Candy Corn Day

What the day is

Candy Corn Day is observed on October 30, the day before Halloween. It celebrates the small, triangular, three-colored candy that shows up in stores every fall, loved by some and dismissed by others. The day is informal, and its date is simply timed to the run-up to Halloween.

Candy corn is strongly tied to autumn. Most of it is sold between late summer and the end of October, and it is one of the few candies whose popularity is almost entirely seasonal.

Origin and background

Candy corn is usually credited to George Renninger, a candymaker at the Wunderle Candy Company in Philadelphia, who developed it in the 1880s. It was originally sold as chicken feed, a name that played on the resemblance to kernels of corn, which was a familiar crop to farming customers at the time. The Goelitz Confectionery Company, now known as Jelly Belly, began producing it in large quantities at the end of the nineteenth century, and the company still makes it today.

The candy is made mostly of sugar, corn syrup, confectioner's glaze, salt and food coloring, poured in three layers of white, orange and yellow. The industry's trade association has estimated that roughly thirty-five million pounds are made each year, which comes to billions of pieces. Opinions are famously split: in polls it often ranks as both a favorite and a least favorite Halloween candy, sometimes in the same survey.

How to take part

• Buy a bag and try it plain, then with something salty such as peanuts, a pairing many fans swear by.
• Use candy corn in a recipe: in cookies, bark, popcorn mix or as a topping for cupcakes.
• Compare the traditional version with a flavored one, such as caramel or pumpkin spice.
• Settle the debate with friends by running a blind taste test of several Halloween candies.
• Share a handful with a child, or keep some aside for trick-or-treaters.