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I’ve been trying to eat healthier these days and if I don’t count the hotdog eating on Monday and the past weekend of tomato-pie gorging, then I really have been. My main weakness lately is Dum Dum Pops. I love them and eat about 20 in a day (I’ve been cutting back recently). They have so many new flavors like cherry cola and pink lemonade on top of old classics like root beer and cream soda (these are my favorites with blu raspberry, watermelon and sour apple at the bottom of the list).

Check out the Dum Dum flavor history here. Dum Dums have been around since 1924, but lollipops have been around since the 1800s. Charles Dickens wrote of sweets on the end of sticks and in Civil War times, children used to put candies on the end of their pencils (that sort of counts). Lollipops have been mass produced since at least 1908 when Racine Confectioners Machinery Co invented a machine that made 40 suckers a minute. Samuel Born, a Russian immigrant is credited with inventing a lollipop machine that automatically inserted the stick in 1916 (I’ve also read 1912).

The name “lollipop” is usually credited as coming from George Smith from Bradley Smith Confection Co, who named them after his favorite racing horse, Lolly Pop. Smith had the name trademarked in 1931, though wikipedia.com tells me, “The term ‘lollipop’ was first recorded in England in 1769.”

Further reading: Candy Favs, Candy USA, Bulk Candy, Gavel Store.