Results: Candy Is Dandy... Part 1

When I was younger, whenever we drove across the Canada/U.S. border for some back to school shopping, one treat we always had was a 3 Musketeers chocolate bar (at that point you could not buy them in Canada). I often wondered why it was named that. I just recently found out that originally in 1932, the 3 Musketeers candy bar was three smaller pieces. With individual chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry mini-bars, the bar adopted the name of the Alexandre Dumas novel, The Three Musketeers. Sugar rations and the high price of strawberries during WWII resulted in changes to 3 Musketeers. In 1945, the Mars product became a single, chocolate nougat candy bar, the one I remembered from my childhood. Did you know the origin of the name?

Initially intended to be round balls of caramel covered in chocolate, Milk Duds proved difficult to manufacture. When Hoffman and Company of Chicago first tried in 1928, they struggled to create perfectly shaped spheres. They eventually stopped trying, naming their product Milk Duds for the milk in the chocolate and the caramel - and for the "dud" of their appearance. Did you know this was where the name originated?

When Snickers was introduced around 1930, it was named for one of Frank Mars' family horses. The confection blended consumer favorites - chocolate, peanuts, nougat, and caramel - and grew in popularity quickly across the United States. When the Mars Corporation looked to export the Snickers bar to the United Kingdom, they had to adjust the name. Because the word "snickers" rhymed too easily with "knickers" - slang for underwear - the candy was marketed as the Marathon bar. It wasn't until 1990, when Mars undertook a company-wide rebranding - that Snickers bars were sold in the UK. Did you know the Snickers bar was named for a horse?

Candymaker Leo Hirshfield named his candies Tootsie Rolls after his daughter, Clara. Nicknamed "Tootsie," Clara's father had a candy shop in Brooklyn, New York. He first made his hand-rolled chewy candies in 1896 - intent on producing a form of chocolate that didn't melt. Selling his candies for only one penny and limited in his ability to expand his customer base, Hirshfield joined with fellow confectioners Stern and Staalbert in 1897. Hirshfield opened larger factory in 1905 and delivered Tootsie Rolls via horse and buggy. Did you know how this candy got its name?