CandyFavorites

Written by Becky Sher
Knight Ridder Tribune

Editors Note: I stumbled across this post on the Tallahassee Democrat and it was posted on 17 July 2005 and find it a must read for candy lovers…

1. When did people first start eating candy?

Well, it all depends on your point of view. Did cavemen eat Twizzlers and Milky Ways? Probably not. But honey, a naturally sweet treat, has been a favorite throughout recorded history and is even mentioned in the Bible. According to the National Confectioners Association, the ancient Egyptians, Arabs and Chinese candied fruits and nuts in honey – making an early form of candy. The Mayans and the Aztecs both prized the cocoa bean, and Mayan texts refer to cacao as the “food of the gods.” In 1519, Spanish explorers in Mexico discovered the cacao tree, and chocolate made its way to Europe. People in England and the American colonies enjoyed boiled sugar candy in the 17th century. Hard candies started to become popular in the 19th century – especially sweets like peppermints and lemon drops.

2. How is candy made?

The specifics are different for each type of candy, but the basic process is the same: Candy is made by dissolving sugar in water. The level of heat determines what kind of candy results. Hot temperatures make hard candy, medium heat will make soft candy and cool temperatures make chewy candy.

3. Candy corn is the signature candy of Halloween. When was it invented?

George Renninger, who worked for the Wunderlee Candy Company, invented candy corn in 1880. In 1900, the Goelitz Candy Company (now Jelly Belly Candy Company) started producing the tricolor confection. Today, the popular candy is produced by machines, instead of by hand as it was in the early days. It is created from the bottom up – first the yellow layer, then orange and then the white tip. This year, more than 35 million pounds of candy corn will be made. That’s almost 9 billion pieces!

4. Which holiday boasts the highest candy sales?
Not surprisingly, Halloween. Easter, Christmas and Valentine’s Day are close behind. According to the National Confectioners Association, 50 percent of kids said chocolate is their favorite treat to receive on Halloween. Twenty-four percent chose nonchocolate candy, and 10 percent picked gum. (Fruit, salty snacks and baked goods like cookies and granola bars were at the bottom of kids’ lists.) Another Halloween fun fact: Ninety percent of parents admit that they sneak goodies from their kids’ trick-or-treat bags.

5. Is there really a National Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day?

Yup. It’s Jan. 3. And there’s a National Licorice Day (April 12), a National Taffy Day (May 23) and a National Toasted Marshmallow Day (Aug. 30). Are these official commemorative days, sanctioned by Congress? Well, no. But who says we shouldn’t celebrate them anyway?

6. How do most kids eat their candy canes?

Believe it or not, there is research on this topic. In a survey conducted by the National Confectioners Association, 54 percent of kids between 6 and 11 said they like to suck a candy cane. Twenty-four percent bite or crunch the candy and 19 percent lick it. (The other 3 percent of kids either didn’t know or answered something else.)

7. When were lollipops invented?

There is some dispute about who exactly invented lollipops as we know them today. George Smith claimed to have invented the candy-on-a-stick idea in 1908 – he thought a stick would make the candy easier to eat. He named his invention after Lolly Pop, a racing horse, and later trademarked the name. Eventually, Smith stopped making the sweets, and “lollipop” became a generic name. Racine Confectioners Machinery Co. claims to have invented the first lollipop machine around the same time Smith was inventing his lollipop. Their machine could make 40 pieces of the candy per minute. Samuel Born also gets credit with having a hand in the development of lollipops – he invented the Born Sucker machine in California in 1916. San Francisco awarded Born the keys to the city to honor his contribution to candy history. Today’s machines can make about 5,900 lollipops in a minute. The Spangler Candy Company, which makes Dum Dum Pops, produces about 8 million of the bite-size sweets each day.

8. How big was the world’s largest lollipop?

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world’s largest lollipop weighed 4,759.1 pounds and was made by Franssons of Sweden for a festival on July 27, 2003.

9. How are marshmallows made?

The ancient Egyptians enjoyed a gooey treat made from the mallow plant – a plant that grows wild in marshes. Later, in the 1800s, European candy makers whipped sap from the mallow root into a fluffy candy. But making the marshmallows by hand was a time-consuming process, so candy makers began to modify the system, replacing mallow root with gelatin. In the mid-20th century, the process was modernized again, and the marshmallow ingredients (mostly corn syrup, starch, sugar and water) were run through tubes and then cut into uniform pieces. After those changes were made, marshmallows became extremely popular in the United States. Today, Americans buy about 90 million pounds of marshmallows each year!

