Dates: Tuesday, Oct 14th OR Thursday, Oct 16th

Location: See your e-mail for Zoom Link

Website: none

Updated! 

Originally, we planned to chat with National Army Museum about women and the ENIAC machines. Sadly, government workers are still furloughed so we're pivoting once again and we're going to enjoy a sweet treat instead!

Well it’s a little early, but we’re all pretty focused on it this month: CANDY! It’s on sale, it’s all over store shelves, it’s probably in our cabinets (for a little bit, at least). But do you really know how the stuff in your pantry is made? If not, we’re going to find out this week! 

Before we explore just how candy is made, enjoy some fun facts about some of your favorite candies! Then try your hand at a candy quiz - remember, a lot of the fun is in the answer key, where you can read more information and watch some videos!

• Milton Hershey got his start with caramel

That’s right, the famed Hershey bar king actually started off his candy empire with caramel! He opened the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1886, which employed over 1,200 people at its height, making it the largest candy producer in the United States. 

Hershey got further into the chocolate world, so he sold the business in 1900 to The American Caramel Company for a sweet $1 million, thinking chocolate would make caramel candy obsolete. 

• Kids can consume up to 3 cups of sugar while eating Halloween candy

That’s almost 169 sugar cubes, or 15x the normal daily recommended amount of sugar! What did your family do? Did you go all out on Halloween and eat as much as you could? Save it? Ration it? 

• Werther’s candy was created in, wait for it, Werther, Germany

German confectioner Gustav Nebel created the now iconic gold wrapped hard candy in 1909 in the little town of Werther. He combined cream, butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt to create the now famous hard candy.

• Mike and Ike are fictional

The fruit-inspired sweets from the Just Born company aren't named after real people, according to the brand. But that hasn't stopped fans from coming up with their own theories about the inspiration behind the name. Some believe Mike and Ike is a reference to a popular vaudeville act, while others attribute it to a 1937 song “Mike and Ike (The Twins).” Click here to read some more about this sweet treat (and best seller at the movie theater!):

• The caramel apple was an accident

What a sweet mistake! Kraft foods employee Dan Walker was experimenting with leftover Halloween candy and started adding fruit to the mixture. The caramel apple combination was born and it’s been a hit ever since.

• Being able to hold a pez dispenser with one hand was a design goal

The flip-top dispenser has a very deliberate design. According to the original patent, the one-hand opening was “important not only for persons having only one hand but also persons who often have only one hand free (for example motor-vehicle drivers), or whose occupation causes their hands to become smeared with dirt.”

For some more fun Pez facts, check out this article here:

• Every year about one million miles of twizzlers are produced

That’s nearly 76 times the length of the Great Wall of China! Are you a Twizzler fan or licorice? They’re definitely a bit different (we’re a house divided over here). To read why, click here:

• The world’s biggest cornball (it’s not any of you!)

Cosmos Creation of Junction City, Kansas, made the world’s biggest caramel corn ball in 2015. It weighed a whopping 6,780 pounds (the weight of 2 and a half small vehicles). It took about a month to build. They named this sweet ball of caramel corn, obviously, Carl!

Read on for a fun candy quiz to see if you remember any more fun candy facts!

We all have some favorite recipes we start to pull out of the recipe box (or our bookmarks online). Let’s share and share alike! Send me your favorite recipe - bonus if you include a picture of the finished product! I’ll work on getting them all put together to share on our site so we can all enjoy!

E-mail your recipe (typed or a picture) and we'll get it started!

https://www.thedailymeal.com/travel/country-that-eats-the-most-candy-sweden

https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/america-s-10-favorite-chocolate-candies-0/slide-11.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/525313/what-makes-pop-rocks-pop

https://www.candystore.com/blog/facts-trivia/candy-facts-infographic/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/69603/how-runts-were-product-willy-wonkas-corporate-imagination

https://www.werthers-original.us/en/our-story

https://www.oldtimecandy.com/blogs/candy-blog/caramel-candy