Heide’s Mexican Hats!

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a CollectingCandy.com reader named Jeff, asking me about a candy box that he’d remembered from the early 1990’s but couldn’t find any information for online.  He believed that what he was remembering was a box for Heide’s Mexican Hats and I’m inclined to agree with him.  With this little mystery in mind I thought it was the perfect time to dedicate a post to the topic.  So today I’ll be showcasing the trio of Mexican Hats candy boxes I have in my collection.

I first added a Mexican Hats box to my collection back in the spring of 2009, and I was truly excited to find it when I did.  I hadn’t seen a box or a photo of one since I was a kid, and I probably would have forgotten what they looked like save for the fact that it was the basis of one of my favorite Wacky Packages stickers – Martian Hats.

Mexican Hats were a Heide’s classic, a spice-flavored hard-jelly candy from a family of products that included Jujubes and Jujyfruits, but with a flavor all their own.  I think the last time they could be found in individual boxes was the early 1990’s, but you might still be able to purchase them in bulk.

Here are the two 1970’s Mexican Hats boxes I now have in my collection.  They’re nearly identical but do sport a number of subtle differences:

Heide – Mexican Hats candy box – 1970

Heide – Mexican Hats candy box – 1975

The last box I have to show is the one that I believe reader Jeff was asking me about.  This is what he had to say,

In the 1990s, I had a Heide box of candy that I saved which was yellow and had a picture of a decorated blue bull on the front.  I thought perhaps it was Mexican Hats, yet wherever I search online, I cannot find the box design.

Though the color he describes is different, the rest of his description matches up with the 1980’s Mexican Hats box I have.  Here it is:

Heide – Mexican Hats – 7oz candy box – Gummi Bear beach towel mail-away – 1985

I think it’s pretty clear that Mexican Hats was the box that my reader Jeff remembered.  It makes me wonder if the background box color was changed to yellow sometime in the early 1990’s – it’s certainly possible.  It also makes it another box I’d love to track down, if it exists in a different 1990’s color scheme.

Based on what I’ve determined with Heide packaging, chances are there was at least one additional box Mexican Hats packaging design used in the later 1970’s not included here – but I’ve never seen any version of Mexican Hats beyond what I’ve shown today.

So that’s everything I’ve got on Mexican Hats at the moment – I hope you’ve enjoyed checking it out.  Special thanks to reader Jeff M. for writing in with the question and inspiring today’s post.

See you next time!