, are sold at Cracker Barrel in their gift shop like area. I made a nostalgia basket for my brother's 50th birthday and bought many of the old favorites there.
You should cover the chalky Valentine's Day Hearts in next year's edition. I absolutely love them. People used to give theirs to me because I was the only person who wanted them. I also love Necco Wafers, which are basically the same.
Both conversation hearts & Necco wafer were made here in New England by the Necco Company that sadly got bought out by Spanglers and the Necco Factory closed down 🙁 they also made Squirrel Nuts & MaryJane bars which can’t be found now a days. But I do think Spanglers continues to produce Candy Buttons (dots of colored sugar candy on paper strips) Necco used to make them also.
@@cherriberri7161 oh I remember those candy dots! I used to eat those when I was a kid ('90s), and the bit of paper that inevitably came with them lol.
Circus Peanuts bring back memories of my Grandmother's pantry. Whenever we visited there was always a bag of circus peanuts on the shelf. Candy corn was always in candy dishes in everyone's house during the autumn, along with candies shaped like cats, bats and small pumpkins (and those were VERY special! LOL!).
@@LynxSouth The small pumpkins should be at Wal Mart in a round plastic container along with candy corn, they call it Autumn Mix now. They sell out pretty fast but usually keep restocking it. At least they do in NE, we get them there every year.
My granny Bessie Jane Mannon who was born as she said"19 and three used to buy the peanuts.I remember not eating much of it.It was way too sweet.She was originally from Wagoner Oklahoma.I remember she came to visit when I was 3 or 4.I heard she was making a store run and I got all excited bc I knew she would bring me some candy.Ok I was born in 59 and maybe some of u people my age might remember the wax like candy we called lips and teeth?A kid could put these in his or hers mouth and have fun bc u had these giant red lips or big white teeth hanging out your mouth.Well she was gone for about an HR and what does she bring me back? A box of good old Lipton Tea.I was mad as hell and I think I threw it on the floor!And she just laughed.It is quite funny now but it wasn't then.Thanks
The banana flavor in circus peanuts is mimicking an extinct banana known as the Gros Michel. What you buy at the grocery store is the Cavendish banana, which has a completely different flavor profile. That's why people don't think that banana-flavored things don't taste like banana. What they are tasting is a fascinating aspect of history! I don't think anyone has attempted to or successfully replicated the Cavendish banana flavor.
Its not nessicarally extinct, they just don't grow it on a scale like they used to. Its Industrially extinct. The cavendish is next as there's fears that the monoculture of Cavendish is going to do itself in similar to the Gros Michel.
Maybe that explains the odd taste of the ChicFilA Banana Pudding Milkshakes. They were brought back just last week after being off the menu for 13 years. They used to have real banana in them and the new ones taste like imitation banana flavor. If the Gros Michel (Big Mike) is the flavor they’re using it really tastes off to me. I’ll have to buy some Circus peanuts and compare the taste to the milkshakes.
When I was really little, maybe 2 or 3, I saw a picture in a coloring book of a circus elephant holding a peanut in his trunk about to eat it. My grandmother had given me these treats, too, so naturally I concluded that they must be elephant food as well as candy. LOL 🤷🏽♀
The CEO of circus peanut company on a TV interview said; "I have no idea why anyone would want to buy and eat these (wtf), but they do, we just make them". That says it all right there.
Not lint-covered so much. I found them in my Dollar Tree or Big Lots. I saw them, yipped in delight and bought five of these 6" long rolls of Necco wafers. They were fresh, too. (I'm pretty sure it was Dollar Tree.)
Necco is a local product for us; my vivid memory of it is as ammo/shrapnel as the guys in our graphics/drafting bullpen fired it around the room at each other with rubber bands.
The mention of Necco wafers (from the New England Candy Company) will always stir up a lively discussion in my home state of Connecticut. I, for one, like them and find them nostalgic. Also, growing up in the 1960's, I saw the shift from full-sized candy bars given out as treats to the diminutive "fun sized" bars. I remember thinking to myself "Who's idea of 'fun' is this?!!!" Now, half a century later, I can still remember the houses in my neighborhood who gave out the treasured, full-sized Hershey bars for Trick-or-treat. Best regards from Key West, Capt. Blackheart Charlie
Same here, in fact I'm out of it at the moment and need to stop by a drugstore on the way home. The disappointment of opening your candy bowl and realizing you'd already eaten it all and your plan to "make it last" had failed. Again.
My grandfather loaned the two guys who started Peter Paul candy company when the bank would not loan them the money because the bank thought a candy company was a bad risk. Shows you how shortsighted bank loan officers can be. We the family got free boxes of candy every Christmas for years after as gratitude for my grandfather's belief in someone's dream.
My great great grandfather started the organization that we now know as the American Dental Association. He also thought that a candy company was a bad risk. For children.
Love necco wafers too . I didn't like the pink ones so I would put them in the change return in the snack machine at work just before lunch time, watching co-workers reactions when taking their change. Most took it well with a, what the .... and then you had the Karen's. Oh well .... 😂 .
Throughout the sixties and seventies, my family traveled from wherever we were to meet at our grandmother's house before spending a month at the beach. Every year she set out the same spread to greet us kids. Canada Dry ginger ale served warm in the can with paper straws, Wise potato chips, and circus peanuts. Not refreshing, exactly, but unforgettable.
I am 65 and like all the candies that you listed. Growing up we were never treated to candy and in a moment of weakness as I was staring at a bag of the circus peanuts the cashier saw me staring at them so intently that she asked if I wanted them. I nodded yes and somehow ended up with them, I am not sure who paid as I was 7 or 8. We knew better than to ask for anything and remained the only item that my mom ever bought specifically for me. Oddly, my husband and I saw them and bought a bag recently but regularly buy good and plenty as well as real licorice candy. We also buy candy corn at least once a year. We must be 83 according to the expert😁
Lol. So you can say candies. I came here to finally understand when you use candy and when candies. This is insane. I read stuff like this in comments - They are my favorite CANDY. but at the same time - These candies ..... Lol
@@Una_Ridlow "to a group of candy" you say.... Insane. A group of something always means a lot of things. A group of people, a group of players, a group of galaxies.... But in your own sentence you write "to a group of candy".... Why didn't you write "to a group of candies"? Why?
The pumpkins are great. The local grocery stores used to have generic "mallocreme" oddball shapes for each holiday, a bit like the pumpkins. They have disappeared over the years, sadly.
I grew up eating Black Licorice because my grandfather loved it. I grew up eating Circus Peanuts and candy corn because my father loved it. I as a child LOVED Good and Plenty and still do!
A sister to circus peanuts persists in Australia. Same texture, same flavour, but in the shape of bananas to match their taste. Candy bananas are quite popular here.
I love them. Grew up in the US eating circus peanuts occasionally, never realized they were banana flavored. Moved to Australia later and really liked the bananas, especially the ones from IGA. I forget the current brand name, but they used to be Black and Gold brand. I still try and find a bag of circus peanuts whenever I go back to the USA.
@@mattboggs6304 I was shocked years ago when someone mentioned they were banana flavored. I don't care for them, and could never get a grip on the flavor. If someone does love them, I say have at it. 🙂
In 50 years of eating that candy, it never dawned on me that it was supposed to be banana flavored until a few years ago when someone made that claim. I argued, intending to die on that hill, when I heard someone made them banana shaped in other countries, and ordered a plastic pail of them off Amazon! Sure enough, banana. I recanted my argument on the Internet (it may have been the first time that's ever happened). But I will claim they taste different, and it could be entirely mental, but the banana shaped ones smelled and tasted more like banana. And as the last part of the video here today shows, even The History Guy doubts the banana flavor, LOL.
When I was a kid, back in the 70s, we lived behind a Kmart. I loved dumpster diving in their dumpsters. One day I discovered cases and cases of candy corn in the dumpster and brought them home. I secretly gorged on candy corn for weeks. That was the last time I've eaten it. Cured me for good.
your channel makes me so happy :) it's like having my grandfather tell me about the good old days, a lovely cup of chicken noodle soup but in video form
The secret of candy corn is that you have to buy the Brach's Autumn Mix that only comes out in September. It's soft and fresh with real honey and cocoa mixed in and make sure you just buy a little bag if you don't have anybody to share it with because you will inhale it all overnight. Most people buy the stale generic stuff from the drug store that's fifty cents for a pound. That stuff is pure corn syrup and tastes like "ow, my teeth hurt.''
I liked circus peanuts, but even as a kid a little went a long way. It had so much sugar it would make me dizzy! Black licorice was my mom’s favorite, but I didn’t like it so much unless she bought anise-flavored gum, I think it’s called Black Jack gum and you can still find it in farm supply stores with other old fashioned candies like the circus peanuts, candy corn, and the burnt peanuts (Rural King stores).
It's wild that some of the candy corn shapes we think of as seasonal now (i.e. pumpkins), might be closer to some of the original shapes. I never knew that. Thanks for another good one!
I remember a "peanut" shaped candy that was kind of like a Chick-o-stick, only it had a hard candy glazed coating on it. To this day I have absolutely no idea what to call them.
No, Circus Peanuts aren’t called old peoples candy! In fact if that was the case they still wouldn’t make them today, which they still do make them today! It’s just a fact that Circus Peanuts have been around forever!
@@AngelofDeath1431 The only candy that I can think of that fits that description is "Boston Baked Beans". However, they are actually peanuts, and are very delicious.
I am from Germany and had my first Candy corn when I visited Canada nearly 30 years ago. I love it, and whenever a friend goes to north america, I ask them to bring me some. I think it’s delicious - but I also love black liquorice, especially the salty variety.