10. While we’re talking about marshmallows, where did s’mores come from?

No one knows for sure, but as far as anyone can tell, the first documented “recipe” for the chocolate, graham cracker and marshmallow treat was in 1927 in the Girl Scout handbook. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, “the largest s’more ever was created on May 23, 2003, from 20,000 toasted marshmallows, 7,000 Hershey’s chocolate bars and 24,000 graham crackers. It weighed an incredible 1,600 pounds!”

11. Was Bazooka bubble gum named after the weapon?

No. The bubble gum and the weapon were both named after a musical instrument created by entertainer Bob Burns in the 1930s. He made it from two gas pipes and a funnel.

12. What happens to swallowed gum?

You may have heard people say that swallowed gum stays in your stomach for seven years. Not quite. According to the health experts at KidsHealth.org, swallowed gum, like other food, moves through your digestive system. With any luck, it will come out the other end, if you know what we mean. But for kids who swallow a lot – and we mean a lot – of gum, it can cause a blockage in the intestine. So when you’re done with your gum, get rid of it the right way – by spitting it out.

13. Why does chocolate melt in your mouth?

Cocoa butter melts just below body temperature (98.6 degrees). That’s why chocolate melts when you put it in your mouth – and sometimes in your hand!

14. How many conversation hearts are made each year? According to NECCO, which produces Sweethearts conversation hearts, about 8 billion of the candies are made each year. The treats, originally called Motto Hearts, were first created in 1866 by Daniel Chase, brother of NECCO founder Oliver Chase. The company produces about 10 new sayings for the hearts each year. You can have the hearts custom-printed, but you have to be willing to buy an entire production run – that’s 3,500 pounds, or about 1.6 million hearts! Conversation hearts come in six colors: pink, orange, yellow, green, purple and white. And in 1981 Spanish-language candy hearts were introduced. Most popular sayings: “Be Mine,” “True Love,” “Kiss Me.” Retired sayings: “Buzz Off,” “Stop,” “Try Me,” “Bad Boy,” “Hot Stuff,” “Say Yes.” “One I Love” was retired but returned to production in 1997 after an 80-year absence.

15. When did candy bars first become popular?

During World War I, the U.S. Army commissioned several chocolate manufacturers to produce 20- to 40-pound blocks of chocolate. They were shipped to Army quartermaster bases, where they were chopped into smaller pieces and distributed to the troops. (Eventually, the manufacturers began producing smaller pieces.) When the soldiers returned home, they had developed a taste for candy bars, and a new industry was born!

16. Have M&Ms always had an “M” stamped on one side?

No. Even though M&Ms were first manufactured in 1940, the “M” didn’t appear until 1950. And it used to be a black “M,” not white like it is today.

17. Were Hershey’s Kisses produced during World War II?

Since Kisses were created in 1907, production has stopped only once: between 1942 and 1949. During the war, the silver foil used to cover the chocolates was rationed. The equipment normally used to make Hershey’s Kisses was used to temper chocolate paste for military ration candy bars.

18. Which candy has been to the South Pole?

In the 1930s, Admiral Richard Byrd took 2½ tons of NECCO Wafers to the South Pole. That amounted to almost a pound of candy per week for each of the men in his crew during their two-year stay in the Antarctic.

19. Where does the name PEZ come from and what was its first use?
It comes from Pfefferminz, the German word for “peppermint.” (Get it? PfeffErminZ.) Pez started out as an aid to smokers trying to quit. The headless dispenser was made to look like a cigarette lighter. PEZ candy was first sold as a peppermint candy in Vienna, Austria, more than 70 years ago. Today, more than 3 billion fruit-flavored PEZ are eaten each year in the United States alone. Did you know there is a museum devoted to the plastic candy dispensers? The Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia in Burlingame, Calif., has almost every Pez dispenser ever made. And they are all for sale – ranging in price from approximately $2 to $1,300.

20. Which U.S. president was known for his love of jelly beans? Ronald Reagan! During his presidency Jelly Belly beans were served in the Oval Office and on Air Force One. There was even a special holder designed for the plane to keep the beans from spilling during turbulence. And, if that wasn’t enough, the beans blasted into outer space when Reagan sent them on the 1983 flight of the space shuttle Challenger. And while we’re talking about jelly beans, did you know that each year, American manufacturers make more than 16 billion jelly beans for Easter? They would fill a plastic Easter egg 89 feet high and 60 feet wide!

