Hey there, Sweet Tooths! (Or is it Sweet Teeth?)
Either way, there’s no getting around it. Candy is one tasty side of life! I love it. You love it. Everything Summer Camp loves it. And there’s no better day to celebrate your love for candy than today—National Candy Day!
When we saw that National Candy Day was coming up, everyone here at Everything Summer Camp started talking about our favorite kinds of candy. We all found that our favorites happened to be the old stuff, the stuff you don’t see in the corner convenient store anymore. I’m talking vintage.
Most candy is already pretty old. In fact, the majority of it is actually old enough to be considered “vintage.” See, the rules of how old something has to be in order to be considered a vintage piece are a little blurry. I’d say a fair age for something would be 50 years before you could safely call it vintage. By those rules, any candy that was made before 1954 counts as vintage candy.
That’s A LOT of candy!
M&Ms, for instance, started being manufactured by the Mars company in 1941. And the extremely popular Snickers bar is 11 years older than M&Ms—introduced in 1930. But that’s just the tip of the vintage candy iceberg.
Now don’t get me wrong. Snickers and M&Ms are definitely old candies. I’m just saying there’s other candy that’s REALLY old. One easy example would be the Tootsie Roll, manufactured by the company Tootsie Roll Industries. In 1896, this became the first penny candy (candy that cost only a penny) to be individually wrapped. Tootsie Rolls predate M&Ms by almost 60 years.
But if you think that’s old, get a load of (my personal favorite) Ribbon Candy! This stuff makes M&Ms look brand new! Ribbon Candy is ancient in the candy business. Nearly a hundred years older than M&Ms, this candy was being manufactured as early as 1856—maybe even earlier.
What’s your favorite candy and how old do you think it is?
- John