Pop Rocks
Since I did a post about Mikey from the Life Cereal commercials (remember he supposedly died from eating pop rock and drinking coke), I thought I would find out all about Pop Rocks.
Pop Rocks were first invented in and patented in 1956 by General Mills, but were not introduced to the public until 1975. Pop Rocks are a carbonated candy made from sugar, lactose, corn syrup and flavoring (yum)! They are made by mixing the ingredients and heating them until they melt. Then introducing pressurized carbon dioxide gas which gets trapped inside the candy.
When the Pop Rocks are placed in your mouth they come in contact with saliva which breaks down the candy and causes the carbon dioxide to be released. The result? Tiny bubbles popping inside your mouth!
The candy was discontinued in 1983 and the rights were bought by Kraft Foods in 1985 and re-marketed the product.
General Mills spent a considerable amount of money trying to debunk the old rumor that pop rocks mixed with cola could explode your stomach!
Basically, nothing ever happened to them. You can buy them everywhere today and with the brief exception of that 2 year period in the 80’s, always could. Yawn.
March 25th, 2007 at 11:09 pmActually, it was more than 2 years that some stores would not carry them. The big grocery stores and chain stores did not have them in their inventory for quite a while.
March 26th, 2007 at 8:20 amGraciousness–the rudeness of some! I LOVE Pop Rocks! They were un-attainable by me for many years-I thought I grew out of them–but I’m going to blame it on the discontinuation. I would have been 12 when they stopped making them–and 14 or more when they started up again. Candy tastes are different for a 14 year old–so I never really looked for them again. However, now I have kids–and Poprocks are a really fun staple again!!
Great Post!!
March 27th, 2007 at 11:14 pmnice site
April 1st, 2007 at 9:07 pm