It’s Halloween night and you spend hours on your costume, you walk up to the first house to trick or treat hoping to get a king-size, maybe a Kit-Kat, or just a Hershey bar. To your dismay, the lady standing in front of you drops a tiny bag of candy corn in your bag.

Every holiday has its cheap throwback iconic candy, Christmas has candy canes, Easter has jelly beans, and Halloween has candy corn. Why do these candies get tied to holidays when some people could hate these candies. There’s a fine line between the people who love candy corn and the people who hate it. 

“It’s a good Halloween candy,” said Chardon High School Junior, Sarah Sutton.

In 1880, while working for a candy company, George Renninger put together a concoction they called “Chicken feed”, later to be named candy corn in the 1950s because of the lack of love from the agricultural scene. Not long after, the company he worked for, Wunderle Candy Company, started selling these candies. Renninger put these candies in the shape of corn pieces because Wenderle wanted to capitalize off the growing agricultural market of the time. Candy corn was a fun candy for farmers who were familiar shape they used to feed the chickens and other farm animals. The three-color pyramid of yellow, orange, and a little white, represents the colors of fall, with yellow also representing the color of corn. 

Candy corn became such a popular candy for Halloween because it used to be cheap and bought year-round. When Halloween came around kids would trick or treat they would get these little treats in their bags. As time went on and prices changed, so did the type of candy handed out on Halloween. Around the 1950s you could get a pound of candy corn for twenty-five cents; the current price per pound is nine dollars. The price increase in candy corn is one of the main reasons it is more uncommon, but so is the fact that people don’t even like candy corn. 

Chardon High School Junior, Vinny Gigliotti, said he doesn’t like candy corn because of “The taste and texture when you chew it.”

“It’s just not good at all,” Gigliotti said.

So what makes this chicken feed taste so good to humans and chickens? Sugar, sugar, and even more sugar. Candy corn is made of sugar, corn starch, and flavoring. This is why if you eat too much candy corn your stomach might get upset. Eating candy corn is similar to just eating frosting by itself. When you thought it couldn’t get worse, the waxy coating on the candy corn that gives it that smooth coat is made of confectioner’s glaze. Confectioner’s glaze, which gives candies that nice shiny coating, is made of Kerria lacca secretions. Yes, you read that right, Kerria lacca secretions which are piled up fluids mixed with ingredients and coated on your candies. 

Knowing what’s in your favorite foods, treats, or candy could change your opinion on how you feel about it. At the end of the day if you really love candy corn or really hate candy corn you’ll always keep the same opinion.