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Sources: Association of the Chocolate, Biscuit & Confectionery Industries of the EU; National Confectioners Association; U.S. Commerce Department; Spangler Candy Company; The World Almanac for Kids; www.mms.com; kidshealth.org; www.topps.com; www.pez.com; www.necco.com; jellybelly. com

CandyFavorites.com , the internet’s largest online candy store is proud to have been EXCLUSIVELY chosen to distribute EDA, one of America’s oldest and finest sugar free candies, on the internet.

McKeesport Candy Co., has been offering this product for over forty (4o) years and were one of the first wholesalers to offer sugarfree candy.

Established in 1957, in Brooklyn, New York, Paul Lehman had a vision of creating a great tasting sugar free hard candy for those unable to have sugar. He affectionately named his creation after his wife and thus EDA Candies came into being.

Over the years his vision has growth to include fitness and health conscious individuals (fewer calories than ordinary brands and no fat content) as well as promoting a healthy lifestyle by a proprietary recipe.

EDA’s proprietary process uses Sorbitol, a cool refreshing sugar substitute which occurs naturally in many fruits and berries and they constantly strives to improve their special formula.

EDA Sugarfree candies are available in 24 individual flavors as well as 4 popular mixes and their manufacturing methods eliminate stickiness and melting in the wrapper.

Gone are the days when these small delicious treats are available to the select few and now you can purchase your favorite flavors online

To view the page devoted exclusively to EDA’s Sugarfree Candy, please click here

On 1 September 2005, a Pittsburgh candy institution closed it’s doors after many years of providing, or attempting to provide, Pittsburgh with wholesale candy. They also owned, at one point, three retail stores with one of them being sold to McKeesport Candy Co., in the 70’s.

As the saying goes, “such is life” and we surely wish them well…

Below is an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review about their history and, surprisingly, OURS!

IT”S A SOUR ENDING FOR CANDY COMPANY

By Michael Yeomans
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, August 31, 2005

It’s a bittersweet day in the Benacquista and Pearson families — operators of the Downtown Candy-Rama stores for 53 years.
The company’s Strip District wholesale warehouse closes today, and come Tuesday, the two Downtown stores will be operated by new owners, but still under the Candy-Rama name.

Benacquista said accountants for the firm — which he operates along with his brother-in-law Bill Pearson and sister Marian Pearson — said the closing is something they should have done “at least a year ago.”

But the decision to leave their life’s work was too hard at the time.

The continued decline of candy sales both at the stores and at the warehouse, however, finally forced their hand.

With none of his children or grandchildren interested in the business and with his sister not having children, Benacquista said they decided to just close the wholesale business, while turning over the leases to the Downtown stores — one in the Clark Building on Liberty Avenue and the other on Fifth Avenue near Market Square — to another party that he declined to name.

The company previously operated a store at Fifth and Wood Street that closed two years ago.

“It’s a sad day for us,” he said. “But our business has been in a steady decline with what’s happening Downtown. And the wholesale business has gone to pot, mainly because of the big discounters.”

Benacquista said Candy-Rama once served all the Giant Eagle and Thrift Drug stores with loose “pick and mix” candy in bins, like the ones at their Downtown stores, that had to be weighed and put in paper bags.

They also supplied mom-and-pop corner stores. But those stores have either closed or have gone to discount club stores like Sam’s Club and Costco, which he said can sell at prices below what he pays to candy manufacturers.

The wholesale business has seen its volume decline by more than 50 percent from its peak, Benacquista said.

Once employing 23 people, most recently the company employed 13, four of whom have been offered jobs by the new operators.

Jon H. Prince, owner of McKeesport Candy Co., said the Benacquistas and Pearsons were “great retailers and great people.”

“They were innovators in the industry and excellent merchandisers,” he said. “There will be a big void with their absence.”

Prince, who is the third generation of his family to operate in the candy business, said he lives by the words of his grandfather, that to survive, a business must constantly change.

He said Candy-Rama didn’t have the advantage of new blood in the form of a next generation in the family coming along to keep ahead of the change curve.

One way Prince said he and his partner, Tom Griffin, are evolving is through their wholesale Web site, CandyFavorites.com, which is becoming one of the company’s primary growth engines.

To visit our online candy store, please click here

We are often asked about hard to find candies and, truth be told, if you can’t find them on our website, they may have been discontinued or the name was changed…

Case in point – We get numerous requests for Mars Bars which are no longer being manufactured HOWEVER the exact same candy can be purchased with the brand name Snickers Crunchers…

If you can’t find you favorite candy, please post on CandyBlog as we will do our best to help you find information on your lost, but not forgotten, candy favorite.