Man, candy corn became awesome once I stopped getting swamped by it during Halloween: circus peanuts are awesome; and licorice...well, it was an acquired taste, but I did acquire it eventually. May they never die!
Candy corn, oh my, we used to go to a mall every so often and the Sears had bulk candy and my parents might buy us our candy of choice and mine was candy corn and the pumpkins. By the time we'd be halfway home I'd have eaten half a pound or more and was so sick. Every time I'd eat too much of it because it was such a rarity for me.
@@richardtibbitts3841 YES circus peanuts are delicious!!! I also had no idea the marshmallows in lucky charms were also circus peanuts!!! and I never realized they were banana flavored too! 😂
I love allsorts licorice but I hate black licorice. Candy corn is okay in small amounts. How about those root beer barrels hard candies? I always remember them only at Halloween. 🤮 to me!😄
My grandmother often had a bag of circus peanuts hidden in the bread drawer at their home. I liked them and have very fond memories. Candy corn are one of my favorite candies.
When I was a kid candy was a real treat. Consequently, Halloween was not just fun it was also a job. The purpose was to gather as much candy (in a pillow case) as you could. We ran from house to house and hoped we could get enough to make that candy last for months. In our house, the last candy to be plucked from those pillowcases was always the 3 mentioned here.
I’ve always loved candy corn. I didn’t realize people hated it until I was an adult. Seriously, I always looked forward to it. It was one of if not my favorite Halloween candy. Circus peanuts are definitely not my favorite. They taste like if peeps were made out of foam, and I hate peeps.
@ferretyluv I was waiting for him to mention mixing candy corn with dry roasted peanuts. That's what my mom always did. It sorta tastes like a Payday candy bar.
I love candy corn, and I can say that different brands have different tastes. Brocks is Ok, but a company called NICE i discovered at Walgreens is much better! Creamier taste. People today have become so darn picky, it’s candy for heaven’s sake, it’s just sugar, what’s not to like?
Circus peanuts have GOT to be fresh,and a good brand. The stale ones are gross,that's probably why so many people don't like them. Licorice quality really depends on it being at least a decent brand. Good and plenty are better than most Licorice sticks and whips,but the All Sorts mix are especially good.
Circus Peanuts were one of my grandmothers favorite treats so I developed a taste for them myself, because when you stay over at grandmas on the weekend as a kid and all she has is divinity and circus peanuts you're going to eat them.
When my wife (from Kansas) was pregnant, 14 years ago we were visiting some family in Texas and she had a craving for circus peanuts - enjoying them myself I went in search. My odyssey took me to at least 10 stores and asking numerous people and nobody seemed to even know what I was talking about. It was as if I had traveled to a parallel timeline where the banana oil mistake batch was dumped rather then batched and sold; and I didn't like it one bit. Driving back home, as soon as we made it closer to the Oklahoma border I found 3 bags and we leisurely snacked to the collective dismay of our pancreases. I actually never was able to figure out what the flavor was until watching this video and you're absolutely right, they are indeed banana flavored!
Circus peanuts remind me of my grandfather, who spoke no English but shared candy and sweet wine with us kids. We never told my parents! It was my mother who liked black jelly beans, so I learned that from her. And we got candy corn, especially the little pumpkins, with school lunch for Halloween. So it's all really nostalgia.
Those fluffy orange circus peanuts are definitely something a lot of people dislike. My great grandma always had a bag of them in her drawer. I remember grabbing one or two every now and then, brings back memories.
My grandmother kept a bag in a metal breadbox next to where she sat. Honestly can't say whether she ate them or not, but, i do know she never had to chase her rambunctious grandson down for hugs and kisses.
When I was a kid I loved all three: Licorice, circus peanuts, and candy corn. Later I began to feel that circus peanuts and candy corn were too sugary and although I might enjoy one or two on rare occasions, that is my limit. I still love licorice though, especially Good & Plenty.
@@mage1439 likely because we are all used to ungodly amounts of sugar. We would all like it more if we weren't So USED to hard candy that is LITERALLY full sugar
And then you had chocolate confections... The industries market the most addictive products. Old fashioned sweets cannot compete. One candy corn and you are done for hours... or days!
England here. Never seen candy corn before 🤩 However, I can confirm that we had those marshmallow peanuts in the 1970s. I recall thinking they were weird at the time (and not really noticing they were supposed to taste like bananas).
Arguing about candy satisfies the desire to argue, without engendering any hard feelings. You argue politics and it gets really nasty really quickly, and not only that but whoever loses gets force-fed the option they don't like for years afterwards. Arguing about candy still ends with everyone eating their favorites, no matter how much they make fun of each other.
My grandma is in her 60's now, but she was always eating circus peanuts when I was growing up. It had since become one of my top 10 candies! It does a have a strange texture you won't find anywhere else, and I appreciate it for that. I can only thank my grandma for introducing it to me!
I was born March 9, 1952. My sister, December 2, 1954. When they brought her home from the hospital I was exited and wanted to share my Halloween candy with her. Parents were in kitchen and heard her choking. I'd shared my favorite, candy corn, with her. Parents weren't thrilled even though they always taught me to share. For her 30th birthday I found a throw pillow shaped and colored like a piece of candy corn. I wrote in the card, " I tried to be an only child, but it didn't work out." She laughed and had to explain it to her husband and kids.😊😅😅
Love the wax harmonica from Wowee! But I’ve been told someone hated them so much that he destroyed the molds years ago! He hated their sound! Perhaps the only candy that has been hated because of it’s sound.
I always thought that the reason many people hated black licorice was the tingling sensation you get, and after a few candies your tongue would go numb. I lived for 39 years unaware I'm probably allergic and it's the allergic reaction that attracts me to the flavor.
Wow thats insane, I'm really allergic to many foods and they would make me very nauseous or make my mouth being to turn my saliva very very sticky to the point I couldn't swallow as anything and everything just got stuck I'm my throat and mouth until I took a drink of liquid to force it down. Luckily I've never been anaphylatic to anything besides peanuts. The reason I tell my life story is I've never heard of someone's mouth going numb from an allergic reaction to foodstuffs that's cool to hear about as another possible food allergy symptom.
I get a very slight tingly feeling from some licorice. I never thought about that meaning perhaps I'm allergic. Which is odd, as I know that's a possible allergic reaction
I have loved black licorice since I was a child. I especially loved licorice pipes and cigars; they were my favourites. I can't find them anymore…or maybe I just haven't looked for them hard enough. Thank you for the memories!
In Wales, colloquially we referred to a candy, quite similar to ‘Good & Plenty’ (sold loosely from jars by the quarter) as ‘rats droppings’, owing much to their shape, and some gruff humor thrown in 😊
Interesting, the arguments over the candies reflecting the arguments over Marmite. Which reminds me, gotta order a jar of Marmite. Great on pot roasts... Tip of the hat from across the pond!
I first learned about licorice root as a young boy in the late 1960s when my family would go to Atlantic City on vacation. The candy stores on the boardwalk would sell bundles of 6 sticks about 4 to 6 inches long. As you chew on it, it becomes very fibrous, and you get the flavor. Every so often you would cut the used part off and start over. I gave 'samples' to my friends at home and every time we went to A. C. after that I had orders to fill!
Yes makes sense because I hate anything "banana flavor" which doesn't taste anything like banana to me. Circus peanuts are one of my most hated candies
I always thought they tasted like less-delicious Juicy Fruit gum but I never pinned down artificial banana as the common flavor til today. They're two of my favorite sweets, so I guess I super like fake banana and never thought about it hard enough to realize.
@@chrismemphis8062 I actually bought a bag of circus peanuts a while ago that were genuinely stale. They were past the “best by” date and were so hard I thought I would break a tooth! I took them back to the store and exchanged them for a fresh bag of the same thing. The lady at the store looked at me like I was crazy for buying them in the first place!
@@chrismemphis8062 I like the candy and so does my sister. We can enjoy them when they're older and firmer, but if they're super hard they are really old and we won't buy them. We only buy them if they're fresher. They don't usually sell well, so if they're somewhat soft we'll go for it. If we're really lucky and they are actually soft like marshmallow not exactly like regular marshmallows, they melt in your mouth and are the best that way.
I LOVED Circus Peanuts in my childhood. The flavor and the texture made them the best candy around for many years. And then I moved on to dark chocolate, and never looked back.
Me too girl!!! I love dark chocolate. My Granny always had circus peanuts at her house. I think that was the only time I had it. I guess it was more of a special treat that way. Can't stand the things now. I'm just not a fan of marshmallow candy.
Have you ever tried circus peanuts when they just start to go stale? It's my favorite way to eat them because of the texture. Just biting into it is great. The outside just starts to get hard but not quite, and the inside is still soft and squishy. I highly recommend trying it if you like them fresh with their normal texture
My grandmother was born in 1919 and circus peanuts were her favorite candy. Interesting side note that connects to this, my grandma was the Spider Girl for a very short time in the Hagenbeck and Wallace Circus, so more than likely, traveling circuses did indeed have them.
Obviously they’re still around because people love them, I am one of them. I grew up with these, there’s something nostalgic about them that brings warmth and joy.
@@vids595, 😂 I am in my seventies and I hate the candies like circus peanuts, candy corn, and milk chocolate. I love liquorice, though, and real chocolate- dark chocolate.
The quality of this video is amazing for being just a regular UA-cam video. It takes me back to when me and Mom used to watch Unwrapped or Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives! Hope you can keep making videos like this. I'd love to be able to flick it on, sit back and reminisce!
I never really thought about the oddity of banana-flavored / peanut-shaped "Circus Peanuts", but I always did love 'em! I cannot stand to eat black licorice, but I am hooked on candy corn!
