The job of the lovely people at the National Confectioner’s Association is to keep their thumbs in America’s candy dish at all times. They read your minds. They study your regional tendencies. They taste new candy and write about it on their Candy Dish Blog, as well as showing us candy-corn crafts and s’mores made in the shape of a computer keyboard (Yes, it’s true. See?).

And this time of year, they know what you’re giving out for trick-or-treat. Sweet.

Halloween is a traditional holiday, and Susan Fussell (spokeswoman for the confectioner’s group) says: “The most popular candy is the same year in and year out” - Snickers, M&M’s, Reese’s, Hershey’s, Baby Ruth and Butterfinger.

Little trick-or-treaters, we learned, don’t develop a taste for chocolate until about age 6. They’ll be jonesing for fruity, chewy or sour candy or bubblegum, like Starburst, Skittles, Twizzlers and Smarties.  

But do you want to run with the herd? Or do you yearn to be a candy maverick? Do you want to be hailed as a kind of Halloween hero for your amazing hand-outs?

Click on over to Blair Candy’s Web site, where you can find breaking news in the candy world. Get your hands on cool things like Wonka Nerds-filled bubble gum balls (4 lbs, $16, above right), War Heads QBZ fruit chews (3 lbs, $13, above left), individual bags of Cracker Jack (24 for $12), watermelon-shaped lollipops (4 lbs, $7), candy checkers (12 sets for $12) and - something we’re swooning over -Tootsie Pop drops (Tootsie Pops without the stick, 24 packs for $17).

Warning: The candies you are about to see may disgust you. They will, however, elicit squeals of joy from 8-year-olds.

The people over at Gummi have their own franchise insured with new items like Gummi fried eggs (2 lbs, $6, above left) and Gummi fish lollipop kabobs (ewww!), (24 packs, $26, above right).

If  you want to rake in the ooohs and aaahs from the gross-out age group, we’ve got just the thing:  Candy Warehouse’s page for the Fear Factor line: Gummy frog legs (12 packs, $29), candy worm coffins (12 packs, $29, pictured above), Gummy bug skewers (pictured above, center), slimy octopus candy (pictured above . . . oh, you can see where they are) or acid test tubes (all 12 packs for $29). For older kids, ramp up the ick with body part pops ($19.50 for a set of 5 that includes an ear, a mouth, a hand, a nose and a really goopy-looking eyeball, below) or the Gummy Boo Boos candy scabs (pictured below the body parts. Yech!), which look like you just pulled something nasty off yourself (10 packs for $20).

If all of that too disgusting, then be a little ironically sensitive to our economic woes and hand out bags of Fort Knox candy coins (2.25 lbs, $8.50). You might be the most popular house on the block.