Whoppers

Whoppers are malted milk balls covered with chocolate produced by The Hershey Company. The candy is a small, round ball about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. They are typically sold either in a small cardboard candy box, in a larger box that resembles a cardboard milk carton, the “Fun Size” variety which is a tube-shaped plastic package sealed at the sides, containing twelve Whoppers weighing 21 grams (0.75 oz), or the even smaller variety of a tube containing three Whoppers weighing 6.8 grams (0.23 oz).

History

In 1939, the Overland Candy Company introduced the predecessor to Whoppers, a malted milk candy called Giants. Overland merged with Chicago Biscuit Company, Leaf Gum, and Leaf Machinery, in 1947. Two years later, Leaf Brands reintroduced malted milk balls under the name of Whoppers. All products manufactured by Leaf Brands were purchased by W.R. Grace in the 1960s; however, they were repurchased by Leaf in 1976. Finally, Hershey Foods Corporation acquired the Leaf North America confectionery operations from Huhtamaki Oy of Helsinki, Finland in 1996. The company produces the Whoppers candy to this day.