To view a listing of Discontinued Candy, please click here

Courtesy of CBBC
13 July 2005

It’s so hot in Cornwall this week that an octopus is being given ice lollipops to cool her down.

Sassy, a two-metre long giant Pacific octopus is sucking onto massive ice blocks that contain her favourite treats.

Staff at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay say the lollies are shaped like – and taste like – crabs, mackerel and sand-eel.

They reckon the lollies will encourage her work harder for her food too.

According to a press release posted this morning from Publicite Ad Factory, flavored, edible straws are hitting the market!

MONTREAL, July 14, 2005 – Imagine a drink straw that adds flavor to one’s beverage. Better yet, imagine that one can eat this same straw – just like a piece of their favorite candy – as soon as the drink is finished!

New and now available in North America, the SlikaStik is about to change the way people drink their beverages. These delicious, scrumptious, edible candy straws come in an assortment of stock flavors and work best with cold drinks, allowing people to transform, for example, an ordinary glass of milk into a magnificent cotton candy taste experience. Or take a plain glass of water and a strawberry SlikaStik and presto, one has a strawberry treat!

“It’s really very simple,” says Publicite Ad Factory President & CEO Andrew Severs. “This incredibly, environmentally friendly product is actually an edible candy straw that adds its flavor to whatever one is drinking. When they finish their drink, they eat the straw. That means there is no straw to throw away and less plastic or paper to go into a landfill.”

Stock SlikaStik flavors include: Blueberry, Chocolate Mint, Cotton Candy, Strawberry and Vanilla. But the choices are limitless as flavors can be customized, if desired – use a custom, limited-edition flavor for special events or limited-time promotions.

“This is a unique and successful product that we sourced out from the United Kingdom,” says Mr. Severs. “It is amazing and unbelievable. When you first look at the product, you would say that’s impossible – to create a delicious, edible yet practical straw. It looks solid and there is no hole for the liquid to move up the straw! People think I’ve gone off my rocker but with a creative imagination anything can be possible. Like the Brits would say, ‘you’re absolutely bonkers if you expect me to believe that this solid piece of candy can be a drink straw!’ But should a client hesitate, I just tell them to give it a try. Once they do, they’re hooked.”

The SlikaStik secret is that the straws have no holes at first. But as one uses the straw, it starts to become hollow and the more it is used the larger the hollow portion, or hole, becomes.

The straws are perfectly suited for specialty or candy retailers. They make excellent choices for birthday parties, fundraising projects or just as a surprise to put a smile on a child’s face. Bars or nightclubs can offer them as an adult treat through innovative drink promotions – as the straws tend to lend their flavor to the respective beverages, they’ll add a little kick to the drink.

SlikaStik, however, is not to be used with hot beverages. A version, made with Isomalt, is available for people who can’t eat regular sugar products.

“The major dilemma consumers will have with this product is deciding whether to eat the straws like an old fashioned candy stick or use it as a drinking straw before eating it,” says Mr. Severs. “And what a fun dilemma that is to have! Plus, unlike plastic or paper straws that end up in the trash, our straws just end up in your tummy!”

Even though the product is ideal for kids, adults can have a blast with them too. Check out our websites at either www.apartment1g.com (ad free) or www.members.tripod.com/globalfun (with ads) to get a taste of what goodies are in store for your customers and clients.

“We’ve done confectionery products for our clients before,” says Mr. Severs, pointing to promotional and corporate gifts that have proved popular in the past. “But we’ve never seen anything like this before. Further when I was younger, I dealt with a large selection of candy offerings when I worked for my father’s wholesale confectionary distributorship during my summer holidays. Even then there was a lot of choice out there but nothing compares to these amazing and tasty straws.”

With these straws no drink, party or promotion will ever be dull again. Amazingly, the edible straws still allow people to blow bubbles into their beverages just like they did when they were little kids – with a regular straw.

The amazing, incredible, edible SlikaStik. It will change the ordinary into the extraordinary!

To see a similar product that we offer called Rip Straws, please click here

Who would have thought that Caramel Creams, known to candy lovers as “Bull’s Eyes” got their start from a small chewing gum factory located in Baltimore, Maryland.

In 1895, William Goetze founded the Baltimore Chewing Gum company (now long defunct) and is considered by many to be one of the first companies to produce bubble gum.

In 1915, the company tried a new product based in caramel yet wrapped liked bubble gum. This product was called CHU-EES and soon took on a cult following.

