Sometimes, discoveries made on the Internet remind us that the world is full of delightful surprises (i.e. wrestling baby bears and Paula Deen riding things). Art Director Elizabeth Spiridakis finding out last week that candy corn comes in different flavors and colors (thanks to Instagram) was one of those times--or so we thought. A company called Zachary Confections makes 12 varieties in addition to the standard flavor, from blackberry cobbler to raspberry lemonade, sold at various retail stores across the country. We took a bunch of them for a test drive so you don't have to (and for the most part, you should be extremely glad you don't have to.) Find our tasting notes after the jump. --Emily Fleischaker
Photographs by Matt Duckor
"This tastes a lot like cough syrup and a little like sugar"; "Gross. Chemical berries"; "Double barf"
"Thanks 4 the Vick's"; "Like a PEZ candy from hell. Can't swallow it"; "Just no. Why?"; "Tastes a lot like those candy cherry balls but also worse"
"Makes a valiant effort to be tart, but doesn't quite make it"; "Tastes exactly like you want it to given that it looks like a miniature rocket pop. Let's freeze it!"; "Kind of like it! Very all-American"
"Tastes like orange gum you can swallow"; "Faintly creamsicle-y--not as bad as it could have been but not anything I'd ingest on purpose"; "Like one of those super-sugary orange energy drinks"
"Somehow manages to taste like cotton candy"; "Not awful! Tastes like cake mix"; "Yummy. May be an improvement on the original"
"That may have just ruined apple cider for the rest of fall"; "Tastes like a green jolly rancher. Not a fan"
"Can't taste anything but sugar"; "That's kind of delicious"; "Takes like potpourri--like it's not supposed to be eaten"; "I support the idea"
"This is great, compared to the rest. Tastes like normal candy corn, which turns out is a very good thing,"; "Good. Very rich"; "These all taste like they came from the Yankee Candle"
"Reliably cinnamony. I'd eat this over a hot tamale"; "Barf, like spicy dirt. This baby went in the trash"; "Tastes like a hot tamale-flavored candle"; "That doesn't count as candy. I'm mad I ate that"
"Sickening"; "Makes my skin crawl/reminds me of gasoline? Or maybe just applejacks. Gross"
"I love regular candy corn!"; "Tastes awesome compared to the weirdo ones even though I'm not a candy corn person. All relative"; "Tastes like how I feel when talking to my grandparents"