The Charms Candy Company was a candy company founded in 1912 and sold to

Tootsie Roll Industries Tootsie Roll Industries is an American manufacturer of confectionery based in Chicago, Illinois. Its best-known products include the namesake Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops. Tootsie Roll Industries currently markets its brands internationally in ...

in 1988.

History

Walter W. Reid Jr. founded the Charms Candy Company in 1912. The company was originally called Tropical Charms, a reference to the individually wrapped square-shaped hard candies, which were one of the first of their kind to be individually wrapped in

cellophane Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria, and liquid water makes it useful for food packaging. Cellophane is highly permeable to water vapour, but may be coated ...

. Tropical Charms was founded in

Bloomfield, New Jersey Bloomfield is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the township's population was 53,105. It surrounds the Bloomfield Green Historic District. History The initial patent for the land that w ...

. The company name was eventually shortened to Charms. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

began including Charms candies in combat rations as a supplemental energy form. Charms candies would continue to be included in MREs until 2007. Over the intervening years the candies came to be associated with bad luck, with the superstition becoming so widespread that it led to their removal. After the war, Walter Reid III, the son of the founder, took control of the company. The company was led by Reid III, Ross B. Cameron Sr. (Walter W. Reid Jr.’s son-in-law) and his two sons, Ross B. Cameron Jr. and Reid B. Cameron. The Charms Candy Company moved its manufacturing plant from Bloomfield, NJ to Freehold, NJ in 1973. The company eventually purchased and built a manufacturing plant in Covington,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. In 1988, the Charms Candy Company was sold to

. With the addition of Blow Pops to their product line, which included Tootsie Pops, the Tootsie Roll Company became the largest lollipop manufacturer in the world.

Products

Charms developed a wide variety of confections. Tropical Charms, later renamed Charms, are square candies that come in cherry, grape, lemon, lime, orange, and raspberry flavors. From 1937 until the 1950s Charms produced pecan-filled

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

bars called "25 Carats" made with

The Hershey Company The Hershey Company, commonly known as Hershey's, is an American multinational company and one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world. It also manufactures baked products, such as cookies and cakes, and sells beverages like milksh ...

top grade chocolate (at that time, Hershey had 3 grades of chocolate). The chocolate candy was discontinued due to the high margin cost and other internal problems. In the 1960s besides making other Holiday candy lollipops they also produced Charms "Jellies" and

Chuckles Chuckles are jelly candies coated with a light layer of sugar. They come in five flavors: cherry, lemon, lime, orange, and licorice. Each package of Chuckles contains one piece of each flavor. The candies are made with corn syrup, sugar, modi ...

Gum Drops. Later they created a peanut butter-filled hard candy in the shape of a

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small and ...

. On Nov. 28, 1966, Thomas T. Tidwell, founder of Triple T. Co. Inc., filed a patent for “Method for making candy with gum inside.” Triple T initially marketed the product as the Triple Treat. In 1973, Triple T sold the idea to Charms, where it was renamed Blow Pop. Blow Pops come in

watermelon Watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family and the name of its edible fruit. A scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, it is a highly cultivated fruit worldwide, with more than 1,000 varie ...

, strawberry, cherry,

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...

, and sour

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

flavors (sour apple was introduced later and was originally round like an apple). Blow Pops became the Charms Candy Company's best-selling product of all time. Besides the Blow Pop, the candy company produced Charms Squares, Sweet & Sour Pops, Sour Balls and many other smaller candy products.

References

{{Tootsie Roll confectionery products Brand name confectionery Candy Lollipops Products introduced in 1973

History

Products

See also

References