Candy’s Sweet Little Secrets

Candies, sweets, and bubblegum are a part of American culture. A baseball stadium in Chicago is named for a chewing gum company, and a town in Pennsylvania is known as “The Sweetest Place on Earth.” Here are some tidbits about candy and gum in America you may not be aware of.

It Is Legal to Sell Candy Cigarettes

Although there have been several efforts to ban the sale of candy cigarettes, they remain legal. The largest producer of the confection is World Confections of New Jersey.

Big League Chew Was Invented by a Ball Player

A minor league baseball player and a batboy from Portland created Big League Chew, a bubblegum designed like chewing tobacco. Since its 1980 debut, over 800 million pouches of this shredded gum have been sold. The original demo product actually used an office paper shredder to shred sheets of bubble gum.

The Sweetest Place on Earth

Milton Hershey started his chocolate company just east of Harrisburgh in what is now named Hershey, Pennsylvania. A few years after opening his candy factory, he created a large green space for his employees to enjoy. This is now Hersheypark, a major amusement park. Milton had a reputation for being thoughtful and generous.

It Wasn’t Always Wrigley Field

When William Wrigley Jr. purchased the Chicago Cubs in 1921, the team played at Cubs Park. It was renamed Wrigley Field after the owner in 1927. Today, Wrigley Chewing Gum maintains a 35% market share of all gum sold in the world.

We Love Our Holidays and Our Candy

More candy is sold for Halloween than for any other holiday in America. We spend about $2 billion annually on Halloween candy. Easter is a close second at $1.9 billion, with Christmas accounting for $1.4 billion in sales. Valentine’s Day sales of candy reach about $1 billion each year.

Sweets have long been a way we celebrate and share good times. Even sour candies have carved their niche in the market.

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