Regal Crown Sour Candy: History, Origin & Brands
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Snack History Nostalgia Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
History has brought us a significant number of varieties of candy and sweet snacks. Some of these snacks are still easily found. In contrast, other candies, such as Regal Crown Sour Candy, have switched hands several times, making them much more difficult to find. Learn more about the history of this iconic candy today!
| Regal Crown Sour Candy | Facts |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1960s (imported to the USA) |
| Manufacturer | Trebor Bassett (UK manufacturer); Murray Allen / Reed's Candy Company (US distributor) |
| Candy Type | Hard sour candy |
| Original Flavors | Sour Lemon, Sour Grape, Sour Cherry, Sour Orange |
| Still Available | Difficult to find; has changed hands multiple times |
| Country of Origin | England |
| Parent Company | Reed's Candy Company |
| Notable Ranking | 6th best-selling candy in all classes in America (National Confectioners Association) |
Originally From England
Regal Crown Sour Candy sounds English and Olde World because it is. It was initially made in England and imported to the United States of America in the 1960s. Although members of the younger generations may believe that sour treats and candies are something utterly unique to this time, this is just not the case. This candy has been around for decades, allowing people to enjoy the delicious sour taste of many different fruity flavors.
Regal Crown Sour Candy Timeline
- 1893 — Reed's Candy Company founded in Chicago, Illinois
- Early 1900s — Reed's becomes America's largest butterscotch candy manufacturer
- 1960s — Regal Crown Sour Candy imported to the United States from England
- 1960s — Trebor Bassett and Murray Allen partnership established for US distribution
- 1960s–1970s — Regal Crown ranks 6th best-selling candy in America
- 1987 — Reed's launches Bar None candy bar after $15 million development
- 1980s–1990s — Bar None becomes a fan favorite with national reach
- Post-1990s — Regal Crown changes hands multiple times, becoming hard to find
Regal Crown Sour Candy vs Life Savers
| Feature | Regal Crown Sour Candy | Life Savers |
|---|---|---|
| Candy Type | Hard sour candy | Hard sweet candy |
| Introduced | 1960s (US debut) | 1912 |
| Manufacturer | Trebor Bassett / Reed's Candy Company | Currently owned by Wrigley (Mars) |
| Flavors | Sour Lemon, Sour Grape, Sour Cherry, Sour Orange, and more | Five Flavor, Wild Cherry, Peppermint, and many others |
| Availability | Difficult to find; limited distribution | Widely available nationwide |
| Packaging | Large tubes with individually wax-paper-wrapped pieces | Rolls and bags |
| Flavor Profile | Distinctly sour with fruity notes | Sweet and minty, no sour kick |
Regal Crown Sour Candy and The Reed’s Candy Company
Reed’s is the company that owns the rights to Regal Crown Sour Candy. Reed’s has been a company long before Regal Crown Sour Candy came into existence. They were founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893. By the early 1900s, they were America’s largest butterscotch candy manufacturer. This may be partially due to their manufacturing process.
They used copper kettles to boil the ingredients for their hard candy. They used premium ingredients such as farm-fresh butter and pure cane sugar. Propelled by their great success with butterscotch candies, they expanded their candy line.
The new Candy product line now included flavors such as wintergreen, spearmint, peppermint cinnamon, licorice, root beer, butter Rum, and teaberry hard candies.
Originally Murray Allen and Trebor Basset formed a partnership with Regal Crown Sour Candy. Trevor Basset was the premier manufacturer of the amazing Regal Crown Sour Candy in the UK. In contrast, Murray Allen, part of Reed’s Candy Company, became the exclusive distributor of this wonderful candy in the United States of America.
Regal Crown Sour Candy became incredibly popular in the USA. In fact, The National Confectioners Association stated that this Regal Crown Sour Candy was the 6th best-selling candy in all classes in America.
Regal Crown Sour Candy was only ranked behind popular and iconic candy bars such as Almond Joy, Snickers, Baby Ruth, and the Milky Way, which is still very popular today.
Reed’s Candy Company also became popular in the 1980s and 90s for producing the candy bar, Bar None. The BarNone Candy Bar was released in 1987 after spending 15 million dollars on testing and development. It was released on a national scale to a very receptive audience.
This candy bar quickly became a fan favorite. This candy bar was a delicious mix of chocolate wafers, chocolate cream, and milk chocolate. Their popular ad campaign deemed this candy bar as a solution to “Tame the Chocolate Beasty.”
Quick Quiz
Which Of These Is The Oldest Candy?
