Is This Too Many...Candy Canes?

No. It is not. Because when I stumbled upon the holiday candy isle of my local grocery this evening I was confronted by a substantial gang of candy cane flavors I'd never heard of, nay, never even imagined! This picture represents only a fraction of the selection because my basket could only hold so much and stupid me, I had to buy food for the week as well. I know what you are thinking. Candy canes are food. True. But man can not live on cane alone.

Do you see what I see?
Do you see what I see?
A cane, a cane,
a Swedish Fish Candy Cane.

The discovery of so many new flavors presents opportunity especially for me, who happens to love fruity candy cane flavors. The fruity ones also have a distinct taste which is typically fruity but never really represent a single fruit flavor. They are a conglomeration of fruitiness that delivers an alternative to the peppermint canes that are a tradition of the season.

So let us test them, taste them, and rate them. First and foremost, these flavors should be a candy cane version of their other candy partner, i.e. a Spree Candy Cane should taste like a Spree, and so forth. Second, is the candy cane even tasty? Looking at the choices, I fail to see something that looks suspicious of not bringing the flava, so this will be a number ranking with aims to differentiate the "must try" from the "only for the die hards." Lastly, appearance. The peppermint ones fit a fir tree like a glove on a hand and while some see fruity canes as almost sacrilegious on a tree, a few of the ones I've already purchased could easily become a focal point for certain design motifs.

December is candy cane season. Let's go hunting.