I’m missing you like candy

January 4, 2018 6:04 AM

Tedious trudge of a winter walking commute improved by slurping a hard candy. Seeking recommendations for yummy artisanal hard candies with interesting flavor profiles, not just straight sweet. Say, gingery or sour or minty or cinnamony or zingy fruity.

Want to up my game from Ricolas and Werthers and Jolly Ranchers.

Have seen these questions, they seem kind of old and I would imagine there are new niche candymakers / "sweetpreneurs" or whatever out there making tasty things. Would like to purchase online.

No drugstore candy please!
No lollipops please!
No chewy candy please!
No gum please!
And dear god no licorice / anise flavors please!

posted by sestaaak to Food & Drink (30 answers total)

I have very fond memories of Raspberry Drops from Sovereign Hill.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 6:11 AM on January 4, 2018

Clove candy from the Vermont Country Store. I haven't had it, but I love clove gum.

They also have a filled raspberry candy, and a spice mix which includes clove, but does have licorice, so maybe not.
posted by jgirl at 6:35 AM on January 4, 2018

Ginger People hard ginger candies and C Howards Violent Mints.
posted by neushoorn at 6:41 AM on January 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

If you are hard up waiting for the candy to arrive, the Halls vitamin C citrus flavors are pretty sour, and enjoyable as candy. Sorry to deliberately defy your desires.
posted by Night_owl at 6:42 AM on January 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

Gots to try ZOTZ!
posted by mumblelard at 7:01 AM on January 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

You might not want to go the minty route, since it can make your mouth feel really cold.
posted by soelo at 7:07 AM on January 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

YMMV on butterscotch, but I love Reed's cinnamon and root beer disks. They taper in the middle, which adds some interest in your mouth while you're slurping.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 7:11 AM on January 4, 2018

Choward's Violet Mints are my absolute favorite interesting sucking-on candy!!
posted by Dressed to Kill at 7:11 AM on January 4, 2018

Lofty Pursuits is a cool little shop using vintage machines for hard candy. The 'nectar' flavor is fascinating. The rock candy section has an assortment pack and an experimental batch apparently now - they make the only banana hard candy I've ever liked.
posted by cobaltnine at 7:24 AM on January 4, 2018 [6 favorites]

this nectar flavored candy from lofty pursuits is yum
posted by oomny at 7:24 AM on January 4, 2018

Sherberts! The best and most exciting hard candy.
posted by snaw at 7:26 AM on January 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Chicken Bones (cinnamon & dark chocolate).
posted by Secret Sparrow at 7:34 AM on January 4, 2018

Papabubble might be up your alley. Their U.S. brick and mortar shops closed a while back, but they still sell online. Check out their fizzy soda pop mixes (guava, mango, passionfruit & strawberry or cherry cola, root beer, lemon-lime & orange cream); lemon ginger; sour mix; lime, salt & chile; mango; guava.

Raley's Confectionary has a bunch of non-standard flavors, too (pomegranate, pumpkin spice, nectar, kiwi, raspberry lambic(!)).
posted by obstinate harpy at 7:39 AM on January 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

Find your local pan-Asian market, if you have one. It will have an aisle full of tasty, complex flavored candies (I particularly like green tea and plum flavored ones).
posted by joycehealy at 7:56 AM on January 4, 2018 [8 favorites]

Shane's Candies
posted by sepviva at 8:15 AM on January 4, 2018

Go Organic hard candies are adult-oriented. They are apparently available on amazon although I find them at my grocery store and have seen them at other grocery stores as well.
posted by DrGail at 8:25 AM on January 4, 2018

My go-to hiking hard candy is Claeys. They might count as drugstore candy - I buy mine from Job Lots and dollar stores for a buck a bag. They're perfect because they're cheap, come in interesting flavours, and they don't do that thing when they melt and get all sharp and cut your mouth. Partner and I ate so much Horehound and Sassafras candies in the field that those became our nicknames.
posted by Freyja at 9:08 AM on January 4, 2018

These violet hard candies are very nice (and don't contain anise, like many violet pastilles). I've also enjoyed the wide range of boozy and botanical hard candies from SugarBakersBakery on Etsy.
posted by merriment at 9:59 AM on January 4, 2018

I came here to tell you Lofty Pursuits and violet or rose hard candy, though a lot of the floral ones have an aniseed in the middle.
posted by oblique red at 10:02 AM on January 4, 2018

Seconding Claey's. Though I don't really care for horehound, the root beer & lemon are great too. They have much more intense flavors than your average hard candy.

I'm also fond of the candies from La Vie La Vosgienne but that may be part nostalgia and part the cute little tins.
posted by gennessee at 10:28 AM on January 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Go Organic Honey Hard Candy is particularly good. And I'll second the recommendation for Ginger People hard candies, too.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:46 AM on January 4, 2018

Black sugar candy is a traditional Japanese candy from Okinawa, and it's nice but I really like a related Taiwanese brown sugar plum candy that adds preserved plum bits. The mix of sweet, salty and sour seems exactly what you're looking for.

(I just linked the first products that came up on Amazon, but you can get different sizes and there are different manufacturers. Or better yet, visit an Asian grocery.)
posted by danny the boy at 11:34 AM on January 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Kanro milk candy! I found these at World Market a few months ago and bought the entire last box they had in inventory of them. There's the original milk flavor and a matcha flavor as well. The matcha taste adds a hint of bitterness to the lovely creamy flavor. These are actual hard candies - there are other brands that carry the chewy milk candies, but Kanro is the only brand I've seen that has the hard version.

And yes, Asian grocery stores have a great selection of candy, hands down.
posted by Everydayville at 12:57 PM on January 4, 2018

If you are into hoppy craft beers, you can always try hop flavored hard candy (I've not tried this specific candy but made homemade from hops I've grown).
posted by bCat at 1:00 PM on January 4, 2018

I can't find it online because of stupid candy corn, but many Asian markets have sweet-corn-flavored hard candies! They should be tiny and round and individually wrapped in yellow wrappers--there are also ones that are corn-shaped in clear wrappers but those are chewy.
posted by exceptinsects at 1:32 PM on January 4, 2018

There's also a Peruvian version of corn hard candy, which exceptinsects' post reminded me of.
posted by snaw at 1:37 PM on January 4, 2018

Rhubarb and Custard

Pear Drops

IRN BRU Humbugs

Flying Saucers

Milk Gums

Dolly Mixtures
posted by Morpeth at 2:50 PM on January 4, 2018

This may seem pedestrian, but Kopiko are the best coffee flavored hard candies. They are so great we gave them out as favors at our wedding. A few months later at a different wedding, the mother of the bride, who we had never met before, greeted us by waxing rhapsodic about the candies. Apparently our friends had shared them with her, and they instantly became her favorite.
posted by Diagonalize at 6:25 PM on January 4, 2018

Portland's Quin might fit the bill.
posted by pdxhiker at 10:02 PM on January 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Läkerol are mostly known for their licorice flavours by they do a multitude of interesting non-licorice ones. (FYI salmiak = salty licorice, avoid). My favourite is cassis, but they also make pomegranate, cactus, cloudberry, etc. They are neither hard candy nor chewy, but somewhere in between, little disks meant to be sucked. Very nice if you can find them.
posted by Concordia at 5:39 PM on January 6, 2018