Americans continued the English tradition of pairing of lamb with mint jelly.
Pop Rocks
Food historians credit General Foods chemist William A. Mitchell for this unique confection. His 1956 patent "Gelatin Derivates and Their Preparation." [number: 2834771], a method for combining carbon dioxide with hard candy, made Pop Rocks possible.
It took General Foods nearly 20 years to figure out how to market Mitchell's carbonated consumable. Enter Pop Rocks, first test marketed in Arizona, February 1976. The candies were soon bootlegged and eventually sank into the realm of urban legend. When rumors warned consumers mixing this product with soda made people's stomaches explode sales plumetted. GF dropped Pop Rocks, divesting the loss leader to another company. But you can't keep an explosive idea under wraps. Especially if it's tasty, sweet, and cheap. The new trademark owner successfully reintroduced the candy a few years later. Today, Pop Rocks are alive and well, thriving in both current and nostalgia lines. They celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2006.
According to the records of the US Patent & Trademark Office, Pop Rocks were registered by General Foods Corporation June 15, 1976:
"Word Mark
POP ROCKS Goods and Services (CANCELLED) IC 030. G & S: NO GOODS/SERVICES STATEMENT ON TRAM Mark Drawing Code (1)
TYPED DRAWING Serial Number 81041425 Filing Date 0000 Current Filing Basis UNKNOWN Original Filing Basis UNKNOWN Registration
Number 1041425 Registration Date June 15, 1976 Owner (REGISTRANT) General Foods Corporation UNKNOWN White Plains NEW YORK Register
PRINCIPAL Live/Dead Indicator DEAD Cancellation Date November 9, 1982"
The earliest print reference we find for test marketing is this:
+
"Enter "Pop Rocks": General Foods Co,. tests a "crackling candy" in various fruit flavors. Ingredients are similar to conventional hard candy except that carbon
dioxide is included. Result: a sensation of candy particles bursting noisily in the mouth as the Pop Rocks dissolve."
---"Business Bulletin: Special Background Report on Trends in Industry and Finance," Wall Street Journal, February 5, 1976 (p. 1)
" One of the great challenges of modern industry has been the problem of soda pop. Most of it is water, which means that most of the money spent to transport the
stuff from bottling joint to store has been spent to transport water. How much nicer if the pop and its bubbles could be powdered. General Foods' efforts to solve
the problem of powdered pop have led to the already legendary Pop Rocks and Space Dust candies, wich are still being test marketed, and black-marketed by
kids where they aren't available. The candies fizz, releasing carbonation in the mouth or in the hand when they come in contact with moisture. While General Foods
wrestles with the problem, Eugene Dana, president of Nellson Candies, is testing his solution, Advertising Age reported. His Carb-O-Nated powdered mix cones
come in cherry, lemon-lime, grape, and orange. It is being tested in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Six packets, each of which makes a 10-ounce drink, retail
for 99 cents, one cent an ounce chaper than buying a name brand six pack of canned soda pop in Chicago. No cola yet, but give them time."
---"News for you: Powdered soda pop." Chicago Tribune, August 22, 1977 (p. B1)
"With nothing but word-of-mouth advertising behind them, General Foods' Space Dust and Pop Rocks carbonated candies are outselling most--if not all--major
candy brands 'in any makret where they are introduced,' according to a GF exec. But the unusual candies, which cause a bursting, tinlging sensation in the mouth,
can be marketed only for 13-week periods at a time in order to prevent the carbonation from dissapating and spoioing the moment for kids. They are also sensitive
to heat, so GF has a policy of not introducing them in markets where the average temperature exceeds 85 degrees. GF is attempting to educate the trade about the
prdoucts because of instances where they have been 'bootlegged' into other markets. In one case, a heat in a truck carrying the prudcuts was accidentally turned
on. The gas released from several hundred Pop Rocks cases eventually blew the truck doors open. 'When that happens, you're left with just hard candy,' the exec
said. The carbon dioxide in Pop Rocks is one-tenth of the amount contained in a can of soft drink...Now that temperatures are beginning to climb across the
nation, GF has stopped selling them. When fall arrives, however, Pop Rocks and Space Dust willl reappear in much wider distribution, perhaps as many as 37
states. During a 13-week introduction, a reatailer is permitted a single order and receives one shipment. According to the GF exec, a retailer can expect to sell half
his supply within four weeks and 90% by the tenth week. The candies have been subject of much free publicity in newspapers and on network tv talk shows,
including Johnny Carson's monolog on the 'Tonight Show' April 12. Although there has been no advertising to date, Benton & Bowles has done some concept
work on the products. Pop Rocks was first tested in Flagstaff and Yuma, Ariz, in 1976. It was followed by Space Dust, whose initial test markets were in
Colorado and Arizona. Both sell for 15 cents. In February of last year, the phrase 'explore the far reaches of your mind.' was removed from packages of Space
Dust after GF received complaints that the reference seemed based on drug use. At the time, the company expressed shock that anyone would misinterpret the
phrase. The company earlier denied rumors that the patented technique used to produce Pop Rocks and Space Dust would be applied in development of a
carbonated powdered drink mix."
