This power of the purchase could lead children to feelings of independence and self-assuredness. The problem went beyond eating candy to the very act of buying candy. The Ladies Home Journal of 1906, for example, explained, “The first craving from ill feeding calls for sugar later for salt then tea, coffee then tobacco then such fermented beverages as wine and beer and lastly alcohol.” So, by that reasoning, candy is a gateway to…salt? More Cigarette Problems…Including Cigarettes More to the point, candy cigarettes, like other candies, were considered a gateway drug of sorts…with a most bizarre twist of logic. Among the many followers, he praised one cohort, Miss Lucy Page Gaston, aka “The cigarette smasher.” Smith, declared in 1902, “These candies may look harmless, but they are leading the minds of our boys toward temptation, they are enticing our children to become drunks and cigarette fiends.” The Reverend was far from alone in his crusade.

They wouldn’t kill you, exactly, but they would ruin your life. While many anti-candy activists cited the artificial or otherwise unsavory ingredients in candy, their objection to candy cigarettes was different. Many of them reflected the lifestyle of grown-ups, both good and bad, such as pretend whiskey bottles, toy glass guns loaded with candy “bullets,” and, of course, candy cigarettes. As before, candy was marketed to kids – inexpensive and fun. All things candy shut down in the Civil War and didn’t return until a decade or so later. I say second, because the candy of today took off in the 1840s with such marvels as NECCO Wafers, gumdrops, and pulled creams. Protests against candy cigarettes started in the second launch of the candy industry. Kids loved candy cigarettes, parents feared them, and the FDA took measures to ban them even before there was an FDA. Candies originated in apothecaries where sugar, the primary ingredient, was also an important medicine. They were sold by the “ice cream man”, at penny candy store, and liquor stores who once carried an array of candies for kids while their parents shopped for more adult products a few aisles away.Ĭandy cigarettes were also sold at pharmacies, along with an array of other candies. Why do we love candy cigarettes? Why do they have such a unique part in our memories, if not our palette? Maybe because they are so daring. Description The Story of Candy Cigarettes: Loved, Loathed, and Lots of Fun

Old school now and later candy