This is my kind of candy crush

Tell us your favourite candy and we will tell you how old you are. My sexagenarian parents speak with fondness of bull’s eye, a hard-boiled optical illusion, black, white and peppermint all over. Kids of the 90s will tell you that Phantom cigarettes and Rola-Cola were currencies more valuable than gold, traded under school desks while teachers had their backs turned. I confess to a slightly unhinged Hajmola phase in the year Y2K — we’d pop 4 golis and perform stunts on our bicycles, riding around the colony waiting for adults to notice.

While those sweet and khatta treats come with a heady dose of nostalgia, it’s safe to say we paid no attention to what we were eating. There was no awareness of allergens, chemical preservatives and excess sugar, and the potentially negative effects they wrought on young bodies. But two dads did sit up and take notice. Rob Wunder and Sergio Bicas were feeding their kids organic milk and foods but realised that they hadn’t paid the same attention to their kid’s favourite candy: lollipops. “As a joke, we said, OK we have to make organic lollipops, and we spent hours and hours, and too much money putting together lollipops, but we invented this unbelievable recipe.”

When you realise the organic candy is free of artificial colouring and common allergens like gluten, peanut, soy and dairy, it does seem unreal, but the proof is in the pudding… err, candy.

The brand has since expanded its repertoire, and we sampled a few to identify our favourites. We should mention at this point that you’re going to have a hard time not dipping into your kid’s stash, but as we believe at Tweak, treat yourself.

YumEarth Organic jelly beans
The kind of khatta flavour bombs we can finish in one sitting, these non-GMO sour beans are a fruit salad of cherry, peach, mango and apple.

YumEarth Organic gummy bears
Remember waiting for Sonu kaka from America to open his giant suitcases and hand you the giant bag of gummy bears he always brought along? Consider this a gluten-free upgrade on your childhood bribe, in flavours like pomegranate, mango, peach and strawberry.

YumEarth Organic fruit snacks
We confess to resorting to these as our 4 pm snacks. Don’t miss the brand’s Valentine’s Day edition — heart-shaped gummy fruits in cherry, peach and strawberry.