Scenes From the Candy Convention: Gross and Gooey

There was Howard Kastin of Leader Candies blowing marshmallow spit balls at two guys standing in front of Fred Flintstone. There was Dum Dum the Walking Drum telling anyone who would pay attention that 3,000 dum dum suckers are made every minute. And there was Mr. T, dripping in cubic zirconium and gold vermeil, attempting to show just how smart he is. “I didn’t want to be a fool , so I went to school. “ The former “A Team” actor is now a spokesman for Smarties candy.

The 34th National Winter Candy Exposition and Convention, held last week at the Los Angeles Convention Center, is America’s largest exhibition of candy, chocolate and snack-related products. More than 8,000 wholesale and retail buyers, distributors and manufacturers met to sample the new and the old and to celebrate a year that--despite a major recession--has seen 3% growth over 1991 sales. That’s about $14 billion in retail confectionery sales.

If that seems like a lot of money, well, Americans eat a lot of candy. Our per-capita consumption of candy and chocolate has risen from 16.7 pounds in 1982 to 20.6 pounds in 1992. Experts predict that this year’s consumption will reach 21.4 pounds per capita.

Still, we eat a lot less than the Germans, the Swiss and the English. Lisbeth Echeandia, publisher of Confectioner magazine, would like to see us catch up. “Don’t underestimate the American consumer!” she urges in the trade publication. “They’re willing to try new things and explore different tastes and textures. Just give them a chance.”

Perhaps Gummi Treasure Trolls, now the Alma-Leo candy company’s hottest seller, will put America over the top. Perhaps it will be one of the company’s other Gummi products--Warheads, Sour Bats, Mutant Ninja Turtles or Slime Slurps. Although Slime Slurps are already 9 years old, “kids still love ‘em,” says Nick Quartana of Alma-Leo. “They eat them; they even stick them on the wall.”

Terry D. Kroll, the inventor of the bite-sized, peanut butter-filled Pocket Pretzel, is high on his newest product: chocolate-covered pocket pretzels. They will hit the stores in the fall.

The original Pocket Pretzels made their debut several years ago in Trader Joe’s stores and warehouse clubs. Since then, the pretzels have developed an almost cult-like following, and even the major supermarkets now stock them. Kroll credits his success to consumer demand for healthier snacks. Pocket Pretzels are baked, not fried, contain no cholesterol or preservatives and are low in salt (at least they are in comparison to some of the other popular snacks on the market).

Kroll is currently working on several other pretzel products, including a cheese-filled pretzel. “Pretzels are catching on,” Kroll says. “Retail is now about $750 million. But that’s still relatively small. After all, Mars does $650 million on their Snickers alone.”

Snickers candy bar sales don’t seem to impress the Nestle company. Representatives of the company were busy passing out buttons touting Nestle’s Baby Ruth bar: “When the new President said his favorite candy bar is Baby Ruth, nobody Snickered.” They also distributed buttons with Homer Simpson acting as pitchman for their Butterfinger bar: “Vote for Butterfinger, Product of the Year.”

And then there were the Clark “I Love Buns” buttons, promoting the candy company’s Bun candy bars. “Grab a couple of Buns,” friendly Clark representatives suggested to passersby.

Grist Mill, on the other hand, traded on patriotism to hype its smaller, cheaper candy bars. Its slogan? “What This Country Needs Is a Good 25-Cent Bar!”

The competition may be keen among candy bar manufacturers, but they have not become a party to the latest candy competition--gross candy. Sold in convenience stores primarily to 6- to 12-year-olds, it is a whole new phenomenon. “ ‘Totally disgusting’ is the sound bite,” says Susan Proctor of the How Can It Be So Sour Co., a manufacturer and distributor of cutting-edge candy. “Our marketers try to think of the most disgusting things they can.”

Five years ago the company started the super, super-sour craze, marketing sour balls. Today it also makes Face Slammers (a super sour-bubble gum), Flamers (hot fireballs with super-sour undertones) and Mad Dawg (a super spew bubble chew that creates foam, so the chewer looks like a rabid dog). “Kids love it,” says Proctor.

How Can It Be So Sour creators Kevin Sherman and Lori Basset predict S.N.O.T. will be their best seller. S.N.O.T., the acronym for Super Nauseating Obnoxious Treat, was introduced at the convention, and sales surpassed expectations. “We don’t expect this candy to succeed merely by a nose. It’s going to be a real blow-out,” say the creators. The Jell-O-like candy is expected to reach stores by April 1. Available in Schnozzberry, green-apple and cherry flavors, the slime oozes from the nostrils of a life-like soft-plastic nose container. “We’ve just begun to test the waters of repulsiveness,” Proctor says.

Mary Anthony of Meister Candies disagrees. She thinks the next trend will produce candy with family values. Her company, which makes those orange-marshmallow circus peanuts (“They are real big in Salt Lake City,” she says), has just come out with a line of multicolored marshmallow Funimals. These feature Pitter and Patter the pandas, Twitch the rabbit, Mudpie the dog and Bandit the raccoon. “I think mothers will be glad to see something a little more wholesome,” says Anthony. “So far we’ve gotten a great reaction.”

Meanwhile, Howard Kastin was still standing in front of his booth waiting to take orders for marshmallow Spitballs, “the candy that’s more than just fun to eat.” They will be available in stores in about six weeks. Everybody is grabbing samples, but nobody seems to be buying. Kastin is not worried. “They’ll do OK,” he says. “That guy over there is selling snot, so why can’t I sell spit?”