Everybody Hates Candy Corn. So Who Keeps Buying It?

Few foods inspire as much seasonal complaining as candy corn. The little yellow, orange and white kernels have become Halloween’s favorite punching bag, criticized for being too sweet, too waxy and unlike almost any other candy in the bowl. Yet behind all that complaining is a surprisingly successful business: more than 35 million pounds of candy corn are sold every year.

So why is candy corn so hated? Its intense sweetness, distinctive texture and lack of anything hiding underneath make it unlike almost any other Halloween candy. There is no chocolate coating, peanut butter center, or caramel surprise to win you over. Candy corn is exactly what it looks like, and apparently that is asking a lot from some people.

The funny thing is that candy corn didn’t start as Halloween candy. Candy corn was created in the 1880s, when George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company is generally credited with developing the original tri-colored candy. In 1898, the Goelitz Confectionery Company, now known as the Jelly Belly Candy Company, picked up the recipe and began marketing it as “Chicken Feed.”

The name actually made sense at the time. Candy makers were producing sweets shaped like farm and harvest items, and candy corn was marketed in boxes featuring a rooster. It was more of a novelty candy designed to appeal to America’s largely agricultural population than the Halloween icon we know today.

For years, candy corn was simply cheap candy. It became a common penny candy and was sold throughout the year rather than being reserved for Halloween. As trick-or-treating became more popular after World War II, Halloween candy marketing expanded during the 1950s. The harvest colors and familiar shape made candy corn a natural fit for the holiday.

Candy corn is the toxic ex of the candy aisle. Every November you say, “Never again,” but the moment October rolls around and you’re feeling a little lonely, there you are, letting that waxy mistake back into your house. You know it’s probably going to end badly, but there is something about Halloween that makes you give it another chance.

Part of the problem is that candy corn tastes exactly like candy corn. Traditional candy corn is made with ingredients including sugar, corn syrup and fondant, along with flavoring and coloring. It isn’t pretending to be anything else. You get three colors, a distinctive texture and a whole lot of sweetness.

That may be why candy corn has become such an easy target. Most candy gives you something to hide behind. Chocolate can carry nuts, caramel, wafers, or peanut butter. Sour candy has the shock of the flavor. Gummy candy has the chew. Candy corn simply shows up as itself and expects you to deal with it.

Maybe that is also why it has lasted. Candy corn isn’t really competing with the newest candy bar or trying to reinvent itself every Halloween. It has become part of the scenery, sitting beside pumpkins, costumes and plastic skeletons as if it has always belonged there.

You don’t have to love it, and you don’t even have to eat it. But somebody is buying it, and apparently quite a lot of somebody. Candy corn may have started life as Chicken Feed, but in dollars and cents, it is anything but chicken feed.