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Kara Kovalchik
7 Tasty Facts About Halloween Treats
by Kara Kovalchik - October 30, 2009 - 10:37 PM

Ever wondered what M&M’s stands for? Or how the Dum-Dum “Mystery Flavor” is created? Read on for some fun facts about a few Halloween staples.

CC1. Candy corn has been around since the late 1800s. At that time, there was no air conditioning, and even electric fans were a rare luxury. Beginning in March each year, men worked over steaming kettles slurring together sugar, water and corn syrup. Butter crème was added for texture, and marshmallow to give the candy a softer bite. Men carrying 45 lb. buckets of the hot mixture would then walk slowly backwards, pouring the candy into the kernel-shaped molds. Three passes were necessary, one for each color. Six days per week, 10 hours per day, for a weekly salary of just over $5.
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2. At the Spangler Candy Company factory, as the run of one Dum-Dum flavor is close to completion in the factory, a second flavor is set up for the next run. Rather than shut down to clean out the flavor vats and equipment, Spangler made “Mystery Flavor” pops out of the combination of flavors—the tail end of the old, and the beginning of the new.
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3. M&M’s actually stands for “Mars & Murrie’s,” the last names of the candy’s founders, Forrest Mars Sr. & William F. R. Murrie. (Now you know.)
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4. Necco Wafers are made by the same company that produces Conversation Hearts for Valentine’s Day.
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reese5. Canadians are less possessive about their candy, apparently; in the Great White North, those peanut butter cups are simply called “Reese,” not “Reese’s.”
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6. The Snickers candy bar was named after a racehorse owned by Frank Mars (of the Mars candy family).
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7. It didn’t become a Halloween tradition for parents to have their children’s candy inspected and X-rayed until 1975. The previous year, a Texas father in quest of insurance money deliberately gave his own son a poisoned Pixy Stix. Until his plan was uncovered, however, no one knew exactly where the tainted candy had come from.

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Comments (13)

  1. I don’t recall anything about poisoned pixie stix.

    The story I heard was about children finding either little pieces of razor blades and/or glass in their apples.

    This would make sense too, because you could x-ray for that. How would you x-ray for poison?

    posted by Tab on 10-30-2009 at 11:23 pm

  2. I heard about the razors in the apple story too- though I have to say, I’ve never gotten an apple while Trick or Treat-ing.

    posted by Kat on 10-31-2009 at 3:00 am

  3. The reese’s thing has to do with english/french language packaging laws – the possessive indicates that it’s english, whereas without the possessive, it works for either language. A large department store – Eaton’s – changed their name to simply Eaton for much the same reason.

    posted by Anaximander on 10-31-2009 at 9:50 am

  4. I have never seen or read about a case where the kids were poisoned or found razors in the apples, I’m pretty sure it’s just a cautionary tale.

    posted by Lamb on 10-31-2009 at 10:16 am

  5. Check out Snopes:

    http://snopes.com/horrors/poison/halloween.asp

    http://snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/needles.asp

    posted by Julie on 10-31-2009 at 12:06 pm

  6. The Pixy Stix case was real — the father who killed his son was executed in the mid-80s. I had always heard he was executed on Halloween, but the Snopes link Julie just posted debunks that part of the story:

    http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/halloween.asp

    posted by Gennifer on 10-31-2009 at 12:24 pm

  7. It’s actually against the law to hand out apples on Halloween- either that, or THAT’s the cautionary tale.

    posted by Sara in AL on 10-31-2009 at 1:04 pm

  8. 4. Necco wafers or Conversation Hearts — both are disgusting!

    posted by melanie on 10-31-2009 at 3:32 pm

  9. My coworker offered me candy corn last year around Halloween and I declined (I’ve never been a big fan – I’d rather use empty calories on chocolate instead). Just for fun, I checked out the ingredient list and saw that it contains “edible shellac”. We still laugh about that, and now I have another reason for refusing to eat candy corn!

    posted by Ranger J on 11-1-2009 at 9:53 am

  10. I live in British Columbia, Canada and Reese’s are just called Reese’s here :)

    posted by Brooklyn on 11-2-2009 at 2:46 am

  11. Yes, the razor blade thing does happen from time to time:

    http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2009/11/02/11602596-sun.html

    posted by TheBear on 11-2-2009 at 1:06 pm

  12. I think that I’m the only one here who enjoys candy corn…

    posted by the creature on 11-2-2009 at 3:43 pm

  13. candy corn mixed with roasted peanuts is the best!

    posted by vegebrarian on 11-4-2009 at 11:38 am

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