How did Jolly Ranchers start?

The Jolly Rancher is an iconic name in the world of candy. It is associated These days, the Jolly Rancher name is attached not only to the classic sweet ‘n’ sour hard candy that the company is best known for, but to a multitude of flavours and product variations on the original hard candy. This article will take you on a tour through the history of Jolly Rancher, from its beginnings to where it is today.

The Founding of Jolly Rancher Company

In 1949, Bill and Dorothy Harmsen founded the Jolly Rancher Company, and in the following year, they opened their first Jolly Rancher Ice Cream Store, evoking friendliness of a Western company and their product. At first, the couple found it difficult to sell ice-cream in the middle of the winter, and added a line of bulk and boxed chocolate to their business.

Expansion and Trademark

This decision to extend its product line to include a five-cent hot cinnamon taffy stick was an important inflection point that led to the company’s expansion into a line of hard candies named the Jolly Rancher. The company registered the word mark, “Jolly Rancher”, in 1958 and received the registration in 1960.

Ownership Changes

This firm was acquired by Beatrice Foods in 1966, which allowed it to continue operating as the Jolly Rancher Company. Leaf, Inc purchased the company in 1983, a sale repeated by the Hershey Company in 1996.

Manufacturing Shifts

After the year 2000, Jolly Rancher’s manufacturing changed a lot. In 2002, Hershey outsourced the production to Mexico to save money. And later on, in 2014, Hershey took over The Allan Candy Co. and brought all the production (and the jobs) to only one place: the Granby plant in Quebec, Canada.

The Evolution of Jolly Rancher Flavors

The Jolly Rancher has evolved significantly in terms of flavors since its inception.

Original Flavors

The original flavors of Jolly Rancher were watermelon, apple, and fire stix.

Introduction of New Flavors

Soon after the brand’s emergence, other flavours – cherry, orange tangerine, lemon, grape, peach and sour apple – were introduced; blue raspberry substituted lemon years later.

Discontinued and Reintroduced Flavors

A number of flavours have fallen off the market and then returned, including the peach flavour which made a comeback in 2020 in an ‘all-peach’ bag following the removed mountain berry flavour in the Fruity Bash bag.

Varieties of Jolly Rancher

In addition to the traditional hard candy, Jolly Rancher has introduced other varieties.

Jolly Rancher Hard Candy

The Jolly Rancher Hard Candy is: ‘A fruity-flavoured, sometimes jagged amorphous solid in which the atoms are densely packed, formed from a very concentrated sugar solution and cooled quickly enough to impede crystallisation and give it a glassy appearance.

Jolly Rancher Fruit 'N' Sour

The peach, lemon, and fruit-n-sour versions of this hard candy, for example, have almost no resemblance. the Jolly Rancher Fruit ‘N’ Sour is a combination of fruit and sour: Wild Strawberry, Green Apple, Watermelon, Cherry, and Blue Raspberry.

Nutrition Facts

Caloric Content

In terms of nutrition, each piece of Jolly Rancher Hard Candy contains 23 calories.

Conclusion

What was once a small ice-cream shop in Colorado has today become a global brand of a candy which is known by almost everyone. Over the years the jolly rancher reached new flavours and a variety of different products. It's unique taste of sweet and sour as well as many various flavours were liked by many people around the World.