My sister Valerie and I used to ride our bikes to Jitney Junior store when we were kids. Our brother would drive his Big Wheel trike behind us. I remember that Valerie would always come home with a Wacky Wafer. These were sticky, sugar-fueled afternoons that bring me joy to remember.
The candy of those summers is part of our dream for what Plenty Mercantile becomes to our guests (and my grandchildren). It’s the stuff we saved allowance for and pocketed for later, the brightly-wrapped sweets our grandmothers kept in their purses, the treats we still remember the taste of before we even see the wrapper.
We stock these sweets and treats because of the memories. Here’s a walk through the nostalgic candy you can still buy at plentymercantile.com and in our shops in Oklahoma City. Eight favorites, plus a few small notes about where they came from. Whether you’re stuffing a stocking, topping off a birthday gift, or just yearning to relive your own childhood memories, welcome my friend.
What is nostalgic candy?
Nostalgic candy is the sweet you can taste before you unwrap it. A flavor, a format, or a wrapper that pulls you back to a specific place. The drugstore counter, the movie theater floor, the county fair, the corner store you rode your bike to. The kind of candy your parents or grandparents recognize on sight, because it was in their pockets too.
The list below is a short tour, not a museum. Every one of these is in stock right now.
8 nostalgic candies you can still buy
Teaberry gum
Pink foil. Pink stick. A flavor somewhere between wintergreen and something a grandmother would have carried. The teaberry plant is real, the gum has been made since 1900, and a pack is still ninety-nine cents. One of the few candies where the smell of the wrapper is almost as satisfying as what is inside.
Charms Assorted Squares
Little cellophane-wrapped fruit squares. Cherry, grape, lemon, lime, orange, raspberry. First made in 1912, and packed into American military rations for decades. Soldiers eventually got so superstitious about them that the Department of Defense pulled Charms from field rations in 2007, which is quite possibly the strangest sentence ever written about a hard candy.
Wax lips
The candy nobody actually eats. The wax is real food-grade paraffin, and that is the whole point. Wear them for the photo, wear them at the table, wear them until the seam breaks. Cherry-flavored. Under three dollars. A guaranteed birthday-party moment.
Razzles
"First it's a candy, then it's a gum." Since 1966. That transition is still magic if you slow down enough to notice it.
Pop Rocks
At the center of a famous rumor from the late seventies: that Mikey, the boy from the Life cereal commercials, had died after mixing Pop Rocks with a Coca-Cola. He hadn't. General Foods took out full-page ads in forty-five newspapers to say so, but the panic was already loose. Pop Rocks outlived it. They still crackle exactly the way they used to.
Astro Pop
Two rocket scientists at Rocketdyne, the company that built the Saturn V engines for NASA, quit their jobs in 1963 to make a lollipop shaped like a three-stage rocket. All of it true. The cone, the three colors, the wax tip: all still exactly the same.
Psychedelic jawbreaker
Big enough to require commitment. Built layer by layer over the course of days in a slow-turning drum. We used to get them at Farrell's ice cream shop growing up. Turned your whole mouth a new color by the time you finished. Still does.
Shop the Psychedelic Jawbreaker
Goo Goo Cluster
Nashville, 1912. Marshmallow nougat, caramel, roasted peanuts, milk chocolate. Widely considered America's first combination candy bar, back when a candy bar was usually just one thing. Still made in the same city. Still tastes exactly right.
Where can you buy nostalgic candy?
The eight above are on the shelves right now, along with a rotating cast of butter rum Lifesavers, Wacky Wafers, Nik-L-Nip wax bottles, candy necklaces, Cracker Jacks, and whatever else has landed this week. The full pantry selection is on plentymercantile.com under Sweets and Chocolates.
If you're thinking about candy as part of a gift, Gift Assist can build a nostalgic candy assortment for a birthday, a care package, a stocking, or someone who just needs a lift. Picked up on Broadway, or shipped anywhere in the country.
One small note before you ship. Chocolate stays local. It does not love the back of a delivery truck, especially in the warmer months, so anything with a chocolate coating (Goo Goo Cluster included) is best added to a basket picked up in the shop. The gum, the hard candies, the wax lips, and the popping candy all travel just fine.
The candy is still here
My dad used to call us Cracker Jacks. It was a compliment. You did something good, you were sharp, you showed up. You were a Cracker Jack. I have thought about that word a hundred times since he first said it, and every time I hand somebody a candy they haven't seen in decades and watch their face change, I understand what he meant a little better.
That is what nostalgic candy actually is. Not the sugar. The moment it hands back to you.
The candy is still here.
Shop Sweets and Chocolates at Plenty
Fun Frequently asked questions
Is teaberry gum still being made? Yes. Continuously since 1900. Currently manufactured by Gerrit's under license from Iconic Candy, LLC. A pack runs ninety-nine cents.
Are Astro Pops still around? Yes. Discontinued for a few years in the mid-2000s, and brought back by Leaf Brands. In stock now.
What is the oldest nostalgic candy still made today? Three from this post go back to 1912 or earlier: Charms Squares (1912), Goo Goo Cluster (1912), and teaberry gum (1900). All still in production.
Where can you buy retro candy online? plentymercantile.com ships nationally and specializes in independent-maker and nostalgic products. A handful of dedicated candy retailers also focus specifically on vintage and hard-to-find sweets.