Can You Name These Unwrapped Candies From an Image?

By: Jody Mabry
Image: Shutterstock

About This Quiz

Candy and chocolate bars are enjoyed by children and adults the world over, but how well do you know your favorite candies? In 1847, the first chocolate bar was made by Joseph Fry and his son from a simple cocoa powder and sugar paste. Just two years later, John Cadbury introduced his line of chocolates to the world. Since then, not only have we continued to enjoy those candies, but we were also introduced to new sweet treats like mint and rock candy, lollipops and suckers, bubble gum and taffy, jelly beans, ever-popular red licorice and everything in between. We even have sugar-free varieties of candy available these days!

Some of us eat these treats very often...maybe too often? Kidding! There's no such thing! Given our love of sweet treats, it shouldn't be very difficult to recognize them without their iconic wrappers, right? But will you really be able to tell your peppermint patties from your chocolate-covered caramel discs? Make it a challenge, and get all of your candy-loving friends to take the quiz to see who among them is the real candy king or queen!

This chocolate-dipped wafer treat sells over 17.6-billion units (or as they call them, "fingers") every year. While worldwide there are several variations of a Kit Kat, no country produces more than Japan who has introduced over 200 flavors including: wasabi, lemon vinegar, matcha green tea and cucumber. Sizes range from single to four-finger packs, as well as single finger treats about 1/3rd the length of a normal finger.

Lemonheads were first sold in 1962, and lemon was the only flavor. Now, they sell other flavors such as grape, apple and cherry. They're made by the same company that makes Red Hots! Lemonheads are one centimeter long; a perfect piece of trivia for your next party!

The two factories that make Smarties produce over 70,000 pounds of the candy each and every day. There are over a dozen fun varieties of Smarties candy, but those finger-length rolls remain the most popular. Don't feel too guilty when you steal a roll from your children on Halloween; one roll of 15 candies has only 25 calories.

While Twizzlers are known as licorice, it is only the black candies made with anise oil and licorice-root extract which are a true licorice. These are technically strawberry-flavored candies that are just shaped and textured like the real deal. However, that little fact isn't going to put a dent in the sales of America's second favorite movie treat. The first, of course, is popcorn.

These candies carry the nostalgic feel of a 19th-century candy shop. In fact, they are named for the small town of Werther, Germany where they were first produced in 1903. Until the 1990s, they weren't called "Werther's Original," but rather, "Werthers Echte," but they manufacturers thought they'd sell more easily with a less foreign sounding name.

We'll admit it! It's a little weird when no one knows exactly where one of the world's most popular treats came from. There is little, if any, mention of them until the American Civil War, where they were promoted for use to Union soldiers. Then, Jelly Beans weren't mentioned again in print until the summer of 1905. Have you ever been curious about how many Jelly Beans are made each year? Well, to give you an idea, there are over 16 billion consumed... just for Easter.

If you are a fan of the hit 90s TV sitcom, "Seinfeld," you will remember the episode where Kramer dropped a Junior Mint into a man's body during surgery. Junior Mints are one of America's favorite movie snacks. In fact, they got their start in entertainment, as they were named after the Broadway show, "Junior Miss," as a marketing venture. It worked.

What is more nostalgic than using a spoon to pry pre-opened Root Beer Barrels from grandma's candy dish on Sunday afternoons? Root Beer Barrels are known for their historic flavor dating back to the 1700s, when farmers would harvest the sassafras root into what would eventually become one of America's favorite flavored sodas. Root beer, itself, was invented in Philadelphia in 1875.

This British candy was introduced in 1967, but didn't make it across the pond until 1979. The name is actually a portmanteau of "twin biscuit sticks." Why biscuit, you may ask? Because in the UK, the term "biscuit" means the same thing as "cookie" in the United States.

It's always interesting to find out how candy companies name their candies. For PEZ, the name comes by taking three letters from the German word for peppermint: PfeffErminZ. While known for their popular head dispensers (over 550 to date) the original dispensers, known as "regulars," were originally marketed as an alternative to smoking. They were shaped like cigarette lighters.

In the early 1970s, a study came out reporting that a popular red food dye could lead to cancer in adults. As a preemptive way to avoid sales loss, the company removed red M&Ms from their supply for nearly a decade, even though they used a different dye. In 1982, a student at the University of Tennessee created the "Society for the Restoration and Preservation of Red M&M's." In 1987, Mars was once again producing the long-missed candy.

