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Officially, no one knew the origin of the Meteor candy.
Unofficially? The Turks laid the blame squarely at the feet of ShinRa's strongest SOLDIER.
Sephiroth was aware of candy. He couldn't remember anyone other than Fen-Fen ever offering him some but the memory of it was faint.
So when Cloud offered it, he took it, unraveled the clear cellophane wrapper and popped it into his mouth.
It didn't last long nor did the three that followed.
Sephiroth mourned that the candy dissolved so quickly because of his Mako-enhanced saliva but there was little he could do.
"Seph, sweetheart, are your teeth okay? You've been eating quite a lot of hard candy," Mom asked after his third wrapper landed in the pile he kept folding into miniature planes.
"They don't last long enough." he sighed as he rolled the fourth one between his fingers.
"The sugar?"
"Mn," he shook his head, "dissolves too fast for me to taste more than a nip. Metabolism, maybe?"
"Metabolism, huh? Let me see what I can do about that," Mom scribbled a few things down and then asked, "Lemon, peppermint or blackberries?"
"Lemon?" Sephiroth volunteered quietly, "Maybe spearmint?"
"Spearmint's better, so lemon, vanilla and chocolate. Would you mind tasting for me as I go?"
"Tasting?"
"I'm going to make you a candy you can eat, honey, and if it takes a bit of finagling, so be it. Are you willing to try?" She explained gently.
"Honey's a good flavor too, right?"
"Mm, we'll add it after we get the basic flavors down,"
"Thank you,"
"No need, sweetheart, I want both of my sons to enjoy candy within reason." Mom cupped his face briefly and stroked her thumb over his cheek. "Now, how long does it take for a regular sized one to go away?"
"Umm, less than thirty seconds."
"Hmmnn..."
The first batch, to say the least, was a delicious mess.
Sephiroth could enjoy them but the sizing was too small and still dissolved too quickly. The flavor was perfect and he relished being able to taste lemon and sugar properly.
Mom had also changed her recipes to reflect the metabolism Sephiroth had to accommodate the other Classes of SOLDIER.
The portions got larger, the proteins tailored in such a way that getting one meal from the Caf was mandated by Director Deusericus.
Sephiroth packed a few of the yet unnamed candies to take with him.
He popped one in his mouth before the Tonberry hunt, looked up and saw three grown men pouting.
"You brought along some of your Ma's treats and didn't share?" Major Tyris asked as he crossed his arms.
"Some in my flavor, sir, and I wasn't sure if you wanted any?" He answered hesitantly.
"Okay, that's fair," Cleary muttered as Urial sniffed longingly at the Chili-Chocolate-n-Lime he'd accidentally packed.
"Umm, sniff and pick a flavor I guess? Careful, they look a lot like Materia when they're unwrapped, sirs," he warned as they each picked one out and traded when they didn't like the smell.
He tucked his into his left cheek and happily let it dissolve on the flight over.
"Eh-herm, what'd your Ma put in these again, Strife?" Urial asked after his knee bounced for the third time in under twenty minutes.
"Sugar, flavoring, umm, something to deal with my metabolism. She was arguing about lowering the dosage for other SOLDIERs with Dr. Jakobs the last time they got together. Something to do with energy boosts?"
"Wait, wait, you're telling me these things are tailored to you?" Tyris blurted out.
"... Yessir."
"Whoof! No wonder that feels like a Mastered Comet spell. It's not a bad thing, Strife, just, uh, a revelation for us." Cleary reassured.
"Revelation, sir?"
"That you're definitely our strongest, which means there's a hell of a lot more Mako filtering through you than us, even as Firsts." Sephiroth winced, remembering the swirl of green and red that Dr. Jakobs had taken from his arm. "Oh gods, you do, don't you? Shit, I'm sorry Strife. May Hojo rot a thousand times over."
"Anyways, uh, you can tell your Ma that I'm absolutely in love with the lemon-n-blueberry she made?" Tyris interrupted easily, snapping the tension in the helicopter. "Seriously, I'm pretty sure Urial's gonna hoard the damn chili-choco-lime ones. What about you Cleary?"
"Shit, I'm for the passion fruit one! Pure bliss, I'm tellin' ya," his superior forced cheerfully.
"You, Strife?"
"Lemon-strawberry, I think? I don't like the others too much."
The general consensus by the end of the Tonberry extermination mission was that everyone hated the grapefruit, now named Meteor, candies.
Mom eventually pulled the Turks and the Infantry into the testing phase, each Department becoming fond of certain flavors.
The Infantry called them Choco-Kicks, the SOLDIERs Meteors and somehow the names joined together on a disastrous joint mission between SOLDIERs and Infantry.
The SOLDIERs, well—when Mom was done— each one had a distinct flavor.
Sephiroth's was Strawberry-n-Lemon, or, if it wasn't possible, Coffee-n-Chocolate.
Genesis's was Chili-n-Chocolate whereas Angeal's was pure Dumbapple after Gen offered to ship some of his family's produce to ShinRa.
The Choco-Kick Meteors were, incidentally, ShinRa's best kept secret thanks to the pressure of the entire board (each of them hopelessly hooked on their chosen flavors).