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A lollipop is a "hard
sweet on a stick. [origin uncertain]", the
Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English (© Oxford
University Press 1996)
According to the National Confectionary Association,
the first candy on a stick was
probably created by cavemen who maintained
beehives and collected honey by stick.
Not wanting to waste the sweet residue, they, most
likely, licked the utensil and thus the first unintentional
lollipop, or, candy on a stick, was born.
Ancient Arabs, Chinese and Egyptians produced fruit and nut confections which were "candied" in honey which served as a preservative, and due to the nature of the sticky substance, sticks were inserted into these treats to make them easier to eat.
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In the 17th Century,
in England, it was considered a delicacy to enjoy
boiled sugar candy treats, and in order to make
them easier to eat, a stick was inserted. Some linguists
have surmised that the term "lollipop"
may have been derived from street vendors
in London during the age of Charles Dickens. |
Lollipops as we know
them today began to appear in the United States
right before the Civil War. In the 1880's, Bradley
Smith Company produced candies on a stick
and in 1931 patented the name Lolly
Pop. However, during the Depression, the
company stopped making candy for several years and
thus the trademark could not be enforced. Since
then, lollipop has been the generic term for the
treasured treat, regardless of size, shape or flavour.
The 20th century, the era of automation,
was where the true history of the birth of the lollipop
began.
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As you can see, there
are several discrepancies as to who was the true
creator of lollipops. As early as 1905,
the McAviney Candy Company created boiled
hard candies which were stirred by stick,
and even tough hard evidence does not exist as to
when the first candy stick was sold, if true, this
would make the McAviney Candy Company the first
to offer mass produced lollipops. |
| In 1908
in Racine, Wisconsin, the first automated lollipop
production was invented by the Racine Confectionary
Machine Company. This Company held the
title of the creator of the mass produced lollipop
until approximately 1912 when Samuel
Born, a Russian immigrant and entrepreneur,
invented a machine whose sole purpose was
to automatically insert sticks into candy. The City
of San Francisco considered this candy innovation
so amazing that they awarded him the keys to the
city in 1916! |
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In
1958 Enric Bernat founded the company that gave birth to the first factory that produced lollipops. |
Unfortunately, no one knows exactly when the lollipop was created, but we do know that it is one of the most popular candies in existence. |
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