I tend to consider the peanuts as summer candy since they show up during the summer along with marshmallow bananas and strawberries. People may not like them because they find them too sweet, just like the candy corn. Candy corn is a type of mellocreme, and there's a lot of mediocre mellocreme around. If you can find it fresh and of good quality it has a very creamy, fudge-like quality to it that just melts in your mouth.
I've always been considered to have "old man tastes" thanks to the fact that I love all these candies! Also those strawberry hard candies, butterscotch candies, caramel cubes, root beer barrel candies, and a bunch of other "Old man" candies.
Candy corn and peanut butter taffy in orange and black wrappers are classic Halloween candies, somehow without them Halloween wouldn't be the same. Mom always wanted the candy corn in small packets to give out on Halloween, yet I have never seen it packed this way. The candy companies don't seem to know that this would increase sales.
I must have been a weird little kid. I loved black licorice, circus peanuts, super-sour jawbreakers, sponge toffee, horehound candy, and that weirdest of Canadian candies "Thrills", which still sports its proud slogan on the box: "IT STILL TASTES LIKE SOAP!"
@@Arcanist_Gaming You'll run across it in stores, occasionally --- especially old corner stores --- if you look for it. But there are never ads for it anywhere. It's like it's in some twilight zone that you blunder into by chance. The O-Pee-Chee Company in London, Ontario --- a company much more famous for hockey and baseball cards ---- has made Thrills since the 1930s. During World War 2, they switched to producing food supplies for the war effort, but they continued making Thrills as their only confection product. Apparently it was necessary to keep up national morale. The company suffered the only military attack on Canadian soil when a Nazi submarine entered the St. Lawrence River and sank one of their cargoes. I guess Hitler was well aware how much the Allies depended on O-Pee-Chee to win the war. The original factory building still stands in London, as does the newer factory they moved to in 1989. A part of our heritage that the "Heritage Minute" series on TV never gave us.
@@Arcanist_Gaming I'm a historian, so it's a habit. Easy stuff to look up, and I found the factories on Google Earth. I already knew about the sub from reading about the old film "The 49th Parallel". I had O-PEE-CHEE hockey cards when I was a kid.
My mom would always pack a bag of Circus Peanuts in the picnic basket when we would go to the swim club on the weekends. Liked them as a kid ..... can't stand them now. They make my teeth itch.
As all Scandinavians, I'm a massive fan of salty black licorice. The only controversial thing about it is apparently being somehow tied to Halloween? We're not really big on that holiday around here (yet), but black licorice on the other hand is huge all year round. I've never tried the other two. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen either candy corn or circus peanuts for sale here.
Tasty America store in Farsta and on line has candy corn, haven't ever seen circus peanuts. Bilen godis are fairly close to circus peanuts. I don't care for either candy, they were always the last candy left in my trick or treat bag.
@@robbygaume600 Sweden has a car shaped candy that is pretty close to circus peanuts. Thank heavens no candy corn, those were the last thing in my bag.
Very cool! I have a horrible haunting sweet tooth and have always liked candy corn and circus peanuts, but not so much licorice. But I have always been a huge fan of Necco wafers and would love to see the history of them!
As a kid we used to drive past the Necco factory in Cambridge Mass every Sunday on the way to visit our grandparents. The smell of Necco Wafers used to permeate the air so strongly that we’d always roll down the windows, no matter what the weather and breath deeply. The building alas is no more.
Circus peanuts were my one of my Dad's favorites. I do remember them occasionally coming in pink and white choices too. I don't remember if those colors tasted any different. Perhaps the white ones had more of the vanilla flavor?
@@vxy357 most people don’t find it particularly good or palatable (like me). I don’t know if it’s some natural phenomenon or not, but we all have different taste buds and though I despise peeps, black licorice, and circus peanuts, I absolutely love candy corn, so I can say that’s at least one controversial candy on my list.
@@PatrickWagz The multicolored circus peanuts come out seasonally at Easter. The pink are strawberry flavored, the yellow are lemon and the white are just a neutral sweet flavor I believe.
It amazes me how apparently hated circus peanuts are. I personally think they're quite good and I definitely see why they've stuck around. And keep in mind I just turned 21.
Yes. The texture is very satisfying. The soft, almost melony taste. I also like the soft color, not this BLOW YOUR EYEBALLS OUT neon color that candies are nowadays.
@@WASTEPAW yea when their fresh they taste good! like a dried Peep from Easter. But they get stale so fast, and the flavor is very differet from 25 years ago when I remember eating them all summer once time.
@@blackleague212 very true, the fresh ones are the best, but this video explains why i never find fresh ones in the store :/ they just aren’t stocked often enough i guess
Hello Lance. Good story on candy. I think you hit it when you mentioned summer candy. I remember as a kid a lot of stores were not air-conditioned yet and it got pretty hot in there and chocolate candy bars and stuff would be all melted inside their wrappers but things like candy corn for instance could stand up to the heat.
My mother introduced me to circus peanuts as a little girl. She told me that when she was a little girl, there was an old man that lived on her block who would pass out candy to the neighborhood kids on Saturday mornings, and he had circus peanuts and Smarties, the rolls of small circular pastel colored candies that tasted faintly like SweeTarts but not as strong and with a more chalky texture. She would also choose the circus peanuts because she liked the way they melt in your mouth. I still buy them on occasion and I always let the first peanut I eat melt in my mouth completely before I take a second one.
You might note that I said she was very young. She was probably only 3 or 4 years old when it happened. She got a kick out of recounting the story years later.@@gregrak9389
I remember having circus peanuts as a kid and being so confused. I expected it to taste either like peanut butter or an orange starburst but when it tasted like banana I felt a bit upset.
I wish I had known they were banana flavored, because I felt there were not enough banana flavored candies! Next to Laffy Taffy and those little fruit shaped candies from vending machines, I could never find any.
I was first introduced to circus peanuts at an after-school function. I asked one of the other kids what they tasted like, and he replied, "sponges." Combined with the general scent in the room, I instantly knew what they would taste like and that I would like them (fortunately I was correct).
When I was about 15 years old, my dad got me a "bucket of coal" for christmas. It was a little metal bucket with several lumps of black licorice and a little hammer to break it up. All in all, about 5 pounds of black licorice. Just to be a contrarian, I ate it all. By the time I finished the "coal", I ended up liking black licorice. Can't say it's my favorite, but I do like it.
Great story.
I live in an area where coal mining is in its history and the local museum includes a mining area and they sell this "coal" in a similar way. Kids love it.
My family sold them in our sweets store.
You can still find bags and buckets of coal candy around. A fun treat for and from friends
I remember that exact " coal licorice " . I ate some and could taste it for hours afterward .
Candy cigarettes were a staple of my childhood Halloween plunder. Pell Mell, Kamel, Lucky Lights. They probably deserve an honorable mention for divisive Halloween treats.
Yeah... those would be divisive for a different reason. And, frankly, unlike the other three, most of us in the millennial generation and below have probably never eaten one. I'm in the older half of millennials and I'm trying to remember if I've ever even seen one in person, though I have heard of them from older generations.
Thankfully, I think we've reached the point in society where most people agree that marketing cigarettes to children isn't the best of ideas.
@@vbscript2 There were two kinds of candy cigarettes, hard chalky candy sticks with a red colored tip, which you can still buy rebranded as "candy sticks", and the much cooler cylinder of bubblegum in a paper wrap, with powder between the wrap and gum. Those actually looked like, and were the same size as, cigarettes, and you could blow "smoke" out of them. I'm pretty sure they're not made any more at all.
I LOVED candy cigarettes! But my folks would rarely let me have them, apparently because they were afraid they would get me started on the real thing! Well, I started smoking, anyway--not because of them, but because of peer pressure in my second year of college!
@@vbscript2 Well, I'm a boomer (born 1955) and I do remember eating candy cigarettes in my childhood. They were kind of chalky and, IIRC, a bit minty. They were made of a white candy with a red tip intended to look like the burning end of the cigarette. Fortunately, in spite of the best efforts of that unholy alliance between Big Tobacco and Big Candy, I never took up tobacco smoking.
My paternal grandfather dying of emphysema (he was a heavy smoker) when I was maybe 10 or 11 was a major factor in that.
@@one-eyedsam2186 I also recall long cylinders of chocolate inside a real rolled cigarette paper. You slipped the chocolate out of the papers to eat it.Just don't leave them in the sun. If the chocolate melted into the paper they were trashed.
So I have a peanut allergy. I fondly remember finding circus peanuts when I was little and thinking “wow, I can eat these!” and so I loved them from then on. It’s still a favorite of mine today.
Awh how cute! 😊
An excellent taste treat!
If you love it, love it! Does NOT matter what others think!
@@edamnaf9265 That's the bottom line regarding most things (music, art, etc.).
yea I like them too, but only fresh. The pharmacy used to get them fresh back in 2019 that was the last time I had a bag.
We LOVE circus peanuts, and candy corn!!!! Keep them coming. We go to certain stores just to get circus peanuts.
Sounds like you'd sell your first born just to buy some, GET HELP!!
Bob Evan’s sell those nasty peanuts. I’m 61. The only candies my grandmother ever had were those nasty peanuts and root beer barrels 🤢
My hubby 'bout barfs over the smell of Circus Peanuts, but I love them. I hate black licorice, but it's his favorite. 😂 Go figure.
Circus popcorn ❤
@@pamelanadel3787i loved them both!
I'm 70 and love all three. Candy Corn and Circus Peanuts were Halloween staples when I was a child. It is not just a tasty treat, but a good memory!
Agreed. I’m 76 and I too grew up with all three.
Candy Corn don't taste the same as they did when I was a kid in the Sixties. Probably made with fructose and fillers now..... and I never liked candy "peanuts".
