Not only are candy canes twice as expensive as they were just last year. The simple main ingredients have suffered more than shrinkflation, they've been replaced with cheap knock offs.
Why do you care? Besides peppermint being good for sore throats, and headaches there's more good things about peppermint.
https://greenmedinfo.com/blog/power-peppermint-15-health-benefits-revealed1
Interesting. Sugar suppresses the immune system for a handful of hours after ingesting it, so I wonder if that would cancel out some/most/all of peppermint's positive effects.