In 1907, a wonderful new candy, Hershey’s Kisses, made its debut. This soft, sweet candy was formed into a teardrop shape and hand-wrapped in foil. Although the origin of the name is unknown, it is believed to come from the way it is formed. The chocolate leaked during the manufacturing process. Originally, kisses were wrapped individually by hand, but machines were created in the 1920s to take over the task.
Since the introduction of Hershey’s Kiss, the wrapping process has remained relatively the same. The little flag that comes out of the top of the chocolate was added in 1924. Today, machines can wrap approximately 1,300 of the delicious treats per minute.
Over the past 80 years, the shape and style of popular candies have remained relatively the same. A few variations have been tried during this time, but none have been as good as the original.
There have been a few attempts to compete with the formula, but none since 1931. The older generation may remember Sweethearts, Silvertops, and Silverpoints as similar but still not quite the same or even close enough to compete.
In 1942, production of Hershey’s Kisses was discontinued due to wartime rationing. Production was halted for seven years as silver foil was rationed during and after World War II. Three million military ration chocolate spreads were produced using Hershey’s molding department and its blending ingredients.
The original candies were previously wrapped only in silver foil; however, in 1962 colored foils were introduced. This started a trend in subsequent years to match the color of Hershey’s Kisses foil to the current holiday. There were red, green, and silver foils available during the holiday season, pastel pink, blue, and green foils available for Easter, and finally, red and silver foils available for Valentine’s Day.
Until 1990 there were no additions to the chocolate itself in Hershey’s Kisses. At this point, the Hershey franchise introduced almonds to Kisses. These quickly became popular and are here to stay. A few years later, a new confection mixed with white chocolate was introduced as Hershey’s Hugs. These were miniature sized and have since come in mini and full sized. There are now variants of Hershey’s Hugs available in dark and milk chocolate, peanut butter and milk chocolate as well as caramel and milk chocolate.
Beginning with hand-wrapped Caramel Chocolate Kisses in 1907, Hershey’s Kisses remain a favorite on plain silver foil. The variants of it are nice, but they have never been equally competed. The sweet, smooth chocolate flavor has remained relatively unchanged for almost 100 years. The foil kiss is known the world over and is instantly recognized by both adults and children as one of life’s simple pleasures.