Marshmallow Peeps and Reese’s peanut butter eggs have branched out into other holidays and are available more or less year-round. Depending on your opinion of these treats, that’s a wonderful thing or a terrible one. What you may not know is that candy-makers are trying to turn other treats into year-round confections, which is how we’ve ended up with Independence Day Candy Corn.

There’s nothing wrong with this, exactly. Corn is a vegetable native to North America, so there’s nothing wrong with celebrating one of the world’s greatest grains in honey-laden form. It just has fruit flavors and doesn’t resemble the natural corn that we’re used to. (Red and blue corn do exist, but not on the same kernel.)

As we looked into this, we learned that alternate-holiday candy corn is nothing new. It’s been around for a few years, and Brach’s and other companies have tried some new ideas in the category of candy corn for holidays other than Halloween. How about pastel Easter candy corn?

Update: Reader Jonathan reports receiving pastel-colored candy corn for Easter, with some interesting branding. They’re called “Jesus Promise seeds,” yet I can guarantee that they do not sprout a candy corn plant three days after you bury them in the ground.

SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 4/22/2014 [The Impulsive Buy]

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