Saturday, November 2, 2013

Some Candy Corn History

Modern Farmer:

Even the people who make candy corn will tell you it’s nowhere near a universally beloved treat.
“People either love or hate candy corn,” says Tomi Holt, spokesperson for the Jelly Belly Candy Company, which has been making candy corn since 1898. “They have strong opinions and they’ll tell you about it.”
Not that that means people are above dressing up as sexy candy corn for Halloween for just $49, or doing battle with a creature called the Grand High Viscount of Candy Corn in the online role-playing game Guild Wars.....
In case you thought this generation had a lock on rural nostalgia, candy corn is here to set you straight: The white, yellow and orange (arguably) corn-shaped confection has graced sweet shop shelves since the late 1800s. Most agree that the inventor of candy corn was George Renninger, who ran the Wunderlee Candy Company in Philadelphia.
When candy corn started cropping up, “folks were leaving farms and entering the big city,” says Beth Kimmerle, candy historian and author of four books documenting the confectionary industry in the U.S.....Early boxes of candy corn from the Herman Goelitz Company (which would later morph into Jelly Belly) featured proud roosters. A 1937 ad for the store B. Altman and Co. evoked the aura of the country general store, asking, “Do you remember the candy corn and the coal oil? Remember the little country store that was the hub of your universe, the social center and favorite memory of your childhood?” In 1971 the Henri Bendel department store tried to lend a whiff of urban sophistication to the genre, offering a fairly disgusting-sounding candy “succotash” consisting of orange-candy carrots, lime-candy lima beans, lemon-candy corn and mint-candy peas.
I love me some candy corn.  One of the last times I went to the local Menard's store, candy corn was one of my impulse buys (I'm not sure why I am prone to impulse buying at Menard's)  You know what else features a rooster prominently?  Rex Goliath wine. From what I've been told, that rooster can whip your ass.

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