Laffy Taffy is an American brand of taffy candies produced by the

Ferrara Candy Company The Ferrara Candy Company is an American candy manufacturer, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, Chicago, Illinois, and owned by the Ferrero SpA, Ferrero Group. The company was formed from a 2012 merger of the Illinois-based Ferrara Pan Candy ...

, a subsidiary of

Ferrero Ferrero may refer to: * Ferrero (surname), a surname * Ferrero (company), an Italian manufacturer of chocolate * Ferrero Bay, a body of water between King Peninsula and Canisteo Peninsula, Antarctica * Ferrero–Washington theorem, a result in alge ...

. The candies are small (about ), individually wrapped taffy rectangles available in a variety of colors and fruit flavors, including banana, strawberry, green apple, grape, watermelon, blue raspberry, and cherry. Discontinued flavors include caramel apple, coconut, strawberries & cream, apple crisp, chocolate mousse, pumpkin donut, pineapple, guava, orange sorbet, lemon raspberry, fruit punch, mango, strawberry banana, peppermint, and hot cocoa. The name "Laffy Taffy" refers to both the texture of the taffy and its embodiment of silliness: short, question and answer style jokes are printed on the outside of each wrapper, such as "What do you call a cow with no legs? – Ground beef." Some jokes are

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

-based, such as "What is Labor Day? – That's when moms have their babies." Others are based on silly

word play Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, ph ...

, such as "What's an owl's favorite subject? – Owlgebra." The jokes are a mix of ones sent in by fans and popular puns identified through research. In 2022, Laffy Taffy held a joke writing contest in which they received 6,500 submissions. They selected the top 101 jokes to add to their joke depository.

History

The brand was first produced in the 1970s by Kathryn Beich Candies of

Bloomington, Illinois Bloomington is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census showed the city had a population of 78,680, making it the List of municipalities in Illinois, 13th-most populous ci ...

as "Beich's ame of FlavorCaramels", though these were not in fact caramels but fruit-flavored taffy squares. The Beich's later changed the name of the product to "Beich's Laffy Taffy", which occurred some years prior to the acquisition of the distribution rights and the eventual purchase of the product line by

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

in 1984. Laffy Taffy was originally advertised as having a "long-lasting" flavor. Though it used to come in thick, square-shaped pieces, it is now sold in thinner, rectangular pieces. In 2003, the

Willy Wonka Willy Wonka is a fictional character appearing in British author Roald Dahl's 1964 children's novel ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' and its 1972 sequel '' Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator''. He is the eccentric founder and proprieto ...

brand introduced a variety called "Flavor Flippers", with each piece of taffy having an outer layer of one flavor and a soft center of a different flavor. In January 2018,

announced plans to sell its U.S. confectionery brands, including Laffy Taffy, to Italian chocolatier

Ferrero SpA Ferrero International SpA ( , ), more commonly known as Ferrero Group or simply Ferrero, is an Italian multinational company with headquarters in Alba. Ferrero is a manufacturer of branded chocolate and confectionery products, and the second ...

, maker of

Nutella Nutella ( , , ; stylized in all lowercase) is a brand of brown, sweetened hazelnut cocoa spread. Nutella is manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero and was introduced in 1964, although its first iteration dates to 1963. History Pietro ...

, for $2.8 billion.

folded the acquired brands into the operations of the

in 2019, and increased investment in marketing and production over the subsequent years.

Ingredients

Ingredients vary by flavor. The following ingredients are shown on the Laffy Taffy website: *

Corn syrup Corn syrup is a food syrup that is made from the starch of corn/maize and contains varying amounts of sugars: glucose, maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade. Corn syrup is used in foods to soften Mouthfeel, texture, add vol ...

Hydrogenated Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H2) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel, palladium or platinum. The process is commonly employed to reduce or saturate organi ...

coconut oil Coconut oil (or coconut fat) is an edible oil derived from the kernels, meat, and milk of the coconut palm fruit. Coconut oil is a white solid fat below around , and a clear thin liquid oil at higher temperatures. Unrefined varieties have a disti ...

The following are less than 2%: *

Malic acid Malic acid is an organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a dicarboxylic acid that is made by all living organisms, contributes to the sour taste of fruits, and is used as a food additive. Malic acid has two stereoisomeric forms ( ...

* Egg Albumen * Sodium Alganate * Calcium Acetate * Monogylcerides * Natural Flavor * Various coloring depending on product - Blue 1, Red 3, Yellow 6 etc. Amounts of the following depend on the flavor, color, and size of each individual piece: *

Sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

Palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...

* Diglycerides * Soy Lecithin * Hydrogenated Cottonseed oil *

Egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

References

External links

Wonka official websiteLaffyTaffy website
{{Willy Wonka Candy Company products Brand name confectionery Taffies (candy) The Willy Wonka Candy Company brands Jokes