An Expansion On The Theme, "Two Great Tastes That Go Great Together."

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jun 16, 2005 9:28PM

Growing up we were always told that eating too much candy was bad for us, which might be one of the root reasons our fridge is always stocked with peanut butter cups and Pepsi. But to read some of the stories coming from the All Candy Expo, which wraps up today at McCormick Place, we could soon be having our cake and eating it, too (bad pun one hundred percent intended).

Confectioners were busy laying the groundwork for making inroads into the sports food industry- which generated $3 billion in sales last year- by introducing such concepts as vitamin laced jelly beans and chews packed with herbal energy.

Jelly Belly Candy Company introduced its new “Sports Beans” during the expo. Scheduled for mass-market release later this summer, the one-ounce servings of jelly beans contain concentrated amounts of Vitamins C and E and 120 milligrams of electrolytes to prevent dehydration. It sounds like a novel concept, although we here at Chicagoist are having a hard time wrapping our collective head around the concept of eating health-conscious products from a company called “Jelly Belly.”

This comes hot on the heels of yesterday’s Sun-Times article about Chicago-based company Brand New Products developing a line of candies inspired by NBC’s “Fear Factor.” Pending approval from NBC, next year shelves at groceries and drugstores across the country could be bursting with candy tongues intended to be dunked in goo; drumstick-shaped, chicken-flavored lollipops; and bags of “grubs” filled with chicken-flavored silkworms (real, dried silkworms) and granola. Oh, you know you want some.

Brand New Products is expecting the “Fear Factor” candies to be a huge success once the go-ahead is given from NBC to market them, but instead we think they’ll wind up being “big in Japan”, as the saying goes.

Which reminds us, why don’t these candy companies spend a few dollars to put Pocky in our local Walgreens?