---"Pop Rockes hot item--but not too hot, please," Adverstising Age, April 17, 1978 (p.1)
"General Foods has a hit with Pop Rocks and Space Dust, two forms of the hard candy with locked-in carbonation that makes an audible appearance when it his
the mouth. But despite their success, both 15-cent candies have not left test-market status, regardless of how many kids bootleg them across the country. The
problem is the manufacturer can't introduce them "in markets where the average temperature exceeds 85 degress," Advertising Age reported. Not only are kids
bootlegging them, but eager merchants are, too. And one hapless fellow lost his whole shipment wehnt he truck carrying it accidentally had its heat turned on. The
Pop Rock cargo released its carbonation and blew the truck doors open. Next fall, though, General [Foods] plans to market the candies temporarily in 37 safely
cool states, making the candies perhaps the only processed snack available soley in season."
---"News for you: Too successfull for their own good," Mary Knoblauch, Chicago Tribune, April 19, 1978 (p. A2)
"""It's like raining on the roof of your mouth," says a middle-aged person who tried it...""It" is Pop Rocks, a new carbonated hard candy that sizzles, snaps, pops
and tingles in your mouth, and brings grimaces, faint smiles and startled reactions from first-time tasters. "Explore the far reaches of your mind," says the package.
Since it has no apparent purpose or social significance--two key fad criteria--Pop Rocks promises to win a place in the pantheon of freaky gimmicks that infect
America from time to time. All of which brings more smiles than grimaces to General Foods, maker of Pop Rocks, which has sold "hundreds of millions" of the
packets...In fact, in true fad fashion Pop Rocks seem to be something of a hot underground item. They're being bootlegged to New York and sold on the street and
in a few stores for three and four times the normal price. Rumors about their existence and even a few samples of the 20-cent packages have reached Washington,
but exactly when the product will be on sale here, the manufacturer isn't saying. Meanwhile reports like a recent on in Advertising Age (confirmed by General
Foods) that a overheated load of Pop Rocks blew the doors open on a delivery truck have raised questions about the product's safety. Speculation that Pop Rocks
might harm the esophogus or the taste buds led NBC consumer reporter Betty Furness to take to the air recently to calm parents' fears. The secret ingredient of
General Foods' smach seller is carbon dioxide, about one-tenth the amount that's put into soft drinks to make them fizz. While a Pop Rock left on the tip of the
tongue with one's mouth open will "explode," ingredients for the product were okayed by the Food and Drug Administration before General Foods started to
test market it in 1976. Meanwhile, the company's hot product has its own unique sales difficulties. The company says Pop Rocks can't be sold in areas where the
average temperature is over 85 degreses. And sales are being suspended over the summer for the same reason. The shelf-life is also limited because the
carbonation dissapates over a period of time and then you're left with "just another hard candy." But wherever they appear, says the company, they are being
hoarded. It's not unusal to see people walk out of a store, carrying a large shopping bag filled with nothing but Pop Rocks or Star Dust (the former are large
rock-like pieces; the latter, dust-like bits.) Which explains why the candy is outselling most, if not all major candy bars "in any market where they are introduced."
General Foods says."
---"It Snaps, Crackles And-Yes-Pops: Carbonated Candy That Explodes in Your Mouth," Washington Post, April 21, 1978 (p. C3)
[NOTE: This article contains a photograph of the package.]
