Americans love chocolate since we got our first taste of it in the mid 1800′s. Here are our top selling chocolate candies of all time:
10. The Hershey Bar. Invented in the year 1900 by Milton S. Hershey of Lancaster, PA. Advertised as “The Great American Chocolate Bar,” it was the first “affordable” candy bar to Americans.
9. Oh Henry. Created in 1921 by the Williamson Candy Company in Chicago, it received its name after a boy who visited their stores on a regular basis….the female clerks would often be heard saying “Oh, Henry, could you move that heavy box?”
8. M&Ms. Forrest Mars invented the recipe for M&Ms chocolate during the Spanish Civil War after seeing soldiers eating pieces of chocolate covered with a hard sugary coating. The coating preventing the candy from melting in the hot sun. On March 3, 1941 M&Ms were first sold. Why M&M? One M stands for Forest Mars and the other Hershey’s president William Murries. Mars and Murries became M&M Candies.
7. Baby Ruth, born 1920. The Curtiss Candy Company has traditionally claimed that this candy bar was named after President Grover Cleveland’s daughter, Ruth. However, Ruth Cleveland died 16 years before the introduction of the Baby Ruth bar. Curtiss Candy had originally negotiated a failed endorsement deal with legendary baseball player Babe Ruth. Some have suggested that secretly naming the candy bar after Ruth was a way to tie him to their product without paying any royalties.
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6. Three Musketeers made in 1932 by M&Ms Mars, this chocolate bar contains chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry nougat. When it was first introduced in 1932, the 3 Musketeers bar was packaged to include three separate pieces of candy flavored vanilla, chocolate and strawberry — thus the name THREE Musketeers.
5. Milky Way, born in 1923 was created in Forrest Mars Sr.’s kitchen to capture the popular taste of malted milk shakes and the healthful benefits of malt in a candy bar.
4. Butterfinger, also created 1923. A Butterfinger bar consists of a flaky, crispy orange-colored peanut-buttery center covered with a chocolate coating.
3. Kit Kat born in 1935, this chocolate bar used to be called Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp from the UK. 2 years later the name was changed to Kit Kat.
2. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, introduced in 1928. Here’s an interesting fact: Peanut butter was only invented in 1904. The reason for peanut butter? Too many people had bad teeth and could not chew meat. A doctor created these pureed peanuts so people could get protein easily as peanuts are a high protein food.
1. Snickers Bar. Originally introduced in 1929 by Frank and Ethel Mars, the Snickers bar was named after their family horse. The original Snickers bars were sold for a nickel and consisted primarily of chocolate, peanuts and caramel. 4 years after introducing the Snickers Bar, Frank Mars died. If Frank were alive today he’d see annual sales of Snickers bars total over two billion dollars, with 100 tons of peanuts making about 15 million Snickers bars each day.