Candy Buffet~ how far in advance to buy candy?

armygf10

How far in advance did you start picking up candy? My colors are Pink and Navy Blue so I'm sure with all the holiday's coming up i could get pink stuff for cheap, but don't want it to be bad before then.

fallbride1109

I got mine 2 months before.  I think you will be OK up to 6 months in advance.

K3whitta

FYI - on candy manufacturer codes
Hershey & Nestle will read with a code that is either open coded i.e. August 2011 or 1L - the first number is the year it expires 1L would be 2011, the letter is the month
A = Jan
B = Feb
C = March
D = April and so on
Product is good though the end of the month

Mars product often reads with the first three numbers 005 = this is the year and week the product is made
005 = 2010 fifth week of the year
052 = 52nd week of 2010
032 = 2010 thirty-second week of the year

Chocolate usually has a 9 month shelf life
Non-Chocolate usually has a 12 month shelf life
Any chocolate filled w/ nuts / caramel / etc usually has 6 month shelf life

If you buy candy ahead make sure you keep it in a cool and dry location.  Chocolate that is not properly stored often gets warm and is then cooled improperly - this will leave a chalky powder on the exterior of the chocolate.  The chalky powder is called "fat bloom" and it is the cocoa butter coming to the surface of the chocolate when it is not cooled properly after overheating.  This is completely safe and does not alter the taste of the product. 

Hope this helps!

ChrislovesBarry

I was going to wait a little bit longer (5 months away), but just found LARGE bags of halloween candy for $1 at the grocery store...I couldn't help myself.  I'll probably wait until Feb (for my April wedding) to buy the chocolate.

armygf10

Thanks girls for the great information!