The Easter Candy Everyone Wishes Didn't Exist

With Easter around the corner, everybody is taking the time to separate the good Easter candies from the despicable. In this vein, The Daily Meal ranks Easter candies from worst to best with Reese's Eggs heralded as the best —which is debatable when Cadbury eggs exist — and black jelly beans as the uncontested worst. "Easter is the exact opposite of a somber holiday, so why would you choose to eat such an unhappy candy?" The Daily Meal writes. "In fact, even considering these licorice morsels candy is being a little generous with the term."

In the United States, this may be the popular opinion, but the popularity that licorice enjoys in other countries should still be noted. Stuff Dutch People Like explains that — guess who — the Dutch love black licorice, with each person consuming more than four pounds of it a year in 2010. Similarly, as the blog Nordic Visitor writes, the Nordic countries love licorice too, though they give various reasons for the trend, from that it was a traditional sweet before chocolate appeared, to the fact that cold weather works well with the type of flavor licorice offers, and that some just find licorice plain delicious.

So, obviously, not everyone feels this hatred towards the Easter flavor.

Still, people do despise black licorice and love Reese's Eggs, according to a poll Mashed arranged last month about people's favorite Easter candies. According to Epicurious, however, the hatred for black licorice may be genetic, rather than objective. Flavor scientists explained to Adina Steiman, the author of the piece, that the aversion to certain flavors is genetic, which is why her sister cannot get enough of black licorice while Steiman would eat almost anything else. However, due to the constant exposure to licorice from her sister, Steiman found that she can tolerate the aroma to a certain extent.

Of course, the fact that eating too much black licorice could kill you probably doesn't help its image much. In 2020, The Associated Press reported on the death of a 54-year-old man whose heart stopped due in part to the increased blood pressure caused by licorice consumption. The piece ends with an FDA warning for people over the age of 40 when it comes to eating licorice. Luckily, if public opinion is anything to go off of, most people enjoying Easter candies don't have to worry about consuming too many black jelly beans.