I only know one person who loves circus peanuts, my older cousin. She had a bag of them on vaca & I didn’t know they still made them
Dad, born in 1927, loved circus peanuts. I didn't really like them, when I was a child, but as an older guy, I kind of like them now. I previously thought, that Dad liked them, because it reminded him of his childhood, or they were the only candy available then, so he'd developed a taste for it, but maybe, as we get older, our tastes change? For instance, as a kid, I didn't like licorice or even coconut, but as a grown up, I like them both. Perhaps these candies survive, because adults are projecting, what they like as adults, onto children?
@@sparky6086 I think you are right about that. Nostalgia tastes sweet, indeed!
I am 83 years old. When I was a kid in rural Arkansas and Texas, there were no close neighbors or anywhere to go
'trick or treating'. Sometimes there would be a Halloween party at school. Usually a fund raiser of some sort. I know we bought candy corn and licorice a few times, but no one like either one. I didn't know what the Circus Peanuts were called. I think I recall tasting them sometime. Our spending money was usually hard won, so we learned early on to spend it on necessities, caps for our cap pistols, then later BBs for our BB guns. Usually the picture show on Saturday night was a necessity.
It cost .10 cents to get in. A large box of popcorn was .10 cents and a paper cup of Coke was .05 cents. With little brothers and sisters older kids had to make sure we made enough during the week for everyone to go.
I was surprised to know that licorice is still being made. I thought something had happened where it was no longer made.I still don't eat candy. I don't like the taste 'sweet'. I think some 5 percent of the world's population don't like the taste. Just plain sugar has a bitter after taste. I don't like pie or cake, either On December 10th, in 1943, my 5th birthday, my new Dad, (no step involved, had adopted me), but I digress In the mess hall at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas, he made me a real, honest to gawd jelly roll. The raspberry filling was a bright red against the white cake. I thought that was to most beautiful thing I ever saw. Still do. He cut it with a sewing thread. I didn't think it was right somehow, to eat something that beautiful.' Dammit I' m a sentimental old fool, crying over a jelly roll that's been gone 3/4 of a Century.
Ok, my keeper is here with my meds. Gotta hide this website. She thinks I'm looking at porn.
Looooooooool, that was great!
Lmao
It is also our sweet memories that make us cry.💝💝🙏💝💝
Food porn
What a lovely story about your life, Jean! My dad is 85, and we kids and grandkids love to sit around him and let him unspool glorious stories about his football days, wearing shirts handmade by his mom, gathering scrap metal for the war, and milking the cows at his dad's dairy farm. Older folks are such a treasure in our world. Good health to you!
I have such fond memories of the Circus Peanut. Next to chocolate, it was my favorite candy as a kid in the Fifties. I didn't eat it so much as a young adult, but now as an Senior Citizen, it is even better. For a Winter afternoon snack, a cup of hot coffee filled with cream, and a couple of the Circus Peanuts, I couldn't ask for a better treat. Thank you for sharing this oddball bit of candy mystery/history.
Agreed.
Ok
@@boomer3150
@@Noneofyourbyisness what
No it was a horrible movie
I have a love/hate relationship with them! I love the taste but hate the texture! (I'm 65) Also they were my mom's favorite as well as black licorice(that I also love)
Brought back a memory of my grandma calling candy corn, “chicken corn.” She was born in 1910.
I had forgotten my grandmother called them that too!
My grandmother was born in 1912, year the Titanic went down I think. I would always be going into her room and getting circus peanut candy, orange slice candy and spearmint or big red gum from her.
I'm 63 years old, and those are 3 of my favorite candies from childhood, and I love them still. They're just a few of those little things in life that bring us as close as we'll ever get to time travel.
Orange slices a close second to circus peanuts for me...Though Chocolate won me once was available.
Boomers eat the nastiest shit. Do you also like ham and spinach in gelatin?
Mine as well!
'55 model here 😂
Memories of my youth ✌️😎
🪶 👆
Mine also
@@JohnZombi88 😁 ✌️
I once used candy corn as a practical joke on my mother. I cut off the white tips from several of them, put them in my mouth, pretended to hit a door hard, and spit them out. Mom thought they were my teeth. It was hilarious. She was not amused.
Lol when my brother-in-law were little 7, 8 years old, we put ketchup on our hands screaming to our mother that we cut ourselves. Just like yours, she was not amused.
LOL I used to put the oral thermometer under the hot tap water to get out of going to school. It worked until one time I got caught doing so
" OHHHH YOU LITTLE DEVIL"
and from then on my mom would endure the full 3 minutes of her already VERY busy morning standing over me to get my accurate temperature.
you're my kind of bastard. 😂🤣
LOL Nice
BWAHAHAHAHA! 😃👍🤣
I think my chilhood was fueled by "devisive" candy. I still buy black licorice by the case. Thankfully no one else will eat it, so my stash is safe!
I also like black licorice and I'm thinking about starting a support group
Exactly!
Black licorice, black jelly beans, black JuJu's, Black Jack gum. Either you get it or you don't.
And we get everyone's black jelly beans
I used to buy actual licorice *sticks* to chew as a kid, from an old fashioned pharmacy (with a sandwich counter and soda jerk!). Yes, actual sticks/roots from the licorice shrub; the original "no sugar added" confection!
I just had some circus peanuts last week. I had no idea they were banana flavored. It is interesting what happens when you colorize things a different color, than the flavor!
🤣 I eat them sometimes. Not been 'banana' flavored for decades...unless it's some rare banana we aren't familiar with ☺
Strawberry gummy bears are green
I like them because I can't eat bananas so they are my substitute. And yes, they still do taste like bananas.
@@matildagreene1744 , According to a friend of mine who went to culinary school, they're supposed to taste like what bananas used to take like before the Cavendish banana became the standard eating banana.
My mom loved circus peanuts stale
My grandfather used black licorice flavoring to spray on his fishing lures. He swore by it for catching bass and crappie. He passed more than 30 years ago. His tackle-box still smells of it.
It's true, fish are strongly attracted to the anise flavor. A lot of commercial berley pellets include aniseed.
Fish must be attracted to the smell, because I've noticed that a lot of rubber fishing lures absolutely REEK of black licorice!
Crack works too. It just disrupts the ecosystem.
Love that,
Great grandpa did the same
This guy could make a 30 minute video of the history of LITERALLY anything and I'm gonna watch the whole thing everytime. 👏 bravo sir
Same! I unplugged my laptop to take it into another room to do some quick chores so that I could listen to the video uninterrupted.
My beloved grandfather was a merchant seaman who always smoked a pipe. A favorite childhood memory was my imitating him with a candy pipe made of black licorice...two "old salts" together. RIP, Pop-Pop!
Did he ever get that white whale?
Liquorice pipes were a childhood staple for me. But salmiak (salty Liquorice) was always a favorite.
For Finns it's pretty common to pack a lot of salmiak when going abroad since it's difficult to find outside northern Europe.
I used to love licorice pipes... It's been many many years since I've had one, but yeah, those were a staple for me, along with Swedish Fish, candy corn, circus peanuts and marshmallow peeps.
No
My mom, dad, brother and I used to sit back after Sunday dinner and “smoke” our licorice cigars. We had a contest every week to see who could make their cigar last the longest.
Growing up in a large family (7brothers, one sister) in the 60's in Cleveland, Ohio, we ate a lot of these candies because that's what my parents could afford to give use that could be shared so none of us felt left out. Didn't realize how poor we were until I finally got my first job as a teenager. Don't regret it though, taught us thrift and gratefulness.
Go to B.A Sweeties.
I had 8 brothers and sisters so I know exactly what your talking about. I appreciate everything
I’m pushing 80 so, I do like black licorice. When I was a child and I could skim off a few cents from my Mother’s groceries change… I went to the variety store and bought black licorice whips… a lot longer that today’s black licorice… it was value for my skimmed off money… 1 cent for 1 whip , about 1 foot long. Since they were not wrapped they got kind of hard and lasted longer. I could get back home while consuming just one whip😂.
We never had store bought candy when I was growing up, only Mom's homemade desserts. I did get a nickel a week for my cleaning allowance and I would hit the local corner store for 5 penny items and black licorice was one of them. Candy corn and Circus Peanuts came later when I was older because they were in a bag and cost $.99c. They were found in the grocery store.
a good historian can take anything and make it the most interesting and attention grabbing story you've ever heard! thank you again, history guy!
The lack of evidence for the origin of circus peanut can only mean one thing.
Aliens did it.
True THAT..... I owe my love of History to a really great freshman HS history teacher.
@@MonkeyJedi99 do the monkey's have anything to do with that❓❓❓
🙈🙉🙊
@@MonkeyJedi99 👽
History is fractal - the deeper you look the more questions there are
First off I eat candy corn one color at a time and have since early childhood. Now to the nitty gritty. I think the reason we keep these around is it brings us back to a simpler life. It reminds us of going polliwoging, lightning bug hunting. Simple times where the only thing to worry about is getting home before the street lights came on. A time where an empty box today is a fort and tomorrow it's a rocketship. A time when a broom handle was a horse named Silver or Champion. Where an empty lot was a football field or a baseball diamond.
Yeayaright ❗😋☺️
There's dozens of comments on here about grandparents having these candies in a drawer somewhere. I think you nailed it in your description.
Exactly🥰🙏
Lightning bugs are gone, being unsupervised until the streetlights come on is enough to justify a visit from CPS with neglect, empty boxes are now covered in ads and suffocation warnings, broom handles are now roombas, and an empty lot we played football in is now trespassing signs... It truly is a different time
And a month before school would let out for the summer your hands began to ache to be string burned from kite flying. I so loved flying box kites.
