Month: January 2017

It’s no surprise that candy delights kids and adults alike. We love sweets so much that the average American eats about 22 pounds of candy each year. Whether you’re looking to impress your friends or simply brush up on your candy trivia, check out these 50 sweet facts about your favorite candies.

1. The most popular Halloween candy varies by state, from Airheads in Alabama to candy corn in Wyoming. But Kit Kat, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and Butterfinger are a few of the most consistently popular candies in all 50 states.

2. Harry Burnett Reese sold the Lizzie Bar and Johnny Bar, candy bars he named after his daughter and son, respectively. But his chocolate-covered peanut butter cup creation, which he named after himself and called Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, was his real hit.

3. Leo Hirschfield, the inventor of Tootsie Rolls, also invented Bromangelon, a gelatin dessert that was a precursor to Jell-O.

4. If you love drinking beer and eating candy, Oregon-based brewery Rogue Ales has the perfect candy bar in a bottle for you. The brewery’s candy-flavored beer—Hazelutely Choctabulous, a chocolate stout blended with hazelnut brown nectar—provides the perfect opportunity to drink your dessert.

5. If drinking alcoholic candy isn’t your thing, edible alcoholic candy is also an option. In Japan, adults can buy sake-flavored Kit Kats, which are enveloped in white chocolate and contain sake powder (0.8 percent alcohol). The Japanese can also snack on whiskey-flavored Pocky sticks, which are covered in chocolate and flavored with malt.

6. Historians aren’t sure exactly when candy canes were invented, but legend has it that the twisted sticks have been around since 1670, when a German choirmaster twisted regular sticks of candy to make them look like shepherds’ hooks.

7. Inspired by a malted milkshake that was popular in the early 1920s, Milky Way was meant to mimic the taste of the shake.

8. Lovers of white chocolate, beware! Because white chocolate doesn’t contain cocoa solids, it’s not real chocolate.

9. Toblerone customers are a passionate, vocal bunch. When the chocolate bar company decided to cut costs by reducing the weight of two of their bars sold in the UK, fans loudly expressed their disappointment and mocked the new bar’s fewer triangular chocolate peaks.

10. The two M’s in M&M’s stand for Mars and Murrie, the surnames of the two businessmen—Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie—who developed and financed the candy-coated chocolates.

11. Clarence Crane, the creator of Life Savers, made his candies round rather than square, which was the typical shape for most mints at the time, after visiting a pharmacy. Inspiration struck when he saw a machine making pills that were round and flat, and the rest is history.

12. According to researchers who built licking machines (yes, they’re a real thing), it takes anywhere from 364 to 411 licks to reach the center of a Tootsie Pop. Human lickers, on the other hand, averaged just 144 to 252 licks.

13. E.T.‘s iconic scene in which Elliott entices the alien with Reese’s Pieces almost didn’t happen. Steven Spielberg’s first two choices of candy were M&M’s and Hershey’s Kisses, but when the Hershey Company offered to pay $1 million to showcase their latest candy creation, Reese’s Pieces became E.T.’s favorite sweet.

14. If you’re not sure how to properly pair Halloween candy with wine, you’re in luck. Based on criteria including flavor, acidity, bitterness, and sweetness, wine experts recommend pairing Whoppers with Cabernet Sauvignon, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with Sherry, and Hershey’s Kisses with Zinfandel.

15. M&M’s come in a lot more flavors than milk chocolate, peanut, and crispy. You can also snack on M&M’s in more esoteric flavors (some are limited-edition): pecan pie, peanut butter, pumpkin spice latte, pretzel, and white cheesecake.

16. Invented by an anti-smoking advocate, PEZ were originally marketed as mints to help smokers kick the habit. The candy’s slogan in the 1920s? “Smoking prohibited, PEZing allowed.”

17. Franklin Mars named the Snickers bar after his wife’s favorite racehorse.

18. It’s never too early in the a.m. to indulge your sweet tooth. Last year, Dunkin’ Donuts and Hershey joined forces to offer customers candy-flavored coffee, with Heath bar and Almond Joy flavor options.

19. According to the American Chemical Society, eating 262 fun-sized Halloween candy bars would poison a 180-pound person. But don’t worry about death by candy—you’d vomit before you’d be able to down 262 candy bars in one sitting.

20. The rivalry between fans of Twizzlers and Red Vines is fierce and deep-seated. Candy fans have heated online debates about which licorice product has a better taste, texture, and appearance.

