Whoppers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the hamburger at Burger King, see Whopper. For other meanings, see Whopper (disambiguation).
Whoppers are chocolate-coated malted milk balls produced by The Hershey Company. The candy is a small, round ball about one centimeter in diameter. They are typically sold either in a typical small cardboard candy box, in a larger box that resembles a cardboard milk carton, or the "Fun Size" variety which is a tube shaped plastic package sealed at the sides, containing three whoppers.
In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and Japan a similar product, known as Maltesers, are manufactured by Mars, Inc.
[edit] Ingredients
Listed in decreasing order by weight: sugar, fractionated and partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, reduced protein whey (milk), corn syrup solids, whey (milk), corn syrup, malted milk, barley malt (containing wheat, milk, sodium bicarbonate, salt), cocoa, carob, sorbitan tristearate, soy lecithin, resinous glaze, natural and artificial flavors, tapioca dextrin, calcium carbonate, and salt.
[edit] History
The Overland Candy Company introduced a malted milk candy product called Giants in 1939. In 1947, Overland merged with Chicago Biscuit Company, Leaf Gum and Leaf Machinery. Leaf Brands reintroduced malted milk balls in 1949 under the name of Whoppers. The Whoppers brand, along with all other products manufactured by Leaf Brands, was purchased by W.R. Grace in the 60s. The brands were later repurchased by Leaf in 1976. Hershey Foods Corporation acquired the Leaf North America confectionery operations from Huhtamaki Oy of Helsinki, Finland in 1996. Whoppers are marketed as "The Original Malted Milk Balls" despite Maltesers, originally known as Energy Balls being invented by Forrest Mars Sr. in 1936.
Whoppers were first sold unwrapped, two for one cent. After the creation of cellophane wrapping machines, smaller Whoppers were packaged in cellophane and sold five for one cent. These were called "Fivesomes." Soon after, Leaf introduced the first confectionery milk carton package. In the early 70s, different flavors were tried and sometime between 1949 and 1952 an egg-shaped Whoppers malted milk candy was introduced for Easter. A few years later, Robin Eggs were added to the line.
[edit] External links
 Milk carton style box |
 Inside a Whopper |
 Individual pieces |
| Confectionery products of The Hershey Company |
|---|
| Chocolate-based |
| 5th Avenue | Almond Joy | Bar None (discontinued) | Cherry Blossom | Fast Break | Glosette (Canada only) | Heath bar | Hershey bar | Hershey's Kiss | Hershey's Kissables | Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme | Hershey's Pops | Hershey's S'mores | Kit Kat (U.S. only) | Krackel | Milk Duds | Mounds | Mr. Goodbar | Oh Henry! (Canada only) | PayDay Chocolate (Limited Edition) | Rolo (U.S. only) | Reese's Peanut Butter Cup | Reese's Pieces | ReeseSticks | Skor | Take 5 (Also known as Max 5) | Whoppers | York Peppermint Pattie |
| Non-Chocolate |
| Bubble Yum | Ice Breakers | Jolly Rancher | Koolerz | PayDay | ZAGNUT |
| Other |
| Good & Plenty | Snack Barz | Swoops | Twizzlers | Whatchamacallit |
|
Hershey also manufactures Cadbury-branded products in the U.S. and military chocolate for the U.S. armed forces |