Side note. I spent a year on a ship operated by a developing nation. There was no sugar whatsoever on that ship. I had never had a sweet tooth and especially was never impressed with cake. But after that year the first sweet thing I had was a piece of cake and it was mind blowing. It completely changed my perspective on why sweets like cake or your examples were such a big deal in a time before sugar and high fructose corn syrup had worked it’s way into everything we eat.
I'd agrue sugar tastes better than corn syrup.
I think the syrup makes things a bit too sweet and overpowers the other flavors of which it is put into.
Know what i mean?
Many of the candies that are hard to find, are sold at Cracker Barrel in their gift shop like area. I made a nostalgia basket for my brother's 50th birthday and bought many of the old favorites there.
thanks
You should cover the chalky Valentine's Day Hearts in next year's edition. I absolutely love them. People used to give theirs to me because I was the only person who wanted them. I also love Necco Wafers, which are basically the same.
Wow I thought nobody liked those Necco wafers
Those are good! Especially the pink ones.
Both conversation hearts & Necco wafer were made here in New England by the Necco Company that sadly got bought out by Spanglers and the Necco Factory closed down 🙁 they also made Squirrel Nuts & MaryJane bars which can’t be found now a days. But I do think Spanglers continues to produce Candy Buttons (dots of colored sugar candy on paper strips) Necco used to make them also.
@@SamChaneyProductions the chocolate Necco wafers are my favorite but I like them all, specially the licorice ones
@@cherriberri7161 oh I remember those candy dots! I used to eat those when I was a kid ('90s), and the bit of paper that inevitably came with them lol.
Circus Peanuts bring back memories of my Grandmother's pantry. Whenever we visited there was always a bag of circus peanuts on the shelf. Candy corn was always in candy dishes in everyone's house during the autumn, along with candies shaped like cats, bats and small pumpkins (and those were VERY special! LOL!).
I don't remember the cats and bats, but I've missed the little pumpkins for a long time.
@@LynxSouth The small pumpkins should be at Wal Mart in a round plastic container along with candy corn, they call it Autumn Mix now. They sell out pretty fast but usually keep restocking it. At least they do in NE, we get them there every year.
@@dev-debug Thank you! 🎃
My granny Bessie Jane Mannon who was born as she said"19 and three used to buy the peanuts.I remember not eating much of it.It was way too sweet.She was originally from Wagoner Oklahoma.I remember she came to visit when I was 3 or 4.I heard she was making a store run and I got all excited bc I knew she would bring me some candy.Ok I was born in 59 and maybe some of u people my age might remember the wax like candy we called lips and teeth?A kid could put these in his or hers mouth and have fun bc u had these giant red lips or big white teeth hanging out your mouth.Well she was gone for about an HR and what does she bring me back? A box of good old Lipton Tea.I was mad as hell and I think I threw it on the floor!And she just laughed.It is quite funny now but it wasn't then.Thanks
P.S.Does any body remember the candy known as"Mexican Hats"?I can't find it anywhere.I wish they would start making it again it was quite delicious!
The banana flavor in circus peanuts is mimicking an extinct banana known as the Gros Michel. What you buy at the grocery store is the Cavendish banana, which has a completely different flavor profile. That's why people don't think that banana-flavored things don't taste like banana. What they are tasting is a fascinating aspect of history! I don't think anyone has attempted to or successfully replicated the Cavendish banana flavor.
Its not nessicarally extinct, they just don't grow it on a scale like they used to. Its Industrially extinct. The cavendish is next as there's fears that the monoculture of Cavendish is going to do itself in similar to the Gros Michel.
That's what a friend of mine told me...that they taste like bananas did before the Cavendish banana became the standard eating banana.
That’s pretty cool!! Thanks for sharing. 👍
Also referred to as a Big Mike. I believe that strain is available, but it is a very limited amount produced.
Maybe that explains the odd taste of the ChicFilA Banana Pudding Milkshakes. They were brought back just last week after being off the menu for 13 years. They used to have real banana in them and the new ones taste like imitation banana flavor. If the Gros Michel (Big Mike) is the flavor they’re using it really tastes off to me. I’ll have to buy some Circus peanuts and compare the taste to the milkshakes.
When I was really little, maybe 2 or 3, I saw a picture in a coloring book of a circus elephant holding a peanut in his trunk about to eat it. My grandmother had given me these treats, too, so naturally I concluded that they must be elephant food as well as candy. LOL 🤷🏽♀
The CEO of circus peanut company on a TV interview said; "I have no idea why anyone would want to buy and eat these (wtf), but they do, we just make them". That says it all right there.
I mean yeah they feel, taste, and smell exactly like erasers.
@@schmingbeefin4473 But very tasty erasers.
I liked circus peanuts as a child. I hadn’t had them in many years. Then 1day I saw them n I bought them. Boy were they nastyyy! Never again!
I love circus peanuts! They are my guilty pleasure
candy pumpkins > candy corn fight me
I love all those! Necco wafers need to be added to the list. I think by law, every grandmother must carry lint-covered Necco wafers in her purse.
You're cracking me up.
don't forget Bit O Honey
Not lint-covered so much. I found them in my Dollar Tree or Big Lots. I saw them, yipped in delight and bought five of these 6" long rolls of Necco wafers. They were fresh, too. (I'm pretty sure it was Dollar Tree.)
Necco is a local product for us; my vivid memory of it is as ammo/shrapnel as the guys in our graphics/drafting bullpen fired it around the room at each other with rubber bands.
@@leszekwolkowski9856 Bit O Broken Teeth
The mention of Necco wafers (from the New England Candy Company) will always stir up a lively discussion in my home state of Connecticut. I, for one, like them and find them nostalgic. Also, growing up in the 1960's, I saw the shift from full-sized candy bars given out as treats to the diminutive "fun sized" bars. I remember thinking to myself "Who's idea of 'fun' is this?!!!" Now, half a century later, I can still remember the houses in my neighborhood who gave out the treasured, full-sized Hershey bars for Trick-or-treat.
Best regards from Key West,
Capt. Blackheart Charlie
I loved Necco wafers too and looked forward to that neighbor that dished out a full sized roll of them for Halloween
Especially the licorice flavored Necco wafer.
Those are the nastiest candies I've ever had. And it was just one and I didn't eat it all. No offense
I miss fun sized candy. Now everything seems to me bite sized
I was raised on Candy Corn, Circus Peanuts, and another candy not featured here - Orange Slices. I have always loved them and I always will!
Let’s not forget the required Christmas ribbon candy
Orange Slices, reminded by of Chuckles 5 cents for assorted sugar coated jellies. Orange Lemon Lime Cherry and a purple?
My Grandma always had a candy jar full of orange slices when i was little. I sure miss her!
I very seldom eat candy, but when October rolls around, I usually buy a few bags of candy corn. The mix with the pumpkins is the best.
Same here, in fact I'm out of it at the moment and need to stop by a drugstore on the way home. The disappointment of opening your candy bowl and realizing you'd already eaten it all and your plan to "make it last" had failed. Again.
My grandfather loaned the two guys who started Peter Paul candy company when the bank would not loan them the money because the bank thought a candy company was a bad risk. Shows you how shortsighted bank loan officers can be. We the family got free boxes of candy every Christmas for years after as gratitude for my grandfather's belief in someone's dream.
That's awesome
Great story.
beautiful story
My great great grandfather started the organization that we now know as the American Dental Association. He also thought that a candy company was a bad risk.
For children.
What a cool story. =]
I love circus peanuts, but never realized the banana flavor was there until you pointed it out.
I just learned that a few months ago from my wife, it never seemed banana to me. I usually hate synthetic banana flavoring, but I love circus peanuts
Might be why like it so much love banana its not very strong think they are trying to make it vanilla flavor now
That is the reason i don't like them; the imitation banana flavour.
I like them . But I never knew there was a banana flavor. Or noticed
THEY'RE THE WORST.
"NECCO WAFERS" Were always the most hated candy in these parts. Little discs of blackboard chalk, YUM! YUM!
LOL. I like them tho.
I love them too!!
@@littlelambs7044 They are great. CVS and Dollar Tree usually have them.
Bit-O-Honey.
Love necco wafers too . I didn't like the pink ones so I would put them in the change return in the snack machine at work just before lunch time, watching co-workers reactions when taking their change. Most took it well with a, what the .... and then you had the Karen's. Oh well .... 😂 .
Throughout the sixties and seventies, my family traveled from wherever we were to meet at our grandmother's house before spending a month at the beach. Every year she set out the same spread to greet us kids. Canada Dry ginger ale served warm in the can with paper straws, Wise potato chips, and circus peanuts. Not refreshing, exactly, but unforgettable.
I haven't heard the term "chicken feed" applied to candy corn in many decades. Thanks for reminding me of my childhood!
Wow I just remember older people in my life calling them by that name, and all they got from me was a blank stare lol.
I've never heard it before watching this. Pretty funny to me.
I am 65 and like all the candies that you listed. Growing up we were never treated to candy and in a moment of weakness as I was staring at a bag of the circus peanuts the cashier saw me staring at them so intently that she asked if I wanted them. I nodded yes and somehow ended up with them, I am not sure who paid as I was 7 or 8. We knew better than to ask for anything and remained the only item that my mom ever bought specifically for me. Oddly, my husband and I saw them and bought a bag recently but regularly buy good and plenty as well as real licorice candy. We also buy candy corn at least once a year. We must be 83 according to the expert😁
32. Love black licorice since I tasted it for the first time at 20. I'm not European or Anglo. I'm Mexican. They're hard to find here.
I need more!
@@SergioLeonardoCornejo I hate black licorice it tastes like dirty socks 😜😜😜😜
Lol. So you can say candies.
I came here to finally understand when you use candy and when candies.
This is insane.
