​Millennial eaters have tolerated green ketchup, blue French fries, and bright pink margarine, but stadium concession experts say cotton-candy fans are ultra-conservative on the question of color.

At a recent Mariners' game, I began wondering why ballparks don't peddle cotton candy in team colors. After all, all cotton candy is artificially colored, and it's no harder to spin floss from green sugar crystals than from pink sugar crystals.

According to Steve Dominguez, general manager for Centerplate at Safeco Field, cotton-candy consumers wouldn't stand for the switch. Concessionaires who experiment with nontraditional colors always revert to proven best-sellers, he reports.

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Drinking and driving with a Kidd in the passenger seat.

​It's fall, which means there's an abundance of pumpkin flavors circulating around town, everything from pumpkin bread, to lattes, to martinis to the little guy in the photo -- the pumpkin milkshake. Pumpkin ice cream is probably one of my all-time favorite desserts, especially the kind with bits of pumpkin pie mixed in, like a Dairy Queen Blizzard.

This shake from the Greenlake Kidd Valley ($2.69) is not one of those. In fact, there's really no actual pumpkin in it at all. It's vanilla soft-serve with some pumpkin flavored syrup squirted in and hand-blended. When I inquired about the brand of ice cream used, I got a solid: "Soft serve. Some generic kind." Always a crowd favorite. The taste is what you expect it to be: spicy, sweet and smooth, almost chai-like.

Seriously, go get one of these shakes. It's an old-fashioned, classic shake -- nothing groundbreaking -- but it will take the edge off of the cold weather creeping in.

Look how cute!

​Do you like pumpkin bread and cream cheese? If so, you'll love these sweet little creations from North Hill Bakery. They're called Chumpkins ($2) and are very similar to a pumpkin bread whoopie pie. The cake-like cookies made from pumpkin puree, currants, molasses, eggs, sugar and flour are a nice change of pace from a boring slice of pumpkin bread. Chumpkins are made fresh daily and served chilled. They're super light and the perfect snack size -- about four bites.

Unfortunately, there's not really a good story on how the name Chumpkin came about (basically, a customer blurted out the word after eating one), but there is a good story on how the actual product was born.

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There is nothing black and white about the Casablanca.

​Happy October, everyone! It's officially Halloween candy season. I am a huge fan of all things pumpkin and spice this time of year, but I realize it can get a little overwhelming. That's why I can appreciate some of the new chocolate flavors at Oh! Chocolate, one of my favorite candy stores in town (I'm partial to the one in Madison Park because they have wine tastings and chocolate classes).

Last week, Oh! introduced two new fall flavors: the maple cream and the Casablanca. While the maple flavor is an obvious seasonal choice, the Casablanca is less so. It's infused with a rum spiked with apricot and orange. So, when you bite into it, you get the sensation you just bit into a chocolate covered orange, but then the apricot sneaks up on you. The rum is so subtle, it's basically there solely to deliver the fruit one-two punch. These truffles are about $1.70 each. If you ask nicely, the fine folks behind the counter will probably give you a sample for free. They're good like that.

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​I thought I learned my lesson in June after buying the worst candy ever, but once more, the gleam of a shiny candy box grabbed me by the eyeballs and wouldn't let go. This time, the disgusting purchases took place at Archie McPhee in Wallingford. Fun store, evil candy.

Let's start with the wasabi gum. Inside the sinister looking container lies a couple dozen little green gumballs. They reek of synthetic liquid smoke, similar to the worst candy ever I mentioned above. Surprise! They're made by the same company -- Accoutrements, which makes an entire line of joke candy. I'm almost certain none of their products are really meant to be enjoyed. If you can get past the smell, the taste is pretty mild. Besides the color, there is nothing wasabi-like about this gum at all. Maybe a little bit of spice once you start chewing it, but then, the smokey taste simply lingers for what seems to be a lifetime. Just terrible. Terrible!

Now, the mints. Ever wonder what onion ring and nacho cheese candy tastes like? I'm going to tell you anyway.

