Seasonal candy takes me to my happy place

According to the good old Internet, a university professor named Dr. Archana Bharti once pointed out, “There are as many types of columns as there are different aspects of life.”

Well, one aspect of life surely is favorite holiday treats. Here, therefore, we have a brief treatise on Easter candy.

If you cracked open a few Easter eggs and indulged this weekend, you’re not alone. Although you might think of Halloween or Christmas first when it comes to the sugariest of holidays, Easter deserves a spot on the list for sure. 

Finance Buzz, an online platform dedicated to financial independence, apparently surveyed 1,000 people to compile some Easter candy-related statistics. 

Would it surprise you to know that $2.6 billion worth of Easter candy is sold annually in the U.S. alone? I’m just taking their word for it, but to tell you the truth, it doesn’t surprise me. I can always find room in the budget for candy – especially during the holidays.

Finance Buzz, which also sourced information from organizations like Statista and the National Retail Federation to supplement its own findings, also noted that about 90 million chocolate bunnies are sold in the U.S. annually – and 76 percent of Americans think the ears of a chocolate bunny should be eaten first.

The largest chocolate bunny ever created, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, was made in Brazil in 2017 by the Equipe de Casa de Chocolate at Shopping Uberaba. The bunny weighed 9,359 pounds and was created by nine professionals working eight consecutive days. It was 14.82 feet tall and 6.92 feet wide.

That’s a lot of bunny!

The Reese’s bunny I enjoyed munching Sunday afternoon was not quite so large, but I certainly savored it. There’s just nothing like an Easter bunny.

Sure, some folks are diehard for Peeps, and others favor jellybeans – apparently more than 16 million jellybeans are consumed during the Easter season.  For some people it’s all about the Cadbury egg, and for others, the holiday is defined by those Robin Eggs Whoppers.

Of course, those people are wrong. It’s the chocolate bunnies that make Easter delicious.

I even skipped Easter dinner dessert to make sure I saved room for my chocolate bunny. That’s how serious this is. 

Finance Buzz said Peeps are the best-selling non-chocolate Easter candy. Funnily enough, although 33 percent of people surveyed by Instacart apparently said Peeps are among their least favorite candies, roughly 25 percent said they still eat the marshmallow chicks and bunnies for the sake of tradition.

You just don’t mess with tradition – even if it’s a weird, neon-colored, sugar-coated marshmallow. 

What’s my point? I don’t really have one, except to espouse the almost-universally accepted opinion that holiday candy is delicious. 

Not everything has to be an earth-shattering revelation. Not everything has to be controversial.

Sometimes it’s just about enjoying the sweet things in life.