Trick or treating is a relatively new phenomenon in the UK, compared to America where Halloween celebrations have been popular for years.

Carved pumpkin lanterns, trick or treating and fancy dress are popular customs that we associate with Halloween nowadays, but there were other Halloween traditions in the past, that have disappeared over the years. Originally, turnips were carved and used as lanterns as a way of remembering the souls held in purgatory – this was a popular ritual in Ireland and Scotland. Scottish and Irish immigrants in North America started to carve pumpkins as they were easier to get hold of than turnips, and they were much easier to carve as they were larger.

The American-style Halloween celebrations are steadily making their way across to the UK as we are increasingly having more fancy dress parties and getting into the Halloween spirit. Why not take a look at some of our American sweet trick or treat ideas for an authentic American Halloween?

There is a huge selection of American sweets available in the UK; from specialist online retailers to larger high street department stores.

Twizzlers

Kids are guaranteed to be happy with a Twizzler for a Halloween treat, these licorice sweets come in a variety of styles and flavours including strawberry, cherry and watermelon. The newest and tastiest addition to the Twizzler HQ is the Sweet and Sour filled Twist, which has a mouth-watering, gooey filling.

Jolly Ranchers Assorted Flavours Hard Candy

Jolly Ranchers have a selection of candy to choose from but our favourite their hard candy that comes in over twenty different flavours. You can also get Jolly Rancher lollipops!

Boston Baked Bean

These aren’t your ordinary baked beans, these are Boston Baked Beans; peanuts with a sugary candy coating. The sugar-coated peanuts were created using a panning process, which originated in France. The panning process creates their hard, sugar-coated shells.

Laffy Taffy

Laffy Taffy chewy sweets will leave the trick or treaters in fits of giggles as each individual sweet wrapper contains a silly joke. Laffy Taffy sweets have a toffee-like texture and are rectangular pieces bursting with fruit flavour, you can choose from cherry, sour apple, mystery swirl, raspberry, strawberry, mango and melon, grape and banana.

Candy Corn

Candy corn is a popular candy in the US around Halloween and was invented by George Renninger in the 1880s. The kernel of corn-shaped sweets are a mixture of sugar, corn syrup, wax, water, fondant and marshmallow.

For something a little bit different, Twinkies are a hugely popular American snack that come in single packs and could be given out to kids. They are cake bars filled with vanilla icing and are already starting to become popular in the UK thanks to importers such as American Soda.

Another Halloween tradition is the candy apple (toffee apple over here in the UK). You could make your own candy apples with melted Hershey’s chocolate and rolling them in nuts to coat them. Pop in the fridge to harden the chocolate and hand them to your ghoulish trick or treaters.

The US is definitely the leader in the confectionery market but luckily you can buy their tasty American sweets from specialist UK online retailers.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of American Soda, importers of American sweets, including Twizzlers and Jolly Ranchers, into the UK.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of American Soda http://www.americansoda.co.uk), importers of American drinks, including Twizzlers, Jolly Ranchers and more, into the UK.

Author Bio: Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of American Soda, importers of American sweets, including Twizzlers and Jolly Ranchers, into the UK.

Category: Food and Drinks
Keywords: halloween, twizzlers, american sweets, candy corn