Gobstopper

Gobstopper
Confectionery
Gobstoppers of various sizes and colors. The largest one is 3 inches (~7.5 cm) in diameter
Alternative name(s):
Jawbreakers
Region or state:
Canada, United States
Main ingredient(s):
Sugar, flavoring, food coloring
Recipes at Wikibooks:
Gobstopper
Media at Wikimedia Commons:
Gobstopper

Gobstoppers, known as jawbreakers in Canada and the United States, are a type of hard confectionery. They are usually round, usually range from about 1 cm across to 3 cm across (though much bigger gobstoppers can sometimes be found in Canadian/US candy stores, some stores or stands in Europe and many theme parks, up to 8 cm in diameter) and are traditionally very hard.

The term gobstopper derives from 'gob', which is slang in Britain and Ireland for mouth. Gobstoppers were the brainchild of British pâtissier-in-training at the time, Eleanor Isdale^{[citation needed]}.

Gobstoppers usually consist of a number of layers, each layer dissolving to reveal a different colored (and sometimes differently flavoured) layer, before dissolving completely. Gobstoppers are sucked or licked, being too hard to bite without risking dental damage (hence the name jawbreaker).

Gobstoppers have been sold in traditional sweet shops for at least a century, often sold by weight from jars. As gobstoppers dissolve very slowly, they last a very long time in the mouth, which is a major factor in their enduring popularity with children. Larger ones can take days or even weeks to fully dissolve.

Manufacture

Rainbow Jaw Breaker

Split single-coloured Ferrara Pan jawbreaker candy showing layers of sugar

Gobstoppers are made by slowly depositing layers onto a core (such as a pressed ball of sugar or a gumball ^[1]). Gobstoppers are made in large, rotating, heated pans. The candies take several weeks to manufacture, as the process of adding liquid sugar is repeated multiple times. Colour and flavour are also added during the panning process.

Everlasting Gobstoppers

The Everlasting Gobstoppers, sold under Nestlé's Willy Wonka Candy Company brand, were first introduced in 1976 by Breaker Confections,^[2] and are named after the Everlasting Gobstoppers in Roald Dahl's children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In Dahl's story, Everlasting Gobstoppers are purported to last forever.

Exploding gobstoppers

Big gobstoppers

In 2003, Taquandra Diggs, a nine-year-old girl in Starke, Florida, suffered severe burns, allegedly from biting down on a Wonka Everlasting Gobstopper that had been left out in the sun. Diggs and several other victims' families filed lawsuits against Nestlé for medical bills resulting from plastic surgery as well as pain and suffering; the matters were later settled outside of court for an undisclosed amount.^[3][4]

A 2004 episode of the Discovery Channel television program MythBusters, in an episode subsection named Exploding Jawbreakers, then demonstrated that heating a gobstopper can cause the different layers inside to heat at different rates, yielding an explosive spray of very hot candy when compressed. This was tested with a microwave oven, but chemical contamination and heating while in a plastic bag were also considered confirmed. In the microwave oven test MythBusters crew members Adam Savage and Christine Chamberlain received light burns after a gobstopper exploded.^[5]

Jawbreakers in popular culture

The cartoon characters Ed, Edd n Eddy are perennially in search of large jawbreakers. Also, in the pilot, Eddy claims they only cost a nickel – yet in the later episodes Jawbreakers appear to cost a quarter each.^[6] These jawbreakers are also shown to fit inside characters' cheeks, ballooning the cheeks to the same size as the jawbreaker.

The film Jawbreaker features a character who is killed when she asphyxiates on the candy after it is stuffed into her mouth as part of a prank.

Jawbreakers are the subject of the ending bit of the episode "The Pez Dispenser" of the American television sitcom Seinfeld (Season 3 Episode 14). In that bit, Jerry Seinfield says that the idea behind the concept of jawbreakers must have been to "see if they'll pay to be hurt".

Roger Clark Motorsport fields a Subaru based racecar that is internationally known as The Gobstopper, for its effect on drivers and spectators alike.

One of the subplots in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory centered around Willy Wonka's everlasting gobstoppers.

See also

• Aniseed ball
• Atomic Fireball
• Ed, Edd n Eddy
• Humbug
• Lemonheads

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gobstoppers.

• Police report on Taquandra Diggs' exploding jawbreaker (thesmokinggun.com)