by I. Michael Akbar

Created on: April 06, 2009

In my opinion, sour candy serves as nothing more than the object of a dare, to see who can eat the sourest candy while trying to refrain from making the craziest, sourpuss face.

However, sour candies seem to be all the rage with younger kids. Those kids whose taste buds are recently awakening with the approach of puberty and who get a kick out of testing the limits of a portion of their taste buds.

With this in mind, let me count down the top 5 sourest candies

5. LEMONHEADS

Lemonheads gets a nod for this list for being the grandfather of sour candy. Lemonheads were invented back in 1962 using a similar process to that of jelly beans. It was the first of its kind in sour candy. Its maker, Ferrara Pan, still produces about 500 million Lemonheads per year.

4. TROLLI SOUR GUMMY WORMS

The intent of the Gummy Worm was to create a candy that would to shocking to parents, according to the candy's original manufacturer, Trolli Candies. This one was close to our number 3 choice in sourness, Sour Patch Kids, but the sour did not last quite as long.

3. SOUR PATCH KIDS

These things could correctly be termed, "Gummy Bears gone Wild!" They qualify for this article because they start out with a wildly sour kick from the outer coating but then devolve into a really sweet, gooey treat.

2. TOXIC WASTE

Toxic Waste calls itself, "Hazardously Sour Candy". I tried it once on a dare from one of my teenage children and nearly gagged. I cannot believe this stuff would be eaten for enjoyment purposes at all, but solely for the purposes of the "Dare" portion of a game of "Truth, Dare or Consequences". After the initial burst of sour, the candy was rather refreshing.

The makers of this candy seem to have a Green agenda to their marketing, having garnered The Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce Green Business designation and are a sponsor of the 2009 International Earth Day.

1. WARHEADS

Warheads seem to be the common choice on forums and blogs as the sourest candy in the world. Created in Taiwan in 1975 and first imported to the U.S. in 1993, Warheads is marketed as "authentic, extreme, sour" candy and features a mascot, Wally Warhead, who sports permanently puckered lips and a full-blown nuclear mushroom cloud emanating from his head.

A warning is now included on Warheads packaging, as follows: "WARNING: Eating multiple pieces within a short time period may cause a temporary irritation to sensitive tongues and mouths.

I tried a Warheads Extreme Sour just for this article, just thought of the gut-wrenching sourness still makes my face pucker involuntarily. So Warheads, hands-down, gets my "Sourest Candy In The World" award.

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