Oh Henry!

Oh Henry! is a candy bar containing peanuts, caramel, and fudge coated in chocolate.[1]

Oh Henry!
Oh Henry! bar
TypeCandy bar
Place of originUnited States
Created byGeorge Williamson
Invented1920
Main ingredientsPeanuts, caramel, and fudge
Ingredients generally usedChocolate
Not to be confused with O. Henry.
An Oh Henry! split
Box of Oh Henry! candy bars at a general store in Portsmouth, North Carolina

History

There are multiple versions of the Oh Henry! bar origin story. The manufacturer Nestlé says that the bar was introduced by George Williamson and his Williamson Candy Company of Chicago in 1920 in United States.[1] The most popular alternate story is that Thomas Henry, manager of the Peerless Candy Co. in Arkansas City, Kansas, invented a bar he called the "Tom Henry Bar" in the late 1910s, and sold the recipe to George Williamson in 1920. There is no credible documentation of this story, however.[2]

There are other alternate accounts of the origin of the name of the bar. The story supported by Nestlé is that there was a boy named Henry who frequented George Williamson's second candy shop. He became a favorite of the young girls who worked there, who would say "Oh Henry" when speaking to or about him, and Williamson used this phrase to name his new confection. The other (undocumented) story is that the name was changed from the Tom Henry Bar to Oh Henry! when it was purchased by Williamson. Popular myths are that it was named after O. Henry or Henry Aaron.[1][3]

The Williamson Company was sold to Warner-Lambert in 1965, which soon sold Oh Henry! to Terson, Inc. Nestlé acquired the United States rights to the brand from Terson in 1984.[3] In 2018, Nestlé sold the rights to its U.S. confectionery products to Ferrara Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrero SpA.[4]

A search for "Oh Henry discontinued" yielded a Facebook post from 2019. Oh Henry! was discontinued by FerraraUSA in 2019. There was no public notice.

Differences between Ferrara and Hershey versions

In Canada, the bar is currently sold by the Hershey Company and was manufactured at their Smiths Falls, Ontario, facilities prior to their closure. The bars are different in appearance: the Canadian version is one bar with the fudge in the center, the fudge surrounded with a thin layer of caramel, and the nuts surrounding that layer before it is surrounded in the coating.[5] Hershey sells Oh Henry! bars made in Canada on a very limited basis in the United States as Rally bars, using the trademark of a Hershey product introduced in the 1970s and later discontinued.[6]

  • In the Seinfeld episode "The Caddy", the fictional character Sue Ellen Mischke is the heiress to the Oh Henry! candy bar fortune.[7]
  • Whenever former MLB outfielder Henry Rodríguez hit a homerun, fans would throw Oh Henry! bars onto the field.[8]

See also

References
  1. "Oh Henry!". Nestlé. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
  2. Clayman, Andrew. "Oh Henry! Candy Bar Box by Williamson Candy Co., c. 1950s . Oh Henry! came before Snickers". Made in Chicago Museum. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
  3. Prokop, Jessica. "Candy History: Oh Henry". Candyfavorites.com. Archived from the original on August 30, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  4. "Ferrero Completes Acquisition of Nestlé USA's Confectionary Business". Business Wire. March 31, 2018.
  5. Cybele (June 4, 2008). "The Oh Henry!s – Candy Blog". Candy Blog. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  6. Cybele (November 13, 2008). "Rally Bar – Candy Blog". Candy Blog. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  7. "From Soup Nazis to Nuts: 100 Best 'Seinfeld' Characters". RollingStone. November 29, 2020. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  8. Harder, Jon. "HardwayHQ Montreal Expos Henry Rodriguez Henry Rodriguez's 1996 in Montreal was Underappreciated". HardwayH2.com. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  9. "Oh Henry! Candy Bar Commercial featuring Gilbert Gottfried — 1987". YouTube. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  10. ""Inside the Commercial Actors Studio" with Gilbert Gottfried — Running Late with Scott Rogowsky". YouTube. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
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