Bulk Chocolate for Halloween 2011

Buying candy for Halloween generally means heading to a grocery store or a discount shop in your hometown for most of us.  What if you do not live very close to such a shop or what if you are so busy you never find the time?  You know what happens when you don't have your lights on and the candy ready to hand out come Monday, October 31, 2011?  That's right.  Here in the USA and other places it is still very possible that your house might be egged or your lawn TPed.  You could also get kids stomping on your flowers or kicking your car, too.  The folks at Candy Favorites are a bulk wholesale candy shop that has a lot of options for Halloween and their goodies will come directly to your door.  They sent us 23 samples of the variety they sale, 7 of these are chocolate and so we'll reveal those to you today.

Let's start with some less than traditional Halloween candies that you can't really hand out to trick or treaters but you could have at a party or use for decorations on homemade treats like cupcakes or brownies or well, the variety is pretty vast given the food blogs I've been looking at for Halloween ideas.

You may have heard the jokes about candy corn... or maybe not but I particularly like Lewis Black's routine about it.  Normally candy corn has nothing chocolate but Brachs has a chocolate caramel version that I've never seen in the stores around me that Candy Favorites has as five pounds for just over $21.  That's a lot so you might want to team up with other bakers and candy makers and share them.   Notice how they kind of look like decaying fingernails?  Wouldn't that be an awesome idea for how to use these?  They smell primarily of caramel but there is a hint of cocoa.  Though solid they make no noise when I ate one.  The flavor depends on where you bite -- the darker end is cocoa, the lighter end a caramel tang that ends with an intense sweetness.  Not the most chocolaty by any stretch of your experiences I'm sure but hey Brachs is trying and they look cool.

Non Pareils can refer to either sugar and starch decorate items much like jimmies or sprinkles but round or non pareils can refer to flat chocolate drops covered in little sugared balls of various color.  These particular ones for Halloween are dark chocolate and have white, orange, and yellow sugar balls on one side and the flat chocolate surface on the other.  They have a deep chocolate scent and measure about 1 inch across the bottom.  They are crunchy primarily because of the sugar balls but the chocolate also gave a snap.  It is a darker cocoa essence than what I was expecting and I was very pleased.  These would be great as treat toppers or even on their own in a dish for folks to pick up just have a plat or something you may have the sugar balls rolling all over for your pets, kids, or ants to find.

The last item I'm really going to taste is another less common treat: Dr Scab's Monster Labs chocolates.  These come in 5 pounds for around $35 from Candy Favorites but chocolate generally more expensive.  Five pounds is probably about 3.5 normal bags of this I've seen in various bargain stores.  Bargain because here's your warning: this is from Palmer and as you may recall they have never gotten a good review from us.  Simply too many additives and not enough purity. However the idea of a creepy looking candy may appeal to you.

The creepiness is mostly in the decoration of the wrappers though the chocolate is molded as well to limited degree.  Three types are crispy: ears, toes and fingers.  The eyeballs are fudge while the lips are peanut butter filled.  I'll include a photo of these unwrapped so you can see the details.  The toes and fingers are identical inside, the ear has the most detail, the lips are basically lips and the eyeball is just round.  The crispy ones are very crisp but frankly the chocolate is too sweet and tastes waxy versus like chocolate should.  The eyeball has almost no scent but the center is the most chocolaty taste I've ever had from Palmer - that's not saying much, Sisters and Brothers.  The lips had a peanut butter fragrance to them but ultimately the waxy chocolate is unsatisfying.  This is the one item from Candy Favorites I cannot recommend any of you buy; don't buy it even in the dollar stores if you see a tiny bag of it.  Love your children, your friends, and your neighbors enough to not give them this.

Beyond the unusual or rare to find, Candy Favorites also has 5 pound offerings of more standard candy bar treats for Halloween.  Hershey's Miniatures Halloween Mix have dark colors and little bats on the wrappers.  This group contains Mr. Goodbar (green), Krackel (black), Milk Chocolate (orange), and Dark Chocolate (purple).  You'll have to price it around you to see how good of a deal this is online but I think most of you know that these are the sorts of things your kids, and you probably, like to chow down on Halloween night and for weeks afterwards.  These four particular bars never last long in our household.

The Hershey's Demon Treat pack has 130 pieces (that might actually cover the number of kids we get here!) and contains five types of individually wrapped treats: Milk Duds, Reese's Cups and Pieces, KitKats, and Whoppers in a roll with 3 malted milk balls.  I don't know how many of you keep track of the number of kids you have showing up looking for candy on Halloween but it was something my mother always did and I've continued it.  Normally we get between 110 and 150 kids so one of these might do it for us though it doesn't cover the kids who can't eat chocolate or don't like chocolate.  Yes, children like that do exist as shocking as that may be for some of you to read.

In a similar vein, Hershey Classic Fun Size bags have five varieties as well: Reese's cup and the Whoppers again but then Heath, Almond Joy (for the coconut lovers), and Cookies'n'Creme bar for those who like white chocolate.  This is a slightly different variety if you have trick or treaters or just you and your friends who want a bit more without paying more.  Not all of us can afford fair trade, handmade, organic treats for such a holiday so I think it is only correct that we look at the variety available to us all at this time of year.  Of these five, the Heath is my favorite and you can have all the Almond Joys you want.

Finally we got a few of the orange and black wrapped miniature Reese's cups.  These are great for eating on their own but also for baking.  I've put them inside of cupcakes before, yum.  I think these are part of the Harvest Mix you can find on Candy Favorites.  Again this is 5 pounds which in the case of these is a lot though I can't say how many individual cups.  I didn't know about what you see from trick or treaters but they love these things and they will try to take a handful if you let them.  Heck some of the kids we see look like they want to not just take a handful but the entire bowl!  We place a limit of one per person because as I said we can get a lot of people at our door.  We eat dinner in shifts and staff the door during the 3 hours they are allowed to roam about in our city.

Halloween candy on Candy Favorites ranges from chocolate to lollypops to gum to soft or hard sugar treats.  A good amount of Halloween candy though is also very fall or harvest related so we'll use some of the other samples they sent us later this year during our baking and recipe sharing or book reviewing.  But look at how much it was.  We do not need more candy corn let me tell you, Sisters and Brothers.

Candy Favorites offers candies for a lot of occasions as well as free shipping for orders over a certain amount.  Of course if it hot where you are, you may want to think about ice packs but these samples came just fine to us so unless you are in the upper 80s or above regularly right now, don't bother with the ice.  Comparison shop and then see if it will work for you.  Based on what I saw the amounts are large and if you get over $50 it looks like you might get free shipping. But if you decide to do so, or if you order from anywhere, remember that this takes take so do not wait until the last minute. For the variety and the range of chocolate there, just think before you order, I believe that Candy Favorites is a good source for Halloween this year.