Bruno Mars is not a candy bar, but there are over 40,000 different candy bar varieties in the world and the No. 1 selling candy in the United States is the Snickers Bar.

It was introduced in 1930 and was named for the favorite horse owned by the Mars family. Candy bars really became popular after World War I.  Chocolate was sent to the troops to boost morale and they developed a desire for it and thus was born one of the most lucrative businesses.

Nearly everyone has a favorite bar. Maple Buns and anything with caramel are mine. My husband has a preference for all of them. He says he has never eaten a bar that he didn’t like.

Think about your favorite. Is it a Baby Ruth, first sold in 1920 and named for President Grover Cleveland’s daughter, not the baseball player? Or maybe it is a Three Musketeers from the 1930s. It was originally made as a three-flavor bar with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry nougat. It changed in 1945 to all chocolate nougat. I knew it was different because I liked to break it into three pieces and each was different flavor.

My guess would have been that the Milky Way was the favorite. It was introduced by the Mars family in 1923.

Milton Hershey produced his first all chocolate bar in 1900 and the kisses appeared in their little foil wrapper in 1906.

In 1928, a former employee of the Hershey company decide to make his own candy business and thus was born the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Goo Goo Glusters was the first bar to combine chocolate, marshmallow, peanut and caramel. It was sold in 1913.

There were many more bars that you might remember such as the Clark Bar, Oh Henry! or Mr. Goodbar, Kit Kat and Nestles Crunch bar.

When the machinery became available in the 1940s the market was flooded with new candy treats.

The biggest candy holiday is Halloween followed by Easter, Christmas and Valentine’s Day.

Some facts you may not know, or even don’t want to know, are that one ounce of milk chocolate contains about the same amount of caffeine as a cup of decaffeinated coffee.

The Mars Chocolate Company is headquartered in Mount Olive, N.J., and employs more than 15,000 employees across 21 countries and the company’s most famous brands are M&M’s, Snickers, Dove, Galaxy, Mars, Milky Way and Twix.

When I was young, a candy bar was a big treat and one most coveted. Many times I had to share a candy bar with my friends and we would cut it into slices making sure they were all even sized so that no one felt cheated.

And now you know that there really is a Mars candy bar and it is not a singer.

 

Jo-Ann Boepple works at the Edwardsburg Area History Museum.