Whoppers

Whoppers History

The Overland Candy Company introduced a malted milk candy product called Giants in 1939. In 1947, Overland merged with Chicago Biscuit Company, Leaf Gum and Leaf Machinery. Leaf Brands reintroduced malted milk balls in 1949 under the name of Whoppers. Today they are made by the Hershey Company.

Whoppers were first sold unwrapped, two for one cent. After the creation of cellophane wrapping machines, smaller Whoppers were packaged in cellophane and sold five for one cent. These were called "Fivesomes."

Soon after, Leaf introduced the first confectionery milk carton package. In the early 70s, different flavors were tried and sometime between 1949 and 1952 an egg-shaped Whopper was introduced for Easter.

Whoppers Memories

"Whoppers" always remind me of Halloween! After emptying our pillowcase for the first time, we would venture out for one more round of trick-or-treating on the next block (it was a BIG thing when we were finally old enough to venture onto the block behind our house)!

When we were done for the night, it was our tradition to dump everything onto the dining room table and divide up the "like" candies into piles! My sister and I loved Whoppers, but my dad loved them more! I would keep out a pack or two for myself and then happily offer up the rest to my father; he always made a big production each year (to our benefit, I'm sure) to get the lions share of the Whoppers. It is a childhood memory that I will treasure forever! ~ Mary Beth from Michigan

As a little girl I absolutely loved whoppers. Well one year when I was about 5 years old, it was the night before Christmas. I asked my dad what to give Santa Claus because we didn't have any cookies. My dad smiled at me and said well, why don’t you leave him some of your whoppers and a glass of milk? So, that's what I did, come Christmas morning all but one whopper was left and it had a bite missing. ~ Jessica from Louisiana