Star Burst

Starburst (originally known as Opal Fruits) is the brand name of a cuboid-shaped, fruit-flavoured soft taffy candy manufactured by The Wrigley Company, a subsidiary of Mars, Incorporated. Starburst also exist as jellybeans (known as Joosters), lollipops, gummies, hard candy, candy canes, and lip gloss (the latter in a partnership with Lip Smackers (Chapstick)). The sweets are not vegetarian-friendly. The Starburst brand was introduced by Mars in 1960  as Opal Fruits. The four original flavors were Strawberry, Lemon,orange, and lime. In the 1970s Opal Fruits were well known for their advertising tag line "Opal Fruits! Made to make your mouth water. Fresh with the tang of citrus. Orange! Lemon! Cherry! Strawberry!" Opal Fruits were introduced in the United States in 1967^[1] as Starburst. Originally, Starburst came in the same flavors as Opal Fruits and the first variant, "Sunshine Flavors," later renamed "Tropical Opal Fruits", was released thereafter. In Europe, Lemon and Lime were combined to become "Lemon and Lime" to make room for a Blackcurrant flavor. The brand name 'Opal Fruits' was phased out in the UK, followed byIreland in 1998 in order to standardize the product in a globalized marketplace; though some lament the loss of brand identity, many people in the UK still refer to Starburst as Opal Fruits. In 2008, the supermarket chain Asda revived the original Opal Fruits in the UK for a period of 12 weeks starting May 10, 2008.  On October 6, 2008, Mars acquired Wrigley, and transferred Mars' non-chocolate candy brands, including Starburst, to the Wrigley subsidiary.^[3] In the US, Starburst are manufactured in Waco, Texas.

The original flavors are now branded "Original Fruits", and Starburst now comes in several assortments: Limited Edition Retro Fruits, Tropical, Baja California, Sour, Strawberry Mix, and Berries & Creme. Among the additional flavors are Kiwi, Banana, Plum,Passion Fruit, Raspberry, Strawberry-Banana, Mango, Melon, Tropical Punch, Green Apple, Blue Raspberry, Watermelon, Mixed Berries & Cream, Peaches & Cream, Orange Cream, and Strawberry & Cream. Europe also has the "Sour" assortment, which includes Apple, Cherry, Pineapple and Raspberry, as well as Strawberry Mix. As of early 2010 it was decided that Strawberry was the most popular flavor in the United Kingdom.

Nerds (1 of my favs!)

Nerds are a form of candy currently sold by Nestlé under their Willy Wonka Candy Company brand. Nerds were first created and then launched in 1983 by Kevin Ruby Deering, who was Brand Manager, eventually becoming Vice President of Marketing and Technical Services until he left in 1992. Robert Boutin led his team with the product development and commercialization of Nerds. Nerds became the "Candy of the Year" in 1985 by NCWA. Angelo Fraggos was also responsible for the creation of Runts in 1985. Nerds are small irregularly-shaped sweets that come in a variety of flavors and are usually sold in a box that has two separate flavors, each with a separate opening mechanism. Nerds are anthropomorphized on the cover of its distinctive box package. The separation of two distinct flavors in one commodity has generated success for Nerds.

Types

Nerds

Nerds are of varied flavors and varied colors, ranging from extremely sweet to extremely sour; often the two flavors in one box will contrast, and a single flavor may even exhibit both extremes. They are thickly glazed with carnauba wax, which gives them a hard bite and a gloss. The nucleus of each candy is composed of one or more complete sucrose crystals. These optically clearmonoclinic crystals are about 0.2–1 mm in length and help define the irregular shape. A Nerds breakfast cereal based on this concept appeared in the 1980s, but had a short life. Sour Nerds have recently been produced. The first release contained the flavors Lightning Lemon and Amped Apple. The second released package featured Shocking Strawberry and Electric Blue. There are three more varieties of flavors. Today's standard box of Nerds has purple and pink colored Nerds.

