On Monday, February 17, Boys and Girls Club members from Chicago came to the Sheraton Grand hotel to be "Junior Candy Buyers," deciding which confections would earn top honors. The event took place as part of the ECRM Christmas and Halloween session, which was held last week at the hotel. 

The children from the Boys and Girls Club were able to taste a variety of products from three categories: Best Chocolate, Best Non-Chocolate, and Best Novelty. Before the tasting began, Deb Franks, director special markets - emerging channels, YumEarth talked to the kids about her experience working in the candy industry.

The winners of each category are below:

Best Chocolate
Taste of Nature Cookie Dough Bites

Best Non-Chocolate
Hilco Warheads Christmas Rock Candy Stick

Best Novelty
Cra-Z-Art, Spin Pop Holiday (Santa & Snowman)

The other nominees for all of the categories were:

• Bazooka, Baby Bottle Pop Twisters
• Brown & Haley, FruTips Assorted Gummy Candy
• Chocolove, Chocolove Holiday Bites Peppermint Trees in Dark Chocolate, 7.05-oz bag
• Hammond's Candies & The Old Dominion Peanut Company, Lollipops
• Just Born, Inc., Mike and Ike Merry Mix
• Liberty Orchard Co. Inc., Crazy Sour Jammers
• McJak Candy Company, LLC, Grouch Sweets and Sour Cotton Candy
• Russell Stover, Chocolate S'mores
• YumEarth Inc., Halloween Sour Littles and Holiday Candy Cane Pops

Related: 12 products we loved at the 2024 Christmas & Halloween ECRM show