Laffy Taffy and Snickers: Something Funny Going on Here

I have always said that laughter is the key to anyone’s heart, but is it the key to their stomachs as well? The Willy Wonka Candy Company and Mars Incorporated may have something to say when it comes to that topic. With the creations of Laffy Taffy and Snickers bars, their candies are sure to keep their consumers happy. Although the two candies are completely different, they both offer unique twists on classic candies. So let’s dig in to some flavorful facts. Taffy or Toffee, depending on where you live, was first brought into light in 1817 when the word was added to the Oxford Dictionary. The place of creation is unknown, but it is somewhere in Europe. By the time the 1870s came around, taffy was in its heyday and people loved it so much that they went as far as to throw taffy pulling parties. Although salt water taffy and Laffy Taffy are fairly soft, it is not the same in Scotland. In Scotland, toffee (known as tablet there) is so hard that it comes with a little metal hammer that is used to break the candies into smaller bits. Laffy Taffy was first invented in 1971 to accompany the release of the Gene Wilder movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Originally Laffy Taffy was made by the Breaker Confections company until they changed their name to Willy Wonka Brands in 1980. The candies were packaged with bright colored wrappers that always included a joke inside. This was to reinforce the movie’s slightly psychedelic themes. The candy’s name comes simply from its texture and the jokes inside. The company was renamed again in 1993 after becoming a part of the Nestle company, and is now known as the Willy Wonka Candy Company. This reinforces the importance of the imaginary candy factory and its colorful creator, Mr. Wonka himself. The candies started off as a small thick square shape, but over the years developed into the longer thinner rectangles that we know and love today. Although I had eaten them many times before, I went ahead and ate some of the little candies again in order to help me more accurately describe them. I started off with the Strawberry flavor which came in a bright pink wrapper. First I read the jokes provided to me. I am a sucker for some cheesy jokes, so I really enjoyed this one: What is a Buccaneer? Wait for it… expensive corn! *Crickets*. Anyway, after reading the jokes, I went on to smell my taffy. I like to see if it tastes like it smells, which food and candies often do, but not always. I decided that the Strawberry Laffy Taffy would make a nice candle. After sniffing the candy, I ate it. The Strawberry flavor was especially hard to chew. Otherwise, it tasted like it smelled. It was a bit sour and had a hint of the real strawberry flavor. The next one that I tried was banana, which was wrapped nicely in yellow packaging. As we are all aware, artificial banana flavor is in no way like real bananas. Thinking back to the circus peanuts reviewed in my first blog and the chicks and rabbits reviewed in my Easter blog, we discovered that artificial banana is a hit or miss every time that it is added to a candy. The banana taffy’s smell was a bit overpowering and it came with small hints of vanilla for some unexplained reason. When it comes to Laffy Taffy, the flavor is very similar to that of banana runts, which are also made by the Willy Wonka Candy Company. The banana taffy was a lot easier to chew than the strawberry and it was very smooth. It also just kind of tastes like the color yellow. What is a parasite? This one is pretty obvious… something you see in Paris. The third taffy flavor that I tasted was grape and it came in a purple wrapper. Grape has never been one of my favorite flavors, but I am actually okay with it in Laffy Taffy form. When the packaging is first opened, there is a very strong scent that immediately reminded me of Fun Dip, another one of the Wonka company’s creations. The grape flavor was kind of sour, but not too strong in that regard, yet the overall flavor was very bold. Luckily the taffy’s texture was just right in the grape flavor, not to soft and not too hard. The last flavor that I tried was the sour apple flavor in a green package. For some odd reason, I had trouble smelling this flavor. Maybe my nose had too many scents inside of it from the previous flavors, or maybe it just didn’t have a smell. When I put the taffy in my mouth, I found that it was very soft compared to all of the other flavors. Although it was sour apple, the sour part didn’t hit me until later on in my tasting of the candy. When I am eating a sour candy, I like to really experience the sourness- getting that twitching in my eyes and the pucker in my lips. The taffy tasted good anyway though. Even though each taffy flavor individually tasted great, all the flavors were kind of overpowering, especially when eaten one after another. I would definitely recommend trying Laffy Taffy if you haven’t done so yet. It’s not just a candy that can get stuck in your teeth, it’ll also provide you with some sweet jokes.

• Shareability: 1
• Denture Danger: 10
• Convenience: 8
• Novelty: 3
• Overall: 8

Another silly candy is the Snickers bar. With a slogan like “curb your hunger before your hunger curbs you,” we’ve all been left to wonder what makes this candy so funny. So let’s find out. Snickers bars were created in 1930 by Frank Mars who founded the Mars candy company. He named the flavorful candy after one of his family’s horses. That horse must’ve had a pretty great sense of humor. The candies used to be called “Marathon Bars” in the United Kingdom (not to be confused with the Marathon Bar sold in America from 1973-1981, also by the Mars Company), but since have become known as Snickers all over the world. Currently they are the best selling candy in the world as well as one of the most highly produced, with the Mars company producing about 15 million bars per day. So what makes a Snickers bar so good? Could it be the chocolate, the peanuts, the caramel, or the nougat? Let’s delve into the tasty snack. Snickers bars have always been a favorite candy of mine, so I was very excited to finally do something with my love for the layered goodness. Of course I started out by smelling the candy, which caused some strange looks from the people around me, but I didn’t mind. The bar had a very strong peanut smell, outshining all of the other ingredients trying to spend some time in the “limelight”. I guess if they wanted to do that they could go join in on the fun in a Jelly Belly bag, which can be found right here. Anyway, after taking in the scent of the candy, I tasted it, just like the taffy. The candy was very sweet, and much more chocolatey than the smell suggested. It was both crunchy and chewy at the same time, and luckily not too hard even though there were peanuts in the bar. With much concentration, I was able to detect a faint nougat taste, but it would have gone unnoticed had I not been looking for it. I enjoyed the candy anyway, like I always do. All in all, there was a lot going on in the fantastic candies.

• Shareability: 2
• Denture Danger: 8
• Convenience: 8
• Novelty: 2
• Overall: 9

What did one penny say to the other penny? This is a good one… just wait. “Let’s get together and make some sense!” So we can do that too. Laffy Taffy and Snickers bars have one wonderful connection and that is the fact that they are known to provide people with long lasting smiles. With very sweet overpowering flavors, the candies are sure to give both your mouth and your stomach an explosion of joy. In all seriousness though, if you enjoy life and love to laugh, you should check out Laffy Taffy and Snickers right here at candyfavorites.com.