"retro candy" news and stories

I got my wild cherry diet Pepsi, and I got my Black Jack gum here, and I got that feeling, mmm that familiar feeling, that something rank is going down up there. -- Hard Harry, Pump up the Volume

Have you ever been swayed by a strange plug in a film or show? I'm not talking about the oft-chugged can of coke, but rather the product you've never heard of? After I saw Christian Slater chowing down on Black Jack gum, I was curious, despite my then large distaste for licorice. But I never saw it on the shelves until I walked into an old ice cream shop a few years later and saw it amongst the pile of trendy retro candies. I became an instant convert to the black gum that had the creamy release of licorice, followed by the old-school, hours-long longevity that gum fails to live up to these days.

But this is truly retro. Black Jack is the first flavored gum in America, made by Thomas Adams in 1884. This is also the first gum to come in sticks -- a mainstay that lives to this day. The brand was made until the 1970s, and now only gets limited releases every few years. Luckily, it freezes quite well. Yes folks, if you're like me and can't stand the thought of being without during Black Jack's long absences, you can freeze it and take out a pack as needed. It wards off that unpleasant hard gum staleness, and stays nice, soft, and tasty. I've had packs in my freezer for years -- they're still good!

With the wonderful Internet, you can find it quite easily these days. (Next production begins in the Fall of 2009.) Halloween sweets might be catered to the kids, but that doesn't mean we can't indulge in a little retro deliciousness. Be sure to also check out Eric Diesel's retro candy post and Classic Candy from last year, which lists the wonderful Black Jack.

Though the sharing of treats on All Hallow's Eve traces back to the holiday's roots as an ancient celebration, Trick or Treating is a phenomenon of the distinctly American holiday of Halloween. Though trick or treating is at least a century old, defining the treat as candy is relatively new: as recently as the World War Two era, the treat was likely to be a doughnut, a sip of cider, even an apple (imagine trying to get away with that today!).

Even with the advent of widespread manufacturing, candy-making was as expected a part of a homemaker's repertoire as canning. Around Halloween time, a homemaker sometimes spent days in the kitchen, rattling glass thermometers and pouring vials of exotic oils, in order to fill small waxed-paper bags with the house specialty (each cook was expected to have one): chewy nougats, bright sour balls, snowy vanilla drops, tinted coconut patties, home-dunked chocolate cherries, snapping shards of praline, hand-pulled taffy, and, of course, fudge.

Oh, sure, in the rich part of town, fancy ladies doled out the local confectioner's lollipops and jelly beans (and the occasional rum ball for a determinedly cheerful chaperone), but in the move to consumer culture many of these concoctions migrated to Easter baskets. In some of our minds, Halloween shall always belong to old-fashioned treats. Here is a sampling of online resources for retro treats (and perhaps a couple of tricks!).