Round Up: A quick side note, the demise of dime.oftheweek has been greatly exaggerated. Today, I will tackle the Airhead, a cheap, individually wrapped strip of taffy that should remind many of you of middle school (I used to love to pack my Airheads into a little ball by holding tight to one end of the wrapper and banging it back and forth to make a nice ball of sugar!). I was able to find Airheads for as little as $.19 on my recent trip through the heartland (NC, SC, GA, AL, MS, LA and TX).
The original Airheads logo
History: Airheads were created in 1986 by Van Melle Inc, a Dutch candy company that produces other luminaries like Mentos and Fruitella. After a merger in 2001, Van Melle became Perfitti Van Melle, the sixth largest candy manufacturer in the world. Airheads and their accompanying product lines are produced in Erlanger, Kentucky.
Facts:
- Nearly 14 billion Airheads have been sold since 1986.
- There are six flavors of Airheads: Green Apple, Strawberry, Cherry, Watermelon, Blue Raspberry and White Mystery.
- Perfitti Van Melle refuses to identify White Mystery, but I contend it is its own flavor all by itself. Other theories of mine are that they simply leave out the dye from the other flavors, making it a veritable candy Russian Roulette while still others think it is a blend of all the flavors.
- Airheads is the official ‘non-chocolate candy’ of US Youth Soccer.
Competition: As a taffy-like substance, Airheads comeptition naturally other taffies. An obvious contender would be Laffy Taffy, another individually packaged, cheaply priced taffy. Perhaps a less obvious competitor is Now and Later, a candy sold in chews (like Starburts) but with a very similar intense flavor to AIrheads.
Nutritional Information
- Net Weight: .55 oz
- Calories: 60
- Total Fat: 1g
- Sugar: 9g
Sources:
huzzah! now i can get my fill of dime of the week and rot my teeth at the same time. life is sweet. the airhead will forever be associated with tootsie pops as the fare of haman elementary school and steve carli little league.
Blue Raspberry is the best afternoon treat ever.
White Mystery is a blend of all the flavors – no doubt in my mind. I will find the evidence…
i could have sworn i had an orange flavored airhead once upon a yonder eve
I have a recommendation. I saw it on Unwrapped – Food Network, of course. Ever heard of Squirrel Nut Zippers?