Bubble Gum

Chewing gum has been around for a very long time, dating back almost 9,000 years ago! There is some evidence that North Europeans were chewing birch bark tar for enjoyment and possibly to relieve toothaches. The Ancient Mayan and Aztec chewed on chicle which comes from sapodilla trees while in North America Indians chewed on spruce tree resin which continued with European settlers.

In 1840 John Curtis developed the first commercial spruce tree gum and in the 1850's he made the first chewing gum factory. But, spruce tree gum did not do well because it didn't taste that good and would become brittle when chewing which lead to the switch to paraffin wax. Soon after that Thomas Addams got his hands on chicle which helped him form a chewing gum company around 1880 but in the mid 1900's all gum manufactures had switched to synthetic materials.

Competition soared in the gum industry and every gum manufacturer was trying to develop new gum or ways to sell their gum to beat out their competition. Frank Fleer who had been in the gum industry since around 1885 wanted his product to stand out so he worked long and hard on trying to make a product that could blow bubbles. In 1906 he developed a chewing gum called Blibber-Bubbler but it was too sticky to blow into bubbles. It wasn't until 1928 that a Fleer employee named Walter Diemer accidentally made the right concoction to create the perfect bubble with chewing gum! It was named Dubble-Bubble

Walter Diemer wanted to test his new recipe so he took some gum over to a local store and it sold out by the end of the first day! To help sell the new gum Diemer taught store salesmen how to blow the perfect bubble so they could show people coming in who were interested.

Today gum is sold in many different flavors and shapes but Bubble Gum is usually pink, just like it was when Diemer first invited Dubble-Bubble.

Source: http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/chew-on-this-the-history-of-gum

-SugarPop's Candy & Soda
248 N. Main Street
Historic Downtown
Mooresville, NC
(704)799-0959

Chupa Chups

Chupa chups have been around for quite some time! These lollipops come in a very wide variety from their classic flavors to filled lollipops and ice cream flavors! With their brightly colored fun wrapping and diverse flavors, no wonder they have been around for 50+ years!

Chupa chups came out in 1958 and were created by a man named Enric Bernat. During the 50's candies of different colors, shapes, and sizes were widely popular but they were all missing something- a stick. Kids would often take the candy out of their mouth to observe the changing colors , show their friends, or save for later in their pockets. You can imagine the mess it would make. Enric came up with the idea of putting a stick in his Chupa Chups to keep the mess to a minimal and make it more appealing to consumers.

Enric didn't come up with the quirky name Chupa chups. Originally he wanted the candy to be football shaped and name it "GOL" because of the shape and when you put it in your mouth it would be like scoring a goal. When he didn't like the name he hired an advertising team to come up with the name and create a jingle to go with it.

The Chupa Chups logo went through a couple changes before Salvador Dali had a creative revelation in 1988 and changed the logo to the bright a cheery daisy shape it is today. In 2008 Chupa Chups celebrated their 50th anniversary and held special events throughout the year in different countries world wide like Germany, France, the Philippines and finished with an MTV concert in Barcelona.

-SugarPop's Candy and Soda shop
248 N. Main Street
Mooresville, NC
704-799-0959

Red Hots or Cinnamon Imperials?

Red Hots or Cinnamon Imperials are a candy that everyone is familiar with. With their bright red color and spicy cinnamon smell and taste its hard to overlook this delicious candy! 

This spicy candy has been around for ages! Ferrara Pan Candy company was the first to manufacture these candies under the name of Cinnamon Imperials in 1932. Ferrara Pan Candy company is still the one and only company to manufacture the now Red Hots, once Cinnamon Imperials. Cinnamon Imperials are now sold as a general brand by many candy distributers.

Since Red Hots have been around since 1932 they have a large fan base! Not only can you eat these candies in their natural form but people are now using them to spice up their Jell-O or apple sauce to give it a nice spicy cinnamon flavor! Do you have any special Red Hot recipes?

-SugarPop's Candy&Soda shop
248 N Main St 
Mooresville, NC 28115 (704) 799-0959

Candy facts you probably didn't know!

1.) Dum Dum's mystery flavor is always a combination of two different flavors. Instead of cleaning out the flavoring from the machine before switching to the next flavor they just let it run and sell the mixture as the mystery flavor. That means it will always be different!

2.) There was a hotline set up for parents that were concerned about their children exploding because of eating a combination of Pop Rocks and soda. You can check it on the Pop Rocks FAQ.

3.) Tootsie Rolls were once marketed as a health food.

4.) Sugar isn't what rots your teeth! The streptococcus bacteria in your mouth like to munch on the sugar but the acid they secrete is what rots your teeth. Luckily saliva cuts down the acid so if you have five candy bars its better to eat them all at once instead of throughout the week because you will produce more saliva to cut the acid down. Moral of the story, eat all your candy at once!

5.) Nestle originally sold baby formula

6.) Candy is a health scape goat. 100 years ago doctors blamed candy for the spread of Polio.

7.) In 1943 Tootsie Roll created an advertisement featuring two super heroes: Captain Tootsie and his sidekick Rollo.

8.) The candy forest and chocolate river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was actually edible! The producer wanted the kids and parents to have a genuine reaction! The only thing that wasn't edible was the tea cup Gene Wilder bit into. Later it was made with real sugar for the scene. 

9.) The PB max bar was discontinued because the executive and Mars family member Alfred Poe had a distaste for peanut butter. 

-SugarPop's Candy and Soda