American Sweets Older Than Your Grandparents

Walk into any UK American candy shop and you'll see the same five names: Reese's, Hershey's, Nerds, Sour Patch Kids, Warheads. The hits. The TikTok crowd. The brands every retailer leads with. But behind those headline acts is a quieter, much older world of old-fashioned American sweets. Sweets that were already on American shelves when your grandparents were born. Bars that survived the Great Depression, two world wars, sugar rationing, and the rise and fall of a thousand competitors.

Plenty of them are still in production today, and many are stocked in the UK. None of these will go viral on TikTok. None will be the next Dubai chocolate. What they have instead is something more interesting: they have lasted. Each one tells you something about why some sweets endure when so many others vanish. Here are six American confectionery survivors, in order of when they were first made, plus what each one says about the moment it came from.

1. Tootsie Roll (1896)

Tootsie Roll is the founding act of modern American confectionery. When Austrian immigrant Leo Hirschfeld started hand-rolling them in his small Brooklyn shop in 1896, he was solving a real problem: chocolate melted in summer, and most candy bars couldn't survive the journey from factory to shop in one piece. His chewy, chocolate-flavoured roll travelled in any weather. He named it after his five-year-old daughter Clara, whose nickname was Tootsie. It became the first individually wrapped penny candy sold in America. That 1896 date is the company's own; historian Samira Kawash found the sweet was patented in 1908 and on sale from 1909, and the full story is in our Tootsie Roll guide.

During World War II, Tootsie Rolls were included in soldiers' field rations because they wouldn't melt in the Pacific heat or freeze in the European winter. The recipe is essentially unchanged since. The Tootsie Roll Industries portfolio has since grown to include Tootsie Pops, Frooties, Dots, Charleston Chew and Junior Mints — making it one of the largest independent candy companies in America. It's the candy that proved confectionery could be mass-produced, individually wrapped and shipped anywhere. Without it, the American sweet shop as we know it doesn't exist.

2. Cracker Jack (1896)

The same year Tootsie Rolls appeared in Brooklyn, two German immigrant brothers in Chicago — Frederick and Louis Rueckheim — were perfecting a coating recipe for popcorn and peanuts. The original mixture had been clumping together too much. Louis figured out how to apply a thin caramel coat that kept the kernels separate. A salesman tasted it and said 'That's a cracker jack!' — 1890s slang for something excellent. The brothers registered the name and put it on every box.

By 1908 it had been immortalised in 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' — 'buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack' — which is still the unofficial anthem of every American baseball stadium and is sung during the seventh-inning stretch at every game. In 1912 the brand introduced the prize in every box: a small toy or trinket that turned the candy into a treasure hunt for generations of American children. The prize is now a digital QR code rather than a tin whistle, but the recipe — caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts in a striped box — has barely changed. Cracker Jack lives in the grocery range rather than the candy aisle, but it belongs in any conversation about American sweet heritage.

3. Mary Jane (1914)

Charles N. Miller worked out of a small candy factory in Boston's North End — the same building, by some accounts, that had once belonged to Paul Revere. In 1914 he combined two flavours nobody had paired before: peanut butter and molasses. He wrapped each piece in waxed paper printed with a smiling Edwardian girl in a yellow dress and called it Mary Jane after his favourite aunt. It became one of America's first peanut-butter-flavoured sweets, fourteen years before H.B. Reese launched his peanut butter cup.

Mary Jane survived two world wars and several changes of owner. When Necco went bankrupt in 2018 production stopped, until Atkinson Candy Company in Texas brought them back in 2020 under licence from Spangler. The combination of molasses and peanut butter is unlike anything in British confectionery.

4. Baby Ruth (1921)

Baby Ruth has one of the most-debated origin stories in candy history. Otto Schnering of the Curtiss Candy Company in Chicago launched it in 1921 and insisted, then and forever after, that it was named in honour of Ruth Cleveland, the late daughter of US President Grover Cleveland. Almost nobody believed him. Ruth Cleveland had died seventeen years earlier and was hardly a household name. Babe Ruth, meanwhile, was the most famous athlete in America. The official story has never wavered, partly because admitting otherwise would have meant paying Babe Ruth licensing fees. The legal record makes interesting reading.

The bar itself — peanuts, caramel and nougat coated in chocolate — is a substantial American chocolate bar with a more savoury, peanut-forward profile than anything in the UK chocolate aisle. Pop culture has kept the name alive: Baby Ruth famously features in The Goonies (where Chunk uses one to make friends with Sloth), gets a name-check in The Sandlot (where Smalls thinks Babe Ruth's signature belongs to 'some lady named Baby Ruth'), and turns up in Caddyshack (in the swimming pool scene that everybody pretends to have forgotten). The red, white and blue wrapper has been on American shelves for over a century.

5. Charleston Chew (1922)

Donley Cross was a Shakespearean stage actor in early-1900s San Francisco. After a fall during a performance ended his acting career, he reinvented himself completely — moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts and starting a candy company with his friend Charlie Fox. Their second product, in 1922, was the Charleston Chew — a vanilla-flavoured nougat bar enrobed in milk chocolate, named to capitalise on the Charleston dance craze sweeping America's speakeasies and dance halls. It became one of the longest-running American candy bars of all time.

The most famous Charleston Chew tradition wasn't part of the original product at all. After Nathan Sloane bought the company in 1957, Charleston Chew became one of the first sweets to suggest customers put it in the home freezer. Freeze it for half an hour, then snap it against a hard surface — and the chocolate shatters into bite-sized pieces while the nougat stays chewy. The 'Charleston Chew crack' became part of the brand's identity and is still how millions of Americans eat it. It's the kind of detail that makes for a brilliant talking point on a UK retail shelf.