There are also several Nerds spin-off products by Willy Wonka:

• Giant Chewy Nerds have a chewy jelly bean center with a bumpy, crunchy nerd shell. They're the same product as the jellybeans, but available year around. Also known as "Future Nerds".
• Nerds Rope consists of a soft candy string with a variety of Nerds attached to the outside. It comes in original, berry and tropical flavors. Nerds rope comes only one to a package but there are rumors that there may be two to a pack in the future.
• Rainbow Nerds is a box of regular Nerds of multiple flavors, with no partition or organization.
• Jumbo Nerds is a box of regular Nerds of multiple flavors which are much larger than regular Nerds. The box depicts one jumbo nerd on a teeter-totter with several regular sized nerds trying to counter its weight.
• Nerds Gum Balls are bubble gum balls filled with multiple flavors of Nerds on the inside.
• Theme Nerds are sometimes manufactured seasonally for holidays such as Halloween or Valentine's Day with names such as "Spooky Nerds". Flavors can include fruit punch, strawberry, and orange.
• Nerds Cereal, a now discontinued breakfast cereal that, like the candy, featured two separated flavors to a box. The cereal came with a mail-in offer for a Nerds cerealbowl, which also could be divided in two like a standard Nerds box.
• Techno-Nerds, a lesser-known variety, was composed of three compartments; green, blue, yellow, and multicolored.
• Nerds Gum consisted of pieces that looked like regular Nerds, but were actually bubble gum. The box featured a Nerd floating away with a bubble gum bubble.
• Dweebs, now discontinued, were a soft, chewy version of Nerds released mid-90s, that contained three separate flavors rather than two. Dweebs were available only for a short time.
• Neon Nerds were introduced in 1996.
• Nerd Jelly Beans, produced for Easter, are jelly beans with a coating of carnauba wax, which makes them taste like Nerds.

Throughout the 1980s several new flavors of Nerds were introduced from time to time; for example, "Hot and Cold" Nerds (cinnamon & wintergreen flavored), Blueberry and Raspberry (Blueberry can still be found in large packages of Rainbow Nerds), and Lemon and Lime.

Reese's Pieces

       Reese's Pieces are a peanut butter flavored candy manufactured by The Hershey Company for the North American market; they are also available in Ireland & England. They are circular in shape and covered in candy shells that are colored either yellow, orange, or brown. They can be purchased in plastic packets, cardboard boxes, or cup-shaped travel containers. The candy was introduced in 1978 and launched throughout the United States in 1980. The relatively new product became very popular with the 1982 release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, in which the candy is featured. Reese's Pieces are a product extension of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups line; this new product was designed to capitalize on the success of the chocolate-covered peanut butter cups. The candies were first manufactured using panning machines that had been used to make Hershey-ets, a chocolate-filled candy that had been discontinued. Designers knew that they wanted a peanut-flavored candy but had some problems with the filling. Original plans called for filling the candy shells with peanut butter, but the oil leaked out into the shell, leaving it soft, rather than crunchy. The developer of the project turned the problem over to a team of outside scientists, who created a peanut-flavored penuche filling. More experimentation was needed to determine the correct thickness of the shell. Finally, the colors of the candy coating were designed to coordinate with the color of the Reese's package.

YEAH!

Laffy Taffy

         Laffy Taffy is a brand of taffy manufactured by Nestlé and sold under their Willy Wonka Candy Company brand. Laffy Taffy is a brand of candy first produced in the 1970s. The candies are small (about 1.5 oz or 45 g) individually wrappedtaffy available in a variety of long-lasting fruit flavors, as well as a chocolate mousse flavor. In 2003, Wonka introduced a variety called "Flavor Flippers", a piece of taffy that had a soft center with a different flavor.

