Candy

Candy is sweet treat food item (using the term 'food' loosely, although in WoW, unlike real life, candy is good for you.) Candy is odd because it is not one of the six main types of food in WoW, but there are quite a few examples of candy and it is available from vendors. Candy is most often encountered at holiday events.
Presumably, since candy is not one of the food types that are referenced as being able to be eaten by hunter pets, hunters cannot feed candy to their pets. 
Like other kinds of food, not all candy is food (provides health recovery over time). Some are consumables with an instant effect, some are cosmetic, and some are quest items.
In WoW, candy is defined by real world analogy and flavor text, who vends it, and the holiday contexts where it is used. It seems that WoW uses a broader definition of sweets than just candy, so ice cream cones are candy in WoW. 
==Uses==
*Player Characters can eat candy to recover health.
*Some candy provides a Well Fed buff as well.
*(These are the same uses as other types of food.)
Some candy items are quest objects.
* Buying a Tigule's Strawberry Ice Cream for your orphan is an object of You Scream, I Scream...
==Sources==
*Players can often loot candy during holiday events.
*Candy can be gotten as quest rewards during holiday events.
*Players can purchase candy from candy vendors during holiday events.
** is vended all year round
*Candy type foods can be created by cooks using seasonal recipes obtained during holiday events.
**These can be made any time, but some of the ingredients are only available during the holiday event.
==Food candy==
Tigule's Strawberry Ice Cream is available all year round from at the Mirage Raceway in Thousand Needles, and from and in Nagrand for .
During Love is in the Air, you may receive:
*Box of Chocolates: Contains a random assortment of six chocolates:
:* Buttermilk Delight
:* Dark Desire
:* Sweet Surprise
:* Very Berry Cream
During Children's Week, in Stormwind City and in Orgrimmar vend candy.
*Styleen's Sour Suckerpop for 
*Tigule's Strawberry Ice Cream for 
*Moonbrook Riot Taffy for 
*Bellara's Nutterbar for 
During Hallow's End, in Ironforge and in Orgrimmar vend candy. 
*Styleen's Sour Suckerpop for 
*Tigule's Strawberry Ice Cream for 
*Moonbrook Riot Taffy for 
*Bellara's Nutterbar for 
::(also see Non-food candy below)
During Hallow's End, candy may be looted from given out by innkeepers in Azeroth and Outland. 
*Candy Bar (Hallow's End)
*Candy Corn
*Lollipop (Hallow's End)
(These used to also be included in the rewards, but as of 2009, these items no longer available from that source.)
In 2009, a two day event, Day of the Dead was added. This has one candy item, , which can be purchased from , the Day of the Dead vendor, found in graveyards near the eight faction cities, Shattrath, and Dalaran. The Skull Candies only last during the event, then disappear.
*Candy Skull, price for 5 candies.
During Feast of Winter Veil, the Smokywood Pastures vendors in major cities vend candy canes, candy recipes, and other non-candy items. 
* Candy Cane (item) for 
* Recipe: Gingerbread Cookie for , teaches a cook how to make
:* Gingerbread Cookie 
* Recipe: Winter Veil Egg Nog for , teaches a cook how to make
:* Winter Veil Egg Nog
:::Though you would 'drink' Winter Veil Egg Nog, it has the health benefits of a food, not the mana benefits of a drink.
:::But, like many drinks, Winter Veil Egg Nog is alcoholic.
:::Game-wise, both eat and drink are use actions.
:::Only real-world concept, flavor text, and benefit type distinguish food and drinks.
During Feast of Winter Veil, you may receive candy as loot from a gift.
* Winter Veil Cookie (has a well-fed buff) 
During Noblegarden, you can find and loot Brightly Colored Eggs. Most of these will contain one of:
* Lollipop (Noblegarden) (has a well-fed buff)
* Candy Bar (Noblegarden) (has a well-fed buff)
* Chocolate Square (has a well-fed buff)
==Buffing candy==
Some candy is not food (no health recovery over time) but is a buffing consumable like an elixir.
During Hallow's End, in Dun Morogh and in Orgrimmar vend a non-food candy item.
*Hallow's End Pumpkin Treat for provides random form changes that have in-game effects.
They will only sell these to you if you complete Hallow's End Treats for Jesper! or Hallow's End Treats for Spoops!. 
During Hallow's End, is also a quest reward from the following quests:
* Crashing the Wickerman Festival
* Fire Brigade Practice
* Stop the Fires! (Alliance)
* Hallow's End Treats for Jesper!
* The Power of Pine
* Fire Training
* Stop the Fires! (Horde)
* Hallow's End Treats for Spoops!
* Ruined Kegs
* Stinking Up Southshore
During Hallow's End, if you defeat the , small pumpkin 'meteors' fall from the sky, landing on the party members. Each of these contains a small random number of: 
* Tricky Treat - provides a speed buff.
During Hallow's End, each Inn has a candy bucket on the floor that can be looted once per character for a . Looting the candy bucket at each inn is a separate Candy Bucket quest. 
 can also contain a .
The Handful of Candy contains 0, 1, or 2 of each of the following:
*Chewy Fel Taffy - Increase Hit Rating by 5 for 30 minutes.
*G.N.E.R.D.S. - Increase Defense Rating by 5 for 30 minutes.
*Soothing Spearmint Candy - Increases Healing by up to 11 for 30 minutes.
*Pyroblast Cinnamon Ball - Increases Spell Damage by up to 6 for 30 minutes.
==Cosmetic candy==
Some candy is just cosmetic; you see a message when you 'eat' it.
During Love is in the Air, you may receive:
*Bag of Candies: Binds on pickup. Has 10 charges and a cooldown of 10 minutes. When used, creates a Heart Candy with the player character's name stamped on it. Heart Candies are based on the real world Valentine's Day chalky confection. Each one bears an expression of affection such as "I'm all yours!" or "I'll follow you around Azeroth." Their only purpose is to give to other players.
==Quest item candy==
Quest items are items that are only quest objects. Quest items that look like food are not food, but food items can be quest objects. 
Some candy is a quest item, and is not ingestible candy. 
During Hallow's End, the quest objects of Hallow's End Treats for Jesper! 
*Ironforge Mint
*Stormwind Nougat
*Gnomeregan Gumdrop
*Darnassus Marzipan
and Hallow's End Treats for Spoops!
*Undercity Mint
*Orgrimmar Nougat
*Darkspear Gumdrop
*Thunder Bluff Marzipan
look like candy and are talked about as if they were candy. They cannot be eaten.
==Seasonal events==
The candy schedule:
Azeroth Event 	Candy ? 	Time Period 	Related Earth Event
New Year 	No candy 	Dec 31 - Jan 1 	
Lunar Festival 	No candy 	Varies (Spring) 	
Love is in the Air 	Quest candy 	Feb 10th - Feb 15th 	
Noblegarden 	Loot candy 	Varies (Easter) 	
Children's Week 	Vended candy 	May 1 - May 7 	
Midsummer Fire Festival 	No candy 	June 21 - July 5 	
Harvest Festival 	No candy 	Sept 8th - Sept 13th	
Pirates' Day 	No candy 	Sept 19th 	
Peon Day 	No candy (please verify)	??? 	EU Closed Beta anniversary (EU only)http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/events/calendar.html
Brewfest 	No candy 	Sept 20th - Oct 4th 	
Hallow's End 	Loot and vended candy 	Oct 18th - Nov 1st 	
Feast of Winter Veil 	Loot and vended candy 	Dec 15th - Jan 2nd 	
The Spirit of Competition	No candy 	Once every two years	
==References==
 Candy