It was 1847, and for months, Oliver Chase had been tinkering with a brand-new invention that would change America—and the world.
Chase wasn’t really an inventor. He was a pharmacist, and like most pharmacists of the time, Chase made the medicines that he sold at his shop in Boston. His most popular remedies were lozenges, small discs made of mashed-up herbs, chemicals, and other ingredients. People bought lozenges hoping to relieve their sore throats, aching heads, and runny noses—though in truth, the lozenges didn’t work very well.
On top of that, many tasted disgusting, like grass and dirt. To make them more palatable, most were covered with a hard sugary shell.
Making lozenges was time-consuming. Each tiny disc had to be shaped mostly by hand. So Chase invented a machine that could quickly create large batches of lozenges that were all the same size and thickness. He was thrilled with his device, but it was his next idea that would make him famous. Why not try to use his machine to make the tiny, sugary lozenges without any medicine in them. The result? A revolutionary way to make candy.
How Candy Took Over America
A sweet history of candy in the U.S.
Learning Objective: to read a short informational text, then craft a constructed response that includes a claim, text evidence, and commentary
Artwork courtesy of the New England Confectionery Company 2015. (Oliver Chase)
Oliver Chase and his candy machine. His sweet creations eventually became known as Necco Wafers.
Rare and Expensive
Back in the early 1800s, candy was popular in Europe. But it was rare in America—and expensive. Only a few kinds were available—clumps of tooth-busting rock candy, sticks of homemade peppermint, and sticky lemon drops—and even those were hard to find. Kids who craved sweets had to settle for dried fruits or puddings sweetened with a cheap syrup called molasses.
But with his new invention, Oliver Chase would soon help put candy into the mouth of almost any American who wanted it. He named his new candy—hard, quarter-sized sugar wafers sold in stacks—Chase Lozenges. They were an immediate hit.
Sweet Treats for All
Shutterstock.com
Chase’s candy-making machine was soon sold across the country. For the first time, American candy makers could produce sweet treats in large quantities, which helped lower the price of all kinds of candy.
Suddenly, you didn’t have to be rich to afford a rope of tangy licorice or a mouthwatering buttercream. Stores sold dozens of varieties of “penny candies” displayed in glass jars.
As the decades passed, steam-powered candy machines replaced Chase’s hand-cranked roller. Companies competed fiercely to introduce new flavors and textures—chewy jelly beans, waxy candy corn, gooey caramels, fluffy marshmallows. Candy makers even sent spies to Europe to steal secret candy recipes and smuggle them back to America.
The biggest breakthrough came in 1899, when a Pennsylvania candy maker named Milton Hershey figured out how to turn chalky, bitter cocoa into creamy, sweet chocolate. His Hershey’s bars and Kisses became best-sellers.
Candy Classics
Shutterstock.com
By the 1930s, Americans could choose from thousands of different kinds of candy. Many of those candies are still beloved today, including Milky Way, Milk Duds, Tootsie Roll, and the world’s current No. 1-selling candy bar, Snickers.
Far fewer kinds of candy are sold today than were sold during candy’s golden age in the 1920s and 1930s. But candy makers have continued to dream up new kinds of confections to surprise and delight us. In the early 1980s, the first gummy bears came to the U.S. from Germany. Around the same time, candy scientists combined sugar and malic acid to create super-sour candies like Warheads. Today chocolate is mixed with interesting flavors, like hot cayenne pepper, ginger, and Earl Grey tea.
As for Chase Lozenges? America’s first machine-made candies still exist, though their name was changed to Necco Wafers. And in 2009, the makers of Necco Wafers decided to switch up the recipe. Big mistake! Loyal customers were furious. Sales dropped 35 percent, and the company decided to return to the original formula.
So today, if you bite into a crunchy, sweet Necco Wafer, you are still tasting a bit of candy history.
Short Write: How did candy in America go from rare and expensive to plentiful and cheap?
Answer this question in a well-organized paragraph. Use text evidence.
This article was originally published in the October 2025 issue.
Close Reading, Critical Thinking, Skill Building
1. Prepare to Read
(5 minutes)
Preview Vocabulary (5 minutes)
Project the Google Slides version of Vocabulary: Definitions and Practice on your whiteboard. Review the definitions and complete the activity as a class. Highlighted words: confections, palatable, remedies, smuggle. Audio pronunciations of the words and a read-aloud of the definitions are embedded on the slides. Optionally, print the PDF version or share the slideshow link directly to your LMS and have students preview the words and complete the activity independently before class.
2. Read and Discuss
(20 minutes)
For students’ first read, have them follow along as they listen to the audio read-aloud, located in the Resources tab in Teacher View and at the top of the story page in Student View.
Have students read the story again.
Optionally, divide students into groups to complete the Core Skills Workout: Central Ideas and Details activity. This graphic organizer asks students to identify the central idea and supporting details of each section of the article and the central idea of the article as a whole.
3. Write About It
(20 minutes)
Have students complete the Short Write Kit. This activity can be used to guide students as they write a claim, support it with text evidence, and provide commentary in response to the prompt on page 29 in the printed magazine and at the bottom of the digital story page:
How did candy in America go from rare and expensive to plentiful and cheap? Answer this question in a well-organized paragraph. Use text evidence.