Pop Rocks

Pop Rocks is a carbonated candy with ingredients including sugar, lactose (milk sugar), corn syrup, and flavoring. It differs from typical hard candy in that it creates a fizzy reaction when it dissolves in one's mouth.

The concept was patented by General Foods research chemist William A. Mitchell on December 12, 1956 (U.S. patent #3,012,893), but the candy was not offered to the public until 1975 by General Foods, which in 1983 withdrew it, citing its lack of success in the marketplace, and its relatively short shelf life.

Distribution was initially controlled to ensure freshness; but with its increasing popularity, unauthorized redistribution from market to market resulted in out-of-date product reaching consumers. After that, Kraft Foods licensed the Pop Rocks brand to Zeta Especial S.A. who continued manufacturing the product under Kraft's license. Eventually Zeta Especial S.A. became the brand's owner and sole manufacturer. Pop Rocks is distributed in the U.S. by Pop Rocks Inc. (Atlanta, Georgia) and by Zeta Especial S.A. (Barcelona, Spain) in the rest of the world. Zeta Especial S.A. also sells popping candy internationally under other brands including Peta Zetas, Fizz Wiz and Magic Gum.

In 2008, Dr. Marvin J. 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 Billy Mitchell's family, along with the author's experience. In the book, Dr. Rudolph points out that the Turkish company HLEKS Popping Candy flooded the market with popping candy in the year 2000, and have since become the international market leader, with more advanced and own patents making a lot of innovative products with popping candy.

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

In 2012, Cadbury Schweppes Pty. Ltd. (in Australia) began producing a chocolate product named "Marvellous Creations Jelly Popping Candy Beanies" which contains popping candy, jelly beans and beanies (candy covered chocolate). By 2013 Whittakers (New Zealand) had also released a local product (white chocolate with a local carbonated drink "Lemon and Paeroa' or "L&P" for short). Prominent British chef Heston Blumenthal has also made several desserts incorporating popping candy, both for the peculiar sensory experience of the popping and for the nostalgia value of using an ingredient popular in the 1970s.

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Wikipedia