13 Things About Candy Corn

Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂  

Every year at this time, I find myself wanting candy corn, and this year is no exception. I've had some already and don't know how much more I'll be eating this month (trying to watch my sugar!) Here are some things about candy corn (found on these links, click for more).

1. Candy corn was invented in the 1880s by George Renninger, an employee of the Wunderle Candy Company in Philadelphia.
2. The Goelitz Confectionery Company, now called Jelly Belly Candy, started making candy corn at the turn of the century, the longest run by an existing manufacturer
3. Jelly Belly also makes Cupid Corn for Valentine’s Day (pink, red, and white), Reindeer Corn for Christmas (green, white, and red) and Bunny Corn for springtime (various pastel colors). Brach’s makes Indian Corn for Thanksgiving (brown, orange, and white) and an Autumn Mix candy corn.
4. When the Goelitz Confectionery Company first introduced candy corn, they named it "Chicken Feed." The packaging featured a colorful rooster and the catchy tagline we know today: "Something worth crowing for."
5. Candy corn contains about 28 grams of sugar and 140 calories per generous handful—and contains no fat!
6. October 30 is National Candy Corn Day.
7. Each year, over 35 million pounds—or about 9 billion pieces—of candy corn are produced, according to the National Confectioners Association.
8. The stripes are layered, not painted. Each color is deposited in sections—yellow base, orange center, white tip—so every piece is a tiny three-layer confection. Fancy!
9. After chocolate (68 percent), candy corn, at 10 percent, is the favorite Halloween treat, according to the National Confectioners Association.
10. It used to cost 25 cents a pound. Today, a bag of candy corn will run you around $9 a pound, but it originally cost only 25 cents. That’s a 3,500 percent price increase in less than 140 years!
11. There’s a debate on how to eat it. More than half of candy corn eaters just pop the whole kernel in their mouth. But, some people believe it should be nibbled from the narrow white end down to the wide orange end. There are a few people who start at the bottom and work their way up.
12. In one eight-hour shift, Jelly Belly makes 28,000 pounds of candy corn.
13. For a treat that's a Halloween staple, people sure are divided when it comes to how they feel about candy corn. In a survey done by CandyStore.com, the public ranked candy corn as the sixth favorite Halloween treat. However, in another survey of over 20,000 candy lovers, it topped the list of worst Halloween candies of all time. Where do you stand?