21. If you’ve ever wondered what’s in the filling (between the layers of wafer) of a Kit Kat bar, here’s your answer: it’s not chocolate! It’s actually recycled Kit Kats. Technicians pull any imperfect Kit Kats—with off-center wafers or not enough shine, for example—and then grind them into a paste.

22. President Ronald Reagan loved eating Jelly Belly jelly beans so much that Air Force One was outfitted with special jelly bean holders, lest turbulence cause his beloved beans to spill.

23. Most candy canes are peppermint-flavored, but more adventurous fans can buy candy canes in wacky flavors including wasabi, bacon, coffee, pickles, and gravy.

24. In 2012, a chef in Illinois created the world’s largest candy cane, measuring 51 feet and containing a whopping 900 pounds of sugar.

25. During the Korean War, U.S. soldiers in the First Marine Division used the phrase “Tootsie Rolls” as a codename for mortar shells. But the real candy came in handy when the soldiers used chewed-up Tootsie Rolls to patch holes in their vehicles’ fuel lines.

26. In 2009, Butterfinger jumped on the energy drink bandwagon with Butterfinger Buzz, a candy bar containing 80 mg of caffeine (as much caffeine as a can of Red Bull). But due to low sales, the product was discontinued.

27. Until the ’90s, Snickers bars in the United Kingdom were called Marathon bars.

28. Junior Mints were named after Junior Miss, a Broadway play that ran from 1941 to 1943.

29. To appeal to kids, PEZ turned candy dispensers into toys. The first dispensers geared toward children were shaped like Santa Claus, a robot, and a space gun.

30. Every day, 64 million Tootsie Rolls are made, which means that over 44,440 Tootsie Rolls are created per minute!

31. Haribo, the candy company famous for its gummy bears, is a portmanteau. Creator Hans Riegel combined the first two letters of his first and last name with the first two letters of his hometown: Bonn, Germany.

32. Athletes can munch on Jelly Belly’s Sport Beans, a line of jelly beans containing carbohydrates, electrolytes, B vitamins, and Vitamin C. Who says you can’t eat candy while exercising?

33. The 1920s saw the release of The Vegetable Sandwich bar, a health-oriented candy bar that contained celery, tomatoes, cabbage, and peppers covered in chocolate. But with competition from Baby Ruth, Milky Way, and Milk Duds, it’s no surprise that the vegetable bar didn’t take off.

34. The design of Mary Jane candies—a yellow wrapper with a red stripe and drawing of a young girl—has stayed the same for over 100 years.

35. DOTS are vegan, gluten-free, and kosher.

36. Introduced in 1932, 3 Musketeers was so named because it featured chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla pieces of candy. But vanilla and strawberry (as well as sugar) were scarce during World War II, so 3 Musketeers ditched the vanilla and strawberry to focus on chocolate.

37. Sam Born, the man who founded Just Born candy company in 1923, originally made his fortune by inventing the Born Sucker Machine—a device that would insert sticks into lollipops.

38. It used to take 27 hours to make one Peep, but after automation, now it only takes six minutes. That means the Pennsylvanian factory can pump out 5.5 million Peeps a day!

39. North Dakotans in search of candy cigarettes between 1953 and 1967 were out of luck. The state banned the candy due to concerns that it would encourage kids to smoke real cigarettes.

40. Past PEZ flavors have included pineapple, coffee, cola, and even chlorophyll.

41. Customers in the United Kingdom can buy jars of Twix spread, a Nutella-like spreadable that contains chocolate, caramel, and crunchy pieces of biscuit.

42. The Goelitz Candy Company’s brand of candy corn, which they began producing in 1898, was called “chicken feed,” since real corn kernels were usually only fed to livestock.

43. Even though Twizzlers are known as a “licorice candy,” only the black licorice packages contain licorice extract. The standard strawberry ones are made with corn syrup, enriched wheat flour, and artificial flavoring.

44. If you love snacking on Everlasting Gobstoppers, Runts, and Laffy Taffy, you can partially thank Roald Dahl. Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, the film based on his book Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, was the impetus for Quaker Oats, who agreed to help finance the film, to launch a candy line (which later became The Willy Wonka Candy Company) to bring the imaginative candy creations to life.

45. Every eight hours, Mars’ New Jersey factory produces 2 billion M&M’s.

46. Researchers determined that the Kit Kat jingle—”Gimme a break, Gimme a break, Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar”—is one of the most common earworms. Our apologies that it’s now stuck in your head!

