126 Fun Facts About Candy

What company is known for producing the popular chocolate candies M&M's?

Mars, Inc., and the M's stand for Mars and Murrie: Bruce Murrie, son of the Hershey president, was a partner whose company supplied the chocolate during wartime rationing. Mars bought him out in 1949.

Every bar of chocolate starts with which roasted, ground ingredient?

Cocoa beans: the seeds of the cacao tree are fermented, dried, roasted and ground into chocolate liquor, the base of every chocolate bar.

Which candy bar was sold in the UK as 'Marathon' until 1990?

The name in Britain and Ireland changed to Snickers in 1990 to align with the global brand; a Marathon retro edition briefly returned to Morrisons in 2019.

Which American candy, invented in 1912 as a 'summer candy' that would not melt, comes as a roll of rings?

Life Savers, named for the ring-style life preserver they resemble. Clarence Crane, a chocolate maker, invented them because chocolate sales slumped in the heat; his son was the poet Hart Crane.

Under what name did cotton candy debut at the 1904 World's Fair?

A dentist, William Morrison, co-invented it in 1897 with confectioner John C. Wharton; at the 1904 St. Louis fair it sold 68,655 boxes at 25 cents each.

Which European city's marzipan has been EU Protected Geographical Indication since 1996?

Lübeck: 'Lübecker Marzipan' must contain at least 70 percent almond paste and no more than 30 percent sugar, a standard that Niederegger, founded in the city in 1806, exceeds.

Turkish Delight (Lokum) is a gel of starch and what sweetener?

Sugar: lokum is a sugar syrup set with cornstarch into a soft gel, cut into cubes and dusted with icing sugar. Hacı Bekir popularised it in Istanbul from 1777.

Which flavor was among Jelly Belly's original eight gourmet jelly beans?

Very Cherry was one of the original eight Jelly Belly flavours, alongside Tangerine, Lemon, Green Apple, Grape, Licorice, Root Beer and Cream Soda; the 'gourmet' beans are flavoured through the centre, not just the shell.

Pez, whose name is clipped from Pfefferminz, the German for peppermint, was first sold in 1927 in which country?

Austria: Eduard Haas III launched it in Vienna as an adult breath mint and an alternative to smoking, which is why the first dispensers were shaped like cigarette lighters. The character heads came later, in America.

What nut sits whole at the centre of a Ferrero Rocher?

Hazelnut: each Ferrero Rocher holds a whole roasted hazelnut inside a hazelnut cream and wafer shell, coated in milk chocolate and chopped hazelnuts. Ferrero launched it in 1982.

Which M&M's variety, the first after plain, was introduced in 1954?

Peanut M&M's arrived in 1954, the same year as the 'melts in your mouth, not in your hand' slogan; they came only in tan until other colours were added in 1960.

The Snickers bar was named after what?

The family's favourite horse: Frank Mars named the bar, launched in 1930 for a nickel, after a horse the Mars family owned.

What three things are inside a Snickers bar under the chocolate?

Nougat, caramel and peanuts: a layer of peanut nougat topped with caramel and roasted peanuts, all enrobed in milk chocolate. Snickers launched in 1930.

A standard Kit Kat is made of pieces called what?

Fingers, and the snap is the point: a Rowntree's factory worker had asked for 'a chocolate bar that a man could take to work'. In Japan the name sounds like 'kitto katsu', 'surely win', so it is given before exams.

Which chocolate bar's advertising slogan, used since 1958, begins 'Have a break'?

Kit Kat: 'Have a break, have a Kit Kat' was written by Donald Gilles at the agency J. Walter Thompson in 1957 and ran in British TV adverts from 1958.

Gummy bears were invented in Germany in 1922 by the founder of which candy company?

Haribo: Hans Riegel founded the company in Bonn in 1920 and launched the Gummibärchen, first sold as the Tanzbär ('dancing bear'), in 1922, inspired by trained bears at fairs.

Cotton candy is made by spinning what?

Melted sugar: the machine heats sugar until liquid and spins it through tiny holes, where the threads cool instantly into floss.

Which ring-shaped mint did Rowntree's launch in 1948?

Polo: Rowntree's of York launched the ring-shaped mint in 1948 and advertised it for decades as 'the mint with the hole'.

