Whoppers - History

History

In 1939, the Overland Candy Company introduced the predecessor to Whoppers, a malted milk candy called Giants. Overland merged with Chicago Biscuit Company, Leaf Gum, and Leaf Machinery, in 1947. Two years later, Leaf Brands reintroduced malted milk balls under the name of Whoppers. All products manufactured by Leaf Brands were purchased by W.R. Grace in the 1960s; however, they were repurchased by Leaf in 1976. Finally, Hershey Foods Corporation acquired the Leaf North America confectionery operations from Huhtamaki Oy of Helsinki, Finland in 1996. The company produces the Whoppers candy to this day.

Whoppers were first sold unwrapped, two for one cent. But after the creation of cellophane wrapping machines, smaller Whoppers were packaged and sold five for one cent, also known as Fivesomes. Leaf soon introduced the first confectionery milk carton package which would become a hallmark of the candy. Sometime between 1949 and 1952 an egg-shaped Whoppers candy was introduced for Easter. They differ from the traditional Whoppers in being egg shaped and having a speckled candy shell.

In 2000, Hershey introduced Mini Whoppers. Traditionally chocolate in flavor, a new strawberry milkshake flavored variant became available in 2006, soon after they also released Reese's Peanut Butter Cup flavored Whoppers.