Vintage Sunday: Candy Cigarettes

Candy cigarettes. The very concept gives bluenoses, anti-tobacco fanatics, and health nazis apoplectic convulsions of self-righteous rage and indignation. Back when I was a kid - before America decided to roll up its sleeves and get down to the serious business of turning its citizens into pussies - candy cigarettes were not only widely available, but were marketed using real cigarette brands and package art. And each sweet ciggybutt was a life-sized tube of extruded white sugar candy with one tip dyed red to imitate the burning embers of the real thing. In an era when capital-C Cool was defined by smokers like James Dean and Keith Richards, candy cigarettes were the most bad-assed confection ever.

Of course, nothing good lasts forever, and when the health risks of smoking became more fully understood, cigarettes and the people who enjoyed them started down the long road to Pariahville. Candy cigarettes first lost their realistic packaging, and a little while after that the candy itself was redesigned to look less realistic, winding up in the far inferior thin form with which our children are forced to emulate society's most loathed bad habit.

They're not available as widely as they once were. Check out your local Five Below store (they sell candy cigarettes along with the rest of their awesomely extensive snack and candy selections) or you can buy them online. Ironically, though they are known today as "candy sticks" or "special sticks" thanks to the aforementioned bluenoses, you'll be able to find the modern version with a simple Google search on "candy cigarettes."

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