Growing up, I remember the other children’s junkie-like obsession with candy, and also that I never shared it. It seemed they loved the energetic effect of it more than the taste. Walking to school, some would sneak into the neighborhood store and blow their lunch money on it, sometimes even finishing it all before the morning bell rang. I enjoy a piece of candy every couple of months or so, but never had the “sweet tooth” that many others do.

I am an adventurous eater, though. The more exotic and hard to come by something is, the more I must have it. If they ever needed a replacement for the TV show “Bizarre Foods,” I’d be first in line. So to participate in this week’s theme, I traveled great distances, endured many hardships and paid extra shipping to acquire some of the strangest, most exotic candies the world has to offer … well, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic. I scored what I could in the time that I had. But I did pay extra shipping.

What an array of interesting flavors and textures my taste testers and I experienced. It’s surprising what other parts of the world consider treats. I did expect to find more seafood candies, more bugs, more disgusting flavors, but in the end, most of it wasn’t too bad.

There were a lot of hilarious translation snafus. Just take this mission statement from the Japanese company Shigekix, which makes “collectable” candies with Pokemon-like trading cards: “Deliciousness is gentleness. An innovative world of confectionery is to unfold which is noble, comfortable, stimulative, and brand new the glare can be a whole further up the fun with.” The candy itself, Energy ($1.99), sour dust-covered hard gummies similar to Jujubes but tasting like Red Bull, was a little disappointing.

Next we tried a Pakistani candy bar called Nutymax ($1.99). It consisted of whole pistachios within pistachio cream, covered with milk chocolate. It was very light with cheap, waxy chocolate obvious that all the money went to the whole pistachios within. We liked the slight saltiness, something that would come up more and more as the tasting continued.

One candy bar that grabbed our attention was Coco Dance X2 ($0.60). Not knowing what we were in store for, we bought one of these, as it clearly boasted twice the coco and twice the dance of the leading competitor. What a rip. It turned out to be a really low rent version of Mounds. The coco was coconut, the X2 referred to the two pieces. These were really small, and didn’t even have real chocolate, but “milk compound chocolate” as a coating. Dancing did not ensue.

We also bought some tubes of Puccso ($2.09), a “gummi soda,” one flavored with cola, the other lemon. We found the cola flavor to be more of an artificial grape, and the lemon just tasted like detergent. “Sun’ detergent, to be specific,” one taster noted.

In some cases, the packaging was enjoyed more than the contents. One box seemed to be in the wrong aisle. “Every Burger” ($2.69) was a box with pictures of cheeseburgers on the front. One burger even had a dialogue bubble like a comic strip character. I can’t read Japanese, but need to find someone who does for next time, for I wonder what a burger would say if it could speak. Every Burger turned out to be little cookies with chocolate in the middle. They weren’t really that good, but the sesame seed “buns” actually had sesame seeds, and that was cool.

Another box, this one Meiji Petit Cola Gum ($1.69), had cartoon step-by-step instructions on how to open it and transform it into a dispenser. It was really fun to play with, and the gum itself, little brown candy-coated pellets that you pop in by the dozen, was really good too. One taster: “The softness reminds me of Big League Chew.” Another taster: “I would buy this regularly.”

One of the more different items we found was Star Popeye ($0.59), a “candy snack” of sorts. With the Sailor Man himself on the sack, I assumed there would be some dried spinach involved, but it turned out to be pretty decent. We were told it’s basically the Korean version of Cracker Jack. It’s crunchy, toasted ramen noodle bits with star-shaped candy that’s pretty much just sugar. I liked the bag more because Olive Oyl appears to be in love with the anthropomorphic star, and Popeye looks none too pleased about it. Plus, you could never have a cartoon character with a pipe on American candy, and I respect that history was not revised for “the good of the children.”

Another candy that probably wouldn’t fly in American society is Men’s Pocky ($2.39) by Glico. Many I know have tried Pocky, the chocolate-coated biscuit stick. Some of the nicer coffee shops give you one as a stir stick. Why is this one gender-specific? Well, it appears to be the only version coated with semisweet dark chocolate. Perhaps in Japanese culture, the ladies prefer more sweetness. A little online research showed that Men’s Pocky is the “mature” version. On the back of the box there’s a picture of what appears to be a Pocky stick in a glass of whiskey and ice. We tried it that way and it (the Pocky) wasn’t very good.

Then there are the licorices we found in a Dutch American shop. I’ve seen some of them at Astoria’s Finn Ware. These tend to be very strong, and sometimes salted. Rheila Konsul Salmiak Pastillen ($3.50) proved far too powerful for our palates. Salty, hard little diamond cuts of the offensive confection were immediately spit out upon mastication. This was consistent with all of my testers.

The biggest hit was Pistachio Cotton Candy ($4.49). The light, yet rich and extremely sweet candy was reminiscent of spun peanut butter. The Turkish treat that melts in your mouth was the unanimous favorite. Tester comment: “It looks and feels like my dog’s fur, but tastes, I’m sure, a whole lot better.”

Then, finally, came the candies that few dared to try. I’m talking about insects here. Sure, we all hated the Martian red, crystalized dried salted prunes (with pits) ($2.19). But at least we momentarily had them in our mouths. Most weren’t brave enough follow me into the unknown when it came to the lollipop with the scorpion ($3.25), the lollipop with the worm ($1.75), or the chocolate-covered larvae and crickets ($2.25). But I’ll try anything once, and I hate being called “yella.” The scorpion lolly wasn’t too bad. Within 10 minutes, I had uncovered the left claw, but must admit I was focusing all lick power on that area. Once the claw and the head had surfaced, I discovered that it’s a most unpleasant texture on the tongue; kind of thorny. The generic green apple flavor and hard, Jolly Rancher-like texture bored me before I could eat the whole scorpion.

The chocolate crickets I really enjoyed. A lot like popcorn. Salty, crunchy and the exoskeleton even leaves the same kind of debris in the mouth that popcorn skins do. The larvae (of what, we were not sure) were equally light and crisp. One tester sucked all the chocolate off to have a look, and only then did I feel a little queasy. All in all, I’m glad I did it.

The most powerful “candy” I’ve ever eaten luckily came at the end of the testing. Lotte’s Black Black Strong Type ($3.99) is the most overwhelming thing I’ve ever ingested, and that includes a handful of raw cranberries and the stinkfruit Durian. The Japanese candy is caffeinated, mentholated power in a small black pellet. Altoids, Hall’s, you’ve got nothing. One tester likened it to eating Vick’s VapoRub. Be careful with this one.

Asian candies were purchased at H-Mart in Tigard and Uwajimaya in Beaverton. Insect candies were from Educational Innovations, www.teachersource.com. Other candies were purchased at small European markets in the Portland area.