Candy Corn Hasn't Changed Since the 19th Century

Whether you love it or hate it, candy corn has been a Halloween favorite for more than a century.
This year, candy companies like Brach's and Jelly Belly will manufacture about 35 million tons of the waxy candy; 15 million tons will be bought this week alone, according to the National Confectioners Association. American trick-or-treaters will take home roughly 4 billion kernels of candy corn on Halloween night.
 Candy corn wasn't always a Halloween snack, as Rebecca Rupp writes for National Geographic. It was invented in the 1880s by a man named George Renninger, who worked for the Wunderle Candy Company. Another company, the Goelitz Confectionery Company—now known as the Jelly Belly Candy Company—bought the recipe in 1898 and sold it as "Chicken Feed."

  At first, candy corn was laboriously made by hand, with each colored layer poured separately into a kernel-shaped mold. Though the process is automated today the recipe is essentially the same as it was in the late 19th century.