The History of Candy Corn

Every Halloween, there are certain candies that you see in goodie bags and candy bowls. They’re popular with the kids and adults alike, and it seems like they’ve been around forever. Pumpkins, ghosts, and other scary creatures often take on candy form, but an even more popular Halloween candy is candy corn.

Every year, plenty of candy corn can be seen in trick-or-treat buckets, but this candy has bit more up its sleeve than the classic color combo. As an aside, the faux kernels started out with these original colors well over a hundred years ago.

The Goelitz Candy Company began producing candy corn in 1900 and still does today, although you may recognize its new name, The Jelly Belly Candy Company, a bit more easily.

Original production of this candy was very tedious and time-consuming. Because the process took so long, the candy was only available for purchase from May to November. Confectioners had to mix the ingredients – corn syrup, sugar, and water – together in huge basins. Then they added other ingredients like fondant (a sweet type of icing – Buddy uses it all the time on Cake Boss) and marshmallow. These ingredients added flavor and body to the mixture.

After mixing, workers would hand-pour the candy into molds after coloring it. You can see how all of that work done by hand would get pretty old, right? Well, the recipe hasn’t changed much since the late 1800s, but machinery now does much of the work, pouring colored candy into molds that shape it into the famous kernel shape.

Candy corn is made to look like the real deal, with the white side being the one that connects to a cob of corn and the yellow bit the edible kernel. The triangle shape is slightly dented in to create a more realistic look. Remember what I said about colors? Well, there’s more to candy corn than simply white, yellow, and orange.

Candy corn also comes in a variety of other colors for differing holidays. Red, white, and pink are used for Valentine’s Day, brow, orange, and white are used for Thanksgiving, and various other combinations accompany other celebrations. Candy corn isn’t a one trick pony!

Candy corn is made a LOT during the year. Actually, about 35 million pounds is poured and molded each year. That’s around 9 billion individual kernels. Crazy, right? Who’s eating all this stuff?

I hope you learned a bit about candy corn, and maybe you’ll grab a bag for a holiday other than Halloween!