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July 2, 2025 3:01 am
From chocolate to suckers to gumdrops, there's all sorts of different kinds of candy, and everybody has their favorite, but some candy seems to strike a stronger reaction than others. In fact, some are so divisive that everyone seems to have an opinion on them, whether they love them or they hate them.
Black licorice flavor comes from a plant, a legume, which is widely distributed in Central and Western Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Specifically, it comes from the plant's root, which has a sweetness 30 to 50 times greater than sucrose.
The word licorice comes from a corruption of the original Greek term and means sweet root. The root has been ingested in various forms for millennia, and the earliest reference to it or a similar plant comes from 4,300 years ago in the writings of a Chinese emperor known to experiment with plant remedies.
Perhaps just as divisive are the orange peanut-shaped marshmallow candies called circus peanuts. For starters, the exact invention of the candy is unknown. Candy maker Spangler has been making them since the 1930s and perfected their recipe in 1941, while Wisconsin-based Melster has been making them since 1919.
Like circus peanuts, candy corn's origins date to the 1800s. There is some disagreement, however it's usually said to have been invented in Philadelphia by German immigrant Philip Wonderley. In 1865, Wonderly arrived in the United States and in 1871 began making candy in Philadelphia, and in 1876 was joined by George Renninger.
While candy corn has its haters, it remains a popular treat, with 35 million pounds produced each year, some 9 billion pieces. So why do we keep these candies around for generations, even though they engender such vitriol? Well, I mean, some people seem to legitimately like them, but maybe we keep them around because They have such a wonderful history.
