oh my god i think i just figured it out. you know how europeans (and others) say american candies are SO SWEET and americans are like, uh not really, no? i think it's because we conceptualize 'sweet' differently?

so i'm eating a Spanish sweet @queerterpreter sent me…

and thinking to myself HOLY HELL this is tiny but packs a walloping punch of sugar. but it's not "sugar" as much as sugar+fat. most american candies i like are 0 fat. none at all. honestly, many are like, wax + agar. they're sharper, often with fakey sour powder. citric.

whereas a lot of the more traditional european and asian sweets i've eaten are, like, creamy and doughy. but HEAVY. but also, about the same number of calories (as a measure of energy) and they strike me as sweet and rich as opposed to sweet and light/sharp. so i'm thinking…

when non-Americans call American candies "too sweet" what they're saying is "a different kind of flavor profile that focuses more on the fruit/citrus/sour notes and less on the dairy/carb/fatty/creamy notes".

perhaps?