The Big Cherry started in 1887 with
Christopher's Candy, the oldest candy company in Southern California. Each individually wrapped candy contains a real maraschino cherry at the center, mixed with bright-pink goo and layered with chocolate and peanut hunks. Golf ball-sized, this is a three-biter.
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We're back with Vintage Candy Monday, in celebration of Halloween. This week, an oldie-but-goodie from way out west. There are other taffies, and then there are Abba-Zabas. It's weird to grow up eating (and loving) Abba-Zabas and only later realize that every child east of the Rockies didn't. The white outside has the look and chew factor of Airheads, but the inside filling is peanut butter—mildly salty peanut butter, which provides that sweet-to-salty factor we love (kettle corn, salted caramel, trail mix). In 1917, a Russian immigrant named Sam Altshuler arrived in the United States and later founded the Annabelle Candy Company, responsible for the Abba-Zabas (which come in regular or sour green apple taffy flavors). The fact that the...
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Editor's Note: We're back with Vintage Candy Monday in celebration of Halloween. This week, the Necco Wafer! As far as nostalgia candies go, Necco Wafers go way back. Since its launch in 1912, not much has changed about the chalky candies except the price. It was 5 cents in the '50s, and remains a low 90 cents per roll of 38 to 40 wafers today (making each wafer as close to penny candy as you’ll get in the twenty-first century). The Necco Wafer has an illustrious history. In 1913, explorer Donald MacMillan took Necco Wafers on his Arctic expedition as nutrition for his men, and as rewards for Eskimo children. In 1930 Admiral Byrd took two and a half tons...
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Editor's Note: Every Monday, we'll spotlight a vintage candy to put you in the Halloween mood. This week, the Charleston Chew. Named after the dance craze during the 1920s, the Charleston Chew (née 1922) comes in vanilla with chocolate coating, strawberry, and chocolate. Though there's no directions on the wrapper, it's an unspoken rule to put a Charleston Chew in the freezer first. Once hard and ice-cold, the Charleston Chew gets a “Charleston Chew Crack," or smack against the table to make for a zillion its and bits. Basically, if you don't know someone with a freezer, you should properly fixate on another candy. I like that the school bus yellow wrapper has outlived any color changing initiatives, and the...
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