Boston Baked Beans Candy (History, Nutrition & Pictures)

You might think that this article will be about barbeque sides, but you would be wrong! There really is a candy that is called Boston Baked Beans, and it has been around for a very long time. This is a candy style that is more common in the Midwest and the south, so people who live on the east or west coast might be less familiar with this candy confection.

The name of this product refers to a traditional sweet from the south that always is made with some form of sugar-coated peanut. While this can be the candy of various brands, there is a Boston Baked Beans candy that is attributed to the Ferrara Candy Company. This is the product that most people are familiar with when the name Boston Baked Beans is brought up.

History

The Boston Baked Beans candy product that is most familiar to people is the brainchild of the Ferrara pan Candy Company. This was one of their earliest successful products, and they made this yummy treat in the 1930s. This was the companion product that they released when they started selling Red Hots, and both of these classic candies are still beloved by many people today.

The Boston Baked Beans candy product is made with a traditional cold panning candy method. This is one of the oldest ways to make candies, and it involves rolling peanuts around in a revolving pan while coloring, flavoring, and candy sugar ingredients are poured into the pans. The rolling of the products through this mix of additives creates round, sweet, and hard candies that can be easily boxed and sold and that keep their shape and texture even when the weather is warm.

Before refrigeration was common for stores and in homes, candies had to be hardy to survive the summer in most parts of the world. Cold panning was a great way to make resilient candies that would be good to eat and would not melt, even in the summer months. Boston Baked Beans and Red Hots were some of the first boxed candies that could be counted upon to be resilient to summer and to tackle storage and shipping without complaint.

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The Ferrara family made many panned candy products in the early years that the company was in business and they have all survived into the current candy market. There are few candy companies that still use these traditional candy-making techniques, and the flavor and texture that you get from this process make the candy very different and more enjoyable in some ways than modern candies.

The Boston Baked Beans candy product is named in honor of the actual barbeque side with beans in it. This is a nod to the shape of the peanuts and the molasses flavoring that is used in baked beans when served with barbeque. The dye that is added to the candy product was actually intentionally picked to make sure that the peanuts looked like baked beans when they were done being panned.

While today baked beans are not very popular to eat other than in areas like the south, they were once a pretty common staple of people’s diets. Beans of all kinds were eaten by most middle-class families in the early 1900s. Making a candy product that was reminiscent of this dinner side would have made a lot more sense to candy lovers in the 30s. Today’s candy market is very different, but the name of the Boston Baked Beans candy has never been changed.

Boston Baked Beans are used for candy trays and decorations today more often than they are carried around to eat as a snack. Lots of recipes online use Boston Baked Beans for decoration or as part of the candy coating for different desserts and treats. You will be much more likely to see this candy treat on store shelves in the Midwest, and the Chicago area is one of their original markets and is still quite loyal to these little candies.

If you live on the coasts of the US, you might have to order your Boston Baked Beans candy from Amazon or another online seller in order to get to try them. They are considered a bit of a specialty candy these days in most markets, so you will have to do a little legwork to get them to give them a try. The packaging has not changed much at all since the original product hit the market in the 1930s, and you will be delighted by the small cardboard boxes with the hard candies inside. This is a really unique and fun candy to try out if you have never had a classic cold-panned treat before.

Livery

The Ferrara Candy Company has always stuck to simple marketing for its products. The boxes of most of their candies are still simple cardboard, and the logos of most of the products have not changed hardly at all since the early days that the company was in business.

Boston Baked Beans candy are sold in a small red box that is decorated to look like a brick wall. The Boston Baked Beans candy name is written in simple black font on the front of the box with a small “window” that shows the product that is contained inside the box. Some of the boxes also show a jug of what appears to be the real bean product on it. The box also states that these are candy-coated peanuts and declares that this is “the original” product.

If you get the mini-size boxes that are often used for Halloween or for treat bags, the boxes will still be red and show the same logo, but the picture of the product and the jug of beans will likely not appear. This is a remarkably simple marketing design, and the company clearly doesn’t feel pressured to create a new and exciting marketing campaign since the product is so familiar even to this day.

The Ferrara Candy Company states that their Boston Baked Beans are “always ready for a movie,” and this is one of the main places where you might still find this little treat on offer. If you love a snack that is simple to eat when you are distracted or one that is really portable and great for car rides, this is a perfect choice to make.

Are Boston Baked Beans Healthy?

While all candy includes sugars that you might want to avoid in your diet, you will find that Boston Baked Beans candy are a little healthier choice than a candy bar. Peanuts are not that bad for you and are a great choice for proteins, and they are the largest component of the candy product in this case. You will only be getting some sugars from the coating on the peanuts, and there are no other additives besides food coloring to make the unique bean-like presentation of the candy possible.

The Ferrara Candy Company makes a lot of really simple candies that do not contain as many sugary additives as more modern candy recipes. This is one of the reasons that they are so popular even today, and the simplicity of the candies that they make can be enjoyable when compared to so many really complex and fattening treats that are everywhere in gas stations, grocery stores, and movie theaters. Sometimes it is nice to take a break from really sweet and rich treats and have a simple but sweet candy snack.

Older style candies like this product were made well before it was possible to combine so many sweet things into different confections, and this was not necessarily a bad thing. Making a sweet treat out of a simple snack like a peanut is easier than most people realize, and you might not even know that you are consuming peanuts due to the delicate sweetness of the candy layer that is added to Boston Baked Beans. This is one of the key benefits of simple sweets that some people really miss when faced with all the sugary and complicated candies that are sold in stores today. Red Hots and Boston Baked Beans candy harken back to a much simpler time and much simpler tastes.

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You can also buy Boston Baked Beans at Old Time Candy by clicking the image below.

Ingredients

From the Ferrara website:

• Sugar
• Peanuts
• Corn syrup
• Modified corn starch (corn)
• Acacia (gum Arabic)
• Confectioner’s glaze (shellac)
• Artificial flavor
• Carnauba wax
• White mineral oil
• Red 40
• Yellow 5
• Yellow 6
• Blue 2

They have to call out the risk for peanut allergy of course, and there is also a notice that this product is made using equipment that is shared with milk, eggs, almond, coconut, and soy products. This is likely not a good product for those with possible contact allergies, and it will not count as vegan or gluten-free for most people’s needs either. Despite the simplicity of this candy, it is not for those with allergies.

Nutrition

Pictures

Ads and videos:

A taste test:

Someone’s homemade ad for the candy:

A how it’s made video:

Brianna York

My name is Brianna and I love writing on all topics. Candy history fascinates me and I am passionate about sharing my love of this topic with everyone else!