This Old School Candy Hasn't Been The Same Since 1999

When popular foods undergo significant changes, you never know how the public is going to react. I remember when M&M's added the blue color to its mix in 1995. (Interestingly, the rarest M&M color used to be the most common one.) On the other side of the spectrum, when McDonald's started baking its apple hand pies in 1992 instead of continuing to fry them, fans certainly got mad. And then there's Jujyfruits, whose formula change in 1999 had a response somewhere in the middle for those who enjoy them.

Jujyfruits are a type of gumdrop; a fruity, gummy candy that used to be in virtually every movie theater concession stand alongside Red Vines (which are not gluten-free), Raisinets, and Junior Mints. The multicolored chewy treats have the kinds of flavors you'd expect from a gummy, including orange, lemon, and raspberry. Up until 1999, it also had a green, mint-flavored morsel. Sure, it was a little unusual, but I have to remind myself that Jujyfruits also contained a black licorice flavor (which I avoided like the plague). But I really liked the minty ones. The Hershey company bought Jujyfruits in '99 and swiftly changed the flavor of green chews to lime, which it claimed was the flavor most customers associated with green candy. A survey was conducted, with results saying that mint was the least-favorite flavor of the bunch — in other words, not everyone was brokenhearted over the change.

Jujyfruits fans will also remember Jujubes, which were made by the same company (Heide Candy Company). These gummy candies also used to contain some unusual flavors like lilac, violet, rose, and spearmint.

Other than changing the green flavor from mint to lime, Jujyfruits have largely stayed the same since they were introduced in 1920. German immigrant Henry Heide started his candy company decades before, in 1869, but his invention of Jujyfruits really put him in the spotlight in the candy making world, as they proved to be very popular in movie theaters. Consumers could also mail in the empty boxes and a little bit of cash for cool prizes. The most curious element in these candies isn't the fact they once came in mint flavors, but more so the candies' shapes. Even though they taste like fruit, some of the colors are shaped like veggies, making them all the more fun to look at and eat.

In any given box of Jujyfruits, you'll find the shapes of asparagus bundles, bananas, grape bundles, pea pods, pineapples, raspberries, and tomatoes. Each shape can come in any color, so you'll sometimes find yourself eating a lime flavored pea pod, or a licorice flavored asparagus bundle. The banana shapes are now stamped with the name "Heide" in homage to the candy's original ownership. There have been minor changes to the packaging, as well. But overall, fans will recognize the bright yellow box with bubble letters spelling out "Jujyfruits" on the front. It's a fun, retro candy that has amazingly stuck around for over 100 years. Sadly, the mint didn't last, but those vegetable shapes have withstood the test of time.