"The giant semi raced through the night across America from California to Brooklyn. Inside was a precious cargo whos street value in New York would be double
its West Coast price. Thousands of packs were unloaded at one distributor's warehouse, then channeled stealthily to selected candy and variety shops. Candy
shops? Yes, the cargo was destined to feed the latest kid candy craze: Pop Rocks. Says the Brooklyn distributor: "The kids sare like junkies--hungry for the stuff.
It's the fastest-moving new candy I've ever seen." The candy, so goes a Wall Street analyst's version, was born when a General Foods Corp. chemist mixed a little
"Kool Aid technology" with cargon dioxide...Crystalline in shape and so far available in three flavors (cherry, orange, grape), Pop Rocks are made of sugar, corn
syrup, milk derivative and artificial coloring and flavoring. When the small crystals of candy are placed in the mouth, tiny chambers of trapped CO2 are activated by
moisture. The result: a popping and crackling that delights kids. Pop Rocks are hard to get in most places, which only adds to their appear. General Foods markets
the candy mainly in California, although there have been other test sales around the country in the past three years. GF tries to confine sales of the candy to its test
markets, where a one-fifth-ounce package sells for 20 cents retail, but entrepreneurs have managed to obtain supplies and spirit them elsewhere, at prices up to
50c cents a package. Despite the potential demand, GF is moving cautiously before going national. Reason: although the food makes more than 400 food products,
it has never before sold a candy."
---"Rock It to Me: Feeding a Candy Craze," Time, May 1, 1978 (p. 44)
"General Foods has expanded its carbonated confection technology to a bubble gum and is testing Increda Bubble gum in a small market in the Northwest. The
company hopes the bubble gum will become more of a year-round entry than its carbonated Pop Rocks and Space Dust candies, the latter which is due to be
reintroduced under the name Cosmic Candy. GF has been marketing the candies on a cyclical basis because of their fad nature...According to sources close to the
company, GF chose a very small Northwest market to aviod bootlegging--as serious problem that has occurred with the [Pop Rock] candies. In contrast to the
more usual concern of concealing a test market because of competition, GF's worry is taht cand and gum wholesalers/distributors will buy up truckloads of the
gum to ship East. In the New York area, the candies have sold for more than triple their suggested list oruice of 15 cents. In a card shop near Advertising Age's
midtown New York office, Pop Rocks go for 50 cents a packet. Candy and gum distributors advertise in the New York Times to sell their supplies of Pop Rocks
and Space Dust to retailers. One classified ad reads, "Pop Rock. Hottest candy in the U.S. Fast turnaround--large profit, available whoesale." It's the large profit
and "consumer ripoff" that GF is hoping to avioid by concealing its test market. GF is worried taht in addition to making the test market impossible to read properly,
hijacking and subsequent high retail prices will hurt GF's image and the product's sales potential when it is offically introduced in the East. Pop Rocks was first
tested in Flagstaff and Yuma, Ariz. in 1976. It was followed by Space Dust in Colorado and Arizona. It has since been marketed sporadically in a number of
western markets, but none has been sold since the spring because GF is accumulating enough candy for a major fall introduction in as many as 37 states...The
package fods marketer recognized the fad aspect of the carbonated candies from the start. That is one reason it produces and wharehouses the candies until there
is a 13 week supply. Usually either pop Rocks or Space Dust--not both--is introduced to a market area. Nine months later, long after the firest candies have
dissappeared from the retail shelves, GF moves into the same market with the other item, and the fad begins anew...Prime targes are children under 15, who buy
the candies not so much for themselves but to watch their friends try them. After three or four packets, the effect of the carbonation on one person has reached a
saturation point, noted one source. The candies are expected to be introudced in a broad area this fall. Space Dust has been repackaged and renamed Cosmic
Candy because of compliant about its association with the drug Angel Dust. Earlier, the phrase "explore the far reaches of your mind," was removed from packages
of Space Dust after GF received compliants that the refernece seemed based on drug use. Network affiliated tv stations also expressed soem apprehension about
tv commercials. The two candies are similar, although Pop Rocks is a somewhat larger particle."