A Novel Idea For Their Time
One of the reasons that this candy was so popular was because it was really a novelty for the time period they were released in America. At the time, other popular hard candy included items such as fruit-flavored hard candy, root beer, cinnamon, mint, and lifesavers. These all had their place, sure, but none of them had any kick to them.
The Regal Crown Sour Candy offered something new and different. Everything was unique about them – their flavors, their packaging, and what they looked like. It added a certain sense of fun and newness to a stale candy market. This was especially true for the youth of the generation. Typically, hard candy is designed and marketed to older adults. Still, finally, there was a hard candy that appealed to the younger generations.
In the 1960s, when this candy blazed onto the scene, it offered a different taste. These candies were much more sour than anything else being offered at the time. Sure, they were not like the sour candies of today, such as sour patch kids, but they were not tame like Lemonhead Candy or Life Savers Candy either. They struck a new chord in the market, fulfilling a need that most candy manufacturers did not even realize existed.
They were sold in large tubes, and each piece of candy was wrapped separately in wax paper, ensuring they would not stick together, ruining the overall experience. The wax paper made it look even better to the youth, creating a flying saucer shape for each individually wrapped piece of candy.
Each piece of candy was also about twice as big as a lifesaver candy, making them appear to be a much better value as well! Finally, they came in several different delicious sour flavors. They were available in Sour Lemon, Sour Grape, Sour Cherry, and Sour Orange. Over time other flavors were also released, such as sour apple, sour raspberry, and cool mints.
Changing Times
When looking into the history of any great company, you will find something alarming. Most companies change hands over time. When changing hands is not always a bad thing, acquisitions and mergers can bring about the end of beloved products, flavors, and offerings. Unfortunately, this is what has happened with this delicious piece of candy history.
Although it is possible to still find these candies today, Regal Crown Sour Candy has been a part of multiple acquisitions. During this time period, the candy has disappeared from the shelves of local and international stores for months to years at a time.
If you look online today, it is possible to find this item, but only in small stores or because we have access to the internet to order this treat to be shipped from anywhere in the world. However, you will have difficulty finding this candy in the stores today.
You can still find this candy due to vintage candy companies bringing it back due to popular demand.
Iconic Candy And Regal Crown Sour Candy
Iconic Candy is a company that will bring back and sells candies that they deem to be iconic and that have left the market too soon! Thankfully, they have done this for Regal Crown Sour Candy. Unfortunately, they have not released every flavor of Regal Crown Sour Candy. However, you do have the opportunity to buy the 4 most popular flavors.
They offer flavors of sour cherry, sour lemon, sour apple, and sour grape. They sell these flavors in a box of 24 rolls, and each roll contains 7 candies. So, you will get 168 pieces of your favorite sour candy per purchase. This is perfect for people who really love and miss this candy, to buy to give away in gift bags or stocking stuffers, or to give as a present to someone who grew up with this candy – it is the perfect nostalgia gift, especially for milestone birthdays or even retirement parties.
Iconic Candy’s Other Offerings
If you are all about finding other candy that is no longer on the market, this company also offers some other great choices for purchase!
If you enjoyed some of Reed’s Candy Companies other creations, you are in luck. Iconic Candy is also selling four of Reed’s original hard candy rolls. The flavors they are selling are Reed’s Butterscotch, Reed’s Root Beer, Reed’s Cinnamon, and Reed’s Peppermint. Just like the Regal Crown Sour Candy selections, these are available in a 24-pack with 7 pieces in each sleeve.
Iconic Candy has also re-released the Bar None candy bar. You can purchase this in a box of 24 individually wrapped, full-size candy bars package.
Finally, they are also selling Creme Savers – both Strawberries & Creme and Orange & Creme. You can purchase these in a 6.25-ounce bag, a 3-ounce bag, an individual roll with 12 pieces, or a box of 24 rolls with 12 pieces per roll (288 pieces total).
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Ingredients
All of the candy has the following ingredients: sugar, glucose, natural flavor, and natural color.
- Sour Lemon also has lemon juice from concentrate, citric acid, natural lemon oil, and the natural color comes from beta carotene.
- Sour Apple also has malic acid, and the natural color comes from pumpkin, apple, and spirulina extracts.
- Sour grape also has malic acid, and the natural color comes from violet carrot extract.
- Sour Cherry also has cherry juice from concentrate, citric acid, artificial flavor, and the natural color comes from anthocyanin.
One piece of any one of these flavors contains 15 calories.