Which British sweet, launched by Rowntree's in 1937, has a sugar shell around milk chocolate?

Smarties: Rowntree's of York launched the sugar-shelled chocolate beans in 1937, four years before M&M's; the orange ones are flavoured with orange oil.

The word 'lollipop' is said to come from the name of a what?

George Smith of Connecticut named his candies-on-sticks after the horse Lolly Pop around 1908.

The daisy-shaped Chupa Chups lollipop logo was designed in 1969 by which famous artist?

Salvador Dalí sketched the daisy logo in 1969, reportedly in under an hour, and insisted it go on top of the wrapper so it would always be seen whole.

What flavour gives Red Hots candies their heat?

Cinnamon: Red Hots are small cinnamon-flavoured hard candies made since the 1930s, also sold generically as 'cinnamon imperials'; the cinnamon oil is built up in layers around a sugar core.

Tootsie Rolls were the first candy in America to be what?

Individually wrapped: from 1896 each Tootsie Roll was sold wrapped in its own paper for a penny, a first for American penny candy; each batch is seeded with a little of the previous day's.

Which animal in the Tootsie Pop ad bites the lollipop after just three licks?

The owl: Mr. Owl takes three licks, crunches the Tootsie Pop and answers 'three' in the long-running animated advert, which ends 'The world may never know'.

Candy corn was originally sold under what farm-themed name?

Chicken Feed: the Goelitz company (later Jelly Belly) sold candy corn under that name from about 1898, with a rooster on the box, to a largely rural America.

What is the little paper strip sticking out of the top of a Hershey's Kiss called?

A plume: the paper strip, a registered trademark, was added in 1921 when machine wrapping replaced the hand-wrapping used since the Kiss's 1907 debut.

Which chocolate bar, launched in 1951, has a moist coconut centre?

Bounty: Mars launched the coconut bar in 1951 in milk and dark chocolate versions, and its adverts long promised 'the taste of paradise' on tropical beaches.

The Milky Way bar, first sold in 1923, was named after what?

A malted milkshake: Frank Mars wanted a chocolate bar that tasted like the popular malted-milk drink, so its nougat is malt-flavoured; it went on sale in 1923 for a nickel.

The 3 Musketeers bar got its name because the original 1932 pack held three pieces in which flavours?

Sugar rationing in wartime killed off the strawberry and vanilla ones, leaving only chocolate.

The triangle shape of a Toblerone bar is said to be inspired by which mountain?

The Matterhorn: the peaks are popularly linked to the mountain near Zermatt, though Theodor Tobler's sons said a pyramid of dancers at the Folies Bergère inspired them. Toblerone dates from 1908.

What is hidden inside a Kinder Surprise egg?

A toy in a capsule: each Kinder Surprise, launched by Ferrero in 1974, hides a plastic capsule holding a small toy, often needing assembly, inside its hollow chocolate egg.

Why can't Kinder Surprise eggs be sold in the United States?

A law bans toys inside candy: the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act forbids non-food objects embedded in confectionery, so Ferrero sells Kinder Joy, with the toy in a separate half, in the US instead.

Which US president's favourite treat was jelly beans?

Ronald Reagan took up jelly beans while giving up pipe smoking in the 1960s and kept a jar on his desk as president; Jelly Belly created Blueberry for his 1981 inauguration.

What makes Pop Rocks crackle in your mouth?

Trapped bubbles of gas: the candy is made by mixing hot sugar syrup with carbon dioxide at about 600 psi, so tiny pressurised pockets burst as the sugar dissolves. Patented in 1961.

What do Americans and Canadians call the rock-hard, layered boiled sweet that the British know as a gobstopper?

Jawbreaker, named for what it does, just as 'gobstopper' is named for what it does to a mouth. They are built up layer by layer over weeks, and Roald Dahl invented an Everlasting one for Willy Wonka.

What is the soft filling inside a Cadbury Creme Egg?

Fondant: a Creme Egg's milk-chocolate shell holds a soft white-and-yellow sugar fondant meant to mimic an egg's white and yolk, made at Cadbury's Bournville factory in Birmingham.

Which two West African countries grow about 60% of the world's cocoa?

