Halloween Candy Oscars 2008 - Part 3

Believe it or not, there are some people in the world who are not aware that Halloween is the greatest time of year. Surprising, I know. Yet, it remains a fact.

Speaking of facts, the Halloween Candy Oscars are the perfect place to discover facts about the best Halloween candy. Facts such as the best gumballs are ball-shaped. You see, the triangular ones are too sharp. Chewing those for a few seconds and your delicious gum suddenly begins to taste like a penny as the blood from your shredded mouth overwhelms your tastebuds. And while it may be Halloweeny to have blood pouring from your mouth, your gum simply doesn't taste very good.

Now, for Anyone who wanted to know what the best lollipop is for Halloween, you've come to the right place.

Back again is last year's best Halloween lollipop, the Creepy Pop by Jolly Rancher. These goulish pops haven't changed a bit since last year. Head options continue to be the lord of darkness (Dracula), an evil jack-o-lantern, a squiggling, wriggling ghost and a human head with no skin, muscle or flesh on it. IE, a skull. Flavours are identical to the sweet tastiness of Jolly Rancher candies, but renamed to make them frightening: Eerie Apple, Spooky Blue Raspberry, Wacky Watermelon and Goulish Grape.

Seems the desire to one-up your neighbour is universally consistent - even confectionary companies compete to outdo each other with the most radicallest Halloween candy. This is evident with Frankford's entry into the lollipop category this year.

Frankford has introduced Harry Potter Blood Pops. They are Strawberry flavoured and each bag is supposed to contain 28 lollies. Again, I had to count how many I actually got and again I was surprised to find another company that can't count. My bag contained a whopping TWO extra Blood Pops.

Harry Potter Blood Pops, made in Chile, are surprisingly similar to the deceased Charm's Dead Heads.

The packaging declares your mouth will turn blood red. The question is, will it? Can these suckers possibly live up to the exceptionally high standard set by Charm's wonderful creation? The answer is yes. In fact, upon eating one I suddenly found myself screaming "Oh dear God! I'm bleeding! I've sliced my mouth wide open with the razor sharp edges of this Harry Potter Blood... oh waitaminuite..." before realizing it was just the silly lollipop doing its job.

On top of that, they are surprisingly tasty. I am not a fan of artifical strawberry flavour and I was not expecting to like these at all. But I was very, very wrong.

There are good lollipops out there. Tootsie Pops are still great, and always will be, but they just don't fulfill the proper critera for Halloween. The Creepy Pops are totally excellent and I had a tough time deciding against them.

If a company can create a strawberry flavoured chunk of sugar to suck on that even I like, it's got to be good. It almost seems like Dead Heads have been resurrected for another year as Frankford has borrowed two of Dead Heads' key features: an awesome flavour oh-so-close to a Dead Head, and the way they turn your mouth red. For those reasons I have no choice but to declare Harry Potter Blood Pops the best Halloween lollipop for 2008. Two oozing zombie thumbs up for their taste and how they make your mouth totally bloody without eating an apple full of razor blades.

Check out Halloween Candy Oscars - Part 2.
Check out Halloween Candy Oscars - Part 1.