Tootsie Roll is a chocolate taffy candy that has been manufactured in the United States since 1907. The candy has qualities similar to both caramels and taffy without being exactly either confection.[1] The manufacturer, Tootsie Roll Industries, is based in Chicago, Illinois. It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped in America.[2]
Tootsie Roll Industries (name adopted in 1966) is one of the largest candy manufacturers in the world. Over 65 million Tootsie Rolls are made daily.[3] According to the company website, the original recipe calls for the inclusion of the previous day's batch, "a graining process that Tootsie continues to this day."[4]
History
According to the official company history,[5] founder Leo Hirschfield (spelled Hirshfield in Tootsie Industries history) was an Austrian Jewish immigrant to the United States of America,[6] son of an Austrian candy maker. He started his own career in the candy business at a small shop or factory in New York City in 1896. He was employed in a senior position at the Stern & Saalberg company in Manhattan, New York, owned by Julius Stern and Jacob Saalberg, for many years.
Details of his early career are disputed. The more common version has him starting a candy shop in Brooklyn that later merged with Stern & Saalberg. Another version has him starting at the factory and rising to a senior management position.[7]
The first candy that Hirschfield created was Bromangelon Jelly Powder. He completed the invention of Tootsie Rolls in 1907 after patenting a technique to give them their unique texture. He named the candy after his daughter Clara, whose nickname was "Tootsie."[8]
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Captain Tootsie
Captain Tootsie is an advertisement comic strip created for Tootsie Rolls in 1943 by C C Beck, Pete Costanza and Bill Schreider (1950 onwards).[13] It features the Captain Tootsie and his sidekick, a black-haired boy named Rollo, along with three other young cohorts; a red-haired boy named Fatso, a blond boy named Fisty (or a brunette named Marybelle), and a blonde-haired girl called Sweetie.[14] The feature utilized stories in the form of full-color one-page Sunday strips, black and white daily strips, and two issues of a comic book of the same title released by Toby Press. The advertisement comic was featured by many publishers and in the newspapers.[15] Within the context of the stories, Captain Tootsie is quite intense and quicker to the punch than any of his enemies. His stories are light and "kid-friendly." Captain Tootsie's comic strip ads ended in the 1950s.
In the 1970s, artist Herb Trimpe
Ingredients
The current U.S. ingredients of a Tootsie Roll are: sugar, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, condensed skim milk, cocoa, whey, soy lecithin, and artificial and natural flavors.[20]
In 2009, Tootsie Rolls became certified kosher by the Orthodox Union.[21]
Alternative flavors
In addition to the traditional cocoa-flavored Tootsie Roll, several additional flavors have been introduced. Known as Tootsie Fruit Chews, these candies were introduced in the 1970s[22] and include flavors such as cherry, orange, vanilla, lemon, and lime. These varieties are wrapped in pink, orange, blue, yellow, and green wrappers, respectively. They also offer a special Mega Mix bag that includes specialty flavors, green apple, blue raspberry, and grape. The specialty Fruit Chews are wrapped in dark green, dark blue, and purple wrappers to correlate with their flavors. The "Sweet and Sour Holiday Cheer" bag contains cherry, lime, sour cherry, and sour apple. These varieties are wrapped in pink, lime green, red, and dark green wrappers, respectively.[23]
Tootsie Frooties come in numerous different fruit flavors, including strawberry, blue raspberry, grape, green apple, banana berry, smooth cherry, fruit punch, pink lemonade, root beer, cranberry, blueberry, watermelon, and the newest, mango.[24]
See also
External links
References
- Samira Kawash. Chocolate? Tootsie Rolls Candy Professor, February 1, 2010, retrieved May 30, 2014^
- Manny Fernandez. Let Us Now Praise the Great Men of Junk Food The New York Times, 2010-08-07, retrieved 2023-11-16^
- Unwrapped 2.0: How Tootsie Rolls Are Made youtube.com, Food Network, retrieved November 15, 2023