Pop Rocks

For the music, see pop rock.

File:Poprocks.jpg

Strawberry flavored Pop Rocks

Pop Rocks is a carbonated candy with ingredients including sugar, lactose (milk sugar), corn syrup, and flavoring.

Background and history

The idea of the product was patented by General Foods research chemist William A. Mitchell in 1956. The Pop Rocks candy was first offered to the public in 1975. Around 1983, General Foods stopped selling the candy. Some incorrectly believed that this was because of an urban legend that mixing Pop Rocks with carbonated soda could result in a person's stomach exploding. In fact the candy was withdrawn for reasons largely owing to its success in the marketplace and to its relatively short shelf life. While distribution was initially tightly controlled to ensure product freshness, with its "exploding" popularity, unauthorized redistribution from market to market resulted in out-of-date product reaching consumers, many of whom complained that the candy was not performing as expected. In 1985, Kraft Foods bought the rights to the candy product and re-marketed it as Action Candy through a company called Carbonated Candy. Since 1979, Zeta Espacial S.A., a company based in the municipality of Rubí in Barcelona, Spain, has manufactured, sold, and exported the product.

In 2006, Dr. Marvin Rudolph, who led the group assigned to bring Pop Rocks out of the laboratory and into the manufacturing plant, wrote a history of Pop Rocks development. The book, titled Pop Rocks: The Inside Story of America's Revolutionary Candy, was based on interviews with food technologists, engineers, marketing managers, and members of Bill Mitchell's family, along with the author's experience.

A similar product, Cosmic Candy, and previously called Space Dust, was in powdered form and was also manufactured by General Foods.

Manufacturing

The candy is made by mixing its ingredients and heating them until they melt, then exposing the mixture to pressurized carbon dioxide gas (about 600 pounds per square inch) and allowing it to cool. The process causes tiny high pressure bubbles to be trapped inside the candy. When placed in the mouth, coming into contact with saliva the candy breaks and dissolves, releasing the carbon dioxide from the tiny 40 atmosphere bubbles, resulting in a popping and sizzling sound and leaving a slight tingling sensation. The bubbles in the candy pieces can be viewed when aided by a magnifying glass.

Urban legends

During the product's heyday, rumors persisted that eating Pop Rocks and drinking cola would cause a person's stomach to explode. The company spent large sums sending out flyers to debunk the rumor. This is, in part, caused by the false assumption that pop rocks contain an acid/base mixture (such as baking soda and vinegar) which produces large volumes of gas when mixed through chewing and saliva. The most famous of these myths involved a child named Mikey from the Life cereal commercials. Mikey was purported to have died after eating a Pop Rocks and cola mixture. The rumor is false and the former child actor who was in the commercials, John Gilchrist, is still alive and well.

Banned Commercial

There is an old commercial for Pop Rocks that was banned from airing in the United States. It opens a teacher handing back papers, and when one girl gets an F, her friends worriedly ask her what she is going to do. Her only response is a sly smile. It then cuts to her demanding the teacher change her grade to an A. When he asks why, she winks, pulls down his pants, and begins giving him a blowjob. Apparently she is doing poorly, as he comments, "At this rate we'll be here all day". She then turns and winks at the camera before putting some pop rocks in her mouth and resuming the blowjob, to which the teacher reacts very excitedly. He then cums all over her face, and the grade is changed to an A plus. The commercial ends with the girl saying "Pop Rocks, get your rocks off" and another shot of her being shot in the face with semen.

Pop Rocks in popular culture

Because of the unique nature of the candy, and the length it has been in production (over 50 years) it has had become a part of English speaking popular culture. A few examples include:

• The popular U.S. TV series MythBusters examined the rumor by mixing Pop Rocks and cola inside a pig's stomach, and came to the conclusion that an explosion was impossible without eating pounds of the material.

• In the Simpsons episode "Homer Badman", Homer steals a special gummy Venus de Milo from a candy convention, and mixes Pop Rocks into a can of soda which he throws into an angry mob like a grenade.

• The American pop-punk band Green Day wrote a song called "Poprocks & Coke," a previously unreleased track on their International Superhits! greatest hits album.

• The first season episode of That '70s Show "The Good Son" features Fez, Jackie and Kelso eating Pop Rocks in the Forman's basement. Fez remarks "It is popping! Help me... it is popping in my mouth!" and Kelso makes comments about how Pop Rocks in one's mouth could be used to pleasure a member of the opposite sex.

• In January 2008 on a Comedy-web series "Oh, Kody!" an episode entitled "Life's Too Short" Kody eats some Pop Rocks and some soda, after his friends find out this they call an ambulance that takes him to the local hospital where a doctor tells him he is going to die in the next day.

External links

• General Foods Corporation's U.S. patent 4,289,794 for Pop Rocks (pdf)
• Images of US patent 4289794 for Pop Rocks from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
• Pop Rocks: The Inside Story of America's Revolutionary Candy, book detailing the story of Pop Rocks development to Pop Rocks today
• Zeta Espacial's website, with list of Pop Rock-related products
• Pop Rocks Candy - Official website
• Rumors about the dangers of Pop Rocks, from the Urban Legends Reference Pages
• How do Pop Rocks candy work?, an article from HowStuffWorks that explains how pop rocks candy is manufactured and also has links to the original patent