6. Bit-O-Honey (1924)

Bit-O-Honey is honey-flavoured taffy with real almond bits running through it. The wax paper wrapping with the bee on the front looked old-fashioned even in the 1920s, which was the point: Schutter-Johnson positioned it as a wholesome, almost rustic alternative to the brash new chocolate bars dominating American shelves. The candy survived the Great Depression because of how slowly you eat it — a single piece takes longer to finish than most full bars, which made it excellent value during a decade when every penny mattered. It became an American cinema concession staple by the 1940s — quiet to chew, easy to share, no mess in the dark.

It is now made by the Pearson's Candy Company in Minnesota, a firm that has been making sweets since 1909. The recipe, the wrapper, and even the bee mascot have stayed essentially unchanged for a century.

Five More Heritage Brands

Hershey's Kisses (1907) are the foil-wrapped chocolate teardrop that gave Hershey its second wind. Originally hand-wrapped one at a time, they became machine-wrapped in 1921 — the same year the paper plume was added as the Kiss's trademark. Around 70 million are made every day. Sno-Caps (1927) were invented by the Blumenthal Brothers specifically for American cinema concession stands — small domes of semi-sweet chocolate covered in white nonpareils, quiet to eat and impossible to drop in the dark.

Milk Duds (1928) were named to admit a failure. F. Hoffman & Co set out to make a perfectly round chocolate-covered caramel. Every batch came out oval. Rather than scrap the idea they called the candy Milk Duds — 'duds' being 1920s slang for something that didn't quite work — and put them on sale. Chewy, chocolatey and impossible to eat quickly, they became one of America's definitive cinema treats.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (1928) were invented by H.B. Reese, a former Hershey's employee who made the peanut butter cup by hand in his basement. He had no idea it would eventually become the best-selling candy brand in the United States — for the full story of how Reese's Pieces ended up in E.T., see our E.T. and Reese's Pieces blog. Payday (1932) — peanuts rolled around a caramel centre, with no chocolate at all — is the salty-sweet bar that predates most of the modern chocolate aisle.

For Retailers: Why Heritage American Candy Works in a UK Shop

Heritage candy doesn't compete with the TikTok crowd. It does something different — and for many UK retailers, something more profitable. Bit-O-Honey, Charleston Chew and Tootsie Roll have packaging that already looks vintage — they're a natural fit for American-themed gift hampers, retro confectionery boxes, and Christmas selection packs that command higher margins than loose impulse stock. Sno-Caps, Milk Duds and Bit-O-Honey all come in the iconic American cinema concession theatre box format — stacked together with Junior Mints and Whoppers, they create an instantly recognisable display block that doubles as a talking point.

The story sells the candy. The Charleston Chew freezer trick, the Baby Ruth name controversy, the Milk Duds origin story — these are details that engage customers and that staff can mention at point of sale. Heritage candy gives retailers something to talk about beyond price and flavour. None of these brands are subject to the boom-and-bust cycles that affect viral candy. Demand is steady year-round, the products have long shelf lives, and customers who like them tend to buy them repeatedly. The strongest displays combine the famous five for footfall with the heritage range for character. The first group brings customers in. The second group keeps them coming back.

Browse the Full Heritage Range

Sweet and Glory stocks heritage American confectionery alongside the modern hits. Browse American sweets, chocolate, and grocery for the full selection.

No minimum order. Free first parcel on orders over £150 ex VAT (additional boxes £7.10 each). Free pallet delivery over £650 ex VAT. Dispatched from Manchester. Create a free account to browse and order.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the oldest American sweet still in production? Cracker Jack, whose name was registered by the Rueckheim brothers in Chicago in 1896. Tootsie Roll claims the same year, although the patent record suggests it went on sale nearer 1909. Either way, both are still made today, well over a century later.

Why is Baby Ruth called Baby Ruth? The company said it was named after President Grover Cleveland's daughter Ruth, not the baseball player - a claim that conveniently avoided paying Babe Ruth anything. It has been disputed ever since, and the timing does not help their case.

Why do you freeze a Charleston Chew? Because the nougat goes brittle. The tradition started in the 1950s and the traditional method is to smack the frozen bar against a hard surface so it shatters into pieces. It is one of very few sweets that comes with an instruction.

Why are Milk Duds called Milk Duds? Because they failed. F. Hoffman & Co set out to make a perfectly spherical chocolate-covered caramel, could not manage it, and named the resulting lopsided sweets after the failure. They have been made that way since 1928.

Is there still a prize in Cracker Jack? Yes, though not the one your grandparents found. A small toy or trinket went into every box from 1912, and it turned a snack into a treasure hunt for generations of American children. In 2016 the plastic toys were replaced with a digital prize, reached by scanning a code on the pack.

Related guides: The Moon Pie: a complete guide · American Smarties: the complete guide · Retro British school sweets guide · Retro American candy UK: 80s & 90s brands · American sweets vs British sweets · Bubblegum: the complete guide

Sources

Wikipedia, Mary Jane (candy) (Charles N. Miller 1914, Necco 2018, Atkinson 2020): en.wikipedia.org
History Cambridge, Fox Cross Co. (Donley Cross, Charleston Chew 1922, Nathan Sloane 1957, freezing): historycambridge.org
Wikipedia, Baby Ruth (Caddyshack, The Goonies): en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, Blumenthal Brothers Chocolate Company (Sno-Caps 1927): en.wikipedia.org
NPR, Cracker Jack's prize in the box will now be digitized (2016): npr.org
Samira Kawash, Rutgers University, research on the Tootsie Roll patent (1907 filing, 1908 grant): via the Sweet and Glory Tootsie Roll guide

Written by Sharon Wilson, Sweet and Glory. Sweet and Glory has imported American and world confectionery into the UK from Trafford Park, Manchester, since 2015.