Unexpected Facts About Your Favorite Candies

Everyone has a favorite candy. Whether you enjoy chocolate, sour gummies, or hard sweets, candy is hard to resist. Most confections around today were invented more than 50 years ago and have been through many variations. You’ll be amazed to find out these little-known and unexpected facts about your favorite candies. Keep reading to learn more.

What To Know About Chocolate

• The world’s first candy bar was invented in England in 1847 by an ice cream company in Bristol.
• Invented in 1907 by Milton S. Hershey, Hershey’s Kisses got their name from the sound the machine makes when it produces the cone-shaped chocolate drops.
• Mars didn’t sell red M&Ms for 10 years—between 1976 and 1986. People believe that red dye was a carcinogen, so the company removed the color to satisfy worried customers.
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the number one top-selling candy in America; they outsell every other type of candy during the holidays.
• Kit Kat bars are available in 50 different flavors in Japan, including green tea, apple, blueberry cheesecake, and apricot seed.
• Heath Bars were originally marketed as health bars after their invention in 1928 by an Illinois schoolteacher who thought the candy would pep you up.
• The candy bar 3 Musketeers used to come in three separate bars. Each was its own flavor—chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.

Hard Candy Facts

• Suckers were first sold as lollipops in 1908 by George Smith, who named the candy after his racehorse. The true difference between a lollipop and a sucker is what you choose to call it.
• The “mystery” Dum-Dum flavor is always a mix of flavors; it is the product created whenever the sucker machine switches to producing a new flavor.
• Conversation hearts, lemon drops, and licorice humbugs began as medicinal lozenges.

Understanding Chewy Candy

• The purple Skittles in bags sold in Europe are flavored with black currant, while the ones sold in America are flavored with grape.
• Sour Patch Kids were originally called Sour Group Kids and were remarketed as Mars Men before they received their official name in 1985.
• Invented in 1907, Tootsie Rolls were the first wrapped penny candy in America. The name comes from a nickname for the inventor’s daughter.

Keep exploring unexpected facts about your favorite candies when you tour the factories that make them. Depending on where you live, you might have one nearby. The best way to learn about the history of your favorite candies is by visiting the factories that make them.

Additional Resources:

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Clif Bars

RxBar

Peanut Butter