Scary snacks on trial
This Saturday is Halloween, and whether or not you plan to go trick-or-treating, it's hard to resist the shelves and shelves of colourful, juicy sweets available.
To help you pick the best-looking, best-tasting treats, six veteran candy-eaters were invited to take part in our yearly sweet taste test.
We salute you, Minal Daswani, Eric Lam King-fai, Jimmy Liu, Arjun Sivakumar, Christopher Wong and Louise Yu, for putting your teeth at risk for a mission every reader will envy.
Products available from LCX, Mall 852, City'super and Taste
Candy Shirts
These gorgeous shirts would taste unremarkable if not for the minty flavour. The biscuit layer is fairly enjoyable but overall the sweet is too dry. While they stick to your teeth, these Chinese-style Halloween candies are worth a try.
Looks: 4
Taste: 3
Ghost Cookies
This garlic-bread-look-alike is savoury and a little spicy. It's an odd mix of ingredients for a cookie: chilli, pepper and peanuts. This crunchy nightmare is so hard it feels like wood. If you don't have vampire-worthy teeth, you'll struggle to get through this.
Looks: 2
Taste: 1
Candle Candy
These scent-free sticks are extremely sugary, but dissolve so quickly, you may wonder whether you really ate anything. Its realistic appearance will make this a local favourite.
Looks: 3.5
Taste: 3
Scary Lollipops
If it weren't for the attractive presentation, these overly sweet milk chocolate lollipops wouldn't stand out at all.
Looks: 3
Taste: 3.5
Gummy Worms
This gross-looking classic takes a ridiculous amount of time to chew and even longer to digest.
Looks: 3.5
Taste: 1.5
Wonderland Halloween Chocolate
A typical Japanese product: nicely packaged, lightly textured and mildly chocolatey. Comes in four flavours, but those with nut allergies should avoid the nutty ones.
Looks: 3.5
Taste: 4
Dracula's Cask
The coffin container is a cool Halloween decoration, but the contents are not worth buying: mild-flavoured hard candies that take forever to melt.
Looks: 3
Taste: 2.5
Candy Necklace
A mild, fruit-flavoured hard sweet that doesn't really appeal to young taste buds, but the cool design makes it fun to wear.
Looks: 3
Taste: 2.5
Halloween Marshmallows
The taste of these cutesy ghost-shaped sweets was loved by everyone on the panel. Make sure you have a glass of water handy to wash away the sticky feel in your mouth.
Looks: 3
Taste: 4
Devil Eyes Gummy Candy
These creepy-looking eyes are chewy, not too sweet and come in a range of exotic fruit flavours. Attractive packaging makes them the ideal gift.
Looks: 4
Taste: 4
Squirting Skulls
You have to look closely to find one that's actually skull-shaped, but these sweets are filled with raspberry flavoured brainjuice. The juice and chewy gum blend perfectly for a unique candy experience.
Looks: 3.5
Taste: 4.5
