It’s Halloween, and you’ve waited all year for this moment, this night of disguises and sugar-filled indulgences. The sun sets slower this night than any other until at long last, it’s finally time to go!
You forgo the round pumpkin containers with their weak plastic string handles. Experience has taught you those are insufficient for the hoard of treasures your neighbors will bestow upon you on this glorious night. Anticipation floods your veins as you scurry into the night like the demon you’re dressed as. This is beyond the time you are allowed outside. There is something wonderfully taboo about being given the freedom to run about unfettered so near the witching hour.
You join your friends, and the excitement in crisp, cool air electrifies with intensity at your shared goal: a mass consumption of candy from Trick or Treat.
The first house has its light off, so you bypass it. Not only is the light on at the next house, but glowing ghouls and goblins dance in the darkness as if they too are excited for the changing of the season. You hold out your cloth bag and joyously shout, “Trick-or-Treat!”
This is where the magic happens. Candy in small, brightly colored packages descend by the fistful from a massive bucket of bounty, directly into your bag. Waxy red twiddlers, the autumnal gradient tones of candy corn and golden wrappers of chocolate that catch the bits of light—these all fill your bag in a mix of crinkling wrappers and the solid knock of thinly wrapped lollipops cracking against one another.
And the smell… Sweet confection, fruity flavors of skittles and gummy worms, velvety chocolate that will melt in your mouth, a prickle of sugary citrus that will tease the back of your tongue. You can’t help yourself and immediately unwrap an orange Tootsie Pop and thrust it into the cheek of your mouth while you continue with your plunder.
On and on, the night goes from the house with adult beverages for the grown-ups to the home that once passed out full-sized candy bars. They only did it once, years ago, but you never stop hoping for a repeated show of such generosity. Through it all, your bag gets heavier. An inventory runs in your mind, tracking the tally of your favorite candy, calculating the ration of “parent tax” from that stash, and all the while wondering how much you’ll be able to get away with eating.
Finally, you get home and dump out your bag to revel in your riches. The ambrosia scent of mingled candy floats around you in notes of sugary citrus and melon.
You reach on the top and pluck out a pack of gummy LifeSavers, ripping the top off the plastic wrap. The aroma of the married fruitiness of it all is so strong now that it pinches the back of your jaw and makes your mouth water. After all, this was why you walked the length of three neighborhoods.
In a gluttonous move that you’ll never regret, you toss your head back and dump the contents of the pack into your mouth. There’s an explosion of cherry, lime, lemon and orange, all sticky-sweet and heavenly. Ahh, the sensory overload of Halloween!
And this is just your first bag.
Enjoy your Halloween, everyone—and surround yourself in Aroma Retail’s Trick or Treat scent and experience the joy of Halloween all month long!
By Madeline Martin - I’ve recently started writing articles for Aroma Retail and thought it would be a good idea to write a bit about myself by way of introduction. For starters, I’m no stranger to writing. I was always jotting down little ideas here and there as a child. Now that I’m an adult, I’m a USA Today Bestselling Author of historical romance and breaking out into historical fiction world with my upcoming WWII novel, The Last Bookshop in London.
