Candy

Sweetened beers, often called dessert beers, have been rising in popularity in recent years, including everything from Mike’s Pastry Cannoli Stout by Harpoon to New Belgium’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale (a collaboration with Ben & Jerry’s). While many beers are based on the flavors of candy and try to emulate the flavors.

These beers have actually used the candy somewhere along the brewing process. The most popular ingredients include Peanuts, chocolate and maple flavors that tend to work pretty naturally with beers.

Skittles

Skittles are multicolored fruit-flavored button-shaped candies produced and marketed by the Wrigley Company, a division of Mars, Inc. The interior consists mainly of sugar, corn syrup, and hydrogenated palm kernel oil along with fruit juice, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors. Skittles were first made commercially in 1974 by a British company. The name of the candy, Skittles, comes from the sports game of the same name.

Commercial Example: Taste the Hazebow | Mirror Twin Brewing Co.

Butterfingers

Butterfinger is a candy bar manufactured by the Ferrero SpA, a subsidiary of Ferrero. It consists of a layered crisp peanut butter core covered in chocolate. Butterfingers were invented by Mr. Otto Schnering in 1923. Schnering had founded the Curtiss Candy Company near Chicago, Illinois, in 1922. The company held a public contest to choose the name of this candy.

Commercial Examples: Peanut Butter Candy Time | Mob Craft

Tootsie Roll

Tootsie Roll is a chocolate-flavored taffy-like candy that has been manufactured in the United States since 1907, when the inventor, Leo Hirschfield, named  the candy after his daughter Clara, whose nickname was Tootsie. The candy has qualities similar to both caramels and taffy without being exactly either confection. The manufacturer, Tootsie Roll Industries, is based in Chicago, Illinois. It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped in America.

Commercial Example: Tootsie Roll Speedway | AleSmith Brewing Co

Gummy Bears

Gummy bears are small, fruit gum candies, similar to a jelly baby in some English-speaking countries. The gummy bear is one of many gummies, popular gelatin-based candies sold in a variety of shapes and colors. The gummy bear originated in Germany, where it is popular under the name Gummibär. The traditional gummy bear is made from a mixture of sugar, glucose syrup, starch, flavoring, food coloring, citric acid and gelatin.

Commercial Example: Gummy (3rd Anniversary Deer Bear Collab) | Funky Fluid

Nutter Butter

Nutter Butter is an American sandwich cookie brand, first introduced in 1969 and currently owned by Nabisco, which is a subsidiary of Mondelez International.  It is claimed to be the best-selling U.S. peanut butter sandwich cookie, with around a billion estimated to be eaten every year. The distinctive design was thought to have been created by William A. Turnier but Nabisco state that there is no way of knowing who came up with the actual concept.

Commercial Example: Peanut Butter Candy Time | Mob Craft

Snickers

Snickers is a chocolate bar made by the American company Mars, Incorporated, consisting of nougat topped with caramel and peanuts that has been enrobed in milk chocolate. In 1930, Mars introduced Snickers, named after the favorite horse of the Mars family. In the United Kingdom, The bar was marketed under the name “Marathon” in the UK and Ireland until 1990, when Mars decided to align the product with the global Snickers name

Commercial Example: Even More Candy Bars: Edition 6 | Evil Twin Brewing NYC

Jolly Rancher

Jolly Rancher is an American brand of sweet hard candy, gummies, jelly beans, lollipops, sour bites that currently are manufactured by The Hershey Company. Bill and Dorothy Harmsen founded the Jolly Rancher Company in 1949, choosing the name to give the impression of a friendly Western company. A  trademark was filed for Jolly Rancher on March 31, 1958 and received registration number 0695762 for that trademark on April 5, 1960.

Commercial Example: (Watermelon flavor)  4 And Counting Anniversary Berliner Wiesse | Yellow Dog Brewing Co.

Reese’s Pieces or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are an American candy consisting of a chocolate cup filled with peanut butter, marketed by The Hershey Company. Created on November 15, 1928, by H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton S. Hershey. Reese left his job with Hershey to start his own company, H.B. Reese Candy Co. He launched the first peanut butter and chocolate confection, named Penny Cups because, at the time, it cost just one cent.

Commercial Example: Cuvee De Candy Bar | Evil Twin Brewing NYC

Jelly Beans

The first record of Jelly beans being sold was in the 1890s. Since 1960 the Jelly Belly Candy Company, formerly known as Herman Goelitz Candy Company and Goelitz Confectionery Company is one of the major makers of Jelly Beans.  The company’s signature product, comes in more than 50 varieties, ranging from traditional flavors like orange, lemon, lime, and cherry, to more exotic ones like cinnamon, pomegranate, cappuccino, buttered popcorn, and chili-mango.

Commercial Example: Jelly Bean Tripel | Local Relic Artisan Ales

Twix

Twix is a caramel shortbread chocolate bar made by Mars, Inc., consisting of a biscuit applied with other confectionery toppings and coatings (most frequently caramel and milk chocolate). The product was first produced in the United Kingdom in 1967,[3] and introduced in the United States in 1979. Twix was called Raider in mainland Europe for many years before its name was changed in 1991. In 2014, the company introduced Twix bites.