Ivory Coast and Ghana: Ivory Coast alone grows roughly 40 percent of the world's cocoa beans and Ghana is the second-largest producer, most of it from smallholder farms.

Which usual chocolate ingredient is missing from white chocolate?

The brown solids: white chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar and milk but none of the non-fat cocoa solids that give chocolate its colour and most of its flavour.

Modern chewing gum began when a Mexican general brought which tree sap to New York in the 1860s?

Chicle: Santa Anna hoped Thomas Adams could vulcanise the sapodilla latex into rubber; when that failed Adams sold it as chewing gum, launching Adams New York Gum in 1871.

What was the 5,000-year-old chewing gum found in Finland, complete with tooth marks, made from?

Birch bark tar: the lump, found at Kierikki in 2007 with the tooth prints of a Neolithic chewer, had been heated from birch bark, a tar also used as prehistoric glue.

Peeps, the marshmallow chicks, are most associated with which holiday?

Just Born has made them since 1953 and now sells them all year, including bunnies and ghosts.

What flavour are traditional red-and-white candy canes?

Peppermint: the red-and-white stripes and mint flavour became standard in the early 1900s; a legend credits a Cologne choirmaster in 1670 with bending sugar sticks into shepherds' crooks.

A box of Nerds, the crunchy candy launched under the Willy Wonka brand in 1982, is split into how many flavour compartments?

Two: each box has one flavour per side with its own spout, so you can pour a mix or pick a side. Nerds launched under the Willy Wonka brand in 1982.

A Topps engineer invented Ring Pops to help his daughter stop doing what?

Sucking her thumb: Topps product engineer Frank Richards designed the wearable candy jewel on a plastic ring as a thumb-sucking substitute for his daughter; it comes in fruit flavours like cherry and watermelon.

What is printed on the outside of every Laffy Taffy wrapper?

A joke: every wrapper carries a joke sent in by a fan, credited by name, such as 'What do you call a cow with no legs? Ground beef.'

What is the shape of the American Smarties candy, which is called Rockets in Canada?

A small flat disc: the pastel tablets are pressed dextrose, sold in rolls since 1949; in Canada they are Rockets to avoid confusion with the chocolate Smarties sold there.

Peeps maker Just Born puns on founder Sam Born's surname and on his candy being what?

Made fresh daily: Sam Born's 1923 Brooklyn shop sign read 'Just Born', boasting that the candy was as fresh as if born that day, and the pun became the company name.

Which firm originally sold marshmallow 'peeps' before Just Born bought it in 1953?

Rodda of Lancaster: the Rodda Candy Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, hand-piped marshmallow chicks as an Easter sideline to its jelly beans; Just Born kept the Peeps line and mechanised it in 1954.

What colour were the original Peeps chicks, which gave the candy its name?

Yellow: the original chicks came only in yellow; lavender was added in 1995 and blue in 1998, and pink and white were added as well.

How many Peeps did Matt Stonie eat in five minutes to win the 2017 eating contest?

255: Matt Stonie downed 255 Peeps in five minutes at the 2017 World Peeps Eating Championship at National Harbor, Maryland, an event sanctioned by Major League Eating.

Scientists at which university ran the jokey 'Peep Research' experiments on marshmallow chicks?

Emory University: Gary Falcon and James Zimring tested Peeps in liquid nitrogen and various solvents, reporting that the eyes 'wouldn't dissolve in anything', and debated whether Peeps migrate or evolve.

'Peeps jousting' involves putting two marshmallow chicks armed with sticks into what?

A microwave: the chicks puff up as they heat, and the first whose toothpick lance pokes the other wins; the loser deflates when the door opens.

Which newspaper was the first to hold an annual Peeps diorama contest?

St. Paul Pioneer Press: the Minnesota paper launched its Peeps diorama contest in 2004; The Washington Post copied the idea in 2007 and ran its 'Peeps Show' until 2017.

In March 2021, Just Born teamed up with PepsiCo to release what?

Peeps marshmallow cola: the limited 'Pepsi x Peeps' cans came in the chicks' yellow, pink and blue and were given away through a social-media sweepstakes rather than sold in shops.

Besides Peeps, Just Born makes Hot Tamales and which chewy fruit candy?

