Good & Plenty Candy: My Childhood Favorite

What is 1.75 centimeters in length, 0.75 centimeters in width and pink and white on the outside and black on the inside? Of course. Good &Plenty candy.

Good and Plenty candy was first produced by the Quaker City Confectionery Company in Philadelphia in 1893 and is the oldest branded candy in the United States. Choo Choo Charlie, the engineer who fueled his train with GOOD & PLENTY candy, first appeared in advertisements in 1950. Even if you really did not like the candy, the packaging was the greatest. It comes in a rectangular box, colored purple, pink, white, with “Good & Plenty” in black, and encircled in a bubble. And the box became a musical instrument after you ate all the candy. Wrap your lips around the open end, blow gently, and every kid was a musician with his own whistle. The company that makes Good & Plenty has a long history. In 1973, Warner-Lambert purchased Good and Plenty candy and owned it until 1982 when the operation was purchased by Beatrice Foods and moved to St. Louis. In 1983, Huhtamaki Oy purchased Leaf Brands, the confectionery division of Beatrice Foods. Hershey Foods Corporation acquired the Leaf North America confectionery operations from Huhtamaki Oy of Helsinki, Finland in 1996. However, the candy remains the same.

The recipe to produce the unique, but somewhat bland flavor of the candy is simple: sugar, corn syrup, wheat flour, molasses, resinous glaze, natural anise flavor, carnauba wax, and artificial flavor.

Whatever the taste, the candy itself has a mystique to children. Listen to some of these comments of responsible adults looking back on their own Good & Plenty experiences. “I was around 6 years old and was never allowed to eat any type of candy. My grandfather was a dentist and my mom watched me and my sister like hawks. That summer I got to go to sleep-away camp and of course I got my freedom from my parents and no candy rule. They had a nightly ritual at camp you got to go to the canteen for a snack and soda the first candy I tried was good and plenty. I was hooked real fast. I became the good and plenty kid. I remember when I was around 4 years old I begged my dad to get me a big box of good and plenty. I was so excited that he got it and I ran across the street singing “choo choo good and plenty” “good and plenty” shaking the box”

And did you know that you can still have the Good and Plenty experience and not look like a silly kid. Layer equal parts of Kahlua and Ouzo, on after another into a pony or shot glass. Choo Choo Charlie says, “Love my GOOD and PLENTY”, Charlie says “Really rings my bell”, Charlie says, “Love my GOOD and PLENTY!

What’s your experience with Good & Plenty Candy? Is it like mine? Or you are the Good & Plenty kid of your street?