Jolly Ranchers and Sweet Tarts were big when I was a kid.
Not quite what warheads, cry babys, toxic waste, (etc) are.
Someone please bring back “Altoids Sours”.
There’s a company making a new version called retro sours. They are available online or at Cracker Barrel when in stock.
Eww. I used to like the orange ones.
Tell me more.
SweeTarts are hardly part of the mega-sour family tree. They are essentially compressed Pixy-Sticks, as the article you linked to said. They’re tart, but being for was never part of the advertising, that I recall. That may have changed since '94.
…if you’re specifically talking about modern malic-acid flavors, that technology wasn’t developed until the mid-seventies in east asia and wasn’t imported stateside until the early nineties, but it was an immediate hit and quickly swept through the domestic sour-candy market, with most brands offering ‘extreme’ variants of their existing products…
…i can’t recall any time when sour candy wasn’t a major product sector and a quick perusal of candy history essays shows it dating back nearly as long as manufactured candy has been a thing, with a history of sour preserved confections before that…
Now THAT is an awesome answer to the question! I’m sure that’s EXACTLY right!
Thank you kind person!
This is funny because like 10 years ago or so they had to lower the amount of acid they put in warheads because people kept getting acid burns from eating too many.
That’s also why they got rid of my all time favorite candies: sour altoids.
Unrelated, but I had constant raw flesh on the top of my mouth for almost a whole year before those got pulled from the shelves.
I remember them being way more sour back then. I chalked it up to me being an adult for why they are less sour lol
Yeah it was due to the “warheads challenge” where people would just shove warheads into their mouths.
Lots of hospital visits later the warheads company changed their formula.
They got away too war-ry.
When were you a kid? There was a vending machine in an ice rink when I was a kid in the nineties that exclusively sold candy, and the sour candies were always sold out by the time the guy came to refill.
Its almost in the whole world, and I think its because of SOME. Back in my young days, there were more locally some market for that.
Just because you didn’t like something doesn’t mean other people don’t. Adults who didn’t grow up eating Hershey’s chocolate frequently don’t like it due to a compound that they use to preserve it that tastes kinda like vomit. What you like is influenced by society and what you grew up eating.
Like other commenters have said, sour candies have always existed in some capacity (before Lemonheads it was likely candied fruit including lemons and limes), and back in the 90s Warheads were super popular due to the edgy marketing and the “kids doing foolish shit” factor. I’m part of the generation that grew up with Warheads being popular and I once kinda gave myself a chemical burn by sticking way too many in my mouth at the same time. Sour Patch Kids are one of my favorite candies now as an adult. And guess who the parents of the kids today are? Yup, the same people who ate the entire package of Warheads in one mouthful in a dare.
Didn’t say it was wrong (Well I did say food perversion, but I was joking). I was asking why it was surging, and I think you gave me a pretty damn good answer.
Thank you kind person!
I’m the idiot who ate the entire package of Warheads in one mouthful on a whim, no peer pressure necessary. Can confirm, everything tasted like battery acid and flour for a few days there
Mid-80s, these were the only sour treats available.
1993
So you should definitely remember Warheads
Yes
I don’t even think sour candies are necessarily that popular anyway. Chocolate still seems to be the number one candy by far. That being said, people like sour candy because it’s delicious. :)
Chocolate still seems to be the number one candy by far
My only true love in this world… I will be sad when it’s all synthetic because climate change took it all away :(
people like sour candy because it’s delicious. :)
So far you seem to be the only person to even mention OP’s actual question… But the answer reads like nonsense to me personally.
What is it like to enjoy sourness? (Is that even something that can be described?)
Suck a lemon. Actually that sounds good maybe I’ll go do that
I’m curious if it’s possible to explain how that’s enjoyable to you
Probably not, it’s a matter of taste. No joke, I think it tastes good and do it all the time
Given acidity is one of the 5 basic characteristics of wine, I suspect people, even adults, have been enjoying sour flavors for a few thousand years. Also, preserves have tended to be sweet, salty, or, you guessed it, sour for a long time, as well. They only thing that has really changed is our delivery vehicle for sour snacks.
Hmm. That may partially explain why every time I’ve tried to taste wine I ended up spitting it out.
That’s like saying hot peppers are delicious. They are, but they are one subset of the spices, or even the foods available, many of which are also delicious, but in different ways.
Suddenly one extreme flavoring has easily 1/3 of the market, a market once dominated by candy bars and gum. Chewy candy has exploded. And along with it, sour candy as well.
Lots of sour candies from early 1900s till the year you mentioned. Lifesavers had sour since the 20s. Jawbreakers and toxic waste brand since the 70s. Lick-a-Stick, Sherbert Sour Powder, etc
But almost non-existent by the 60s-70s.
Now, ubiquitous.
Jaw breakers and sour tarts were big in the 80s when I grew up
Sweettarts. Kinda sour, not bad. Jawbreakers weren’t sour.
They sold sour Jawbreakers from WilliWonka brand, Dino Eggs Sours. Notice bottom right Jawbreaker written on it. These are what I was thinking of. https://www.candywrappermuseum.com/dinasoureggs.html
I sit corrected.
Heh. Only reason I knew this they were my sister’s frequent buy in the 80s
I loved jawbreakers, the little ones you could shatter teeth on
Grim theory: it’s all that people can financially afford to be popular these days.
WARHEADS. ATOMIC FIREBALLS.
They’re selling extremes. You must be tough to eat this! Not for the faint-hearted!
Not saying, mmmm, they’re delicious! 😋
Similar age and ya, I remember sour packets being popular in middle school. Can’t recall the name, but it was similar to the artificial sugar packets used for coffee, except it had a mixture of sugar and citric acid (the “sour” flavoring) in them.
I don’t think so. I recall Fundip being in large pouches with the pressed sugar sticks for dipping. These packets were a lot smaller and didn’t come with the stick.
Any chance the candy was mexican? Cuz that opens up a whole world of possibilities. Limon 7 packets, pico packets, not to mention a whole suite of Lucas powders.
It was the Limon 7 ones. I would have never remembered that. But seeing them now, yup that’s them.
Ayyy! Glad we figured out that mystery! Hope you have a good day!
Scandinavian Xenial here. It’s been popular here for as long as I can remember.
Is Xenial some kind of linux distro?
Yes, Ubuntu version 16.04 was called Xenial Xerus.
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I wish. It’s that small overlap between GenX and Millennial. I fall into both/neither category, depending on which definition you go by.
Maybe do it like horoscopes and say you’re a cusp?
I tried that one but it had to go when it wouldn’t run snap.
Yep. Sour, salty and salmiak. Djungelvrål ftw.
Sour patch kids came out in the 1990s. How old are you?
Over 60
Lemonheads were around.