47. Since debuting in 1940, Mike and Ike candy has been made in almost 40 different flavors, from the original fruit mix (orange, cherry, lemon, and lime) to more unusual ones such as cotton candy and root beer float.

48. Salt-water taffy, which was invented in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1880s, was given that name because it was sold as souvenir candy at seaside towns, not because it’s particularly salty or watery.

49. After Curtiss Candy Company owner Otto Schnering achieved success with the Baby Ruth candy bar, he followed it up with Butterfinger, another smash hit.

50. Hershey, Pennsylvania, home to the world headquarters of the Hershey Chocolate Company, was named after a failed naming contest. In 1904, the newly created town hosted a contest to pick its new name, and the winner was “Hersheykoko.” The post office (and many locals, including founder Milton Hershey’s wife) rejected the the name, and they eventually went with the more straightforward “Hershey.”

All images via iStock.

Coffee with a kick: Jack Daniel’s recently announced a line of non-alcoholic coffees infused with the flavor of their famous whiskey.

The company has partnered with World of Coffee to issue 8.8 ounce tins ($21.95) and 1.5 ounce bags ($6.95) in both caffeinated and non-caffeinated varieties. “The distinct caramel and vanilla notes of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey are evident in each sip,” according to the product’s web site.

The boozy coffee is currently available only in the Lynchburg Hardware and General Store in Lynchburg, Tennessee, and from the Jack Daniel’s online store. Or if you’re looking to broaden your coffee horizons without smelling like a distillery, you can check out our list of the Best Roasters in All 50 States.

[h/t Mashable]

Long before we learned that Harriet Tubman would be gracing the $20, Lady Liberty was a common sight on U.S. currency. Now, after a 72-year hiatus, the United States Mint announced they’re reviving the figure like she’s never been seen before. As ABC News reports, a new gold coin will portray Lady Liberty as a woman of color for the first time in history.

The American Liberty High Relief Gold Coin will be released in honor of the U.S. Mint’s 225th anniversary this year. On the front, Lady Liberty is depicted as a black woman in a crown of stars. She’s flanked by two dates: 1792, the year the mint was founded, and the current year, 2017. The reverse side shows an image of an eagle in flight.

The $100, 24-karat gold collector’s coin will be minted at the West Point Mint Facility in New York and released on April 6. This version of Lady Liberty is one of several that will be unveiled in a new series. Gold coins representing Asian-American, Indian-American, and Latina women among others will also be produced, with one coin coming out every two years.

[h/t ABC News]

Happy Friday the 13th! Why is the number 13 considered unlucky, anyway? Here are 13 possible reasons.

1. THERE WERE 13 PEOPLE AT THE LAST SUPPER.

And tradition has held that the 13th to take their seat was either Judas or Jesus himself.

2. MANY BELIEVE EITHER THE LAST SUPPER OR THE CRUCIFIXION OCCURRED ON THE 13TH.

One of the great controversies surround the Last Supper is whether or not it was a Passover meal. John seems to suggest that the meal was eaten the day before Passover, which has led some scholars to date the Last Supper to the 13th of Nisan (a month on the Jewish calendar), while others say that the crucifixion itself was on the 13th of Nisan.

3. BIBLICAL REFERENCES TO THE NUMBER 13 AREN’T ALL THAT POSITIVE.

According to historian Vincent Foster Hopper, one of the people who really pushed 13 as being unlucky was 16th century numerologist Petrus Bungus. Among his reasons? Hopper says that Bungus “records that the Jews murmured 13 times against God in the exodus from Egypt, that the thirteenth psalm concerns wickedness and corruption, that the circumcision of Israel occurred in the thirteenth year.”

4. TRADITIONALLY, THERE WERE 13 STEPS TO THE GALLOWS.

According to popular lore, there are 13 steps leading up to the gallows. Gallows actually varied wildly, but even then, the number was often brought up to 13. A park ranger at Fort Smith Historic Site once said, “[There were] 13 steps on the gallows—12 up, and one down.”

5. THE MASS ARREST AND EXECUTION OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR BEGAN ON FRIDAY THE 13TH.

The Knights Templar, who were widely believed to be protecting the Holy Grail (the cup Jesus drank from at the Last Supper) as well as other holy objects, also acted as a bank of sorts to European kings. But after French King Philip IV lost a war with England and became heavily indebted to the Knights, he conspired with Pope Clement V to have all members of the Knights Templar arrested, charged with Satanism and other crimes, and massacred. The roundup of the Knights Templar began in earnest on Friday, October 13, 1307.

