Candy in Taiwan (aka “what is this crap?”)

I’ll start.

I usually love Skittles. I like the normal ones, the rainforest ones, even the sour ones. But I bought these today and they taste like rancid gym laundry (not that I’d know…). Can anyone translate what kind of Skittles they are and what the flavors are (I’m assuming at least one is “Devil’s asshole”).

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Looks like lychee, tangerine, mung bean (eeww!) and taro. Yeah, pretty disgusting. Oh, and the one in the middle appears to be preserved fruit. They were all chosen because their names are homophones of characters in auspicious Chinese New Year sayings. Yay!

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Thanks. I thought Durian might be in there, but guess not. Avoid at all costs.

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Goes without saying.

These traditional candies, on the other hand, aren’t too bad:

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Big big bins of candy in Carrefour right now, I assume because of Chinese New Year. It’s amazing to me that none of it is the least bit appealing to me, despite my sweet tooth. It’s a bit like alcohol … there’s probably some good stuff out there, but if the labeling is almost all in Chinese, nope nope nope.

These puppies can be pretty damn tasty too:

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I call that stuff “dentists’ delight.”

Some of the peanut candy (similarly teeth testing) is pretty tasty too.

Guy

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There’s a shop in one of the temples high on one of the trails on Lions Head Mountain just outside Beipu in Hsinchu County, sells a kind of high-viscosity peanut brittle (bends not snaps) that has a bottom layer of gooey black sesame. Teeth testing, oh yeah. But I would lose a few teeth for it, sir, happily.

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These are my CNY failing. I could go through a whole bag of these things

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If you’re a nougat kind of guy, the French import nougat at Carrefour is outstanding.

They have something similar in Kinmen, called pig’s knuckle. Sesame wrapped in sticky peanut paste. Awesome.

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That’s the kind of info that could send my calorie count into the stratosphere.

Taiwanese definitely do a good job with penut related stuff. theres something i had in tainan, some chewy thing wrapped in penut dust with coriander. it was badass.

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Have you tried these 糖蔥 (sugar scallions/onions) though?
Crispy “cookies” made out of nothing but sugar. Light, airy, the perfect spring roll companion.

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Not sure if bang mi hang (爆米香) counts as candy, but it can be pretty good if it’s done right.

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I could eat a whole bag of those things too. Anything that is simply candified sugar pretty much wins, and those are really advanced.

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It gets unbearably sweet after a couple of bites, but for some reason I can’t stop. The texture is addictive.

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Hi there, is there any Taiwanese snack that has brown sugar as its main ingredient that is not boba? I’m a sucker for brown sugar and I’d love to know a thing or two about Taiwanese snacks with brown sugar. Thanks in advance!