Best Candy for Every Basket
Jelly bean junkies, Peeps people and Cadbury Creme egg-heads can all agree on one thing: Easter is the ultimate holiday for candy lovers! We've sussed out the most delicious treats for each candy lover style. From nuts to jelly (bean), we'll help you fill the baskets of the most discerning sweet tooth.
JELLY HEADS
While many candies are seemingly synonymous with Easter, there's a special bond between jellybeans and this holiday. Besides the basic flavored and Technicolor variety of Ronald Regan's favorite candy, the beans come in Hawaiian Punch Tropical Flavors, new Spree Lemon and even "bumpy Nerds" covered options. Craving something with a bit more heft? Pick up Texas-sized versions like these individual wrapped gigantic lentils from Candy Warehouse.
PEEPS PEOPLE
A veritable cult surrounds these sugar-covered farm animals (just check The Washington Post's yearly diorama contest)-which is probably why enough chicks and bunnies are sold each year to circle the Earth's circumference. This year, makers Just Born has released two new hues: orange for chicks and green for bunnies, as well as a new Chocolate Mousse flavoring for bunnies. Or branch out a bit with Peeps available in floral tulip shapes and orange crème flavored eggs for those feeling fruity. Looking for a Peep with a bit more pizzazz? Chocolate master Jacques Torres is selling his chickadees dressed in tailored chocolate tuxedos.
CHEW ON THIS
With everything from Bazooka to gum balls in their basket, they'll be chewing on these treats until the Fourth of July. Carrot Bubble Gum Eggs are deceptively packed in a precious carrot case, while Bubble Gum Mini Eggs are packaged like their chicken-produced counterparts. 365-days-a-year chew options like classic Blow Pops aren't to be missed, as well as Juicy Fruit, Doublemint, and Double Bubble, who come in Easter appropriate designs already.
GUMMI GOODNESS
It's not only bears that are available in gummy glory. For Easter, seek out gummy treats in shapes befitting the season. Trolli Gummi Easter Bunnies have the classic bears' taste in Peter Cottontail shapes, while Gummi Bunny Days come in a variety of holiday shapes (and contain real fruit juices). Gummi Fried Eggs, which look like the inside of the dyed variety, aren't breakfast appropriate. While Trolli Brite Crawlers come in the holiday's pastel hues but with a sour kick gummi-fans will love.
CHOCOLATE PURISTS
For some folks, there's no messing with perfection. The holy grail of straight cocoa confections is good Easter bunny and chocolate behemoth Russell Stovers covers any sort of rascally rabbit you could want-from solid milk chocolate to milk chocolate with crispies to white chocolate to orange and yellow tinted colored versions that will stand out in any basket. Want to eat something less adorable? Russell Stovers also carries a host of egg options, from solid varieties to those filled with chocolate crème and chocolate marshmallow fillings. But any basket would be incomplete without a few Cadbury Mini Eggs. The English chocolate maker practically perfected the choco egg concept, with speckled sugar shells you'll be dying to crack.
SOUR PUSS
Their faces will pucker with joy for goodies like sour jelly beans and other mouth twisting treats. Start with Easter Bunny Egg Heads Sour Candy that lets dinners pour sour candy from the bunnies' removable ears. Jelly Belly's Sour Bunnies Gummy Candy are a seasonal version of year-round fave Sour Patch Kids (though those are surely welcome in any one's basket). For more sophisticated sour flavors, nab Gimbal's Sour Bunnies available in flavors like Valencia Orange, Lemon Meringue, Perfectly Pear and Boysenberry.
FLUFF AND STUFF
For those looking for chewy marshmallow goodness, Peeps aren't the only option. Zachary Real Chocolate Marshmallow Eggs look just like a regular dozen, while the Russell Stover are dipped in a generous coating of chocolate. Then there are Brach's Marshmallow Eggs, which are similar to a jelly bean (in wacky fruit flavors) with a marshmallow hidden inside. Not such an egg-head? Classic delights like Circus Peanuts, Moon Pies and Marshmallow Ice Cream cones will satisfy sticky cravings.
TOY STORY
Looking for something that will last longer than a few bites? Easter Push Pop Toppers are candy lollipops with Easter characters on top. Gummi Prehistoric eggs have a Jurassic surprise at their chocolate center-a gummi dino. Or gift tykes jelly beans in a gross (and hilarious) container, pick up plastic farm animals like chicks and bunnies that "naturally expel" the jelly bean excrements for your eating pleasure.
CONCESSION CONFECTIONS
Cinema-candy lovers could care less about Easter-themed treats, so let them nosh on their Oscar winning favorites. Stock their baskets with matinee standards in classic packaging. Candies like Sno-Caps, Mike and Ike, Raisinets, Sugar Babies, Junior Mints, Milk Duds and Dots will satiate their sweet tooth long after the credits roll. Check out sites like candydirect.com (who claim the average profit margin for concession sweets nears 300 percent) to buy snacks before you get to the theater.
