Halloween wouldn’t be the same without these five classic Canadian candies

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Trick-or-treating as we know it today originated in Canada, so it only makes sense that many of the classic candies we’ve sought from our neighbours for over 100 years originated here as well. Here are five frequent treat bag offerings the kiddos either love or love to trade.

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Nearly as synonymous with Halloween as pumpkins, these pastel pills have been around since 1949. That’s when British immigrant Edward Dee founded Ce De Candy in New Jersey, makers of the candy that Americans refer to as Smarties. In 1963, Dee brought the business to Toronto, and opened another facility in Newmarket, Ont., in 1988 — the latter of which is still operated by Dee’s granddaughters today. Known fondly in Canada as Rockets, the sweet concoctions were originally produced using repurposed Second World War machinery built to compress gunpowder pellets for ammunition. Today they use high-pressure presses, along with Dextrose as a base ingredient — a switch from the cane and beet sugar that came when sugar prices soared in the 1970s. All processes aside, try to resist unrolling a few packets on Oct. 31 — we dare you. Buy them here.

Coffee Crisp

Canada’s beloved milk chocolate bar lined with layers of vanilla wafer and coffee-flavoured foam candy originated in the United Kingdom way back in the 1930s. Then referred to as Rowntree’s Wafer Crisp, the bar was later introduced as Biscrisp, and eventually transformed into the java-infused variation we now know as Coffee Crisp. By 1948, it was one of the country’s most popular confectionary cravings, and it remains that way to this day. Over 153 million Coffee Crisp bars are produced every year in Nestle’s Toronto facility, which is peanut free and uses 100 per cent sustainably sourced cocoa. Buy them here.

Maynards Swedish Berries

Despite their label’s Scandinavian claim, these boldly sweet gummy Berries are proudly made in a factory in Hamilton, Ont., by American company Mondelēz International under the Maynards brand. They were indeed founded in Sweden in the late 1960s/early 1970s by the company Malaco as an extension of their similarly sweet and gummy fish candies. So how are Swedish Berries considered Canadian, other than for the fact that they’re manufactured here? Well, they can’t even be purchased in either the United States or Sweden. So yes, these Berries are all ours. Buy them here.

Kerr’s Molasses Kisses

These mysterious molasses taffies seem to appear out of nowhere every year, haunting Halloween candy bags of children across the country. Just because they are everywhere, does that mean we have to like them? Well, no, but these rich and earthy stick-to-your-teeth treats rack up aura points for being allergy friendly (no peanuts, tree nuts or gluten), and lacking what most Halloween candy doesn’t: artificial colour. They are Halal, Kosher and vegetarian, and continue to be made in Kerr’s Oakville, Ont., factory. The company itself, founded by Scottish brothers Edward and Albert Kerr in 1895 in St. Thomas, Ont., prides itself on “creating candy suitable for all Canadians.” Buy them here.

Mr. Big

Coming in at 20 centimetres long, this Cadbury bar earned its slogan, “So big, they call him Mister,” back in the 1970s. Made of a layered vanilla wafer biscuit coated in caramel, rice crisps and peanuts and covered in chocolate, Mr. Big packs as much crunch as it does size. It was first produced in Canada by Neilson in 1979, but the company sold its candy division and Big’s rights to Cadbury in 1996. Today the chocolate bar that’s double the rest is produced alongside fellow favourites Caramilk and Crispy Crunch at the historic Cadbury factory on downtown Toronto’s Gladstone Avenue. Buy them here.

lward@postmedia.com

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