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Oh Henry!

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Not to be confused with O. Henry.
Oh Henry!
Oh Henry! bar
TypeCandy bar
Place of originUnited States
Created byGeorge Williamson
Invented1920
Main ingredientsPeanuts, caramel, and fudge
Ingredients generally usedChocolate
An Oh Henry! split
Box of vintage Oh Henry! candy bars at a general store in Portsmouth, North Carolina

Oh Henry! is an American candy bar containing peanuts, caramel, and fudge coated in chocolate.[1]

History

There are multiple versions of the Oh Henry! bar origin story. The manufacturer Nestlé says that the bar was introduced by George Williamson and his Williamson Candy Company of Chicago in 1920 in the United States.[1] The most popular alternate story, aside from the Canadian origin claimed by chocolatier Wilson McCutchan, is that Thomas Henry, manager of the Peerless Candy Co. in Arkansas City, Kansas, invented a bar he called the "Tom Henry Bar" in the late 1910s, and sold the recipe to George Williamson in 1920. There is no credible documentation of this story.[2]

There are other alternate accounts of the origin of the name of the bar. One theory is that of a boy named Henry who frequented George Williamson's second candy shop. He became a favorite of the young girls who worked there, who would say "Oh Henry" when speaking to or about him, and Williamson used this phrase to name his new confection. The other story is that the name is based on the pen name of William Sydney Porter, O. Henry. Williamson was thought by some to have been a fan of O. Henry stories, and an O. Henry story about peanuts might have been read by Williamson.[3]

The Williamson Company was sold to Warner-Lambert in 1965, which soon sold Oh Henry! to Terson, Inc. Nestlé acquired the United States rights to the brand from Terson in 1984.[4] In 2018, Nestlé sold the rights to its U.S. confectionery products to Ferrara Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrero SpA.[5] Ferrara quietly discontinued the US version of Oh Henry! in 2019.[6]

Differences between Ferrara and Hershey versions

In Canada, the bar is currently sold by the Hershey Company and was manufactured at their Smiths Falls, Ontario facilities prior to their closure. The bars are different in appearance: the Canadian version is one bar with the fudge in the center, the fudge surrounded with a thin layer of caramel, and the nuts surrounding that layer before it is surrounded in the coating.[7] Hershey sells Oh Henry! bars made in Canada on a very limited basis in the United States as Rally bars, using the trademark of a Hershey product introduced in the 1970s and later discontinued.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Oh Henry!". Nestlé. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
  2. ^ Clayman, Andrew. "Oh Henry! Candy Bar Box by Williamson Candy Co., c. 1950s. Oh Henry! came before Snickers". Made in Chicago Museum. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
  3. ^ Smith, Andrew F. (2002). Peanuts: The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea. University of Illinois Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-252-02553-2. "All he lacked was a catchy name for his potential star candy bar. Several stories subsequently circulated as to how he chose the name. One was that the candy was named after a suitor of a young woman who worked in Williamson's shop. Every time the man came in to the candy shop to flirt, the girls would squeal, "Oh, Henry" – or so the story goes. The other story was that Williamson liked the short stories of William Sydney Porter, whose pen name was O. Henry. In fact, Porter under his pen name had written about peanuts in an article, which Williamson might have read."
  4. ^ Prokop, Jessica. "Candy History: Oh Henry". Candyfavorites.com. Archived from the original on August 30, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  5. ^ "Ferrero Completes Acquisition of Nestlé USA's Confectionary Business". Business Wire. March 31, 2018.
  6. ^ "Do They Still Make Oh Henry Candy Bars?". 1 March 2023.
  7. ^ Cybele (June 4, 2008). "The Oh Henry!s – Candy Blog". Candy Blog. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  8. ^ Cybele (November 13, 2008). "Rally Bar – Candy Blog". Candy Blog. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
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