The name refers to both the texture of the taffy as well as its embodiment of silliness; the outside of each wrapper has at least one joke. For example: "What do you call a cow with no legs? -- Ground Beef." Some jokes are pun-based, such as "What is Labor Day? -- That's when mommies have their babies." Other jokes are based on silly word play, such as "What's an owl's favorite subject? -- Owlgebra." These jokes are usually sent in by children who are credited on the wrapper. Laffy Taffy used to come in thick, square shaped pieces, but today, it is sold in thinner, rectangular shaped pieces. The taffy is also made with artificial flavoring.

cherry taffy

Kit Kat

international logo

USA logo

      A Kit Kat is a chocolate confection that was created by Rowntree's of York, England, and is now produced worldwide by Nestlé, which acquired Rowntree in 1988, except in the United States where it is made under license by The Hershey Company. Each bar consists of fingers composed of three layers of wafer, covered in an outer layer of chocolate. Each finger can be snapped from the bar one at a time. Variants in the traditional chocolate bar first appeared in the 1990s. 1996 introduced 'Kit Kat Orange', the first flavour variant, in the United Kingdom. Its success was followed by several varieties including mint and caramel, and in 1999 'Kit Kat Chunky' was launched and received favourably by international consumers. Variations on the traditional 'Kit Kat' have continued to develop throughout the 2000s. In 2000, Nestlé acquired Fujiya’s share of the brand in Japan, and also expanded its marketplace in Bulgaria, Russia, Turkey and Venezuela, in addition to markets in Eastern and Central Europe. Throughout the decade, 'Kit Kat' has introduced dozens of flavors and variations within specific consumer markets, and celebrated its 75th anniversary on the 10th of October, 2010. In 2010 a new GBP 5 million manufacturing line was opened by Nestlé in York UK. This will produce more than a billion Kit Kat bars each year.

          David Klein, who is the subject of the 2010 documentary film Candyman: The David Klein Story, created the marketing concept of a new kind of jelly bean to be sold in single flavors in 1976. David approached Herman Goelitz Candy Company and appointed them as his only contract manufacturer. David told them to make him a mini gourmet jelly bean that he would call Jelly Belly. David asked his manufacturer to make this jelly bean using natural flavors if possible and to flavor the inside as well as the outside shell. Kathy Fosselman designed the Jelly Belly logo which is still being used today. David became Mr. Jelly Belly for the next four years. The product got off to a very slow start because the $2 per pound retail price was considered very high. The product achieved a great deal of exposure due to a nationwide publicity campaign including an article in People magazine which featured a full page photo of David taking a bath in Jelly Bellies and several appearances on national television shows by David. Traditional jelly beans started out with plain, uncolored pectin centers that were merely sweetened with sugar. Only the outer candy coating was colored and flavored. The third and fourth generation of the candy family decided to produce a superior jelly bean to set itself off from traditional jelly beans. The centers for the company's mini jelly bean were colored and flavored. This flavor enhancing process was also used on the outer candy shell. With the new generation of Jelly Belly beans the company used realfruit juices and natural flavors when possible to boost the taste experience further. The finished Jelly Belly beans contained about half the sugar of the regular jelly bean, and were more flavorful than the generic jelly beans sold in stores.David Klein sold the first Jelly Belly jelly beans in an ice cream parlor, Fosselman's, in Alhambra, California in 1976. The first flavors were Very Cherry, Tangerine, Lemon, Green Apple, Grape Jelly, Licorice, A&W Root Beer, and A&W Cream Soda. Total sales for the first seven day period was $44. The product was selling for $2 per pound which was considered a very high price at the time. The company's official mascot is Mr. Jelly Belly, an anthropomorphic cartoon jellybean character with a face. He appears on the packaging and marketing since his introduction in 1996.

Skittles

         Skittles were first made commercially in 1974 by a British company. They were first introduced in North America in 1979 as an import confectionery. In 1982, domestic production of Skittles began in the United States. On March 2, 2009, Skittles launched a web-based marketing campaign where their official website became a small overlay with options to view different social media sites in the main area, including its official YouTubechannel, a Facebook profile, and a Twitter account. Skittles are produced in a wide variety of flavours and colours, including sour varieties. Recently, Skittles has been hinting at a new flavour release on their Facebook Page; using such statuses as "Locking myself in the Rainbow kitchen until I see some results!". A recent posting contained confirmation of a new flavor ("Putting the last touches on a new Skittles flavor. Tweak the Rainbow").  

Whats your favorite?????