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Cave man made candy out of honey by drying it and forming a taffy-like concoction to satisfy their sweet tooth. It is believed that Indians were the first to use the sweet juice of sugarcane about 3000 years ago and that they were the first to make brown sugar.
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The manufacturing of sugar began during the middle ages and at that time sugar was so expensive that only the rich could afford candy made from sugar. Cacao, from which chocolate is made, was re-discovered in 1519 by Spanish explorers in Mexico.
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The price of manufacturing sugar was much lower by the seventeenth century when hard candy became popular. By the mid-1800s, there were over four hundred factories in the United States producing candy.
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In 1912, chocolate manufacturer Clarence Crane (Cleveland, Ohio) invented Life Savers as a “summer candy” that could withstand heat better than chocolate. Since the mints looked like miniature life preservers, he called them Life Savers.
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•In 1914, Wrigley Doublemint brand was created. William Wrigley, Jr. and Henry Fleer were responsible for adding the popular mint and fruit extracts to a chicle chewing gum.
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George Smith named the stick candy after his favorite race horse Lolly Pop. George Smith trademarked the name lollipop in 1931, the name has since fallen into public domain.
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In 1948, Alex Doumak, a marshmallow manufacturer, began experimenting with different methods of marshmallow making. Doumak was looking for ways to speed up production and discovered the "extrusion process", which revolutionized marshmallow production. Now, marshmallows can be made by piping the fluffy mixture through long tubes and cutting its tubular shape into equal pieces.