6. WOMEN MENSTRUATE ROUGHLY 13 TIMES A YEAR.

Some suggest that the association with 13 being unlucky is due to women generally having around 13 menstrual cycles a year (based on a cycle length of 28 days).

7. A WITCHES’ COVEN HAS 13 MEMBERS.

Although a coven is now considered to be any group of witches (or vampires, in some tellings), it was once believed that a coven was made up of exactly 13 members.

8. 13 LETTERS IN A NAME MEANS THE PERSON IS CURSED.

There’s an old superstition that says if you have 13 letters in your name, you’re bound to be cursed. Silly, yes, but slightly more convincing when you consider that a number of notorious murderers’ names (Charles Manson, Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy, and Albert De Salvo) all contain 13 letters. And, in case you were wondering: Adolf Hitler’s baptismal name was Adolfus Hitler [PDF].

9. SUPERSTITION HAS MADE FRIDAY THE 13TH TOUGH FOR BUSINESSES.

Friday the 13th is an expensive day for businesses. One analyst claims that around a billion dollars a year are lost as people choose not to do business of any kind on Friday the 13th.

10. 12 IS A PERFECT NUMBER, SO 13 MUST BE UNLUCKY.

In some schools of numerology, the number 12 is considered to be the representation of perfection and completion. It stands to reason, then, that trying to improve upon perfection by adding a digit is a very bad idea indeed—your greed will be rewarded with bad luck.

11. ZOROASTRIAN TRADITION PREDICTS CHAOS IN THE 13TH MILLENNIUM.

The ancient Persians divided history into four chunks of 3000 years. And although the exact timeframes can vary, some scholars feel that at the beginning of the 13,000th year there will be chaos as evil mounts a great battle against good (although good will eventually triumph).

12. SPORTS GREATS WITH JERSEY NUMBER 13 SOMETIMES COME UP SHORT.

Dan Marino is a constant fixture at or near the top of “best quarterbacks to never win a Super Bowl” list. Perhaps his failure to grab the biggest prize in football comes down to his jersey number—13. And he’s not the only example: basketball star Steve Nash was a two-time NBA MVP and is considered one of the all-time great point guards, but he and his #13 jersey never won a championship.

13. SUPER BOWL XIII WAS A HUGE FINANCIAL SETBACK FOR SPORTS BOOKIES.

And keeping with sports, 1979’s Super Bowl XIII was a particularly bad one for bookies. Called “Black Sunday,” it pitted the Dallas Cowboys, the defending champions, against the Pittsburgh Steelers. But as money kept pouring in from Texas and Pennsylvania, the spread kept changing until settling precisely at the game’s actual spread. The losses were legendary.

To counter all of this undue hatred of the poor number 13, here’s one reason to love it: a baker’s dozen. Mmm, extra doughnut.

A version of this story ran in 2010.

In 2005, the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe—which had been sent into space with its mothership, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, to learn more about Saturn and its moons—became the first spacecraft to land on an object in the outer solar system. That object was Titan, a hazy, planet-like moon of Saturn. Now, 12 years after the historic voyage, Mashable reports that NASA has released a video of Huygens’s descent.

Huygens took samples of Titan’s atmosphere and captured hundreds of photos of the moon. These images revealed a new, alien world with rugged mountains, dramatic gorges, and dark drainage channels that were suggestive of liquid methane rivers.

“The Huygens images were everything our images from orbit were not,” planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, who worked as the Cassini imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said in a NASA press release. “Instead of hazy, sinuous features that we could only guess were streams and drainage channels, here was incontrovertible evidence that at some point in Titan’s history—perhaps even now—there were flowing liquid hydrocarbons on the surface. Huygens’s images became a Rosetta Stone for helping us interpret our subsequent findings on Titan.”

The Huygens probe only transmitted data during its descent; after it landed on Titan, it went silent. The Cassini spacecraft has continued to explore Titan from above, capturing images of sand dunes and lakes of liquid methane and ethane. Cassini is currently in its final year of exploration; its mission is slated to end in September 2017.

In the video below, you can relive the Huygens probe’s historic descent, from atmospheric entry to touchdown.

[h/t Mashable]