Mike and Ike: the chewy fruit-flavoured beans date from 1940, and Hot Tamales followed in 1950; Sam Born is also credited with inventing chocolate sprinkles, or 'jimmies'.

Just Born relocated from New York to which Pennsylvania city in 1932?

Bethlehem: Just Born moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1932, nine years after Sam Born opened his Brooklyn shop; Peeps have been made there since 1953.

Which Swiss chocolatier invented the conching machine in 1879?

Rodolphe Lindt: his 1879 conching machine rolled and aerated chocolate for up to 72 hours, turning the gritty bars of the time into the smooth, melting chocolate that became the Swiss standard.

Toffee is cooked to which named sugar stage, 149–154 °C?

Hard crack: at 149-154 °C almost all the water has boiled off, so a drop in cold water sets into brittle threads; toffee and hard candy are both pulled at this stage.

Fudge became popular in the late 19th century at what kind of American institution?

Women's colleges: Vassar student Emelyn Battersby Hartridge made 30 pounds of fudge for a senior auction in 1888, and recipes spread to Wellesley and Smith.

Black liquorice is flavoured with the root extract of which plant?

Glycyrrhiza glabra: the liquorice plant's roots yield glycyrrhizin, about 30-50 times sweeter than sugar; red 'licorice' twists contain none of it and are usually strawberry or cherry flavoured.

Roughly how long is a standard gummy bear?

2 cm: a Haribo Goldbear is about two centimetres long; the 1922 originals were longer and slimmer and set with gum arabic rather than gelatine.

Which Milton Hershey business, founded in 1886, preceded his chocolate venture?

Lancaster Caramel Company: Milton Hershey founded it in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1886 and sold it in August 1900 for $1 million, keeping the chocolate equipment and the Hershey Chocolate Company.

What were H. B. Reese's peanut butter cups first called, in 1928?

Penny Cups: each cup sold for one cent when H. B. Reese introduced them in 1928 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and the price gave the product its first name.

H. B. Reese lost his Hershey job when which building he managed was shut in 1919?

The Round Barn: Reese managed Milton Hershey's Round Barn dairy until it closed in 1919; he later returned to Hershey as a shipping foreman and began making candies on the side.

Under what name did Rowntree's launch the Kit Kat in 1935?

Chocolate Crisp: Rowntree's sold the four-finger wafer bar as 'Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp' from 1935 and added the Kit Kat name in 1937, dropping 'Chocolate Crisp' after the war.

Which company acquired Rowntree's in 1988?

Nestlé won a bitter takeover battle against Jacobs Suchard in 1988, paying £2.55 billion for Rowntree's; Hershey has made Kit Kat in the US under a licence signed in 1970.

Which Hershey bar, launched in 1938, mixes crisped rice into milk chocolate?

Krackel: Hershey introduced the crisped-rice bar in 1938, the same year Nestlé launched its rival Crunch; Krackel has long been one of the Hershey's Miniatures alongside Mr. Goodbar.

Twix, first made in 1967, takes its name from a portmanteau of what?

Twin sticks: the name blends 'twin' and 'sticks', since each pack holds two caramel-topped biscuit fingers; it was first made at Mars's Slough factory in 1967.

The Mars bar of 1932 was modelled after which bar made by Forrest Mars's father?

Milky Way: Forrest Mars launched the Mars bar in Slough in 1932 as a sweeter take on his father Frank's American Milky Way, with the chocolate at first supplied by Cadbury.

Which Connecticut firm created Mounds in 1920 and Almond Joy in 1946?

Peter Paul: founded by Armenian immigrant Peter Paul Halajian in 1919, it made the two coconut bars in Naugatuck, Connecticut, until Hershey bought the brands from Cadbury Schweppes in 1988.

Which child star promoted Butterfinger in its early years?

A popularity contest chose the bar's name.

Baby Ruth was refashioned in 1920 from which earlier Curtiss candy?

Kandy Kake: Otto Schnering reworked Curtiss's Kandy Kake, a pastry-centred bar, into the peanut, caramel and nougat Baby Ruth, which the company said was named for Grover Cleveland's daughter.

In which Illinois town did the Heath brothers make their toffee bar from 1928?

Robinson: brothers Bayard and Everett Heath sold their 'English toffee' bar from their Robinson, Illinois, shop from 1928; their father L. S. Heath, a schoolteacher, had bought the shop for them.

