Episode 65: Halloween Candy

On this week's episode, we're getting in the mood for Halloween by talking about the history of Halloween, the origin stories of the Tootsie Roll, Candy Corn, and the term Fun Size, and then we learn about why we all get freaked out about tainted Halloween candy. Then we help our Food Fight listener figure out how to deal with all the Halloween candy coming from grandparents.

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Let's taco 'bout it!

• Sharon went on a tour at the Waterpocket Distillery, who makes Robber's Roost, a light whiskey, and Oread. You can find them on Instagram here.  Winter and Lee get invited to a lot of little kid activities because of Lucy, so we tried Apple Cider Donuts (yummy!) at the Cross E Ranch, a local pumpkin patch in Utah. Our friends at Donut Kabobs told us how much those donut-making machines cost--it's a lot!
• By the way, here are some of our previous Halloween costumes:

• Halloween has many origin stories: Samhain (a Celtic festival), mumming, All Souls Day, souling, guising, and Guy Fawkes Day (such as seen in V is for Vendetta and these masks).

Guy Fawkes Masks

• The most desired candy over Halloween is the Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. You may want to check this and this out.
• Tootsie Rolls has an official history, but then Winter found a cool article with more research on the story of the Tootsie Roll. Leo Hirschfield also invented Bro-Man-Gel-On too!
• Winter loves Candy Corn (the Halloween version, even though there are many types of candy corn such as here and here). This is how they're made.

By Csavvj - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62634197

• How did the term Fun Size come about? It was the Mars company trying to market their candy for Halloween in 1968! It started out with Snickers, Milky Way, and Three Musketeers. The Curtiss Candy Company, who market Baby Ruth and Butterfinger, started using the term also, and Mars sued them and lost.
• We blame Ann Landers and Dear Abby for perpetuating the fear of tainted candy. 
• Watch this clip that Seinfeld does on Halloween--hilarious!
• We help our Food Fight listener figure out how to navigate all the candy during Halloween, especially coming from the grandparents. 

Run Time: 59 minutes

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