Some Snack Facts - Yum

All week I've been doing up Easter baskets for our little charmers aka grandchildren. I've also been wracking my brain to come up with snacks to have around the house for an impending invasion of out of town guests - for about ten days. Well - that got me thinking about some snack facts I dug up for a kids article many years ago and I thought you might find them interesting.

What’s your favorite snack or treat? Almost everyone has one. Do you ever wonder how they were first made? Read about some of our most popular treats below. Each one has an amazing story or interesting fact about it.

Bubble Gum

In 1906, a man named Frank Fleer made the first bubble gum. He called it blibber-blubber. Unfortunately that formula wasn’t quite right and it never sold. In 1928 one of Mr. Fleer’s employees came up with an improved formula, colored it pink and called it Dubble Bubble. It was a huge success.

Potato Chips

The potato chip was invented when someone got angry. In 1853 a man named George Crum worked as a chef in a fancy restaurant in Saratoga Springs, NY. A very wealthy customer kept sending his French fried potatoes back to the kitchen claiming that they were cut too thick. Each time the man sent them back George cut them thinner. Finally he got angry and cut them so thin he could almost see through them! When he fried them up and sent them out to the customer, the man was delighted. Soon lots of customers were asking for the chips. But it wasn’t until the mechanical potato slicer was invented in the 1920’s that it became possible to produce them in large quantities. They quickly became the top selling snack food in America.  

Popsicles

In 1905 an eleven-year-old boy named Frank Epperson left his glass of fruit juice sitting outside in the cold with a stir stick in it. He forgot about it until the next morning. When he managed to get the frozen juice out of the glass he decided to taste it. Guess what? It was good! He jokingly called it the Epsicle. Eighteen years later he decided to patent his frozen ice pop. His children, however, thought it would be better to call it a Popsicle and that’s still what we call it today. It was first packaged as a single pop and later the double pop was created so two children could share it.

Peeps

The first marshmallow Peeps were in the shape of baby chicks. They were and still are produced by Just Born, Inc. In 1910 Samuel Born immigrated to the US from Russia. He went into the candy business in New York City. He loved candy making and trying new things. He invented a machine called the Born Sucker Machine, which mechanically put the sticks in lollipops. When he moved his company to Pennsylvania he bought out another candy company there. A small division of this company made a marshmallow

chick, the Easter ‘peep’. Mr. Born decided to expand this part of the business and today Peeps are the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy in the country. Two million Peeps are made each day and they’re not just for Easter anymore. There are Peeps for summer, Halloween, Christmas and Valentines Day too. 

Snickers  

Did you know that the number one selling candy in the US is the Snickers candy bar? The combination of nougat, caramel, peanuts and chocolate is irresistible to millions of Americans. But maybe it should be called horse candy. Why? Because the candy bar was named after a horse! That’s right. The Mars candy company introduced this candy bar in 1930. The Mars family owned horses and one of their favorites was a horse named Snickers.

Cracker Jack

Back in the late 1800’s when people were pleased with an idea or new product they didn’t say ‘cool’…they said ‘that’s a crackerjack’! When the Rueckheim brothers, Frederick and Louis, presented their popcorn, molasses and peanut treat at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 it was so popular the people said it was ‘crackerjack!’ The brothers decided to change the name from Candied Popcorn and Peanuts to Cracker Jack. In 1912 small prizes were added and kids loved this treat even more. Did you notice there’s no ‘s’ in the name?

So - there ya go. Some Easter basket and snack ideas. What do you pack your Easter baskets with?  And why do I suddenly have the munchies?

Image: Jeroem Van Oostrom                                                      Free Ditital Photos