Commercial Example: Even More Candy Bars Edition 5 | Evil Twin Brewing NYC

Sour Keys

Sour keys are low-fat, sugar-laden, key-shaped candies with a strong sour flavor and a soft, yielding texture. They’re similar to the popular peach and green apple rings, though they aren’t as widely available. These keys come in different sizes that determine their calorie content. Sour sanding, or sour sugar, is a food ingredient that is used to impart that sour flavor, made from citric or tartaric acid and sugar. It is used to coat the sour candies.

Commercial Example: Dime Bag | Moon Under Water Brewery

Sour Patch Kids & Sour Gummies

Sour Patch Kids (aka Very Bad Kids in France, Maynards Sour Patch Kids in Canada and the UK) are a brand of soft candy with a coating of invert sugar and sour sugar (a combination of citric acid, tartaric acid, and sugar). They were originally created by Frank Galatolie of Jaret International, under the name of Mars Men in the early 1970s. In 1985 they re-branded to Sour Patch Kids.

Commercial Example: Sour Patch Kids Gose | Barbarian Brewing

M&M's

M&M’s are multi-colored button-shaped chocolates, consisting of a candy shell surrounding a filling which varies depending upon the variety of M&M’s. Forrest Mars, Sr., son of the Mars Company founder, Frank C. Mars, copied the idea for the candy in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating British-made Smarties, chocolate pellets with a colored shell of what confectioners call hard panning (essentially hardened sugar syrup). Mars received a patent for his own process on March 3, 1941.

Commercial Example: Cuvee De Candy Bar | Evil Twin Brewing NYC

Cotton Candy

Cotton candy, or candy floss, is a spun sugar confection that resembles cotton. It usually contains small amounts of flavoring or food coloring. The candy is made by heating and liquefying sugar, and spinning it centrifugally through minute holes—by which the sugar rapidly cools and re-solidifies into fine strands. Machine-spun cotton candy was invented in 1897 by dentist William Morrison and confectioner John C. Wharton, and first introduced to a wide audience at the 1904 World’s Fair as “Fairy Floss

Commercial Example: Carnival Cotton Candy  | Rusty Nickel Brewing

Popcorn

Popcorn (popped corn, popcorns or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated. Popcorn is one of six major types of corn, which includes dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, flour corn, and sweet corn. Through the 19th century, popping of the kernels was achieved by hand on stove tops. Kernels were sold on the East Coast of the United States under names such as Pearls or Nonpareil. The term popped corn first appeared in John Russell Bartlett’s 1848 Dictionary of Americanisms.

Commercial Example: Caramel Lager | Flying Dog Brewery

Hershey's Chocolate Bar

The Hershey Company, commonly known as Hershey’s, is an American multinational company and one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world. Its headquarters are in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is also home to Hersheypark and Hershey’s Chocolate World. It was founded by Milton S. Hershey in 1894 as the Hershey Chocolate Company, a subsidiary of his Lancaster Caramel Company. Hershey’s chocolate is available across the US, and in over 60 countries worldwide.

Commercial Example: Hershey’s Chocolate Porter | Yuengling Brewery

Candy Corn

Candy corn is a type of small, pyramid-shaped candy, typically divided into three sections of different colors, with a waxy texture and a flavor based on honey, sugar, butter, and vanilla. It is a staple candy of the fall season and the Halloween holiday in North America. The Candy Corn was invented by Wunderle Candy Company employee, George Renninger in the late 1880’s. Commercial production started in 1888 when the candy was marketed under the name Chicken Feed.

Commercial Example: Candy Corn Imperial Cream Ale | Urban Growler Brewing Co.

Kit Kat

Kit Kat is a chocolate-covered wafer bar confection created by Rowntree’s of York, United Kingdom, and is now produced globally by Nestlé, except in the US, where it is made under license by the H. B. Reese Candy Company, a division of the Hershey Company. The origins of the Kit Kat brand go back to 1911, when Rowntree’s, trademarked the terms Kit Cat and Kit Kat. Kit Kat first appeared in the 1920s, when Rowntree’s launched the boxed chocolates as Kit Cat.

Commercial Example: Even More Candy Bars Edition 4 | Evil Twin Brewing NYC

Hot Tamales

Hot Tamales is a soft, cinnamon flavored, oblong-shaped candy introduced in 1950. It is manufactured and marketed in the United States by Just Born, a family owned, Pennsylvania-based candy company. The named was derived from the sometimes pungent (spicy hot) flavor of tamales. In addition to the original variant, Just Born also markets Hot Tamales Fire(originally Super Hot Hot Tamales) with a hotter flavor and darker color, and introduced Hot Tamales Peeps in 2021.

Commercial Example: Hot Tamale Astrodog IPA | Stonecloud Brewing Co.

Candy Cane

A candy cane is a cane-shaped stick candy an associated with Christmas. Traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint, it also come in a variety of other flavors and colors. A record of the 1837 exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, where confections were judged competitively, mentions stick candy. A recipe for straight peppermint candy sticks, white with colored stripes, was published in The Complete Confectioner, Pastry-Cook, and Baker, in 1844.

