The kind they sell wrapped in plastic in movie theaters. My friend loves it. To me, they just taste like plastic food. Sad.

Last edited Sat Aug 9, 2025, 08:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Early in my career, I had a project with our flavors & fragrances division to find an efficient synthesis of the linalool that makes strawberry smell the one they do & impart of good chunk of the flavor.
When the made the first 500 gallon run, I went to the site. I was there 3 days & the smell of strawberry flavoring became so objectionable that I wouldn't eat red licorice for over a year.
And, I lije red licorice!

Mostly for the fruit itself.
Not so much strawberry flavor stuff.
Had a similar experience with trying to use a countercurrent flow column to extract the diacetyl & acetone from butter. They are the principal components that make butter taste like butter.
We were looking for a way to improve throughput over a batch process for Mrs. Butterworth syrup.
After a couple weeks of working on that, I didn't want to go to a theater because that butter smell was nauseating.
Got over that, too.

I think all the movie theater red licorice must be stale. To me they all taste like waxy plastic strips.
Never realized it was supposed to taste like a fruit. Could have fooled me every time.

...licorice is way better closer to its make date.
Gets really stiff by losing moisture. Even though the bag is sealed, there is dry air on there upon packaging.
Doesn't take much water loss to turn it into rubber bands.
Don't know about theaters, but the Twizzlers we can buy at the supermarket are generally pretty pleasantly chewy.
But, 3 days after opening they are like extension cords.
I put them in a zip-lock with a couple drops of water.
Helps a lot.
As to the "taste like strawberry", they use linalool, but that's only around 80% of the flavor of strawberries. The other 20% is made up of another 40 or 50 compounds. That's why it's so hard to synthetically get strawberry flavor.
Lots if fruits are that way. Cheaper to just squeeze the juice out of the fruit than to do it by synthesis.

Really anything with marshmallow.

The browned sugar coating tastes like creme brulee!

WARNING! Under NO circumstances should you do this with chocolate peeps. The result can be confused with the contents of your cat's litter box!

nt

Rarely buy them as I'll eat the whole box

Lol

If I'm going to eat sugar, it's got to be really good.

(I mean, what's the point?...)

It doesn't even sound good.

I just think the demand is low because of how awful they are.

Dave Chappelle eats one in Half Baked, and it looks as bad as it tastes!

Little pieces are easier to eat. Same with a Big Hunk bar.

Does it improve the flavor?

It's truly as bad as it looks.

candy corn ...
and, while I don't actually wretch and gag ... Aren't Skittles and Gummys about the most overrated things you've ever encountered?


And incidentally - has anyone seen a real Pixy Stix in the wild, in the last - 60 years ? I remember them as a major food group during a certain portion of my youth ...

I’ve tried but one bite and I throw the rest in the trash. I don’t know why. I’ll even eat a 🐥 Peeps before I eat a Kit Kat.

Tastes like chocolate dust.

I can't stand the texture; reminds me of plastic or rubber.

I like chocolate and I like peanut butter, but for some reason, I don't like chocolate and peanut butter together. Go figure.

Also, candy corn. Who came up with that one?

Not a huge peanut butter fan. Although the Take 5 bar (chocolate, PB, caramel, pretzels) is awesome if you like sweet & salty.

They both suck (literally and figuratively).

These things are like Sweet Tarts without the good part

"And don't forget their bastardized little relatives.".

Those go in the trash

One of the clerks kept a bowl of jelly beans on her desk. It became a bit of a joke with her co-workers to guess which visitor would LOVE the black ones and which would HATE them. She said there was very little middle ground.

Circus peanuts. Those orange things that feel like styrofoam in your mouth.
Not fond of black jelly beans.
Anything gummy or Skittles is way overrated as the above poster stated. Also agree about the Necco wafers they’re like eating plaster.
Good and Plenty.

I used acetone in some ? artistic process in Art College. Oh, maybe for cleaning something ip

clean upstairs in Art clCollege, too. 👍

No taste at all and it all stuck together.

a gift. --it's gross. I put it on the kitchen table and the others ate.

Those big orange peanut shaped blobs of packing foam. Peeps are close second.

Man they were good.

Allergic

My kids and grandkids love them. Yuck.

something was lacking.

Thank you Thunderbeast.

love paydays, tho wish peanuts roasted more. not big on 3 musketeers.

just gimme the lindt white choc/peppermint truffles.

They made me gag.

and Butterfinger

I don't know if they changed the recipe or my taste buds changed, or both, but now I find it cloyingly sweet.

and they stick to the teeth. It makes me think of tooth decay and dental appointments!

Love me some good European chocolate

Almond Joy or Mounds.

My first, and maaaybe only experience
(🤔 although, how would I have known again to identify it as a taste. Maybe I had one more knowing it was licorice)
.
Basically, I was in either kindergarten, or first grade. Had a slew of colorful jelly beans. Tasty.
Then I had the black one. GAK! Spitted out!!!

ETA: having just looked up- a forgotten candy by me - Good & Plenty. Remember the commercial!
Maybe I had it without knowing what it was at some point- that was definitely licorice flavored.

Hope I'm making sense. The black jelly bean was terrible, but I didn't know it was licorice.
So what I don't know; is how I came to identify that awful taste as licorice. So I'm thinking I must have had one more bad experience with it. And was that possibly w G&P.

But in very limited quantities. I actually had a craving for a Clark Bar recently, but they seem to be available only online, and you have to buy a whole box for $50 plus shipping.

https://www.boyercandies.com/products/clark-bar

Fingers did not want to type the word. duh. haha