Which slogan did Cadbury introduce in 1928 for Dairy Milk?

Glass and a half: from 1928 Cadbury claimed 'a glass and a half of full cream milk' in every half-pound of Dairy Milk, with the pouring-milk image on the wrapper from then on.

Which chocolatier launched the Creme Egg in 1963 before it took the Cadbury name?

J. S. Fry's: the Bristol firm, by then part of Cadbury, launched the Fry's Creme Egg in 1963; it became the Cadbury's Creme Egg in 1971.

Which colour Smarties were temporarily replaced by white in 2005?

Blue: Nestlé dropped artificial colours in 2005 and, lacking a natural blue, replaced the blue Smartie with a white one until a spirulina-based blue returned in 2008.

Which Australian bar of 1913 preceded the very similar Crunchie?

Violet Crumble: Hoadley's of Melbourne sold its honeycomb bar from 1913, sixteen years before Fry's Crunchie; its slogan was 'It's the way it shatters that matters'.

Which Cadbury employee discovered the Flake by chance in 1920?

He saw excess chocolate falling from moulds into flaky ripples.

Which 18-year-old MacRobertson's employee invented the Freddo frog in 1930?

Harry Melbourne, an 18-year-old MacRobertson's employee, suggested a frog instead of the planned chocolate mouse in 1930, reasoning that women and children disliked mice; Cadbury bought MacRobertson's in 1967.

Which compound gives Nordic and Dutch salty liquorice its sharp tang?

Ammonium chloride, known as salmiak, gives Nordic and Dutch salty liquorice its sharp tang; Finnish salmiakki and Dutch dubbelzoute drop are the strongest.

Nutella's ancestor, Pasta Giandujot, was first sold in 1946 in which Italian town?

Alba: Pietro Ferrero's pastry shop in Alba, in Piedmont's hazelnut-growing Langhe hills, sold the loaf-shaped Giandujot in 1946; the spreadable version became Nutella in 1964.

Toblerone's name combines the founder's surname with which Italian word?

Torrone, meaning nougat: Theodor Tobler fused his surname with torrone, the Italian honey-and-almond nougat, when he and his cousin Emil Baumann created the bar in 1908.

Toblerone's only factory until the 2020s was in which Swiss city?

Bern: Toblerone was made only in Bern from 1908 until Mondelez shifted part of production to Bratislava, Slovakia, which also cost the wrapper its Matterhorn image under Swissness rules.

Milka's name is a portmanteau of which two German words?

Milch and Kakao: Suchard registered the Milka name in 1901, blending the German words for milk and cocoa; its lilac cow, a Simmental, has fronted the brand since 1973.

A classic 100 g Ritter Sport bar is divided into how many small squares?

16: the square bar breaks into a four-by-four grid; Clara Ritter proposed the shape in 1932 so it would fit a sports-jacket pocket without breaking, hence 'Sport'.

Kinder Bueno combines German and which other language in its name?

Spanish: 'Kinder' is German for children and 'bueno' is Spanish for good; Ferrero, an Italian company, launched the hazelnut wafer bar in 1990.

Percy Pig sweets are made for Marks & Spencer by which German firm?

Katjes: the Emmerich-based firm has made Percy Pig for Marks & Spencer since the sweet's launch in 1992; the range dropped gelatine in 2019.

Under what name were Starburst originally sold in the UK from 1959?

Regular UK flavours were blackcurrant, lemon and lime, orange and strawberry.

Which Swedish producer developed Swedish Fish for the US market in the late 1950s?

Malaco: the Malmö confectioner created the wine-gum style fish for North America in the late 1950s; for years the bags carried the boast 'A Fat Free Food'.

Twizzlers were first produced in 1929 by which company?

Young and Smylie: the licorice maker founded in 1845, later trading as Y&S Candies of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, introduced Twizzlers in 1929; Hershey bought Y&S in 1977.

In which Colorado town did Bill and Dorothy Harmsen open the first Jolly Rancher store?

Golden: the Harmsens opened their first Jolly Rancher ice cream and candy store in Golden, Colorado, in 1949, choosing the name to sound friendly and Western.

Werther's Original is named after a town in which German region?

