The one facet of human culture that is virtually universal... the one aspect of cuisine that is enjoyed and understood by just about everyone on the planet...is the love of candy.
Did you know that:
A Stone Age cave painting shows prehistoric man stealing honey from a hive, probably to be mixed with flour to form little cakes or dumplings. This might be evidence of the world’s first sweet. In the Middle Ages in Europe the high cost of sugar made sugar candy a delicacy available only to the rich.
Chocolate wasn’t "discovered" until Christopher Columbus took cocoa beans from a Mayan ship he commandeered in 1502.
In 2001 confectionery consumption in the United States approached seven billion pounds!
Seventy-one percent of American chocolate eaters prefer milk chocolate.
Younger children are more likely than older children to prefer hard candies.
About 65% of American candy brands have been around for more than 50 years.
Candy is made simply by dissolving sugar in water. The different heating levels determine the types of candy: Hot temperatures make hard candy, medium heat will make soft candy, and cool temperatures make chewy candy.
Halloween is the top candy holiday, (93% of children will go trick or treating) followed by Easter, then Valentine’s Day. Chocolate is the number one food craved by girls; pizza is the number one food craved by boys.
Candies such as lollipops, candy canes, Gummi bears, licorice twists, sour balls and gum drops do not contain fat or cholesterol, making them a healthier treat than people realize.
Less than two percent of the fat and ten percent of the sugar in the American diet is supplied by candy. Soda, baked goods, and frozen desserts are much bigger culprits.
Hershey’s® Milk Chocolate Bar was invented in 1900. Reese’s® Peanut Butter Cups, Butterfinger®, and Milky Way were all introduced in 1923. Snickers®, Three Musketeers®, and Kit Kat® followed in the early 1930s.
