Left over thoughts of holiday sweets
led me to wonder about some familiar candies.
The 3 Musketeers bar was originally split into three pieces with
three different flavors – vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. When
vanilla and strawberry flavoring became hard to come by during WWII,
Mars decided to go all chocolate.
When M&Ms were first introduced in 1941 they were red, brown,
yellow, green and violet. The first M&Ms came in a cardboard
tube and were given to soldiers in their rations, because the
chocolate was a good energy source, and the candy-coated shell kept
the chocolate from melting in their hands.
Milky Way was the first commercially distributed filled candy bar in
1923. It came in chocolate and vanilla flavors. The vanilla version
came covered in dark chocolate. They were sold separately for
several years, then sold as a two-piece candy bar just like 3
Musketeers was sold as a three-piece candy bar. Mars continued to sell the vanilla and dark chocolate version
under a new name – the Forever Yours bar. It was rebranded again as
the Milky Way Dark, and these days you’ll find it on shelves under
the name “Milky Way Midnight.” The name of the bar was inspired by the flavor of a milkshake.
Starbursts were originally named Opal fruits and came in four
flavors: orange, lemon, lime, and strawberry. When the name switched
to Starburst in 1967, lemon and lime were combined into one flavor
so blackcurrant chews could be added to the mix.
When Jelly Bellys were first launched, there were eight flavors; Very
Cherry, Tangerine, Lemon, Green Apple, Grape Jelly, Licorice,
A&W Root Beer, and A&W Cream Soda. Now Jelly Bellies have 50
official flavors, nine rookie flavors, five Cold Stone
Creamery-inspired flavors, and lines that include soda flavors, sour
beans, sport beans, Harry Potter’s Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans,
and smoothie blends.
Life Savers first came in Pep-O-Mint when they were introduced in
1913 Later they added Wint-O-Green, Cl-O-ve, Lic-O-Riche,
Cinn-O-Mon, Vi-O-let and Choc-O-Late. The familiar fruit flavors of
today were developed in 1925: grape, orange, lemon, and lime.
PEZ gets its name from the first flavor it ever came in –
Pfefferminz, German for peppermint. They came in little cigarette
lighter-like cases to conveniently dispense mints to smokers. In the
1950s PEZ decided to expand their market to children and used the
fun dispensers to do so. Santa, a robot, and a Space Gun were the
first dispensers for children.
Tootsie Pops started with Chocolate, Cherry, Orange, Grape and
Raspberry. There is a sixth flavor that alternates between Lemon
Lime, Blue Raspberry, and Banana.
The first Mentos flavor was a peppermint flavored caramel candy when
it was introduced in 1932. Cinnamon Mentos in the US and
fruit-flavored Mentos in Europe came 40 years later. Mentos around
the world now come in raisin, lemon yogurt, cola, grape ‘n’ cream,
black licorice, red orange and others.
