The company apparently has its roots in the 1940s, when a fellow named Dan Hearn, through trial and error, created the candy called a Peanut Rounder. He tried and tried with peanuts and other ingredients, and made a texture and taste that was unique, along with a “secret ingredient.”

By the way, what’s a good food brand without a “secret ingredient.?”

He did all the work by hand and cooked one batch of candy daily. The brand was purchased by a fellow named Leon Anderson, who started Anderson Candy Company in 1980. According to the Anderson website, he purchased the candy recipe, cooking pot, and the metal ring molds used for making the candy from Hearn, and kept the company and brand in Blossom.

Furthermore, some of them taste different. Did they pay someone to do this? Is this a joke? April Fools is two months’ away!

The pink one tastes all wrong?

Where was the black? The yellow is sort of OK. What’s going on?

Please do not change things that are perfection. When you change things that are perfection, they are, by definition, no longer perfect. They are imperfect.

The packaging is bad, but it is not as much a worry as the packaging can be changed back. What is worrisome is the taste issue.

WBZ has a report on the taste and new recipe. Apparently they have gone all natural, after much research. Can we please stop with the all natural when it screws things up. Or introduce a new “natural” version but don’t screw up the old one? There is no reason why this has to be either/or.

Do other folks sense something is amiss? I will not be buying them any more.

The world’s first bubble gum made in Canada? Does anyone else see a problem with this?

We hope we didn’t read that correctly.

Now, we know there are various reasons for this, namely sugar tariffs in the U.S., and all sorts of other restrictions that make life difficult. But is government any less oppressive in Canada or Mexico, where other sweets are made?

We think Dubble Bubble needs to be made in the U.S. Or else the company needs to protest whatever is keeping production away from here, and position itself as a brand in exile. There is another thing that is annoying. The Fleer name needs to return and be connected to Dubble Bubble. It doesn’t seem right without Fleer. We know there is a long story to Fleer’s separation from Dubble Bubble, but both are not the same without it.

Dubble Bubble is the world’s first bubble gum brand.

A bit of history:

It was invented in 1928 by Walter E. Diemer—an accountant at Fleer Company. After his retirement, Diemer admitted that the recipe was discovered by accident. The company founder, Frank Fleer in 1906, attempted to create a chewing gum which he called Blibber Blubber.

Now we don’t want to criticize Concord Confections, the company that makes Dubble Bubble. Concord is part of Tootsie Roll Industries. Tootsie Roll has an excellent record of keeping all sorts of classic candy brands around, and list classic brands like Nik-L-Nip wax bottles, Razzles, Charleston Chew, Charms Blow Pops, Tootsie Roll Pops (who can forget the ad?), Andes, Junior Mints, Sugar Daddy, Wack-o-Wax fangs, Dots and our favorite, Crows. Tootsie actually purchased Concord in 2004 for $197 million, and they have done an excellent job with the product.

Except that it is not made in the U.S.A.

Frankly, we would like the gum to be made in America, preferably Philadelphia, and in a factory that is open for tours.

Made by F.B. Washburn

BROCKTON, MASS. – Among (and apparently) the nation’s oldest candy makers is F.B. Washburn, founded in 1856. One of the first products of the company was the Waleeco Coconut Bar (associated with Red Sox baseball) and the Wasburn Peanut Bar.

They also made a number of hard candies, including ribbon candy and a type called “peppermint starlights.” During the Depression, the business struggled and a fellow named Harry Gilson took over the company, eventually bringing in his brother Sam.

In 1986, they purchased Sevigny’s, the only other maker of ribbon candy, and kept the brand name. The company is now run by Doug and Jim Gilson.

F.B. Washburn,
137 Perkins Avenue
P.O. Box 3277
Brockton, MA 02304

tel (508) 588-0820

Founded in 1898, their site says that it was in 1938 that the company was started by Viennese chocolatier Stephen Klein. He started Bartons Salon De Chocolat Shops in the New York area.

We are fans of their peppermint bark.

Sadly, they don’t appear to have any of their own retail stores, though their products are sold in retail stores across the country.

They are at:

Bartons Confections
1035 Mill Road
Allentown, PA 18106
800-570-6099

BrandlandUSA.com is the website of business and travel writer and editor Garland Pollard. Contact him about freelance writing and editing; his personal website is at GarlandPollard.com

Walter Bogdon rolled hard candy into sticks, and then decided to dump them into chocolate. Thus was born Bogdon’s Reception Stick.

