Almond Joy - History

History

Peter Paul Halajian was a candy retailer in the New Haven, Connecticut area in the early 20th century. Along with some other Armenian investors, including Dutch candy manufacturer Winjamy, he formed the Winjamy Candy Manufacturing Company in 1919. The company at first sold various brands of candies, but following sugar and coconut shortages in World War II, they dropped most brands and concentrated their efforts on the Mounds bar. The Almond Joy bar was introduced in 1946 as a replacement for the Dream Bar (created in 1936) that contained diced almonds with the coconut. In 1978, Peter Paul merged with the Cadbury company. Hershey’s then purchased the United States portion of the combined company in 1988.

During the 1970s, the Peter Paul company used the jingle, "Sometimes you feel like a nut / Sometimes you don't / Almond Joy's got nuts / Mounds don't," to advertise Almond Joy and Mounds in tandem. In a play on words, the "feel like a nut" portion of the jingle was typically played over a clip of someone acting like a "nut", i.e., engaged in an unconventional activity, such as riding on a horse backwards.

In the 2000s, Hershey began producing variations of the product, including a limited edition Piña Colada and Double Chocolate Almond Joy in 2004, a limited edition White Chocolate Key Lime and Milk Chocolate Passion Fruit Almond Joy in 2005, and a limited edition Toasted Coconut Almond Joy in 2006.

Although Peter Paul as a company no longer exists, the name still appears on the wrapper as part of the bars' brand names.

Bounty (produced by Mars Incorporated) is a popular UK version of Almond Joy, similar in shape and make-up, although without the almond (so more like Mounds). Bounty comes in milk and dark chocolate varieties.