PHOTO COURTESY OF REUTER.COM

Around 70 million Hershey’s kisses are produced each day.

Anna Cox is a first-year English and global studies major from Paragould.

The age old question: sweet or sour? While some may say sour is the correct answer, I have decided that I want to enjoy life, and if you agree then sweet is the way to go. 

After a long day, I don’t want to pucker my lips and make a face. I want to savor the taste of something sweet. There is no denying that they both have their draws. Sometimes Sour Patch Kids do look very good, but sweet things just hit the spot so much more; plus, you can eat more without feeling like your tongue is being scraped off and you’re drowning in your own saliva.

To prove my point about why sweets are superior I will show all the ways you can improve a dish using nothing but a good ole’ Hershey’s bar. 

First, there is the brownie. With a Hershey’s bar, it can be improved tremendously. All you have to do is break up the Hershey’s bar into little squares, then take them and add them into the batter or on top, whichever you prefer. After the batter is cooked the brownies come out more gooey than ever. 

Now, if you did that with a Sour Patch Kid, it would be horrid, and I mean absolutely horrid. Having a nice fudgy brownie, taking a big bite, then getting hit with a Sour Patch Kid? Disgusting.

Secondly, there is the s’more. That honestly is all that needs to be said, but I’ll prove my point anyways. A Sour Patch Kid, or honestly anything sour, would not be good on a s’more. A sweet, soft, melted marshmallow and sour flavor? That sounds rancid.

Lastly, although you could do so much more, one of my favorite things to do is put a Hershey’s square in hot chocolate while it is brewing. It makes it so much creamier and is so yummy.

It is now time to get into some of the reasons sour candy just simply cannot top sweets. Which is obviously the fact that if you eat “too much” sour candy it will start to hurt your mouth. The raw feeling you get is honestly not fun coupled with the fact that a piece of candy is telling me to stop eating. So that’s minus two points for sour candy. 

Next, there is the fact that it is so much harder to mix sour candy with anything in general. Yes you can throw it in with Sprite and maybe fruit but that’s about it. With sweet candies you can add them to so much more.

Now onto the science, according to a study published in the National Library of Medicine by Astrid Nehlig, Ph.D., “Chocolate may interact with some neurotransmitter systems such as dopamine (chocolate contains the dopamine precursor tyrosine), serotonin and endorphins (contained in cocoa and chocolate) that contribute to appetite, reward and mood regulation.” 

To sum that up, eating chocolate can make you happy and/or help regulate your mood. 

For sour, it has been known to increase risky behavior, another study that was published to National Library of Medicine by Chi Thanh Vi, Ph.D., and Marianna Obrist, Ph.D., stated “In summary, from this first exploratory experiment, we learned that the effect of the five basic tastes on risk-taking behaviour is divided into three clusters, where sour promotes the highest and sweet and umami the lowest risk-taking, while no clear picture was obtained for bitter and salty.”

So, not only is sour candy rubbing off your taste buds, but it also increases the likelihood of you doing something risky. Which if you’re wanting to do that, of course that’s good, but if you are trying to calm down for the night, sour candy does not seem like it would do the trick. 

In conclusion, sweet is rad and sour is sad.

Categories: Opinion