Many other products of the Bogdon Candy Company Inc. have since been introduced including Mint Double Dips (a spun sugar stick dipped in dark chocolate, drenched again, and wrapped in an elegant silver foil) and other varieties of chocolates including Kahlua and Amaretto flavored candies.

Find out more at www.bogdonschocolates.com.

According to the site, it’s still a family-owned business, with over three generations of Bogdon’s making the candies over an open fire, in only 100-pound batches at a time.

SARASOTA – Looking at the candy that comes in after trick or treating is always a thrill, because there is usually something good in there to steal from your children.

Another reason why we like to look at what comes in is to figure out how candy companies are doing for market share. This year, we at BrandlandUSA decided to add it up.

We took a highly unscientific sample of candy, namely about 45 pieces that remained from a 4-year-old’s pumpkin. We could assume that some of the good stuff (namely Milky Way and Hershey bars) had been removed. But we could also assume that the remainder had been well pillaged by a number of demographic groups, including teens and adults. So we didn’t feel the need to weight the results, though the numbers are probably screwed up somewhere. For instance, all the Reese’s disappeared (yours truly and others) but so did many of the Wonka Runts.

So what was the breakdown? Nestle was the winner, not only for its chocolates but its lineup of Wonka candies. Here is the list:

• 29%  Nestlé (including Wonka’s Pixy Stix, SweeTarts, Laffy Taffy, Runts, etc.)
• 22%  Miscellaneous hard candy
• 18%  Mars (M&M, Milky Way, etc.)
• 15%  Tootsie (including Tootsie, Charms Blow Pops, Dots, Double Bubble etc)
•  7%  Hershey (Hershey bar, Milk Duds)
•  2%  Con Agra (Act II Popcorn Ball)
•  2%  Perfetti Van Melle (Air Heads)
•  2%  Utz (tiny bag of Halloween pretzels)

By the way, if you want to read a great story of the history of Wonka Candy, take a read of the BrandlandUSA story entitled How Wonka Candy Was Born.

“I remember Fancy Fruit Life Savers being my favorites as a boy and I cannot seem to find them anywhere … Discontinued? What’s the story? I’ve seen Tropical Fruits available but rarely … Hmmm”

Yes,  you are not imagining things, dear BrandlandUSA Reader. Life Savers are a declining brand, and it has nothing to do with consumers who still like the brand, and everything to do with a great American brand that has been lost in the shuffle of corporate shell games. In fact, what has happened to the brand is nothing more than a national tragedy. Well, that’s a bit overstated. But if you want Life Savers,  you have to buy them wrapped. Or from a specialty store. Most 7-Eleven and Walgreen’s stores don’t stock the rolls anymore.

The candy was invented by Clarence Crane, who started selling Peppermint Life Savers in Cleveland around 1913. He sold the company to a fellow named Edward Noble, who figured out how to wrap the mints in foil to preserve taste, and put them by registers. Noble later bought ABC Television in 1943. E.R. Squibb Corporation purchased the company and in 1981, Nabisco Brands Inc. bought the company. It became part of Kraft when Nabisco and General Foods merged into Kraft. It is now part of Wrigley, which has recently agreed to be purchased by Mars. We hope Mars can extract some value out of the brand and make its presence in checkout lines more consistent.

Original flavors we know of include:

• Pep-O-Mint
• Wint-O-Green
• Five Flavors
• Wild Cherry
• Butter Rum
• Fancy Fruit
• Tropical Fruit
• Chryst-O-Mints
• Spear-O-mint
• Sweet Mint
• Orange Mints

Spin off brands include:

• Life Savers Gummies (previously known as Gummi Savers),
• Life Saver Minis
• Life Saver Fusions
• Creme Savers (ICK ICK ICK)

Wrigley bought the company from Kraft in 2004, along with Altoids and some factories. Even before the Wrigley purchase, the candy was in decline, and the candies are not on most shelves, including obvious places like Walgreen’s. From what we read, they are no longer made in the U.S. (for years they were associated with Port Chester, N.Y.) However, bagged and individually wrapped Life Savers are available, as are Gummi Savers. Nationally, we have found that independent drug stores are good places to find the foil rolls. And last Christmas, we found the Life Savers Sweet Story Books again on the Christmas candy shelves.

We found them online at the following sites:

• www.candydirect.com
• www.groovycandies.com
• www.candyfavorites.com