---"GF keeps carbonated gum test hush hush to avoid bootleggers," Advertising Age, July 31, 1978 (p. 1)
"What kind of mind thinks up products like exploding candy? "I'm basically a farmer type. I like to work with fruits and vegetables," says 67-year-old William A. Mitchell, a
silver-haired father of Pop Rocks, a crackling confection so popular that black markets have appeared in schools all over the country. Pop Rocks, a General Foods
product, is sold in most parts of the country for 20 cents a pack. That's 20 cents a pack in the store. "What's happened is that school kids would buy the packets and
then sell them to their friends with quite a surcharge," Mitchell said in a interview. "They were profiteering." The tremendous demand for Pop Rocks led General Fods to
build another manufacturing plant and Mitchell is now touring the country to introduce another sizzling sweet called Cosmic candy. Along the way, he's doing his best to
quash rumors about Pop Rocks. The incendiary effects fo Pop Rocks, a carbonated combination of sugar, flavoring and coloirng, apparently inspired stories of exploding
stomachs and other maladies among enthusiasts. All false, says Mitchell. "The amount of gas in a pack of Pop Rocks is less than one-tenth of what's in a can of soda
pop," says Mitchell, noting that Pop Rocks have U.U. Food & Drug Administration approval. "The worst thing they can do is make you burp." Because of the peculiar
nature of Pop Rocks, the product languished for more than 20 years after Mitchell first created them in 1956. General Foods simply wasn't sure what to do with them.
"I always thought it should be candy, but most of our people thought it should be in some other product--cereal or soemthing," Mitchell said. Finally, a Canadian division
started selling Pop Rocks in packets and General Foods decided to market them nationally."
---"Father of the Candy Bomb Just a Farmer at Heart," Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1979 (p. D12)
"In 1976, General Foods Corp. began marketing a new candy called Pop Rocks--carbonated crystals that fizz and crackle in the mouth. Pop Rocks became what
one distributor called "the fastest-moving new candy I've ever seen." Three years later, General Foods is planning to adapt the carbonated-candy idea to other
products. Pop Rocks have posed some unusual marketing problems, however. Earlier this year, a false but widespread rumor that Mikey, the boy on the Life
cereal commercial, had died from popping too many rocks prompted General Foods to take out ads in 45 newspapers assuring parents that the ingredients in Pop
Rocks have FDA approval. Also, the company has to take the unsold candy off the shelves when the daily temperature averages more than 85 degrees. In high
heat, Pop Rocks can start crackling ouside the mouth--and a shipment once blew open the doors on an overheated delivery truck. The company has so far sold
more than 500 million packages of Pop Rocks and Cosmic Candy...Bill Mitchell, who invented Pop Rocks, believes that carbonated candy is only the
beginning--that eventually such crystals will be an ingredient in everything from breakfast cereals to medication. General Foods has already begun test-marketing a
product known as Increda Bubble--carbonated gum."
---"A Candy Craze Keeps Popping," Newsweek, June 4, 1979 (p. 15)
"The bubble gum market is continuing to explode with new entries--American Chicle's Crackups, Life Savers' sugarless Bubble Yum and General Foods' especially
appriate Increda Bubble gum with bursting candy particles...Although GF researchers have experimented with carbonation for years, it wasn't until recent years that
the company came up with a viable product--carbonated candies. As that business expanded via some incredible successes on the West Coast for Pop Rocks and
Cosmic Candy, GF began to work on a gum and carbonated candy concoction. Increda Bubble went into test in a small northwestern market a year ago. GF took
great pains to maintain secrecy in order to avoid the bootlegging that occured with its carbonated candies. The unauthorized shipping of the candies, which crack
and pop in the mouth, has been cited as a factor in the sales failure in the east. Just as Increda Bubble is rolling out, GF is mulling over the fate of the candies. After
making what once source descried as a "mint of money" with the candies on the West Coast, GF lost all but a couple of million dollars wtih the disaster in the East.
The exposure of the candies in eastern markets before they officially debuted eliminating the surprise factor so important in a fad product's success,GF also was
faced with combating all sorts of rumors about kids suffering illness or death after tyring the candies. One of the most bizarre and unfounded rumors centered
around the youth who played "Mikey" in Life cereal commercials. It was rumored he ate the candy with a soda chaser, his tomach exploded and he died. The final
blow was the unfortuante introduction of the carbonated candies in the Midwest last winter when markets such as Chicago where hit by as series of winter storms
that dumped record levels of snow and forced people to remain homebound for days. Despite these setbacks, GF has not given up on carbonated technology. A
spokesman said Pop Rocks are still sold in some western markets, anthough it won't be there for long. She said no decisions had been made on the candy's
future...GF has also filed for trademark registration on the name Freeze-In for a freezable carbonated soda concentrate...The company also is looking at novelty
items, possibly for Halloween, and and ice cream novelty on a stick that would contain the carbonated candy inside. These items are all byproducts of the
company's search for the so far elusive carbonated drink mix that would expand its franchise in the drink mix field."
