Peanut Chews (History, Marketing, Pictures & Commercials)
This is a classic style of candy bar that is made to allow you to really enjoy the peanuts and the chewy textures that make it unique. This candy from the 1920s will remind you of a snickers bar, but it is denser and has less filling along with the peanuts inside the outer layer of chocolate. If you love peanuts, this is the right candy bar for you to pick for your snack.
Peanut Chews are really familiar to people in the Philadelphia area as this candy was originally made in this area and has always been the most popular there. This is a simple candy bar with simple ingredients that is still delicious.
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History
The developer of Peanut Chews was the Goldenberg Candy Company. This company was founded by David Goldenberg in 1890. The Peanut Chew was first sold in 1917. This was a candy bar that was actually crafted just for use by the military as part of their rations for soldiers during World War I. This is part of why the bar was made to be so dense and have so many peanuts in it. This was a high-protein and high-energy food source that worked well for soldiers who were on the move or living in precarious situations while they were overseas.
When the bar was first individually wrapped in 1921 for retail sales, it was turned into a smaller bar. It was sold as small individual pieces at this time to make it easier to eat. In 1949, the Peanut Chews Division of the candy company was split off from the rest of the company, and Harry and Sylvia Goldenberg took over running it. These were second-generation Goldenbergs who were now in charge of the management of one of the key products made by this company. They would later sell the candy in 2003 to Just Born, who still own and manage the candy today.
The first Peanut Chews bar was dark chocolate. There was no milk chocolate version of the bar when it was first made. Since this was a practical bar that was being used for rations sent to soldiers, the dark chocolate held up better to heat than a milk chocolate coating would have. Later on, when the candy was sold to retail markets for the first time, the milk chocolate version was added. This bar was originally called “Chew-ets” but is now branded in the same way as the original bar with an indicator on the wrapper that it is the milk chocolate version.
The home factory for Peanut Chews in Philadelphia is a major landmark for locals. People remember that the roasting peanut smell would waft through town when the candy was being produced each day. This candy bar was for sale in nearly every store or candy shop in the area and it was a central part of the culture and economy of the area at one time.
The original Peanut Chew was made without milk or egg products. This is standard for the dark chocolate version of this candy bar, but the milk chocolate version was also originally made in this way. This was due to the limitations of the supplies available at the time that the bar was first sold. Later on, when the core market of chocolate bars was full of milky and rich candies, the recipe was adjusted by Just Born to meet the trends. They wanted to sell outside of the Mid-Atlantic states and felt that this was the right way to appeal to other markets in the US.
Just Born has been forced to focus most of its marketing efforts on the area between Baltimore and New York City because this is still their most important market. Peanut Chews does not seem to sell well, even with redesigned taste profiles and wrappers, outside of its home region.
Peanut Chews is now over 100 years old and there was a 100-year anniversary wrapper that was released on some of the bars that were made during this time. You can still get candy bars with the 100th-anniversary packaging if you are in the Mid-Atlantic area and looking for a Peanut Chews bar to try out. The Just Born company makes Peeps, Mike and Ike, Hot Tamales, and this one, single chocolate candy bar. This is a unique offering for this company to own, but they do a good job of marketing this simple candy bar and keeping it fresh and different in the eyes of consumers.
Logo
Buy Online
You can also buy Peanut Chews at Old Time Candy by clicking the image below.
Ingredients
From the Dark Chocolate Peanut Chews Wrapper:
- Peanuts
- Sugar
- Corn Syrup
- Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil
- Molasses
- Cocoa Processed with Alkali
- Glycerine
- Dextrose
- Cocoa Powder
- Salt
- Sorbitan Tristearate (emulsifier)
- Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier)
Seeing peanuts as the first item on the list of ingredients should tell you a lot about the taste profile of this candy bar. There are few candy bars that would meet this standard and Peanut Chews is unique in this way.
Nutrition
Serving Size: | 1 piece (9.2g) | % Daily Value* |
Amount Per Serving | ||
Calories from Fat | 20 | |
Calories | 45 | |
Total Fat | 2.2g | 3% |
Saturated Fat | 0.8g | 4% |
Trans Fat | 0g | |
Cholesterol | 1.2mg | 0% |
Sodium | 22mg | 1% |
Potassium | 30mg | 1% |
Total Carbohydrates | 5.6g | 2% |
Dietary Fiber | 0.2g | 1% |
Sugars | 4.6g | |
Protein | 0.7g | |
Vitamin A | 0% | |
Vitamin C | 0% | |
Calcium | 1% | |
Iron | 0% |
- * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Marketing
Peanut Chews has been the official candy of a variety of teams over the years. Recently, in 2017, it was the official candy of the Philadelphia Eagles for the 2017 season. It has also been the long-term official candy of the New York Yankee and the USO.
The Peanut Chews wrappers have not changed as much as you might expect for this brand. The original candy was sold in cardboard boxes but that is a thing of the past at this point. The current wrappers for the candy bars are made with a brown background and bold, simple white lettering. The variety is declared on the outside of the wrapper when this livery is used for the wrappers.
There are also some wrappers that are red for the original dark chocolate bar and then blue for the milk chocolate bar. The lettering on these wrappers is orange and more cartoony and the bar is pictured on the wrapper as well. The brown wrapper theme is carried into the boxes of the bite-sized version of this candy and the boxes are often red with a brown accent stripe. The logo appears in a more cartoony way on these boxes and is white in color.
This candy bar has been associated with some really clever and zany ads but it remains most popular on the Eastern Seaboard. Just Born has been working on linking Peanut Chews to sports teams and offering up new ways of buying the candy online in the hopes that their distribution will spread out more evenly across the US.
Peanut Chews in Popular Culture
Locals who are used to the original Peanut Chews bar being made in their area have resisted the different name changes to the candy and have also decided that the change in brand ownership is not important to them. These people will still refer to this candy when asked what it is called, as Goldenbergs. This is the way that many people refer to this candy in the Philadelphia area.
This is almost a matter of pride for locals in this area and you will find that almost no one refers to them by their current name. These locals will also tell you that the dark chocolate version is the only one that is truly a Goldenberg. The candy taste profile is not as popular outside of this area despite Just Born working hard to sell it across the US, and this might be in part because there is no local pride guiding the preference for this kind of candy bar.
The fact remains that most candy bars are not made with molasses these days, or to be so loaded with peanuts and many candy lovers will not find this bar’s formulation familiar. That being said, it can be hoped that this classic candy will find a foothold in some other markets. This is a really interesting and satisfying candy treat that has been around for many years longer than lots of classic bars of the same style.
The link to football and baseball has helped bring some awareness to the candy bar outside of its home, mid-Atlantic loyalists. There are some candy bars that do seem to perform better on one coast or the other, and it is possible that this candy bar will continue to be one of them. Just Born has been working hard on linking this candy bar to their other products that sell well across the US and you might find that it will show up in more candy stores in the Northwest or even the middle of the US over time.
Pictures
Commercials
A more recent Peanut Chews commercial advertisement for the candy:
The quality is not great on this ad but you can see some of the silly ads that have been made for this candy as well as the blue wrapper style:
Here is a more recent wrestling-themed Peanut Chews commercial:
Here is a promotional video for the partnership with the Eagles:
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!
Please leave a review or any memories of this snack in the comments below. Thank you!
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Love the Peeps ! Just curious where your sugar source is from. Thank you