Candy Buttons

There is no rule that says candy must be sophisticated for a kid to like it. Just drop some sugar on a strip of paper, give it a little color and kids will gnaw on it like it’s their last meal. You know them as Candy Buttons.

In the 70s, candy buttons offered a big bang for you candy-buying buck. They were pure colored sugar, glued in neat little rows to what looked like receipt paper for an adding machine. Blue, Green, Yellow and Pink were the typical colors, none of which had a different flavor from the other.

Once you had your strip of candy buttons from the store or the ice cream man, you had to figure out how to eat them.

Some picked them off with their fingers, others with their teeth. No matter how you separated them, one thing was certain – there would be some paper stuck to the back of each button. It didn’t slow us down one bit.

What you might not have known is that NECCO (the New England Confectionary COmpany, get it?), the same people who make the wafers (and those yummy Sweethearts) makes the majority of candy buttons sold in the United States.

Were you a fan of candy buttons as a kid? I’d love to hear all of your memories in our comments section below.