Westphalia: the caramel is named after Werther, the town in Westphalia where August Storck founded his company in 1903; the sweet itself dates from 1909.

Altoids were created in the 1780s by which London firm?

Smith & Company: the London firm, later Smith Kendon, sold the peppermint lozenge from about 1780 as a remedy for intestinal discomfort; the tins famously called them 'curiously strong'.

Which Italian company makes Tic Tac, first produced in 1969?

Ferrero launched the mints in 1969 as 'Refreshing Mints' and renamed them Tic Tac in 1970 after the click of the flip-top box; each mint weighs under half a gram.

How many discs are in a standard roll of Mentos?

14: a standard 37.5-gram roll holds 14 mint discs; Dutch firm Van Melle created Mentos in 1932 and merged with Italy's Perfetti in 2001.

Which Fleer accountant invented Dubble Bubble in 1928?

Walter Diemer, a 23-year-old Fleer accountant experimenting with recipes, hit on the pink, stretchy gum in 1928; the only food colouring to hand was pink, which is why bubble gum is pink.

Big League Chew was created by a pitcher and bat boy of which minor league team?

Portland Mavericks: pitcher Rob Nelson and bat boy Todd Field dreamed up the shredded gum in the Mavericks bullpen in 1977, and team-mate Jim Bouton sold the idea to Wrigley in 1979.

Which Wrigley gum went on sale in 1893, months before Wrigley's Spearmint?

Juicy Fruit went on sale in 1893, months before Wrigley's Spearmint; William Wrigley Jr. had started out selling soap and baking powder, giving gum away as a premium.

Warheads sour candy was invented in 1975 in which country?

Taiwan: Warheads were created in Taiwan in 1975 and imported to the US in 1993 by the Foreign Candy Company of Hull, Iowa; malic acid gives the sour blast.

What was Fun Dip originally called?

Lik-M-Aid: the flavoured sugar powder was sold under that name from the 1940s, and became Fun Dip in the 1970s when the edible 'Lik-a-Stix' dipping stick was added.

Under what name was the Sugar Daddy created in 1925?

Papa Sucker: James Welch's caramel lollipop debuted in 1925 as the Papa Sucker and was renamed Sugar Daddy in 1932 to suggest wealth; Sugar Babies followed in 1935.

Charleston Chew was named after what?

A popular dance: the bar, launched in the 1920s by the Fox-Cross Candy Company, took its name from the Charleston dance craze; co-founder Donley Cross was a stage actor.

Necco Wafers were first produced in which year?

1847: Oliver Chase invented a lozenge-cutting machine in Boston in 1847 and the wafers descend from it; the New England Confectionery Company name came with a 1901 merger.

Which candy is considered the first combination candy bar, created in Nashville in 1912?

Goo Goo Cluster: Nashville's Standard Candy Company made the round bar in 1912, combining marshmallow nougat, caramel and peanuts in milk chocolate, and bills it as the first combination bar.

Cherry Mash was formulated in 1918 in which Missouri city?

St. Joseph: Ernest Chase created the cherry-and-peanut bar at the Chase Candy Company in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1918; his father had started the business there in 1876.

See's Candies was founded in 1921 in which city?

Los Angeles: Charles See opened the first shop on Western Avenue in Los Angeles in 1921 with his wife Florence and his mother Mary, whose face is on the box.

Which Eskimo Pie inventor was Russell Stover's early partner?

Christian Kent Nelson patented the chocolate-coated ice cream bar in 1922 and partnered with Russell Stover, who named it Eskimo Pie; Stover sold out his share and turned to boxed chocolates.

Emil Brach opened his 'Palace of Sweets' in 1904 in which city?

Chicago: Emil Brach opened the Palace of Sweets on North Avenue in Chicago in 1904 with $1,000 of savings, selling caramels at 20 cents a pound.

Which Austrian immigrant began the Tootsie Roll story in a New York candy shop in 1896?

Leo Hirschfield named the chewy chocolate roll after his daughter Clara, nicknamed Tootsie, and first sold it in 1896; the company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1922.

Jelly Belly is based in which California city?

Fairfield: Jelly Belly's headquarters and main factory, which offers a free public tour, have been in Fairfield in Solano County since 1986; a second plant is in Rayong, Thailand.

