Buzz
Most people can name their favorite Hershey’s product, but there’s more to the company founded by Milton Hershey—the force behind iconic treats like Almond Joy, Heath, Reese’s, Kit Kat, and so many more.
1. The Hershey Legacy Began with a Fourth-Grade Education.
Milton Hershey’s childhood was marked by constant moves, which meant frequent school changes. After completing just the fourth grade, his parents decided it was time for him to pick up a trade. He apprenticed with a printer, but quickly grew dissatisfied. In 1872, he made the shift to work with a confectioner in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
2. Milton Hershey’s first passion was caramel.
In 1876, Milton Hershey traveled to Philadelphia, where he applied his skills learned as an apprentice confectioner to launch his first business, Crystal A. Caramels. However, the venture didn’t succeed, prompting him to take another apprenticeship in Denver. After some time, he tried again in New York City with another company, which also failed. Returning home, he finally turned his third attempt, the Lancaster Caramel Company, into a global powerhouse with over 1400 employees.
3. Milton Hershey’s love for chocolate sparked at the 1893 World’s Fair.
It wasn’t until 17 years after the failure of his first caramel company that Hershey became captivated by chocolate making. While visiting the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, he was so impressed by the German chocolate exhibit that he bought the machinery from the display once the fair ended. The following year, he founded the Hershey Chocolate Company in Lancaster. This new venture thrived, and by 1900, Hershey sold his caramel business for $1 million to fully focus on chocolate production.
4. Hershey once produced chewing gum.
Milton Hershey wasn’t afraid to challenge his competitors. When he suspected that Beech Nut Gum might venture into the chocolate business and threaten his company, he tasked his cousin Clayton Snavely with procuring the necessary equipment and knowledge to launch their own gum line.
Hershey’s “Easy Chew” made its debut in 1915, but faced challenges in sourcing sugar and chicle (a natural gum) due to import restrictions on non-essential goods. Easy Chew disappeared from shelves in 1924.
5. The origin of Hershey’s KISSES name remains a mystery—not even the company knows.
Hershey’s KISSES were introduced in 1907, and while the Hershey Food Corporation holds the trademark for the name, the exact meaning of the name has never been revealed. According to one account, “A popular theory is that the candy got its name from the sound or motion of the chocolate being deposited during production.”
6. Hershey’s KISSES were once individually wrapped by hand.
The machines that wrap the signature bell-shaped chocolates in foil with their distinctive plumes weren’t created until 1921, a full 14 years after the candies were first introduced.
7. Hershey, Pennsylvania, was designed with the factory workers in mind.
As a successful businessman who valued his employees’ happiness, Milton Hershey believed that a thriving company needed content workers. He designed and constructed a model town as a community complete with brick homes and lawns, and even founded Hersheypark to give families a place for fun and leisure.
8. The company’s original logo featured a baby inside a cocoa bean.
For 70 years, the symbol most closely associated with Hershey’s was the “Cocoa Bean Baby.” First introduced in 1898, this adorable image appeared on packaging and in ads until the company became the Hershey Food Corporation in 1968.
9. Hershey has a surprising Titanic link.
Milton and his wife, Kitty, had even put down a deposit for a cabin on the Titanic for its maiden voyage, but something made them change their minds and return home. There are two versions of the story: either Kitty fell ill, or Milton had urgent business that required him to leave earlier than planned. In any case, the ship sailed on without them, and we all know how that turned out.
10. The name Mr. Goodbar came from a misunderstanding.
As plant chemist (and later President) Samuel Hinkle recounted later, Hershey’s was brainstorming names for a new peanut product in the 1920s. During the discussions, someone mentioned that the new product was “a good bar.” Milton Hershey, who had difficulty hearing, misinterpreted this as “Mr. Goodbar.” He liked the sound of it, so the name stuck.
11. Hershey’s chocolate played a role in U.S. military history.
In 1937, the famous chocolate maker met with U.S. Army officials and began experimenting with ration bars designed to withstand the rigors of combat and taste “a bit better than a boiled potato” to prevent troops from eating them too quickly. The Field Ration D bars weren’t particularly popular with soldiers, but they did meet the military’s specifications. Between 1941 and 1945, Hershey produced more than a billion of these bars.
12. Heat-resistant Hershey’s chocolate made its way to the moon.
After the success of the Ration D bar, Hershey collaborated with the military again to develop a heat-resistant “Hershey's Tropical Chocolate Bar.” These bars could withstand up to an hour in 120-degree heat and were distributed to soldiers entering warmer regions. In 1971, the bars were even taken aboard the Apollo 15 mission.
13. There’s a hidden KISS in the Hershey’s KISSES logo.
If you look closely, there’s a sideways KISS concealed between the K and I in KISSES. Now, you’ll never look at the logo the same way again.
14. The company holds the Guinness World Record for the “World's Largest Individual Piece of Chocolate.”
To mark the 100th anniversary of the iconic treat in 2007, Hershey’s created a massive KISS weighing over 30,000 pounds. It took a team of 152 people nine days to build the 12-foot-tall sculpture and wrap it in more than 16,000 feet of foil.
