When discussing discontinued chocolate bars or candy, especially ones that are fondly remembered or missed, the talk soon moves to the question: “Is there anything like this that I can still buy?”
Such is the case with Nestle’s Choco’Lite bar.
To my recollection, candy started taking on a larger presidential profile during Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980’s. President Reagan was a fan of a brand of jelly beans that were relatively unknown at the time – Jelly Belly. Soon the stories of his appreciation for those gourmet jelly beans hit the evening news – and a confectionery hit was born. We can assume that Jelly Belly’s initial success owes a good deal to our 40th President’s sweet-tooth.
After covering the US Marathon bar and its secret origins as well as its UK namesake and the bar that inspired it (CurlyWurly), I’m going to round it out with the WigWag.
I’ve long been uncertain of how the name of this bar should be written. Is it two separate words as in Curly Wurly, one word but with an oddly-placed capital like CurlyWulry, or is it simply a single name like Curlywurly? While I still don’t know for sure, I do know I love this chocolate bar.
A quick recap on yesterday’s Part One:
For decades, Snickers bars were sold as Marathon bars over in the United Kingdom, while the US had a its own different Marathon through the 1970’s. But in the early 1990’s the UK switched their Marathon to Snickers – and the Marathon name was gone – until it was brought back as the Marathon energy bar “powered by Snickers” in 2005.
Make sense? If not, go back a day and read Part One.
Two days ago, I discussed Mars’ US Marathon bar (1973-1981), a personal favorite. Today, I’m going to reveal the little-known origin of that bar, along with how that origin ties into one of Mars’ flagship candy bar brands – 3-Musketeers.
To ongoing readers of this site, it should be clear that I’m a huge fan of the 1970’s US Marathon bar. It is a big part of what drove my start in this hobby, and it remains a source of nostalgic enjoyment for me.
Mars' Marathon bar - as sold in the USA - 1973-1981
Aside from a few pieces of mythology and sales details on the brand, I’d thought I knew the story of Marathon bars pretty well. But just over a year ago, I discovered a chapter to the US Marathon story I never knew – and one that ties the US Marathon’s origins directly to Mars’ other classic brand, 3-Musketeers.
In the United States today, when you mention the brand names Snickers and 3-Musketeers, your mind will recognize two of the most popular and timeless candy bar names. Mention the brand name Marathon here, and maybe you remember the classic chocolate and caramel treat I covered yesterday. But in the UK – they’ll give you a different answer.
Today and tomorrow, I’m going to cover forty years of confectionery history across two continents, and have some fun tracking the various ways these brand names have been used by M&M-Mars.
Mad about Marathon – The bar that lasts a good long time…
The name of this website is CollectingCandy and no single candy wrapper has been as responsible for my starting to collect candy than the Marathon’s.
My love of Marathon is reflected throughout the site. The current Collecting Candy logo is an homage to the typeface on the Marathon wrapper. A Marathon is also featured prominently in the collage background of our masthead banner. Check out our About page and you will see me gleefully holding a Marathon. In short – I’m mad about Marathon.
Hallmark - Valentine Monster cards assortment - 1970's
Though Valentine’s Day is a holiday intimately intertwined with the idea of roses and heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, it’s not my top holiday for candy collecting. Perhaps next to the monster-adorned packaging for Halloween, or the Santa-&-Snowmen bounty of Christmas, a bunch of hearts and pink wrappers don’t compare. Maybe it’s just me.
Rockin' the 80's - Tale of the 30-Year-Old Snickers bar
When you are a collector of old candy wrappers and candy boxes, you quickly learn and have to accept that you’re collecting what most folks consider trash. Candy wrappers are discarded, not saved. Because of that fact, you look for and find them wherever you can. In a few instances, that means they still contain the original candy inside.
One of the aspects of collecting candy I really enjoy is that there are constantly new discoveries to be made. As a kid, I collected trading cards, but I wasn’t discovering new things so much as I was assembling my personal collection from a well-known and well-documented universe of possibilities. With candy, it’s very different. In the world of collecting candy, you turn a corner and you never know what you’re going to find.