Toblerone was created in 1908 and was the first flagship chocolate candy bar with a filling: nougat, almonds and honey. This trend-setting candy is filled with more than delicious chocolate; it has a bit of hidden meaning in its production. The unique triangle shape of each piece represents a cabaret hall in Paris where dancers formed a pyramid at the end of the show.

In 1989, PayDay had a truly unique marketing campaign when each bar came with an individually wrapped nickel. The bar, which has a center of caramel and a coating of roasted, salted peanuts, was invented in 1932.

When talking about screw-ups, you might be surprised to hear that Mars (and their popular candy, M&Ms) made one of the biggest blunders in candy marketing...ever! M&Ms were originally asked to be included in the movie, "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial." They declined, and Hershey stepped in with their popular hard-shell peanut butter candy, Reese's Pieces. How well did they fare? Estimates say their sales were up well-over 300% once the movie was released.

Snickers is the best-selling candy bar in the entire world, with over 15 million bars produced each day. Snickers has been known to jump onto the blockbuster movie bandwagon, having produced green-filled Snickers for the movie "Shrek" and adventure bars for "Indiana Jones."

Brought to you by Ferrara Candy Company, the same company that produces, Lemonheads, the Atomic Fireball was one of the few candies to take advantage of Cold War marketing. The Atomic Fireball came out in 1954, as the Soviet Union and the United States were in the midst of what would become a decades-long ideological struggle. The Atomic Fireball is around 3500 points on the Scoville Scale, about the same spiciness as cayenne pepper.

NECCO stands for the "New England Confectionary Company." Formed in 1847, NECCO is known as the oldest candy company in America. In 2009, the company switched their manufacturing to all-natural ingredients. Unfortunately, for those who love lime, you're out of luck. The company couldn't find a good all-natural ingredients for this flavor, so the flavor was eliminated.

The name, Jolly Rancher, was created to emphasize a fun Western company. They were originally manufactured in Colorado starting in 1949. There were only three original flavors: Fire Stix, watermelon and apple.

Well before Bart Simpson was promoting this candy bar, it needed a name befitting of its unique place in the confectionery canon. In 1923, the Curtiss Candy Company sponsored a contest for their newest candy bar. Taking advantage of a new term sportscasters used to refer to athletes who couldn't hold onto a ball, the winning contestant suggested the name "Butterfinger."

As far as candy goes, Starburst is one of the youngest popular candies on the market, not coming to the America's until the 70s. While you probably don't need an excuse to eat your Starburst, if you do, pull out the vitamin C card! Each piece of Starburst has 4.4% of your daily vitamin C requirements. That's only about 450 calories of Starburst to get 100% of your daily vitamin C needs (based on a 2000 calorie diet, of course.)

Along with big-hair bands, vibrant colors and the Brat pack, there was a new candy on the market: Nerds. In 1983, the candy took advantage of a common term to top the candy industry charts. These sweet and tart teeny-tiny candies originally came in twin packs: cherry/orange and strawberry/grape. However, as the popularity grew, so did the varieties.

If you take chocolate, peanut butter, peanuts, caramel and pretzels and put them into the same candy bar, you have a Take 5. Hitting the market in 2004, Hershey was quick to partner with NASCAR in the Hershey's Take 5 300 NASCAR Busch Series race featuring their own Take 5 Chevy race-car.

We love Gumdrops so much that every year people can't wait to decorate their gingerbread houses with them. Gumdrops are a chewy and sugary gelatin-style treat invented in 1801 by Percy Trusdale. Gumdrops were so popular in the early 20th-century, that they were featured on the iconic board game, Candyland. After all, who wouldn't want to go to Gumdrop Pass or Gumdrop Mountain?

Sugar Babies, chewy milk caramels, were invented in 1935 in Jamaica and were soon followed by Sugar Daddy and Sugar Mama candies. While the company will let you make your own innuendos into the name, the naming of these little candies actually comes from the Artie Malvin song, "Let Me Be Your Sugar Baby."

Who doesn't love iconic TV game shows? Nestle loved them so much that they named a candy bar after them, the $100,000 bar. After some popular rebranding in the early 80s this nougat-filled, crispy-chocolate bar was renamed 100 Grand. When Nestle introduced the candy bar to South Africa, they took into consideration the value of $100,000 USD to the nation and renamed the bar the $1,000,000 bar.

