Karin Nelson

Today, my son and I went to a specialty store to rent a Tasmanian Devil cake pan (for his birthday party). The store also happens to have a wast assortment of original English candy. My son begged me to buy him some, and I gave him 2 dollars and told him to pick one that he may like. He looked at the wall full of glass jars containing candy of all kinds and finally settled on “Sour Cherry”. He got a little paper bag of the candy, and paid for it. Right outside the store, he popped one in his mouth.

“Yummy?” I ask, watching my son as his eyes widen, and fill with tears. He gasps “Mommy, OMG, mommy, they’re so sour!!!”

Tears are now streaming down his reddening cheeks. He opens his mouth and starts gagging.

“Ok, spit it out then,” I suggest, and he runs to the next garbage can. Luckily we have a water bottle in the car and he drinks a few huge sips. With a small voice he proceeds to tell me that they are too sour to eat, and that now he has no candy at all. Unfortunately, I am out of cash, plus the candy was his pick, and although it breaks my heart, I have to tell him that there will be no other. “But”, I suggest, “you could share the candy and see how your friends like it.”

There is an idea!! He starts to smile immediately, and we are hashing out a plan on how we can get his friends to eat the candy without offering it to them. “Just tell them how terrible it is, and that you weren’t able to eat it because it was soooo sour.” Obviously, the boys won’t be able to resist the temptation and they will want to try. But we agree that the younger kids among his friends will not be allowed to have any. And the older kids can only have them AFTER they agree to eat them at their own risk. When we get home, he’s out the door like a flash.

While I am making dinner, I can hear screaming and laughing outside, and a little while later, my son comes back inside, gleaming.

“Mommy, this is the BEST CANDY EVER!”
“Really?” I say carelessly, “How so?”
“Well, Zack tried it and it made him cry. And Josh couldn’t believe it and he cried too. And the other kids screamed and were too scared to try them. But then I ate one and I kept it in my mouth and resisted and if you just wait long enough, they’re super sweet and awesome!”
Big smile, and he was gone again.

When his dad came home a half an hour later, I told him the story. And of course, he wanted to try them, too. Now my husband is no weakling. Spicy, sour, hot, cold… he has no problems with anything. But this stuff, these Sour Cherries made his eyes pop and sweat beads appear on his forehead. And I could swear there was a little bit of extra moisture in the corner of his eyes. After a few minutes he could finally speak again. “Only the English can come up with something like that, seriously.”

There are still a few left. And no, I will not try them for myself. I like my candy sweet, thank you very much. :)