I read stuff like this in comments
- They are my favorite CANDY.
but at the same time
- These candies .....
Lol
@@madleykool8968 candies is plural, candy is singular. "these candies" refers to a group of candy
@@Una_Ridlow "to a group of candy" you say.... Insane. A group of something always means a lot of things. A group of people, a group of players, a group of galaxies....
But in your own sentence you write "to a group of candy".... Why didn't you write "to a group of candies"?
Why?
I am a very picky eater but I absolutely love candy corn and their pumpkin cohorts. I can and will eat an entire bag happily.
I know. Liked the Fall mixture that had the banana and chocolate pieces. The new mixtures don't seem to include them anymore.
The pumpkins are great. The local grocery stores used to have generic "mallocreme" oddball shapes for each holiday, a bit like the pumpkins. They have disappeared over the years, sadly.
Gross
I love all the candy-corn type of candy: the pumpkins and the walnuts that taste like maple and the heads of corn that taste like lemon.
I grew up eating Black Licorice because my grandfather loved it. I grew up eating Circus Peanuts and candy corn because my father loved it. I as a child LOVED Good and Plenty and still do!
A sister to circus peanuts persists in Australia. Same texture, same flavour, but in the shape of bananas to match their taste. Candy bananas are quite popular here.
I love them. Grew up in the US eating circus peanuts occasionally, never realized they were banana flavored. Moved to Australia later and really liked the bananas, especially the ones from IGA. I forget the current brand name, but they used to be Black and Gold brand. I still try and find a bag of circus peanuts whenever I go back to the USA.
We have the bananas in Canada too!
@@mattboggs6304 I was shocked years ago when someone mentioned they were banana flavored. I don't care for them, and could never get a grip on the flavor. If someone does love them, I say have at it. 🙂
In 50 years of eating that candy, it never dawned on me that it was supposed to be banana flavored until a few years ago when someone made that claim. I argued, intending to die on that hill, when I heard someone made them banana shaped in other countries, and ordered a plastic pail of them off Amazon! Sure enough, banana. I recanted my argument on the Internet (it may have been the first time that's ever happened). But I will claim they taste different, and it could be entirely mental, but the banana shaped ones smelled and tasted more like banana. And as the last part of the video here today shows, even The History Guy doubts the banana flavor, LOL.
We have those in Canada too!
When I was a kid, back in the 70s, we lived behind a Kmart. I loved dumpster diving in their dumpsters. One day I discovered cases and cases of candy corn in the dumpster and brought them home. I secretly gorged on candy corn for weeks. That was the last time I've eaten it. Cured me for good.
Aw :(
candy corn conversion therapy 😭😭😭
@Senkaw'naowis'nebpher the antifurry you're Jewish
OD'd on candy corn, LOL!
your channel makes me so happy :) it's like having my grandfather tell me about the good old days, a lovely cup of chicken noodle soup but in video form
During my childhood, we ate all 3 of these candies. Thank You for the very fond memories.
The secret of candy corn is that you have to buy the Brach's Autumn Mix that only comes out in September. It's soft and fresh with real honey and cocoa mixed in and make sure you just buy a little bag if you don't have anybody to share it with because you will inhale it all overnight. Most people buy the stale generic stuff from the drug store that's fifty cents for a pound. That stuff is pure corn syrup and tastes like "ow, my teeth hurt.''
Is that the one with pumpkin shaped pieces?
@@ksmith96 yes w the brown corn pieces too, shit smacks
Good to know.
Sounds as difficult as trying to get the correct 'Conversation Hearts' during Valentine season.
The mellocreme pumpkins are my favorite candy ever.
I did not realize circus peanuts were considered bad. I love all three of these candies. Great video!
people like to hate on them, but those people secretly love candy corn, so you can't trust their opinions :)
I liked circus peanuts, but even as a kid a little went a long way. It had so much sugar it would make me dizzy! Black licorice was my mom’s favorite, but I didn’t like it so much unless she bought anise-flavored gum, I think it’s called Black Jack gum and you can still find it in farm supply stores with other old fashioned candies like the circus peanuts, candy corn, and the burnt peanuts (Rural King stores).
It's wild that some of the candy corn shapes we think of as seasonal now (i.e. pumpkins), might be closer to some of the original shapes. I never knew that. Thanks for another good one!
Circus peanuts have been my favorite candy since I was a child. I remember getting made fun of because others would say it was "old people's candy."
I remember a "peanut" shaped candy that was kind of like a Chick-o-stick, only it had a hard candy glazed coating on it. To this day I have absolutely no idea what to call them.
Fun fact: Circus peanuts are used as packing material in 3rd world countries. Even they won't eat them.
No, Circus Peanuts aren’t called old peoples candy! In fact if that was the case they still wouldn’t make them today, which they still do make them today! It’s just a fact that Circus Peanuts have been around forever!
@@AngelofDeath1431 The only candy that I can think of that fits that description is "Boston Baked Beans". However, they are actually peanuts, and are very delicious.
In my experience toffee is old people's candy, rarely ever see that stuff now but I quite like it.
I am from Germany and had my first Candy corn when I visited Canada nearly 30 years ago. I love it, and whenever a friend goes to north america, I ask them to bring me some. I think it’s delicious - but I also love black liquorice, especially the salty variety.
I absolutely love black licorice. Salmiakki being my favorite. I'm the oddball in my family. Nobody else likes it, but I have since I was a child!
Salty? Ick.
A Root Beer is Not a Beer !
Man, candy corn became awesome once I stopped getting swamped by it during Halloween: circus peanuts are awesome; and licorice...well, it was an acquired taste, but I did acquire it eventually. May they never die!
Candy corn, oh my, we used to go to a mall every so often and the Sears had bulk candy and my parents might buy us our candy of choice and mine was candy corn and the pumpkins. By the time we'd be halfway home I'd have eaten half a pound or more and was so sick. Every time I'd eat too much of it because it was such a rarity for me.
I never hated licorice, and I have no issue eating it. But it's one of those things, so much better stuff if I'm going t have sugar.
Everybody likes candy corn, but you are one of the few, the proud, the independent-I say,
CIRCUS PEANUTS FOREVER!!!
@@richardtibbitts3841 YES circus peanuts are delicious!!! I also had no idea the marshmallows in lucky charms were also circus peanuts!!! and I never realized they were banana flavored too! 😂
I love allsorts licorice but I hate black licorice. Candy corn is okay in small amounts. How about those root beer barrels hard candies? I always remember them only at Halloween. 🤮 to me!😄
My grandmother often had a bag of circus peanuts hidden in the bread drawer at their home. I liked them and have very fond memories. Candy corn are one of my favorite candies.
My gram used to stash those coconut covered marshmallows in her cubby... grammas are funny like that!
When I was a kid candy was a real treat. Consequently, Halloween was not just fun it was also a job. The purpose was to gather as much candy (in a pillow case) as you could. We ran from house to house and hoped we could get enough to make that candy last for months. In our house, the last candy to be plucked from those pillowcases was always the 3 mentioned here.
The good days.
Now mostly trunk or treat or kids prefer the Halloween skins on games .
Might as well buy your child big bags of variety candy now.
Those and Zagnut bars. Yech.
I love zagnut bars! Maybe I am just a weirdo. I also love licorice and "stale" circus peanuts. But candy corn is one of the three I can't stand. Yuck!
I'll take all three mentioned here before Smarties
@@marcblur9055 Smarties- yikes 😬
I’ve always loved candy corn. I didn’t realize people hated it until I was an adult. Seriously, I always looked forward to it. It was one of if not my favorite Halloween candy.
Circus peanuts are definitely not my favorite. They taste like if peeps were made out of foam, and I hate peeps.
@ferretyluv I was waiting for him to mention mixing candy corn with dry roasted peanuts. That's what my mom always did. It sorta tastes like a Payday candy bar.
@@carlabythelake8162 We must just be weirdos. Most people don’t like Payday.
I love candy corn, and I can say that different brands have different tastes. Brocks is Ok, but a company called NICE i discovered at Walgreens is much better! Creamier taste. People today have become so darn picky, it’s candy for heaven’s sake, it’s just sugar, what’s not to like?
@@ferretyluv Not only do I like candy corn and paydays, but, gasp! I like quality black licorice too. And I'm not 80 lol
Also taste exactly like candy corn: pumpkins. and these valentine candies that come in arrows, angels, and hearts, red, white, and pink.
Black licorice and "circus peanuts" are the stuff of life ❤
I love both
Circus peanuts have GOT to be fresh,and a good brand.
The stale ones are gross,that's probably why so many people don't like them.
Licorice quality really depends on it being at least a decent brand. Good and plenty are better than most Licorice sticks and whips,but the All Sorts mix are especially good.
Circus Peanuts were one of my grandmothers favorite treats so I developed a taste for them myself, because when you stay over at grandmas on the weekend as a kid and all she has is divinity and circus peanuts you're going to eat them.
As a kid in the '50s, whenever I would go to see a movie I would stop at the candy counter and buy a box of Good and Plenty. I still love licorice.
with your name, i would think Mike and Ikes would win
I always chose Sno-Caps. Or Junior Mints!
Raisinets and Goobers.
When my wife (from Kansas) was pregnant, 14 years ago we were visiting some family in Texas and she had a craving for circus peanuts - enjoying them myself I went in search. My odyssey took me to at least 10 stores and asking numerous people and nobody seemed to even know what I was talking about. It was as if I had traveled to a parallel timeline where the banana oil mistake batch was dumped rather then batched and sold; and I didn't like it one bit.
Driving back home, as soon as we made it closer to the Oklahoma border I found 3 bags and we leisurely snacked to the collective dismay of our pancreases. I actually never was able to figure out what the flavor was until watching this video and you're absolutely right, they are indeed banana flavored!
