Ferrara Pan Candy Company
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The Ferrara Pan Candy Company is a Chicago, Illinois, based candy company that makes a variety of popular candies. Examples of their popular confections include Lemonheads, Jawbreakers, Atomic Fireballs, Original Boston Baked Beans, Grapeheads (formerly Alexander the Grape), and Red Hots.
According to the Ferrara Pan Candy Company website, the company was founded in 1908 by Salvatore Ferrara, Salvatore Buffardi and Anello Pagano. The company still operates at its original location, 2200 West Taylor Street in the City of Chicago, and continues to be owned by the Ferrara, Buffardi, and Pagano families. Originally, Ferrara Pan developed and sold sugar-coated almonds.
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[edit] Products
[edit] Lemonheads
Lemonheads are a round, lemon-flavored candy consisting of a sweet coating, soft sour shell, and a hard candy core.
The candy was born out of the same cold panned process as the company's Red Hots in 1962. They are most commonly sold in their standard one-centimeter size, but are also produced in a single-sale 3 cm version.
Recently, Ferrara Pan brought all of their fruit-flavored candies under a consistent naming convention: Lemonheads, Grapeheads (formerly Alexander the Grape), Cherryheads (formerly Cherry Chan/Cherry Clan), Melonheads (formerly Mr. Melon), Appleheads (formerly Johnny Apple Treats), and Orangeheads.
The candy was mentioned in the lyrics of the song "Boats N' Hoes" from the movie Stepbrothers (2008).
[edit] Atomic Fireballs
Atomic Fireballs are a round, cinnamon-flavored hard candy invented by Nello Ferrara in 1954. They are a form of jawbreaker. The outer layers of the candy are a bright red color while the interior layers are white.
When initially introduced by Ferrara Pan, the company had a manufacturing capacity of 200 cases per day but demand quickly rose to 50,000 cases per day. According to the company, approximately 15 million Fireballs are eaten weekly.[1] "The spicy flavor and the exceptionally long lasting candy was instantly popular (coupled with the popular culture obsession with all things atomic at the time).[2] The outside layer of the Fireball is quite mild. After a moment in the mouth, the smooth ball of hard candy releases a spicy cinnamon flavor.
They are made with the hot panned process with ingredients of a single grain of sugar, syrup and flavor. The hot pans tumble the ingredients around until the fireballs snowball into the appropriate size. The process lasts for about two weeks. By the end of the process the fireball consists of at least one hundred layers. The fireballs come in two sizes, a pea size and the more popular full-size (7/8ths of an inch in diameter) which comes individually wrapped.
Also recently available are chewy fireballs, with the same flavor of the original with a chewy texture.
[edit] Original Boston Baked Beans
Original Boston Baked Beans are sugar-coated peanut candies that where produced in the 1930s. Since their inception, the term "Boston baked beans" has become a colloquial term used in the candy industry to describe any sugar-coated peanut candy product.
The serving size of Original Boston Baked Beans is 11 pieces or 15 g. One serving contains 70 calories (290 kilojoules) and 20 calories (80 kJ) from fat.
[edit] Red Hots
Red Hots are small cinnamon-flavored candy created and trademarked by the Ferrara Pan Candy Company in the 1930s. They are used in some apple sauce recipes.
[edit] Other
- Grapeheads
- Cherryheads
- Melonheads
- Appleheads
- Orangeheads
- Jaw Busters
- Narbles
