Life Savers

Life Savers is an American brand of ring-shaped hard candy. Its range of mints and artificial fruit-flavors is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in paper-wrapped aluminum foil rolls.

Candy manufacturer Clarence Crane of Garrettsville, Ohio, (father of the poet Hart Crane) invented the brand in 1912 as a "summer candy" that could withstand heat better than chocolate. The candy's name is derived from its similarity to the shape of life preservers used for saving people who have fallen from boats.

After registering the trademark, Crane sold the rights to his Pep-O-Mint peppermint candy to Edward John Noble for $2,900. Instead of using cardboard rolls, which were not very successful, Noble created tin-foil wrappers to keep the mints fresh. Noble founded the Life Savers and Candy Company in 1913 and significantly expanded the market for the product by installing Life Savers displays next to the cash registers of restaurants and grocery stores. He also encouraged the owners of the establishments to always give customers a nickel in their change to encourage sales of the $0.05 cent Life Savers. The slogan "Still only 5 cents" helped Life Savers to become a favorite treat for children with a tight allowance. Since then, many different flavors of Life Savers have been produced. The five-flavor roll first appeared in 1935.

A series of mergers and acquisitions by larger companies began in 1956. Life Savers is currently a property of Mars, Incorporated. In recent decades, the brand expanded to include Gummi Savers in 1992, Life Saver Minis in 1996, Creme Savers in 1998, and Life Saver Fusions in 2001. Discontinued varieties include: Fruit Juicers, Holes, Life Saver Lollipops and Squeezit.

Life Savers candy was first created in 1912 by Clarence Crane, a Cleveland, Ohio, candy maker (and father of the famed poet Hart Crane). Crane developed a line of hard mints but did not have the space or machinery to make them. He contracted with a pill manufacturer to press the mints into shape.

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