(FoxNews) – Before it was known as “candy corn” — and more than a
hundred years before it was crowned the “worst” Halloween candy in
a 2019 poll — the triangular, tri-colored treat went by a much different,
less-alliterative name.

The original recipe for what’s now known as “candy corn” is said to
have been invented sometime in the 1880s, according to popular belief,
by an employee of the Wunderle Candy Company. (The Wunderle Candy
Company puts the exact date at 1888, and says an employee named
George Renninger came up with the idea.)

Wunderle wasn’t the only company to hop on the candy corn craze. The
Goelitz Candy Company — which later became Jelly Belly — began
producing the treats by the turn of the 20th century, marketing them 
under the name “Chicken Feed,” according to a 2015 report published
in National Geographic.

The 1898 packaging design for Goelitz Candy Corn.  (Jelly Bean)

Necco Wafers are a candy made by the United States-based New England Confectionery Company (Necco). The wafers were first produced in 1847
and are considered by Necco to be its core product. Each roll of Necco
Wafers contains eight flavors: lemon (yellow), lime (green), orange (orange),
clove (purple), cinnamon (white), wintergreen (pink), licorice (black), and
chocolate (brown). The ingredients in Necco Wafers are sugar, corn syrup,
gelatin, gums, colorings, and flavorings.

Oliver Chase, an English immigrant, invented a lozenge cutting machine
with which he produced the wafers. At the time of the Civil War, these were
originally called "hub wafers" and were carried by Union soldiers. In 1901,
Chase and Company merged with two other companies to incorporate the
New England Confectionery Company. By 1912 the wafers were being
advertised as "Necco Wafers", a name they still carry today.

An artists depiction of Necco’s founder Oliver Chase in
1847 with his lozenge cutter machine.

 
The New England Candy Company factory is based in Revere, MA.

Milton Snavely Hershey (September 13, 1857 – October 13, 1945)

Businessman and philanthropist Milton S. Hershey founded the Hershey
Chocolate Company in 1905. In his early years he helped out on the family
farm. When Milton was in his 20s, he would accompany his father on business 
trips. Hershey supplied chocolates for the U.S. troops during WWII. Rather
than Hershey’s Bars, they were called Ration-D Bars.

The first cookie sales by an individual Scout unit was by the Mistletoe Troop
in Oklahoma, in December 1917 at their local high school. In 1922, the Girl
Scout magazine The American Girl suggested cookie sales as a fund-raiser,
providing a simple cookie recipe from a regional director for the Girl Scouts
of Chicago.

Six types of cookies were being sold nationwide by 1956 and today, up to 28
varieties of Girl Scout cookies are offered. As of 2007, sales were estimated
at about 200 million boxes per year.

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