Every week Lauren Blue sees an enticing new gummy candy come across her TikTok.
“It will be like the new SweeTarts gummy ring, and the next time I am picking up a CVS prescription, I see it and can’t resist,” said Ms. Blue, 24, an editor in New York City. “I am so easily influenced by it.”
She regularly sees her friends posting about the latest offerings at Lil Sweet Treat, a store with locations in Boston, Philadelphia and Manhattan that sells a rotating mix of 300 gummy candy assortments, or at BonBon, a Swedish candy company with shops in New York City and the Hamptons that’s a favorite of TikTok users. “I can walk 20 minutes and buy the candy everyone is talking about,” Ms. Blue said.
She is very aware that social media is fueling her candy addiction, but she doesn’t mind one bit. “It’s healing my inner child,” she said. “The world is so dark these days that you literally need to be an adult in a candy shop. Why not?”
Lick as you might, candy cannot yet be tasted through a screen. And yet, many varieties — gummies, especially — can seem tailor-made for social feeds. For starters, the number of products to sample and review is practically limitless, so the content mill has no shortage of grist. And on visual platforms like Instagram or TikTok, all the different colors and shapes and textures can feel like, well, eye candy.
“Candy is perfect for social media,” said Elly Ross, the founder and chief executive of Lil Sweet Treat. “It is really beautiful and bright, and I think everyone kind of associates candy with their childhoods.”
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