You can buy them at dollar general her in Oklahoma...
@@loading...8512 You should probably read the whole comment. lol
These three candies were the last I ate out of my trick or treat gatherings when everything I liked was gone.
Circus peanuts remind me of my grandfather, who spoke no English but shared candy and sweet wine with us kids. We never told my parents! It was my mother who liked black jelly beans, so I learned that from her. And we got candy corn, especially the little pumpkins, with school lunch for Halloween. So it's all really nostalgia.
Those fluffy orange circus peanuts are definitely something a lot of people dislike. My great grandma always had a bag of them in her drawer. I remember grabbing one or two every now and then, brings back memories.
My grandmother kept a bag in a metal breadbox next to where she sat. Honestly can't say whether she ate them or not, but, i do know she never had to chase her rambunctious grandson down for hugs and kisses.
Circus peanuts I remember tasted so nasty and stale,
When I was a kid I loved all three: Licorice, circus peanuts, and candy corn. Later I began to feel that circus peanuts and candy corn were too sugary and although I might enjoy one or two on rare occasions, that is my limit. I still love licorice though, especially Good & Plenty.
My wife and I love the autumn mix candy corn. When we eat it during the fall and winter, our blood glucose levels drop.
You kept a taste for the only one that is undeniably awful.
Don't take me too seriously. I just really hate licorice.
@@mage1439 No worries! It's like cilantro -- both have a strong, unusual flavor that people either love it or hate it.
@@mage1439 likely because we are all used to ungodly amounts of sugar. We would all like it more if we weren't So USED to hard candy that is LITERALLY full sugar
And then you had chocolate confections...
The industries market the most addictive products. Old fashioned sweets cannot compete. One candy corn and you are done for hours... or days!
England here. Never seen candy corn before 🤩
However, I can confirm that we had those marshmallow peanuts in the 1970s. I recall thinking they were weird at the time (and not really noticing they were supposed to taste like bananas).
Arguing about candy satisfies the desire to argue, without engendering any hard feelings. You argue politics and it gets really nasty really quickly, and not only that but whoever loses gets force-fed the option they don't like for years afterwards. Arguing about candy still ends with everyone eating their favorites, no matter how much they make fun of each other.
I actually saw a box of Boston Baked Beans yesterday and I was shocked they still existed. These candies are true survivors.
I love Boston Baked Beans, too!
I haven't had those since I was a kid, would like to get some!
My grandma is in her 60's now, but she was always eating circus peanuts when I was growing up. It had since become one of my top 10 candies! It does a have a strange texture you won't find anywhere else, and I appreciate it for that. I can only thank my grandma for introducing it to me!
I was born March 9, 1952. My sister, December 2, 1954. When they brought her home from the hospital I was exited and wanted to share my Halloween candy with her. Parents were in kitchen and heard her choking. I'd shared my favorite, candy corn, with her. Parents weren't thrilled even though they always taught me to share. For her 30th birthday I found a throw pillow shaped and colored like a piece of candy corn. I wrote in the card, " I tried to be an only child, but it didn't work out." She laughed and had to explain it to her husband and kids.😊😅😅
That's some good black humour 😁
Should do another video on rootbeer barrels, wax lips, and necco wafers.
I thought wax lips were just for fun. Were they not? Did people really eat them??
@@chickennugget6233 they do have flavor, and are harmless to ingest. they’re basically just gum but worse
OMG! Are you living in my brain!!!
Wax bottles*
@@JosephLedbetter oh yeah!! And cinnamon toothpicks and candy necklaces!
Love the wax harmonica from Wowee! But I’ve been told someone hated them so much that he destroyed the molds years ago! He hated their sound! Perhaps the only candy that has been hated because of it’s sound.
What about bubblegum being chewed and popped?
@@goodun2974 _everyone_ loves that sound
@@williamchamberlain2263 The popping isn't bad, but the sound of people chewing loudly is nauseating to me. Even if it's just gum.
You just reminded me of a candy called whistle Pops
@@UrMomsChauffer I'd forgotten those things. Bright red?
I always thought that the reason many people hated black licorice was the tingling sensation you get, and after a few candies your tongue would go numb. I lived for 39 years unaware I'm probably allergic and it's the allergic reaction that attracts me to the flavor.
Wow thats insane, I'm really allergic to many foods and they would make me very nauseous or make my mouth being to turn my saliva very very sticky to the point I couldn't swallow as anything and everything just got stuck I'm my throat and mouth until I took a drink of liquid to force it down. Luckily I've never been anaphylatic to anything besides peanuts.
The reason I tell my life story is I've never heard of someone's mouth going numb from an allergic reaction to foodstuffs that's cool to hear about as another possible food allergy symptom.
I get a very slight tingly feeling from some licorice. I never thought about that meaning perhaps I'm allergic. Which is odd, as I know that's a possible allergic reaction
@@stigmaoftherose hey just fyi, ingesting or being exposed to something you allergic to multiple times can lead to anaphylaxis
I have loved black licorice since I was a child. I especially loved licorice pipes and cigars; they were my favourites. I can't find them anymore…or maybe I just haven't looked for them hard enough. Thank you for the memories!
In Wales, colloquially we referred to a candy, quite similar to ‘Good & Plenty’ (sold loosely from jars by the quarter) as ‘rats droppings’, owing much to their shape, and some gruff humor thrown in 😊
Interesting, the arguments over the candies reflecting the arguments over Marmite.
Which reminds me, gotta order a jar of Marmite. Great on pot roasts...
Tip of the hat from across the pond!
I first learned about licorice root as a young boy in the late 1960s when my family would go to Atlantic City on vacation. The candy stores on the boardwalk would sell bundles of 6 sticks about 4 to 6 inches long. As you chew on it, it becomes very fibrous, and you get the flavor. Every so often you would cut the used part off and start over. I gave 'samples' to my friends at home and every time we went to A. C. after that I had orders to fill!
😂😂😂👍
Weird... up until now I didn't really identify circus peanuts as having a banana flavor hahahaha.
I was thinking the same thing!
Yes makes sense because I hate anything "banana flavor" which doesn't taste anything like banana to me. Circus peanuts are one of my most hated candies
My Wife and I like them but neither of us noticed the banana flavoring. Can still get them at Dollar stores and Farm and Fleet type stores…
I always thought they tasted like less-delicious Juicy Fruit gum but I never pinned down artificial banana as the common flavor til today. They're two of my favorite sweets, so I guess I super like fake banana and never thought about it hard enough to realize.
I once gave a circus peanut to a barista she thought I was trying to poison her
I would like an episode all about the history of the history guy. He deserves to be remembered.
I've never known that circus peanuts were banana flavored, but looking back at it it's so obvious. How did I never realize that?
I have never eaten one. They just look dusty and unpleasant
@@austinbevis4266 they always seemed stale, even right out of the bag
@@chrismemphis8062 I actually bought a bag of circus peanuts a while ago that were genuinely stale. They were past the “best by” date and were so hard I thought I would break a tooth! I took them back to the store and exchanged them for a fresh bag of the same thing. The lady at the store looked at me like I was crazy for buying them in the first place!
@@chrismemphis8062 I like the candy and so does my sister. We can enjoy them when they're older and firmer, but if they're super hard they are really old and we won't buy them. We only buy them if they're fresher. They don't usually sell well, so if they're somewhat soft we'll go for it. If we're really lucky and they are actually soft like marshmallow not exactly like regular marshmallows, they melt in your mouth and are the best that way.
I didn't realize it & I've always loved them as long as they were not stale
I LOVED Circus Peanuts in my childhood. The flavor and the texture made them the best candy around for many years. And then I moved on to dark chocolate, and never looked back.
Yeah, so sad that the addiction to chocolate has ruined so many fine candy brands...
Me too girl!!! I love dark chocolate. My Granny always had circus peanuts at her house. I think that was the only time I had it. I guess it was more of a special treat that way. Can't stand the things now. I'm just not a fan of marshmallow candy.
I like circus peanuts texture
Are you a candy monogamist or something?
Have you ever tried circus peanuts when they just start to go stale? It's my favorite way to eat them because of the texture. Just biting into it is great. The outside just starts to get hard but not quite, and the inside is still soft and squishy. I highly recommend trying it if you like them fresh with their normal texture
Thank you for this.
All 3 were my mom’s favorite.
She passed in 2012.
Thanks for the smiles
my condolences... and she sounds like she was a fantastic lady!
Hershey's kisses were my mother's favorite, and she always kept some kind of candy, usually M&M'S, semi- hidden underneath her nightstand.
My grandmother was born in 1919 and circus peanuts were her favorite candy. Interesting side note that connects to this, my grandma was the Spider Girl for a very short time in the Hagenbeck and Wallace Circus, so more than likely, traveling circuses did indeed have them.
Obviously they’re still around because people love them, I am one of them. I grew up with these, there’s something nostalgic about them that brings warmth and joy.
I grew up with them and hated them. How old are you?
😏Yep. 👍
@@vids595, 😂 I am in my seventies and I hate the candies like circus peanuts, candy corn, and milk chocolate. I love liquorice, though, and real chocolate- dark chocolate.
The quality of this video is amazing for being just a regular UA-cam video. It takes me back to when me and Mom used to watch Unwrapped or Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives!
Hope you can keep making videos like this. I'd love to be able to flick it on, sit back and reminisce!
I never really thought about the oddity of banana-flavored / peanut-shaped "Circus Peanuts", but I always did love 'em!
I cannot stand to eat black licorice, but I am hooked on candy corn!
I like that the ad for the summer candies goes out of its way to not recommend the circus peanuts. (Butterscotch waffles sell themselves)
I tend to consider the peanuts as summer candy since they show up during the summer along with marshmallow bananas and strawberries. People may not like them because they find them too sweet, just like the candy corn.