Commercial Example: Candy Cane Ice Cream Cake | Abnormal Beer Co.

Nut Goodie Bars (Pearson’s)

Rosemary is an evergreen erect woody shrub with dark green spiky, narrow leaves that have a silver undersides. Pale blue flowers in clusters of two or three 2.5 cm long that appear in winter and spring. The delicate-flavoured honey is very sweet, balsamic, with slight sour traces and medium aftertaste, excellent aroma and light colour, light yellow when liquid and whitish when solid. It is produced as a unifloral honey in many European countries.

Commercial Examples: Rosemary HoneyTide  | Against The Tide; Rosemary Honey Ale | Wicked Weed Brewing; La Socarrada | Premium Beers From Spain

Heath Bars

Sage honey can come from many different species of the sage plant. Sage Honey, primarily produced in California, is light in color, heavy bodied and has a mild but delightful flavor. It is extremely slow to granulate, making it a favorite honey variety among honey packers for blending with other honeys to slow down granulation. There are several varieties of Sage – White, Purple, and Mixed Sage.

Commercial Examples: Honey Bee Hefe | Golden Road Brewing Co.; Hive Five | Smog City Brewing Co.

Andes Chocolate Mints

Some claim that this honey is sour. However, contrary to its name, many have also reported that sourwood honey is not sour, but sweet like any honey. This light-colored, delicate, subtle honey has an almost caramel or buttery flavor, and a pleasant, lingering aftertaste. With this honey, you don’t need any more butter on your biscuits or bread!

Commercial Examples: Belgian Tripel w/ Savannah Bee Sourwood Honey, Lemon Zest, Tangelo Peel and Raspberries | Service Brewing Co.; Sourwood Honey Wine | Blacksnake Meadery

Salted Nut Rolls (Pearson’s)

A one-foot high annual herb introduced from the Mediterranean Region, star thistle is widespread in California where it produces a white or extra light amber honey with a slight greenish cast. Moderately sweet with a grassy, anise aroma and flavor, star thistle honey pairs well with toasted nuts, strong cheeses and nut bread. It is also excellent in most cooking applications.

Commercial Examples: Bourbon Oaked Honey Porter | YOLO Brewing Co.; Queen Bee | Short’s Brewing Co.; Buzzerkeley | Calicraft Brewing Co.; Backwoods Cyser | B. Nektar Meadery

Werther's Original Caramel Creations

In the little town of Werther, Germany in 1909, the confectioner Gustav Nebel created the now iconic Butter Candy recipe. He took fresh cream, real butter, refined white sugar, brown rock sugar, a pinch of salt and plenty of time to create the now globally famous Butter Candy. In 1985 the Werther’s Echte brand, was marketed as Werther’s Original, becomes increasingly successful and to this day, they are one of the most popular and best selling caramel candies in the world, sold in over 100 countries.

Commercial Example: Tri Bráthair | Brothers Craft Brewing

Marshmallow

Marshmallow is a type of confectionery that is typically made from sugar, water and gelatin whipped to a solid-but-soft consistency. It is used as a filling in baking or normally molded into shapes and coated with corn starch. The sugar confection is inspired by a historical medicinal confection made from Althaea officinalis, the marsh-mallow plant. Confectioners in early 19th century France pioneered the innovation of whipping up the marshmallow sap and sweetening it to make a confection similar to modern marshmallow.

Commercial Example: Camp Amp | Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

Fudge (Mackinac)

Fudge is a type of sugar candy that is made by mixing sugar, butter and milk, heating it and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency. In texture, this crystalline candy falls in between fondant icing and hard caramels. Fudge originated in the US during the late 19th century. Recipes were printed in many periodicals and advertisements during the 1880s. Its popularity was partly due to the decreasing cost of refined white sugar, and due to the ability to make it at home.

Commercial Examples: KBS Maple Mackinac Fudge | Founders Brewing Co.

Lifesavers

Life Savers (stylized as LifeSavers) is an American brand of ring-shaped hard and soft candy. Its range of mints and fruit-flavored candies is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in paper-wrapped aluminum foil rolls. Candy manufacturer Clarence Crane of Garrettsville, Ohio[2] (father of the poet Hart Crane) invented the brand in 1912 as a “summer candy” that could withstand heat better than chocolate. The candy’s name is due to the fact that its shape resembles that of a traditional ring-style life preserver also known as a “life saver”.

Commercial Examples: Mountain Candy IPA | Sycamore Brewing

Candy Hearts

The Sweethearts brand was created in 1902. The original hearts included sayings that are still popular today such as “Be Mine” and “Kiss Me.” Sweethearts (also known as conversation hearts), and Love Hearts) grew in popularity over the next several decades. In the early 1990s, Sweethearts began to update the sayings each year, retiring some while adding others. Sweethearts were made by the New England Confectionery Company, or Necco, before being purchased by the Spangler Candy Company in 2018.

Commercial Example: Be Mine | Short’s Brewing Company