Bird of a Different Color

Holiday-specific food has always been a problem for me. It seems I become addicted to particular items that can only attained at certain times of the year. I must admit that as a teen, I was obsessed with the overly sweet Cadbury cream egg. As soon as they appeared, I would begin to hoard them, attempting to collect enough on my own and from gifts to last as long as possible. Fortunately, this behavior lead to Cadbudy cream egg burnout and they longer do anything for me except turn my stomach.

But that didn't keep me from falling prey to similar specialty foods. You may remember the fun size Milky Way Dark, now called Milk Way Midnight? Milky Way makes many of their candy bars in several different sizes: minis (just a bite), fun size (a couple of bites), regular size and "2 to go' (formerly king size). Now, I have been a major fan of the Milky Way Midnight since they introduced it. After the candy bar formerly known as the Mars Bar (Now called Snickers Almond. I detest candy rebranding. Mars doesn't even have a candy bar called Mars any longer!), I think the Milky Way Midnight is my favorite. And it is also the favorite of several of my friends. At one of my previous jobs, we did a taste test of the three sizes the Milky War Midnight was available in, determining unanimously that the fun size was the perfect proportion of nougat to caramel to chocolate. Wouldn't they all the be the same? Not at all. Each is subtly different and the fun size was perfection.

The only problem? Milky Way Dark fun size was only available at Halloween. Why? I'm not sure, but like the aforementioned Cadbury Cream Eggs, I and many of my friends would hoard the fun size at the holiday, making them last as long as possible. Until that dreadful day, the thought of which sends shivers down my spine. I remember being at Target and looking through the candy for the Milk Way Midnight fun size, none to be found. I looked elsewhere. None. Zero. Zilch. I finally wrote the company and was informed it was no longer being produced. What a sad and miserable day for America.

But, really how hard is it to change out the chocolate in the enrobing machine? It can't be that difficult. If I win the lottery I will make them produce it again; if I had a time machine I would go back to the year 2000 and buy as many bags as I could find. The I would go even further and grab my child self, bring him to the future and get his teeth sealed, then return him to the past. I like candy too much for someone who hates the dentist.

Since the Milky Way Midnight debacle, I have tried to remain aloof about seasonal candy and food. But, I must admit that it's limited availability is part of it's attraction. Only being able to have something once a year makes it more special.

But, I do have a weakness: SweeTARTS Chicks, Ducks and Bunnies. Sure, they are just SweeTARTS in a special holiday shape, but there is something about that is just different. The Easter shapes are just better, perhaps because they're bigger. They seems to dissolve on your tongue in a way that a conventional SweeTART does not. Or maybe it's because Easter is the last major candy holiday until Halloween? And I'm just looking for something to hang my desperation on? Regardless, I try to limit myself to a couple of bags per season. I enjoy them while I have them and try not to hoard them. I don't want to burnout and also don't want to reach the level of addiction that would cause me to write to the company were they ever to stop producing them...or start petitions.....or a 'Save the Chicks, Ducks and Bunnies' Facebook page. One may take on Milky Way, but one does not want to take on Willy Wonka. I've seen the movie.

Plus, there are more important things in life than candy.

There is cake.