Unreal Candy Unjunked

As I perused the aisles of Pricechopper last weekend, I came across a little black stand that caught my attention.  Sitting right near the Hershey and Mars brands was Unreal Candy Unjunked.  It advertises that it has no artificial ingredients, no hydrogenated oils, no corn syrup, no preservatives, and no GMOs.  It's about 3 times the price of its comparable "junk" version, selling 10-12 pieces of individually wrapped candy for a little over $4. Here is the website for it: Unreal Candy.  They also advertise that all of their dyes are from natural plant sources.  I bought a package of the Unreal peanut butter cups and chocolate caramel nougat bars to bring to class today for all of us to try.  I have yet to try them myself, so no guarantees.

I think the intention behind the creation of Unreal candy is a good one.  It gives ingredient-concious people with a sweet tooth the opportunity to chow down on candy anyway.  It also puts the idea out there that even candy - a food considered superfluous and with no nutritional value - now has varying levels of "healthy."  Yes, this stuff is still full of sugar and fat, but there are no corn products in it.  Surprisingly, by eating Unreal candy over another, it diversifies the food you're eating.  It certainly makes me feel slightly less guilty eating them.

But I feel as though the price and the quantity in the package limit its marketability.  Unfortunately, this can't be avoided given that corn is subsidized by the government, making its products cheaper to incorporate into other foods.  Also, when you think of candy, you don't tend to think of peanut butter cups and chocolate bars, you think of Reeses and Hershey bars, the brand name version of whatever generic candy it is you like.  As a kid, when I found myself in a candy store, the generic, non-label versions of candy had much less appeal.  I couldn't trust them because they weren't my reliable M&Ms or Twix.  There is something nostalgic about the brand names.  And you can trust that every single piece of brand-name candy you buy will taste the same as your last one.  Even when you go to a new country, a popular thing to do is try their candy and bring home bars of their biggest brands to your friends and family.  So while I really like the idea of health-ifying candy, I'm not sure how much market potential it really has.