Dum Dums were created in 1924 by a candy company named for which Ohio city?

Akron: the Akron Candy Company, based in Bellevue, Ohio, made the first Dum Dums in 1924; Spangler bought the brand in 1953 and moved production to Bryan, Ohio.

Traders from which country introduced the star-shaped sugar candy konpeitō to Japan in the 1500s?

Portugal: Portuguese traders brought confeito sugar candy to Japan in the mid-1500s; the missionary Luís Fróis is recorded presenting a glass jar of it to the warlord Oda Nobunaga in 1569.

Pocky takes its name from which Japanese word?

Pokkiri, the sound of snapping: Glico launched the chocolate-dipped biscuit sticks in 1966 and named them for the crisp 'pokkiri' snap; Almond Pocky followed in 1971.

Which Japanese company makes Hi-Chew, introduced in 1975?

Morinaga: the Tokyo company launched Hi-Chew in 1975 as a fruit chew that could be swallowed, unlike gum, which Japanese etiquette frowned on removing from the mouth in public.

White Rabbit Creamy Candy has been made in Shanghai since which year?

1943: Shanghai's ABC Candy Factory first made the milk candy in 1943 as 'ABC Mickey Mouse Sweets'; the rabbit replaced the mouse in 1959, and each sweet comes in an edible rice-paper wrap.

Brigadeiro was created to promote which Brazilian presidential candidate?

Eduardo Gomes: the chocolate-and-condensed-milk sweet was sold at rallies for the air force brigadier's 1945 presidential campaign, and took his rank, 'brigadeiro', as its name.

Mexico's Mazapán de la Rosa is made mainly with sugar and which nut?

Peanuts: unlike almond marzipan, Mazapán de la Rosa is a crumbly disc of ground peanuts and sugar, made by Dulces de la Rosa of Tlajomulco, Jalisco, and famous for falling apart when unwrapped.

In which present-day country was the cacao tree first domesticated over 5,000 years ago?

Ecuador: residues on 5,300-year-old pottery at Santa Ana-La Florida in south-eastern Ecuador, published in 2018, showed cacao was used there 1,500 years earlier than in Mesoamerica.

Which company created real Wonka Bars to tie in with the 1971 film?

Quaker largely funded the film.

In what year was the Everlasting Gobstopper name used for a real jawbreaker-style candy?

1976: Chicago's Breaker Confections, which had licensed the Wonka name, launched the Everlasting Gobstopper as a layered colour-changing jawbreaker in 1976; the book's version was 'for children with very little pocket money'.

Which Italian company makes Baci, the chocolate 'kisses' wrapped with love notes?

Perugina: Luisa Spagnoli created Baci in Perugia in 1922, a hazelnut-studded dark chocolate kiss whose wrapper hides a love note; Nestlé has owned the brand since 1988.

When production of Sour Patch Kids began in Ontario in the late 1970s, the sour gummies carried what space-age name?

Mars Men, and the mid-1980s rebrand to Sour Patch Kids rode the Cabbage Patch Kids craze. Frank Galatolie had created the candy in the early 1970s.

Which pink-and-white licorice candy was first made in Philadelphia in 1893?

Good & Plenty: the Quaker City Confectionery Company of Philadelphia launched the candy-coated licorice pieces in 1893; the 'Choo-Choo Charlie' adverts of the 1950s made it famous.

In which sitcom does a Junior Mint fall from the observation gallery into a patient mid-surgery, who then recovers?

Seinfeld, in the 1993 episode 'The Junior Mint', when Jerry pushes Kramer's hand away and the mint drops into the patient; Junior Mints were created by James Welch in 1949.

Who invented the cinnamon jawbreaker Atomic Fireball in 1954?

Nello Ferrara, son of Ferrara Pan founder Salvatore, created the Atomic Fireball in 1954 by hot-panning, building the cinnamon layers around a core over about two weeks; Lemonheads followed in 1962.

Which Cadbury assortment did a black-clad stuntman deliver in TV adverts from 1968 to 2003?

Milk Tray: from 1968 to 2003 Cadbury's adverts showed a black-clad 'Milk Tray Man' braving sharks and cliffs to leave a box, 'all because the lady loves Milk Tray'.