Moving to Mexico: Tasting an Odd Variety of Mexican Candy

One of the most notable differences of living in Playa is the assortment of available candy. There are the traditional M&Ms and Snickers in wide abundance, but you will also discover a large selection of sweets that make one ponder and think really? Although we have mostly stuck to eating traditional American goodies, we have plunged into a few of the Mexican versions.

In our welcome basket provided to our condo and villa renters we offer Tamborindos. They are very delicious soft fruit candy made from the tamarind fruit and are covered in chili powder. This is the favorite snack of my Mexican employee, Claudia, who can often be seen apologizing after raiding our stash. I have also come to like Tamborindos, but since I refrain from eating candy due to self-imposed dietary restrictions, it is more of a rare splurge.

Unlike American candies which often are very sweet and are filled with peanut butter, Mexican ones are most always topped with hot chili powder and are more salty than sweet like jalapeno and corn flavored candy. I can distinctly remember our first trip to a Mexican fair where they were serving Popsicles covered with chili sauce and chili powder. To say the least it was an eye opening experience.

Part of the Mexican experience is trying all these different types of sweets. I recall when we first came to Playa one of my Mayan Mexican housekeepers invited us over to a kid's birthday party. In the gift bags given to all the attendees were a bunch of sweets I have never seen before like dulce de leche (milk candy), Salsaghetti (straws of spicy watermelon that look like spaghetti) or chamoy liquid candy (based on a Mexican condiment made from picked fruit). In retrospect I should have tried them all rather than gifting them to my other employees. Now that we've settled into life in Playa we should make more of an effort to try these different sweets. Each Mexican holiday has its own different type of sweet, so it should be a fun cultural experience tasting the full gamut of goods!

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