Warheads were first produced in Taiwan and made their way to American shelves in the early 90s. With an extreme burst of tart and sour, these sugary treats gained popularity shortly after the 80s sour-candy boom which introduced popular treats like Nerds. The name is derived from the notion of a "warhead" exploding in your mouth, and if you've ever had one, you know that's not far off.

Bit-O-Honey is one of the most nostalgic candies still on the market. This honey-flavored taffy mixed with bits of almond hit the shelves in 1924. It was originally made by the Schutter-Johnson Company, which after numerous mergers and sales, eventually ended up as a property of the Pearson's Candy Company.

Known as Very Bad Kids in France, Sour Patch Kids (originally Mars Men) were created by Frank Galatolie. In 2011, a video game was created that was based on the candies. It was called "World Gone Sour."

Mr. Goodbar is a candy bar containing peanuts and chocolate, whose packaging is identifiable by its yellow background and red text. It is manufactured by The Hershey Company and was introduced in 1925. Although the Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar with Almonds had been produced since 1908, Milton Hershey initially did not want the Hershey brand name associated with a chocolate bar that contained peanuts, so it was introduced as being produced by the "Chocolate Sales Corporation".

Blow Pops were the Charms Company's best selling product. The company was eventually sold to the Tootsie Roll Company which added Blow Pops to their Tootsie Pops line. This made Tootsie Roll the world's leading producer of lollipops.

While the Hoffman Company tried their hardest to produce perfectly shaped caramel and chocolate candies, they couldn't and referred to them as duds. In 1928, when Milton Holloway purchased the Hoffman Company, he simply combined the use of milk along with the name "duds" to form Hoffman's Milk Duds.

These Italian chocolate eggs contain a small toy in the center, and sometimes an internet code, which children can use after they've eaten the egg. Due to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which essentially bans candy with non-candy items inside, you can only get a Kinder Joy variant in the United States, which has a separate compartment containing the toy. While available in both Canada and Mexico, it is still illegal to import original Kinder Eggs into the United States.

Originally intended to be a drink mix, it was quickly realized that kids preferred the sugary mix as a candy. Once it was decided that it was going to be sold as a candy, it was originally marketed as Lik-M-Aid (which you probably recognize as a separate candy.) Roughly 15 years after it was invented, it was packaged in straws and sold as Pixy Stix, while Lik-A-Maid was packaged with a dipping stick and renamed, Fun Dip.

Hershey was trying to expand on the success of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups when they introduced the nutty, peanut-buttery Nutrageous. While it was originally meant to be sold as the "Acclaim" bar, focus groups were quick to put the kibosh on that name.

Toxic Waste candies came out with unique containers fashioned as toxic waste drums. Deemed as being so sour they could only be named after toxic waste, the candy quickly emerged as a top-seller among sour candies. This two-part sour outer shell and liquid filling is only one candy in the Toxic Waste product line.

Abba-Zaba bars have been around since the 1920s. While not as widely distributed as other popular candy bars, the Abba-Zaba has a unique cult following and has been featured throughout popular culture on such shows as "Two and a Half Men," "American Dad" and "Boardwalk Empire." While difficult to find East of the Rockies, the candy bar is popular in specialty candy shops throughout the West.

Living in America, you may have never heard of these candy bars. However, they are popular in nearly any other English-speaking nation. These candy bars have a unique hard spongy toffee on the inside and are dipped in milk chocolate. Over the years, there have been several flavors and varieties; from a bar with pop-rocks inside to a lemonade bar and a brandy-flavored bar.

Have you ever wondered about the naming of the 3 Musketeers candy bar? It may not be as obvious now as it was when first produced. When the bars first came on the market in the 1930s, there were actually three small chocolate bars in each pack, and there were three different flavors available: chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. It wasn't until the rationing of sugar during the war effort of 1942 that the three bars became one and have simply remained that way ever since.

A common myth is that the Baby Ruth candy bar was named after the great slugger, the Sultan of Swat himself, Babe Ruth. However, that is simply a myth. According to Curtiss Candy Company, the bar was actually named after President Grover Cleveland's daughter, Ruth. That was later substantiated when the Yankee's slugger wanted to create a candy bar of his own (named for himself) but was prevented from doing so by court order.

Nik-L-Nip is a combination candy juice drink and wax chewable. While a nostalgic candy, it is primarily found in specialty candy stores and sold extensively during the Halloween season. The name is derived from the original cost of a nickel, as well as a popular way to open the candy-soda top by "nipping" it off with your teeth. You then drink the sugar liquid inside.

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