Candy corn is a type of mellocreme, and there's a lot of mediocre mellocreme around. If you can find it fresh and of good quality it has a very creamy, fudge-like quality to it that just melts in your mouth.
I've always been considered to have "old man tastes" thanks to the fact that I love all these candies! Also those strawberry hard candies, butterscotch candies, caramel cubes, root beer barrel candies, and a bunch of other "Old man" candies.
Root beer’a my favorite soda, dude.
I’d die for some original Necco’s right now
I love that!! I love old man candy!
Those jelly filled strawberry candies are always epic
Love all three, and Neccos. Never noticed that the circus peanuts were banana flavored, will have to buy some now and check it out.😂
Same the circus peanuts were my favorite as a kid but I never knew they were banana flavor!
@@MelodyInTheChaos I used to work at spanglers, they do make alot of those.
Lol, I heard they were banana flavored and I was like, “that’s probably why I like them!”
Banana? That’s what it’s called?
Same here
Candy corn and peanut butter taffy in orange and black wrappers are classic Halloween candies, somehow without them Halloween wouldn't be the same. Mom always wanted the candy corn in small packets to give out on Halloween, yet I have never seen it packed this way. The candy companies don't seem to know that this would increase sales.
Circus Peanuts and Candy Corn were my absolute favorites when I was a child!!!!! This video brought back some great memories!!! Thank you sir!!!
I must have been a weird little kid. I loved black licorice, circus peanuts, super-sour jawbreakers, sponge toffee, horehound candy, and that weirdest of Canadian candies "Thrills", which still sports its proud slogan on the box: "IT STILL TASTES LIKE SOAP!"
Thrills are a Christmas tradition in my family. We use them as stocking stuffers. And they do still taste like soap. Lol
I feel like a bad Canadian for never hearing of this soap-flavored confectionery. Then again, it's probably more my parents' faults for sucking lol
@@Arcanist_Gaming You'll run across it in stores, occasionally --- especially old corner stores --- if you look for it. But there are never ads for it anywhere. It's like it's in some twilight zone that you blunder into by chance. The O-Pee-Chee Company in London, Ontario --- a company much more famous for hockey and baseball cards ---- has made Thrills since the 1930s. During World War 2, they switched to producing food supplies for the war effort, but they continued making Thrills as their only confection product. Apparently it was necessary to keep up national morale. The company suffered the only military attack on Canadian soil when a Nazi submarine entered the St. Lawrence River and sank one of their cargoes. I guess Hitler was well aware how much the Allies depended on O-Pee-Chee to win the war. The original factory building still stands in London, as does the newer factory they moved to in 1989. A part of our heritage that the "Heritage Minute" series on TV never gave us.
@@philpaine3068 Neat! Thanks for the impromptu history lesson; that's a bunch of interesting info you've got there.
@@Arcanist_Gaming I'm a historian, so it's a habit. Easy stuff to look up, and I found the factories on Google Earth. I already knew about the sub from reading about the old film "The 49th Parallel". I had O-PEE-CHEE hockey cards when I was a kid.
I must be strange. Growing up in the 90's, Candy Corn and Circus Peanuts were my two favorite candies. I also like black licorice.
My mom would always pack a bag of Circus Peanuts in the picnic basket when we would go to the swim club on the weekends. Liked them as a kid ..... can't stand them now. They make my teeth itch.
i love candy corn and circus peanuts but despise black licorice
@@tinydancer7426 "They make my teeth itch." ROFLMHO
early 2000s same i think it was mostly my dad never even knew people hated them except black licorice until recently
Circus peanuts omg 😭 they're so good
Circus peanuts have always been my favorite candy. Fresh, stale, I don't care. I really like candy corn too especially if mixed with salted peanuts.
As all Scandinavians, I'm a massive fan of salty black licorice. The only controversial thing about it is apparently being somehow tied to Halloween? We're not really big on that holiday around here (yet), but black licorice on the other hand is huge all year round.
I've never tried the other two. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen either candy corn or circus peanuts for sale here.
You should lobby government officials to never allow the import of candy corn or circus peanuts.
@@robbygaume600 Once you do you would have ruined all of Scandinavia
I tried that stuff, its REALLY salty!
Tasty America store in Farsta and on line has candy corn, haven't ever seen circus peanuts. Bilen godis are fairly close to circus peanuts. I don't care for either candy, they were always the last candy left in my trick or treat bag.
@@robbygaume600 Sweden has a car shaped candy that is pretty close to circus peanuts. Thank heavens no candy corn, those were the last thing in my bag.
Very cool! I have a horrible haunting sweet tooth and have always liked candy corn and circus peanuts, but not so much licorice. But I have always been a huge fan of Necco wafers and would love to see the history of them!
Yes! our preferences align. I agree with all of this :)
James - have you seen NECCO wafers lately? They are only about the size of a dime.
@@navret1707 WRONG. I have a roll right now. Closer to a quarter. Of
As a kid we used to drive past the Necco factory in Cambridge Mass every Sunday on the way to visit our grandparents. The smell of Necco Wafers used to permeate the air so strongly that we’d always roll down the windows, no matter what the weather and breath deeply. The building alas is no more.
@@navret1707 I haven't seen any that are smaller. Still the same size here in NC, USA
I love circus peanuts. They were my mom's favorite, and I buy them when I miss her. I thought they were vanilla flavored, though!
Circus peanuts were my one of my Dad's favorites. I do remember them occasionally coming in pink and white choices too. I don't remember if those colors tasted any different. Perhaps the white ones had more of the vanilla flavor?
I like 'em too!
they're my favorite too. i don't get why everyone hates them.
@@vxy357 most people don’t find it particularly good or palatable (like me). I don’t know if it’s some natural phenomenon or not, but we all have different taste buds and though I despise peeps, black licorice, and circus peanuts, I absolutely love candy corn, so I can say that’s at least one controversial candy on my list.
@@PatrickWagz The multicolored circus peanuts come out seasonally at Easter. The pink are strawberry flavored, the yellow are lemon and the white are just a neutral sweet flavor I believe.
I'm 62 and remember my Grandfather giving me circus peanuts as a little girl. As a 4 y/o I thought they were wonderful 😂
Nostalgia ❤
It amazes me how apparently hated circus peanuts are. I personally think they're quite good and I definitely see why they've stuck around. And keep in mind I just turned 21.
im 19 and i personally like them! something about theit texture is so satisfying to me
Yes. The texture is very satisfying. The soft, almost melony taste. I also like the soft color, not this BLOW YOUR EYEBALLS OUT neon color that candies are nowadays.
I really like then too, I’m 33. I like marshmallow everything, so why not banana marshmallows?
@@WASTEPAW yea when their fresh they taste good! like a dried Peep from Easter. But they get stale so fast, and the flavor is very differet from 25 years ago when I remember eating them all summer once time.
@@blackleague212 very true, the fresh ones are the best, but this video explains why i never find fresh ones in the store :/ they just aren’t stocked often enough i guess
Hello Lance. Good story on candy. I think you hit it when you mentioned summer candy. I remember as a kid a lot of stores were not air-conditioned yet and it got pretty hot in there and chocolate candy bars and stuff would be all melted inside their wrappers but things like candy corn for instance could stand up to the heat.
Excellent point!
My mother introduced me to circus peanuts as a little girl. She told me that when she was a little girl, there was an old man that lived on her block who would pass out candy to the neighborhood kids on Saturday mornings, and he had circus peanuts and Smarties, the rolls of small circular pastel colored candies that tasted faintly like SweeTarts but not as strong and with a more chalky texture. She would also choose the circus peanuts because she liked the way they melt in your mouth. I still buy them on occasion and I always let the first peanut I eat melt in my mouth completely before I take a second one.
Are the chalky candies Neco Wafers?
Smarties! I cannot stop once I start eating them. I know it's just sugar but I love them melting in my mouth...I can eat a truckload of them.😏🍬🍭
@@chainsawtotheheart no they’re called smarties. But the US version. Smarties are kind of like m&ms in Europe
Love all of these, particularly Good & Plenty. Thanks for this video. “Satan’s ear wax!”😂
My grandmother, born in 1894, loved candy corn so much that one year when very young, she saved her portion and tried to plant it the next spring.
Oh that is such a sweet story !!
Aww I love that story!
sounds like the old gal should have spent time modeling straight jackets!!
that's adorable:)
You might note that I said she was very young. She was probably only 3 or 4 years old when it happened. She got a kick out of recounting the story years later.@@gregrak9389
I remember having circus peanuts as a kid and being so confused. I expected it to taste either like peanut butter or an orange starburst but when it tasted like banana I felt a bit upset.
I wish I had known they were banana flavored, because I felt there were not enough banana flavored candies! Next to Laffy Taffy and those little fruit shaped candies from vending machines, I could never find any.
I was first introduced to circus peanuts at an after-school function. I asked one of the other kids what they tasted like, and he replied, "sponges." Combined with the general scent in the room, I instantly knew what they would taste like and that I would like them (fortunately I was correct).
One of the great disappointments of childhood. Almost a rite of passage.
As a kid I loved circus peanuts, after about 35-40 years since eating one I saw them and decided to try them again. The first bite made me gag.
I am 68 and since my earliest memories, a few circus peanuts always seemed to make me feel happy.
I absolutely love black licorice too! Wiley wallaby brand from Australia is my favorite. It's nice to know that I am not the only one who loves it.
Sometimes available here in the States, I tried some and have to say that they are really good.
Wiley Wallaby Liquorice is made at Kenny's Candy & Confections in Perham, MN. 😊
They sell it at Dollar Tree $1.25. Best licorice!!!!