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​Bacon Joys are just one of the many bacon-filled sweet treats offered at The Swinery. There are also bacon caramels, bacon chocolate chip cookies and bacon shortbread (which I'll get to later). The Bacon Joys are moist little nuggets of coconut, almonds, chocolate and bacon. I realize as I write this that I just paid $9 for 6 of them, when in fact, there is a sign in their case that advertises 12 for the same price. Either way, they're really delicious and worth the extra dough. I tried a prototype last summer and thought they were a little disgusting -- too crunchy, too smoky, not enough sweet. But something happened in the kitchen between then and now, making these candies beyond edible. Bacon Joys, while not new, are no longer an official Swinery product; they are made by the Swinery's baker, Johnny Legs, who has opened his own business, Sugar & Salt.

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I got (soft) served.

​Forget ribs. I was on a serious hunt for all things sugar the day I arrived in Sparks, NV for the Best in the West rib cook-off last week (we've got this awesome slideshow to prove it). Besides the dozens of rib shacks, there were sno-cones, chocolate-dipped this-and-thats, cotton candy caramel apples, deep-fried cinnamon and sugar pretzels and regular ice cream bars. But during the 90-plus degree heat consuming festival goers, the longest line by far was for Sierra Swirls: soft-serve ice cream with a flavor swirled in. Genius! Flavors ranged from blueberry to bubble gum, chocolate pecan to peanut butter. My flavor of choice? Classic cherry. I want another one right now.

I spent a good two days snapping photos of the parade of sweets in Sparks, but my favorite photo of them all, and the one that completely sums up the cook-off, is this guy ...

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The Miller family

​You could usually find Mary Alyce Miller working the candy counter at Husky Deli, the West Seattle store she called home for more than 70 years. Her nephew Jack Miller credits her for keeping the store running during wartime while other family members were fighting on the front lines.

I never met Mary Alyce, but we had a lot in common, including our birthday (November 15), our West Seattle neighborhood, and our love of black licorice. I found out today that Mary Alyce's favorite was the Licorice Katz, which stick to your teeth like glue. Jack gave me a couple to sample. They were hard as rocks, but I loved them because I knew Mary Alyce loved them. I feel a sort of kinship with this woman, even though I never met her.

Mary Alyce died August 22nd. Jack was still receiving condolences today from customers who had just heard the news. As he scooped ice cream for a constant stream of children and their moms, he was just as busy interspersing "Would you like a sugar or waffle cone?" with phrases like, "We miss her" and "She was one of a kind."

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​Youreyes are not deceiving you -- this really is cinnamon-flavored cotton candy. I found it at Harvest Foods grocery in Quincy, WA.

Unlike those chewy tastebud piercing spicy bullets the Hot Tamales brand is known for, this candy has a very, very subtle cinnamon taste. It really is like eating a bag of regular cotton candy spiked with some artificial flavoring. And maybe it's because I haven't had cotton candy in a while, but this version doesn't seem to taste as sweet as the traditional ballpark/fairground kind. It even has the unwelcome addition of a lingering floral flavor.

If you really want to try this stuff and can't find it in your local supermarket, you can find it online. While you're at it, order some paper handles to attach to it. Cotton candy always tastes better when you can eat it like an ice cream cone.

The chocolate superfood.

​Have you ever browsed the raw food section of Whole Foods? The one on Westlake has a pretty awesome selection near the produce. Cool new products seem to pop up all the time, from raw cookies to mousses to this brand new raw chocolate. This sweet treat is made with a five mushroom blend, which includes reishi, shitake, mesima, poria, and turkey tail. It's alive with other pure ingredients, too, like raw cacao beans, raw agave nectar, raw cacao butter, raw cacao powder, raw maca powder, blue-green algae, vanilla bean, mint oil and Himalayan salt.

But forget all that, because looking at the ingredients might turn you completely off of trying this wonderful item from Flow Foods. Let's look inside the box....

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