Tootsie Roll

For the company that manufactures Tootsie Rolls, see Tootsie Roll Industries. For the 1994 hip-hop single by the 69 Boyz, see Tootsee Roll.

A patriotic advertisement for Tootsie Rolls during World War I

Tootsie Roll is a brand of chewy candy that has been manufactured in the United States since 1896. The manufacturer, Tootsie Roll Industries, is based in Chicago, Illinois.

It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped.

History

A small Tootsie Roll ("Midgee")

A large Tootsie Roll log

In 1896 its founder Leo Hirschfeld, an Austrian immigrant to the United States, started his candy business in a small shop located in New York City. He wanted a "chocolate" candy that would not melt easily in the heat, and would be an economical artificial alternative to traditional chocolates.^{[citation needed]} He named the candy after the nickname of his daughter, Clara "Tootsie" Hirschfeld. By 1905, production moved to a five-story factory. In 1917 the name of the company was changed to The Sweets Company of America, and the business became a listed company in 1922. In 1931 the Tootsie Pop—a lollipop with Tootsie Roll filling—was invented. Its low price made it popular in the Depression era. During World War II, Tootsie Rolls became a standard part of American soldiers' field rations, due to the hardiness of the candy under a variety of environmental conditions.

In 1935 the company was in serious difficulty. Concerned about the possible loss of an important customer its principal supplier of paper boxes, Joseph Rubin & Sons of Brooklyn, became interested in the possibility of acquiring control. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but Bernard D. Rubin acquired a list of shareholders and approached them in person in order to purchase their shares. The Rubins eventually achieved control and agreed that Bernard would run the company as president. Bernard D. Rubin was able to steadily increase sales and restore profits, changing the formula of the Tootsie Roll and increasing its size, moving from Manhattan to a much larger plant in Hoboken, New Jersey, and guiding the company successfully through the difficult war years during which vital raw materials were in short supply. When he died in 1948 he had increased the sales volume twelvefold. After his death his brother William B. Rubin served as president until 1962. In 1966 the company adopted its current name of Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc.

The company has acquired several famous brands of confections such as The Candy Corporation of America's Mason Division (1972), Cellas' Confections (1985), The Charms Company (1988), The Warner-Lambert Company (1993, excluding gum and mints), Andes Candies (2000), and Concord Confections (2004).

Tootsie Roll Industries is one of the largest candy manufacturers in the world. More than 64 million Tootsie Rolls are made daily.

According to the company website, the original (and still current) recipe calls for the inclusion of the previous day's batch. "As such, there's (theoretically) a bit of Leo's very first Tootsie Roll in every one of the sixty four million Tootsie Rolls that Tootsie produces each day."

Korean War

During the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in 1950, Mortar (weapon) sections under the US Marine Corps started to run out of mortar rounds. The radio men of these sections started requesting more rounds. There were too many nearby enemy anti air emplacements however, and the risk that they might lose any airlifted supplies was too great, so they had to wait. After two days of waiting, all the mortar sections ran out of rounds. At this point the risk was taken and supplies were dropped anyway. When the troops found the crates of mortar rounds, they found the crates were instead filled with tootsie rolls. The cause of this error was that a supply specialist did not know that the codename for mortar rounds was "Tootsie Rolls", and instead ordered hundreds of crates of tootsie roll candies instead of mortar rounds.

Jingle

The Tootsie Roll jingle was recorded at Blank Tape Studios in 1976. It is still occasionally played today. It aired on television regularly for more than 20 years. The jingle was sung by a nine-year-old girl, Rebecca Jane and a 13-year-old boy, the children of jazz musicians and friends of the song's composer. The girl still has the original reel-to-reel audio tape recording.

Ingredients

The ingredients of a chocolate Tootsie Roll are corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, condensed skim milk, cocoa, whey, soy lecithin, orange extract, and other artificial and natural flavors. In 2009, Tootsie Rolls became certified kosher by the Orthodox Union.

Alternate flavors

In addition to the traditional cocoa-flavored Tootsie Roll, several additional flavors have been introduced. Known as Tootsie Fruit Rolls, flavors include cherry, orange, vanilla, lemon, and lime. These varieties are wrapped in red, orange, blue, yellow and green wrappers, respectively. Tootsie Frooties come in numerous different fruit flavors including red strawberry, blue raspberry, grape, green apple, banana-berry, smooth cherry, fruit punch, pink lemonade, root beer, cran blueberry and watermelon.

In other countries

Tootsie Rolls have been introduced to Canada, Mexico, Aruba, United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Indonesia, South Korea, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Australia, and New Zealand.

External links

• Official website
• Tootsie Roll Tragedy: The Real Leo Hirschfeld Story