Fun facts about Candy over the ages.

]Everyone loves Candy.[/spin]No wonder in America we spend almost $ 30 billion a year to get a piece of that sweet thing. The first Candies were possibly made by the cave men when they dried the honey comb with honey and used it like a taffy candy.

" The ancient Egyptians preserved nuts and fruits with honey, and by the Middle Ages physicians had learned how to mask the bad taste of their medicines with sweetness, a practice still widespread. Boiled "sugar plums were known in the seventeenth-century England and soon were to appear in the American colonies where maple-syrup candy was popular in the North and benne-seed [sesame seed] confections were just as tempting in the South. In New Amersterdam one could enjoy "marchpane," or "marzipan," which is very old decorative candy made from almonds ground into a sweet paste. While the British called such confections, "sweetmeats," Americans came to call "candy," from the Arabic qandi, "made of sugar," although one finds "candy" in English as early as the fifteenth century...Caramels were known in the early eighteenth century and lollipops by the 1780s..."Hard candies" made from lemon or peppermint flavors were popular in the eary nineteenth century...A significant moment in candy history occurred at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, where "French-style" candies with rich cream centers were first displayed...But it was the discovery of milk chocolate in Switzerland in 1875 that made the American candy bar such a phenomenon of the late nineteenth century."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 54-5)

Today Candies are with us at every possible moment. We have candies at the movie, we have candies for Valentines day, we have candies at Easter and don't forget the Halloween. We Americans consume the maximum candies during Halloween. However there was a time during the great depression when Candies were marketed as a healthy and inexpensive source of nourishment. The Candy wrappers are as much important part of marketing the candies, as the candies themselves.

Now-a-days we have many types of candies, the traditional hard candy, taffy, licorice, gummy, jelly beans, lollypops, sours, peppermint, sticks, rock candy, you name it , it is there. Here are some interesting trivia about Candies:
• The Snickers Candy Bar was introduced in the year 1930 and was names after a horse owned by the Mars family.
• The Three Musketeers bar was introduced in 1932. The original 3 Musketeers had 3 bars in one wrapper, each a different flavor.
• Heath bars were included in U.S. soldiers' rations during World War II because they had been found to have a very long shelf life. The Heath bar was originally marketed as a health food, claiming to use only the finest ingredients. One early ad read: "Heath for better health!" Another candy often included in soldiers' rations was M&M's because they didn't melt easily.
• The first bubblegum in the U.S. was developed by Frank H. Fleer in 1906.
• Why is bubblegum traditionally pink in color? It is believed that the pink coloring used by Mr. Fleer for his original gum, was the only color he had in stock at the time.
There are many more sweet trivia which are fun as well as sweet. For 1000s of candies at one location at unbeatable prices, where you can get your favorite fix, visit Giftswish.com and have fun.

Bob Monk writes on the huge range of gourmet foods available with http://www.giftswish.com the biggest online retailer of gourmet foods.
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