Come August, store shelves start filling with bags of Halloween candy. You’ll find favorites like Hershey’s bars, Reese’s Pieces, and more in colorful orange bags, plus a medley of treats made specifically for the holiday. A number of those more unusual sweets don’t last very long, never to be seen in trick-or-treat buckets again. Sadly, there is no spell that can conjure up these discontinued Halloween candies.
1. Brach’s Dem Bones
Brach’s Dem Bones were sure-fire Halloween pleasers. The candies—which were shaped into skulls, tibias, ribcages, hand bones, and foot bones that were perfect for sorting—had a sweet and sour flavor similar to SweeTARTS. Sadly, these macabre but tasty Brach’s Halloween candy delights were discontinued in 2006.
2. Cadbury Screme Eggs
Cadbury Creme Eggs, in their classic form, are chocolate ovals filled with a thick, silky white and yellow fondant to mimic an egg. The Halloween version of the Creme Eggs were cleverly called Cadbury “Screme” Eggs; they consisted of the same chocolate shell and white fondant, but instead of yellow yolk, the cores contained an ooey gooey, fluorescent green filling. Unfrotunately, the brightly colored fun didn’t last: The Halloween version of the classic chocolate confection has been discontinued.
3. Skull Pops
Skull Pops were two-sided candy treats on a stick, with a strawberry-cream flavored white skull on the front half and a grape-flavored purple skull on the back. The creepy skull featured exaggerated teeth and holes for eyes. These were the quintessential treat for both Halloween and another day recognizing the dead—Dia de los Muertos. Rest in peace Skull Pops, you are missed.
4. Candy Corn Starburst
Candy corn is actually made from a sugary, slightly buttery, tri-colored fondant molded into a triangular shape. So when the good folks at Starburst released their Candy Corn Starburst candies, people were likely confused and intrigued at the same time. How would the candy corn flavor work when combined with a fruity candy like Starburst?
Well, the treats weren’t candy-corn flavored at all. This Halloween confection was shaped like the original candy corn but featured red, pink, yellow, and orange ombre color tones. The flavors were not even candy corn-adjacent. They were exactly what you would expect from Starburst: bright, fruity flavors of cherry, orange, strawberry, and lemon. Needless to say, Candy Corn Starburst was consequently sent to the graveyard of discontinued Halloween candies.
5. Hershey’s Kisses Candy Corn
Another Halloween candy spin-off mixed candy corn with Hershey’s Kisses. If you unwrapped the Hershey’s signature foil wrapper—this time in silver, yellow, and orange stripes—you would find a white, orange, and yellow confection with a buttery candy-corn-meets-white-chocolate flavor (though the treats were’t actually white chocolate). It featured a Hershey-esque white paper tag printed with a candy corn label.
The unusual mashup was discontinued, but there have been some efforts to bring it back. One fan of the holiday treat even started a doomed petition to resurrect it.
6. Candy Corn DOTS
DOTS are essentially sweet, stick-to-your-teeth gumdrops. Of the 4 billion DOTS produced each year, not every flavor is a hit, as evidenced by the time candy corn DOTS hit the market. What could go wrong with combining the oft-disliked candy corn with the most beloved gumdrops?
A lot, apparently. To some, the candies were a clever blend of two Halloween favorites; to others, the combination was an affront to both the spirit of Halloween and the candy gods. Maybe their demise came because, for candy corn lovers, candy corn DOTS were too off-the-mark, and for candy corn haters, they reminded them too much of, well, candy corn.
7. Ghost DOTS
Ghost DOTS also faded away into the realm of discontinued Halloween candy. These ghost-shaped gummies were all light green in color, but despite the uniform hue, they came in a variety of flavors—a true Halloween surprise in every box. While these obscure Halloween treats have been discontinued, you may be able to still find some Ghost DOTS floating around in rare candy shops.
8. Bat DOTS
Bat DOTS weren’t able to live an eternity on store shelves either. The blood orange-flavored, solid black gummies were actually softer than normal DOTS candy. But the spooky color may have hampered its success. Black candies are often associated with black licorice, which many people love to hate. This preconception that black colored candy means licorice may have fueled its demise.
This article was originally published on www.mentalfloss.com as 8 Discontinued Halloween Candies You’ll Never Find in Your Trick-or-Treat Bucket Again.