Nutrition
| Serving Size | 2 pieces (8g) | % Daily Value |
| Amount Per Serving | ||
| Calories | 30 | 3% |
| Total Carbs | 7g | |
| Total Sugars | 5g |
- * The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for a general nutrition advice.
Pictures
Regal Crown Sour Candy Inspiring A New Generation Of Candy Manufactures
One of the wonderful things about every product from the past is that they help inspire future products. This is undoubtedly true when discussing Regal Crown Sour Candy. As previously mentioned, this candy was a novel idea at the time as there was no actual sour candy on the market in the 1960s. However, that has changed so much in the last 6+ decades, and you can think of this leader in the sour candy game for the advancements in candy offerings worldwide.
If Regal Crown Sour Candy never existed, would we have the sour candy collection we do today?
Frequently Asked Questions about Regal Crown Sour Candy
Where did Regal Crown Sour Candy originally come from?
Regal Crown Sour Candy was originally made in England and imported to the United States in the 1960s. Trebor Bassett was the premier manufacturer of the candy in the UK, while Murray Allen, part of Reed's Candy Company, served as the exclusive US distributor.
What flavors did Regal Crown Sour Candy come in?
The original flavors were Sour Lemon, Sour Grape, Sour Cherry, and Sour Orange. Over time, additional flavors were introduced including Sour Apple, Sour Raspberry, and Cool Mints.
How popular was Regal Crown Sour Candy in the United States?
Regal Crown Sour Candy was extremely popular, with the National Confectioners Association ranking it the 6th best-selling candy in all classes in America. It ranked just behind iconic candy bars such as Almond Joy, Snickers, Baby Ruth, and Milky Way.
What made Regal Crown Sour Candy unique compared to other candies of its era?
At the time of its US debut in the 1960s, most hard candies were sweet, such as fruit-flavored candies, mints, and Life Savers, with no sour kick. Regal Crown offered a distinctly sour flavor profile, novel packaging in large tubes with individually wax-paper-wrapped pieces, and a larger size roughly twice that of a Life Saver, making it stand out strongly in the market.
What other famous candy was Reed's Candy Company known for producing?
Reed's Candy Company became well known in the 1980s and 1990s for producing the Bar None candy bar, which launched in 1987 after $15 million in testing and development. Bar None featured chocolate wafers, chocolate cream, and milk chocolate, and was marketed with the slogan 'Tame the Chocolate Beasty.'
I loved Regal Crown sour orange and sour lemon as a kid. Pleasntly surprised to see that the lemon are still around, and now I’m craving the orange.
Regal sour candy is the best !!! Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So wish we could get Regal Crown Orange and Raspberry. Still, glad I can get Lemon and Cherry, always two of my favorites! I don’t usually get the Sour Apple or Sour Grape, never liked either very much. My favorite when I was a kid was the Sour Fruits mixed roll which was always a surprise, but those aren’t made anymore either.
I worked in a restaurant back in the early 70s in wichita falls, texas. The restaurants front counter had the regal cherry and lemon sours for purchase, the first time I tried them I was hooked, just about every week I bought a roll of both, by far the best sour hard candy I have ever tasted. This restaurant was the only place in town that sold the regal candy, then suddenly it was no longer available. I looked everywhere to find this candy to no avail. Im convinced if this candy were readily available to C-stores across the country it could capture the hard sour candy market in sales once the product gained recognition.
The new ingredients taste horrible. Nothing like what I knew and loved in the 1960s/1970s. Radically different now and missing all the flavors I loved abou them.
I will never buy them again.
Whatever happened to the rolls of sour candies that included several flavors in one roll?
I loved the Sour Cherry; my dad would buy me a roll from the local liquor store. I bought them recently from Amazon, and the taste really has diminished from when I had them in the ’60s. However, I might have gotten a knockoff, so I will keep trying until I can confirm that they really are not the same.
The original British company went out of business long time ago (I think the early 90s). Iconic Candy makes the “remakes” which I agree aren’t quite as good as I remember, but then that might also be a bit of nostalgia. So the ONLY thing you can get is the “knockoff” and they aren’t really bad, and still much more sour than other candies (and not as ridiculously sour as the Sour Patch awful candies).
I remember the very first time I had the wild cherry. It was during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics that was being broadcast. The roll cost a nickel back then, same as a Hershey bar.
I remember those days! I was 14. They went up to a dime in the late 60s, then a quarter in the 70s. Even though the new versions aren’t quite as good, they are good enough (for me anyway!)
This is by far my favorite candy. I bought it in on a trip to Canada….and I am in LOVE!
….Yummmm