Due to the success of CHU-EES, the company decided to launch a new product in 1918 called Goetze’s Caramel Creams. The new candy was pure sugar wrapped in delicious caramel and resembled a target.

By 1950, Caramel Creams were selling better than chewing gum and the company formally changed their name to Goetze’s Candy Company.

Although the formal name remain, the nickname of Bull’s Eye’s has become commonplace and Goetze’s is one of the oldest family owned candy companies in the United States!

To view our selection, please click here

“Green or red, good night, remember,
Green is best, of all the flavours,
go ahead it’s only water,
I love my swedish fish” ~ Veruca Salt, “Swedish Fish”

According to answers.com carnauba wax – a product used by car lovers – is what gives Swedish fish their “unique texture.” After getting over the initial shock of eating car wax, I looked up carnauba wax and found out it was truly safe to ingest after all – well at least GRAS.

According to the Whole Foods Market Web site, “Carnauba wax is a GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) substance obtained from the leaves and buds of the Brazilian “Tree of Life” (Copernica Cerifera), also known as the wax palm.” The site explained other edible uses of carnauba wax – a formulation aid, lubricant, release agent, and surface finishing agent in baked foods and mixes, chewing gum, confections, frostings, fresh fruits and juices, gravies, sauces, processed fruits and juices and soft candy.

For more information,Originalswedishfish.com is a haven for Swedish fish lovers. On this site, one can read a short history of the candy delight as well as download wallpapers, screensavers and even an AIM buddy icons.

This posting is courtesy of Katie Schmitt AKA Kandy Katie

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
9 July 2005
By Lenore Skenazy

Let’s think about something happy for a change. Let’s think about Lick-A-Maid.
And Smarties. And candy necklaces. And how about those tiny wax soda bottles? You’d bite the top off and go wild – or as wild as you could get drinking half a teaspoon of colored sugar water. Still, that sip was as intoxicating as champagne.

In the past two weeks that my son has become addicted to Bubble Tape, I have been thinking about how 40 summers from now someone will hand him a foot of sour apple Bubble Tape and he’ll be instantly transported back to the summer when he was 7. Just like one whiff of wax lips takes me back.

Wax lips. My 10-year-old sister would buy them at the little store we went to on summer vacation and I, five years younger, would marvel at her gourmet sophistication. Why, she was spending her money on a candy you couldn’t even SWALLOW! It was like she was a wine taster or something: she’d chew the wax till it lost its taste, then spit it out as I watched, awestruck. Me, I was just a piker with Pixie Stix – straws filled with tasty sugar you’d pour on your tongue until the straw got so soggy no more would pour out. Of course, by that time your tongue was raw as sandpaper, so who cared?

Memories like these are why nostalgia candy is becoming big business, says Susan Fussell, spokeswoman at the National Confectioners Association. More and more specialty stores and Web sites are popping up to cater to boomers eager for a cheap and tasty trip to the past. Some customers buy the candy for reunions. Others use it as a way to broach the olden days without boring their kids. What child is going to refuse a bubble gum cigar? Or even, politically incorrect though it is, a candy cigarette?

Why are they so popular?

“It’s not something you’re going to find at Wal-Mart,” he says.

It’s not something you’d WANT to find, says Jerry Cohen, owner of Economy Candy on the lower East Side. This is the granddaddy of nostalgia candy stores simply because it never stopped selling the delights it sold when it opened in 1937. “I used to use candy cigarettes to draw on the sidewalk,” Cohen recalls. Certainly beat eating them.

He has much fonder memories of the jawbreakers and Mary Janes of his youth. And especially of the Lick-A-Maid: “We had filthy hands, but we would put our finger in there. We all grew up normal, nothing ever happened to us.”

And that is pretty much the big lesson everyone stumbles upon as they review their candy pasts: Turkish Taffy never DID take out a filling. Frozen Charleston Chews never quite broke anyone’s jaw. Swallowing a whole handful of Gold Rocks Nugget chewing gum didn’t result in a single recorded fatality.

So if you’re feeling a little down or insecure, the way many of us are at present, maybe it’s time for a faith-affirming spearmint leaf or candy button (paper included). Or even a few inches of Bubble Tape shared with someone you love.

With the launch of the remake of the classic film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we would love to hear your opinions about the new rendering and whether or not it was a wise thing to tinker with a true candy and film classic.

Some people claim that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” while others believe in progress..

At Candyblog.org, we want to know where you stand…..