Last October (2017), I made it a goal to drink 31 different beers—a new one each day—by the end of the month. Incredibly, I was successful in my attempt, which I dubbed #31FallBeers (look it up on any form of social media!) This year, I wanted to try something similar, but there were two important changes I needed to make. Firstly, I wanted to be able to expound more, so I decided against social media blurbs in favor of long-form posts on my site. Second: it needed to be much, much cheaper than drinking 31 different beers. The result? #31DaysOfJunk. Strap in and hold on tight, and please enjoy this month-long odyssey into the sugary, fatty belly of the autumnal beast.

Nerds are cool—especially the duplex flavor boxes (what a fun concept!)—but they’re sort of underwhelming as a candy, right? Neon-colored tangy grit. That’s about it, really. Aromatic and zippy oversized sugar granules, not much more. Edible gravel.

I’ve enjoyed the occasional box of Nerds, if for no other reason than to shake up my candy eating habits, but I didn’t really take notice and intentionally seek them out until they came in “rope” form.

Nerds Rope are just the aforementioned candy stuck to a foot-long gummy strand. The flavor of the gummy never really stood out to me; everything still tasted primarily of the recognizable tart Nerds flavor. But that didn’t matter. There was something novel and enjoyable about the combination of candies—crunchy and chewy. It just works.

While I’m a big fan and advocate of the Nerds Rope, I have absolutely no idea what makes this particular Nerds Rope “spooky”. It’s not spookily flavored, like pumpkin spice or anything. Hell, the packaging is barely spooky; sure, it’s orange, and the little Nerds mascot is wearing a witch’s hat. But that’s it. I guess that makes it Halloween-ified?

Look, there’s really not much I can say about the spooky Nerds Rope. It’s exactly like a regular Nerds Rope in every single way, except for a slight variation with the packaging. Couldn’t they have made the Nerds themselves (on the gummy rope) look like bats or skulls or something? Or couldn’t they have been black and orange Nerds? As is, the “spooky” Nerds are colored orange, white, and mauve. *shrugs*

Spooky, un-spooky. Whatever. I’m a fan!