Candy Blog Talk

For some period of time inbetween 1993 and 1995 (inclusive) I was regularly procuring some candy from the vending machine in my middle school in houston, TX.

I can’t remember the name for certain. I’m going to call them “taffy tarts”; I may be right, or it may have been some other combination of (tiny,tangy,taffy,tart) or something else altogether that I have forgotten.

These candies were presumably fruit flavored but it was probably hard to tell. As I recall, they were individually unexpectedly small, and in the shape of simple but unusual (for candy) geometrical shapes: triangles and squares, perhaps. Also peculiarly, the bags seemed to be sort of vacuum packed: if you were to clench them in your fist, there is no chance that the bag would have popped; instead it would have just squished around. The candies were very much like chewy spree or runts, but possibly with much less shell: if possible, I think they had just the barest of shell and were mostly just like the insides of those candies. I remember only a blue color in the assortment, for some reason, although I am sure there were more colors. The blue was not very vivid, it was sort of a weak pastel blue. Not in the least evocative of any bluish fruit in appearance of flavor as far as I can remember.

I am hoping that someone else knows what I am talking about (so I don’t feel insane) or can get me on the right track for finding out more about these candies. I miss them! Every now and then I suddenly crave them and feel like smashing things until I find them.

I AM LOOSING MY EVER LOVING MIND TOO!!!!!!!

So everything you said, that I can recall, is SPOT on. I need to eat that candy right now. I think Taffy Tarts sounds right. But the more I think about it the crazier I become. Both of my sisters remember this candy and my older sister was the one who bought them and brought the home from middle school to share with us. She went to school in Little Falls, MN. It would have been in ‘94 or ‘95. I remember there being like a million little pieces of candy in that bag. I think the bag was like a cobalt blue and it had a clear window where you could see all the colorful shapes. They were kind of primary colors I think, kind of bright. My sister and I can’t find any info on these except now from you. Thank you now I can, kind of, sleep at night! Let me know when you find something, I’m dying to know!!!!!!!!!!

And so the saga begins. There will be no rest until we are reunited. I have a battle plan. Next time I am in houston I will try to visit the school district office and find out who had the snack machine contracts back in those days, and then track them down and try see if they will help me look for some old records or something to figure out where those came from. That kind of sleuthing works in movies, I wonder how well it works in real life.

http://www.gumballs.com/taffytarts.html

This you may recall.

http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/taffytarts!opendocument&startkey=Taffy Tarts

I dont remember them being tropical. I think I remember the blue bag also. I don’t remember the logo’s font, so I can’t rule it out as being a variant. I do remember the window into the package also.