Sour Patch Kids Best Seller!

Sour Patch Kids Assorted has become one of our top selling candies. Kids can't get enough of these sour patch kids. It is becoming Americas favorite sour candy. Sold in 5 1 pound bags. "We start Sour then turn Sweet"

The Sour Patch brand is a "sour then sweet taste sensation". The sour sanding gives a real sour hit in the mouth, but quickly turns sweet to offer a satisfying eat. When sour confectionery was first introduced it was not considered a serious product category more of a children's fad. Success, however, rocketed it into the mainstream. One of the driving forces behind the brand's growth was its success in cinemas, and even now it is a staple for moviegoers. Today Sour Patch Kids is a top selling sour brand in the North American marketplace.



How Sour Patch Kids came about

Sour Patch Kids started life as a product called Mars Men - little aliens that were sold as a one cent (US) piece. The product inspiration and design came at a time when UFO sightings were exciting the Western world. Invading aliens from Mars were modelled into shape of the product and specially coated with a unique sour coating. The taste started with an "out of this world" tartness, turning gradually into a pleasant fruit flavour.

The process creating the sour-coated soft candy was developed in the late 1970s and this "alien" approach was the first candy to be tested with it. It is believed that Frank Galatolie, then national sales manager of a distributor called Jaret, came up with the idea of sour products in soft confectionery and developed the candy by having Canadian manufacturing colleagues experiment with regular gummy products and adding a coating of sour sanding. This new product was then named Sour Patch Kids for the US in 1985 through Jaret.

Allan Candy's plant in Hamilton, Ontario was chosen to produce Sour Patch Kids, offering quick access to the US marketplace and the advantage of world sugar prices. Today we continue development of sours in our Ewen Road facility in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Milestones

1985 Sour Patch Kids were first introduced into the US.

1995 Cadbury Schweppes purchases Allan Candy and the Sour Patch trademark in Canada.

1997 Cadbury Schweppes purchases Jaret International and the Sour Patch Trademark in the US.

2002 Sour Patch Kids is repositioned in the US getting a new look, new packaging and new flavour names. Frank Galatolie, retires from the confectionery business. At his side on the occasion was his son, the original Sour Patch Kid, and now a young man in his mid-twenties.