---"More Gums Burst Onto Scene," Advertising Age, September 2, 1979 (p. 8)
"Pop Rocks, the popular carbonated candy that General Foods Corp. quit making after less than three years and many rumors of exploding tummies and choking
children, is back in stores. The crackling, mouth-tingling treat is being test marketed in New England and the Dakotas by Carbonated Candy Ventures of Buffalo,
N.Y. False rumors once claimed the candy killed little ``Mikey,`` the young character featured in cereal commercials a decade ago, by making his tummy explode,
and that it made other children gag and choke. While Carbonated Candy said it hasn't seen a resurgence of the rumors, it's not taking any chances. It had a
laboratory in Connecticut retest the product, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier found safe. Wholesalers were instructed to contact the FDA
about any new rumors."
---Pop Rocks candy returns, St. Petersburg Times, November 23, 1986
"Despite bad publicity and several health-food crazes, Pop Rocks soldier on. For 50 years, in fact. To celebrate the anniversary, Pop Rocks Inc. has released a
limited edition line of Cherry Pop Rocks in their original 1970s packaging. They were developed by General Foods chemist William A. Mitchell in 1956 while
trying to create an instant soft drink (he holds a patent on Tang). For their first two decades, though, no one quite knew what to with this odd concoction. In 1975,
they were given suitably garish packaging and christened Pop Rocks. They took off immediately. A hard candy like no other - little fragments containing hidden
pockets of carbonation - they explode in the mouth, fizzling and darting about. Soon, there was even a Pop Rock mythology. Rumors emerged that Mikey ("Give it
to Mikey - he'll eat anything!") from the Life cereal commercial died after ingesting an ill-advised combination of pop rocks and soda. The rumors were so
pervasive that General Foods executives took out ads in major publications and sent out up to 50,000 letters to school administrators extolling Pop Rocks'
virtues. Inventor Mitchell even hit the road and spoke to audiences about his product. Pop Rocks, he told crowds, were safe, good and right; Mikey was alive and
well. But rumors die hard. Pop Rocks were briefly discontinued in the mid-1980s."
---"Pop Rocks Still Rock," William Weir, The Hartford Courant, April 18, 2006
EVEN though Pop Rocks' 30th anniversary officially fizzled out this Jan. 1, Spanish company Zeta Especial will continue to exploit its "explosive" retro candy
brand with promotions and licensing. Later this month, Pop Rocks will leverage the sixth season of American Idol with the launch of its I Want to Be a Pop
Rocks Star promo, in which kids write a song about their love of the popping candy and mail it in with two proofs of purchase. (Entrants don't have to show the
songwriting skills of Elvis Costello—winners will be chosen through a drawing.) Running through October and dangling special-edition Pop Rocks gear, the
sweeps will be marketed via print in kids mags such as Disney Adventures, radio promos, sampling, pr and ads on Web sites including Americanidol.com.
Freestanding store displays sporting an Idol-reminiscent blue oval will communicate the sweeps. The Steven Style Group, New York, is Pop Rocks' full-service
agency. Popping candy was an afterthought when a General Foods scientist attempted to invent instant soda with carbonized crystals that melt in water. That idea
never panned out, but his crystals became Pop Rocks, a candy that proved so popular in the '70s that kids were selling 15-cent packs for $1 or more on the candy
black market. The brand is still reeling from an urban legend in which Life cereal spokeskid Little Mikey's stomach purportedly exploded after he washed down
Pop Rocks with a Coke. (Mikey, aka John Gilchrist, is doing fine, thank you.). Originally sold in a cherry flavor, Pop Rocks is planning gourmet flavors like
pumpkin and candy cane, and cotton candy this year. The popping candy has been embedded in fruit rollups, sprinkled on Kellogg's cereals and served as subjects
for science experiments in a Klutz activity book. Additionally, the brand expects to launch a full licensing program in 2007 with apparel and other lifestyle
products."
---"THE BIZ; The Biz: Pop Rocks Candy Recharged; OMG! ODMG Gets Strategic, Brandweek, January 8, 2007
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