These days, my Easter candy consumption is less "get up early and hunt for my Easter basket" and more "stay up late stuffing my face with Easter treats." I was at H-E-B the other day, and I spent half an hour browsing the Easter display to see what's going on in the world of Easter candy. Not much has changed from my childhood, and it looks like all of my favorite standards are still on the shelves come Easter time. The following are my favorite seven Easter candies.
7. Robin Eggs Malted Candies: I could really pound these little speckled eggs as a kid, but today they are too sweet for me to enjoy more than a few before nausea sets in. That doesn't prevent me from tossing down a handful with a glass of milk, though.
6. Easter M&Ms: These candies are superior to other, similar candies in sheer sweetness: the pastel colors of Easter M&Ms taste sweeter than all of the other M&Ms colors in the world--regular and seasonal. It's a fact.
5. Reese's Peanut Butter Egg: Unless you are dealing with a serious nut allergy, who doesn't include at least one Reese's Peanut Butter Egg in every Easter basket? These were my favorite to eat first, figuring that a peanut butter egg qualifies as a somewhat more nutritious breakfast food than say, jelly beans.
4. Jelly Beans: Love of jelly beans is probably the only thing I have in common with Ronald Reagan. Jelly beans stick to your teeth and stain your tongue, making them one of the most fun-slash-annoying candies in the Easter basket. Don't like the black licorice ones? Pass 'em to me - they are my very favorite.
3. Peeps: Completely artificial in every way - from color to texture to taste - you have to love Peeps, even if you hate them. These candies seem very retro to me now, but I always eat one just for old time's sake; there is something about the crunch of the granular sugar against that stale marshmallow inside...
2. Cadbury Crème Eggs: These evil little candies are my downfall. Low-quality milk chocolate combined with a low-quality gooey, sugary filling, designed to look like a raw egg when you crack/cut/bite it open. The filling gets everywhere and the chocolate begins to melt on contact, but I still look forward to my one Cadbury Crème Egg per year. (This year I was up all night with a stomach ache, but it was worth it.)
1. Chocolate Bunnies: The Chocolate Bunny takes my top spot for one reason alone--my favorite Easter candy tradition, which is to rip off the bunny ears and dip them in peanut butter and wash it all down with a huge glass of milk. There is nothing more satisfying than ripping off a (chocolate) bunny's ear and chowing down.
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