History of Candy Corn

by Murphy Patterson

Spooky season is in full swing, and I hope you are gearing up for peak candy consumption on the evening of Halloween. I’m looking forward to sticking my Snickers and Twix bars in the freezer, while my friends prefer the sore jaw that comes with the heavy chewing of gummy candy. But that is all part of the fun! No matter what candy is your favorite during the Halloween season, there is still one candy that has been around for more than a century and represents this holiday better than most. And what candy may I be referring to? Candy Corn.

Whether you love this candy or hate it, you can’t deny that it absolutely runs the holiday of Halloween. Candy Corn even has its OWN holiday on October 30th, leading up to the big day. Even the aesthetic of candy corn adds to the fall season. The yellow, orange and white colors scream fall, and when people see them, they know it’s time to stock up on this classic fall staple. 

So when and where was candy corn created? For being around so long,  there must be some history there, and there is. The exact date these little candies were created is iffy, but it is reported to be around the 1880s in Philadelphia, by George Renninger, a Wunderlee Candy Company-employee. During this time,  half of the American labor force was made up of farmers, so marketing agricultural candies were popular. The little corn kernel shaped candies were made to replicate what farmers would feed the chickens, which doesn’t seem very spooky at all. 

Back then,  the cooking process was done all by hand as a sugar and corn-syrup mixture was cooked into what candy makers call a slurry (a semi-liquidy mixture). The mixture was then poured into a large kettle and then into kernel shaped molds, and budda-bing, budda-boom, candy corn was born. But it didn’t hold the power it has today… yet.

The incredibly sweet treat wasn’t popularized until the recipe was picked up by the Goelitz Candy Company (now Jelly Belly) in 1898. The kernel shaped candy was being sold as “Chicken Feed,” which doesn’t sound nearly as appetizing as candy corn. But back then,  people didn’t associate corn with being people-food until after WWI. 

Even after the war, the small candies were still being associated with animals. Children began calling the tiny kernels “penny candy” because they were so cheap and small to buy and would eat them year-round. This went on for the beginning of the 20th century since candy wasn’t very strongly associated with Halloween yet. Little did they know what was to come. 

It wasn’t until the 1950s that candy corn got its true and very fitting name. The candy started to become associated with Halloween due to the fall harvest of corn, and marketing companies began only pushing candy corn during the fall months. What used to be a “penny candy” was marketed with a chicken on the box and became a fall staple.

Today candy corn is made mostly by machines, and each year around 35 million pounds of the candy is produced, with a huge spike in the fall months. What we know as the king of fall candy started off as a farmer's sweet treat and is now representing an entire season. Talk about a come up!