Ah Dum-Dums. The classic sucker that you find everywhere, mostly as free treats for children at places like doctor’s offices, banks, and the like. Also found hurtling off floats at 4th of July parades. These little guys are so ubiquitous and yet nobody ever goes to just buy some Dum-Dums cause they want one. I mean, who would do that? You buy them to give away, and you eat them because you either are at a place giving one away or you found it in your pocket from who knows how long ago but it’s not like they ever go bad. When I had aspirations of being a professor it was my goal to have 3 bowls of candy on my desk, Dum-Dums, Smarties, and Nerds and depending on student’s grades I’d offer them from one of the respective bowls, all innocent like. This would be after I was tenured of course. Probably why I’m not a professor… Anyways, in addition to their many, many flavors (including Mystery), they make root beer, and so, in my quest to write about all products root beer related, I decided to wait until I found them being offered somewhere and I’d pick through to find a root beer one. But I didn’t even need to wait that long, as my son, wanting to help his daddy, was thinking the same thing and quickly procured and offered me a root beer lollipop. I knew I’d never need to buy one for myself. Now that I’ve had a decent number of these hard candy types, how does it compare?
A rather generic root beer flavor that is neither minty nor licoricey, if that’s a word. It’s quite pleasant and the closest thing to a creamy root beer that I’ve ever experienced in a hard candy. It also isn’t overly strong, so it doesn’t feel super sticky, but it isn’t too light either. Basically it’s a perfectly proportioned root beer flavor in lollipop form.
I truly like these things. They’re very well balanced. Definitely worth rummaging through the bowl next time you need to make a cash withdrawal at your local branch if you’re in a root beer sort of mood. Or you could buy some, to give away, knowing full well that the quality will not be met with disappointment.
Another break from hard candy! Yes there are all manner of root beer food confections and I just need to start searching for them in earnest. So I went to my local HyVee and started searching high and low for anything root beer. Sadly this was the only thing I could find, yet, it was something to find. Plus this is my first frozen treat. I’m not sure how I want to name this category as it isn’t ice cream, maybe I’ll just say Frozen Treats. That can be a thing right? Let me know in the comments if you have a better name for the category ice creams, popsicles and the like. Anyway, how are these things. 