Almond Joy

An Almond Joy split

The Peter Paul Candy Manufacturing Company was founded by six Armenian immigrants including Peter Paul Halajian and Max Freedman in 1919. In 1929 the company acquired the Mounds bar candy line from West Haven, Connecticut candy maker Vincent Nitido.[4] The Mounds bar became a hit with the U.S. military during World War II, who by 1944 purchased 80% of their production for use in rations (5 million bars/month).[5] The Almond Joy bar was introduced in 1946 as a replacement for the Dreams Bar, which was introduced in 1934, consisting of diced almonds and coconut covered with dark chocolate.[6] In 1978, Peter Paul merged with the Cadbury-Schweppes company of England.[7] In 1988, Hershey's purchased the United States rights to their chocolate business for $300 million, which included the Mounds, Almond Joy, and York Peppermint Pattie brands, in addition to Cadbury-only products such as Dairy Milk and Carmello.[8] The name "Almond Joy" was selected by Peter Paul employee, Anna Z. Ranaudo from Naugatuck, CT.

The Hershey Company made Almond Joy in Naugatuck, CT for nearly 20 years before moving the manufacturing operation to a more modern plant in Stuarts Draft, VA in 2007. At the time of the move, the 250,000 square foot Naugatuck plant was operating at 40% capacity.[9]

During the 1970s, Peter Paul used the jingle "Sometimes you feel like a nut / Sometimes you don't", written by Leo Corday and Leon Carr and sung by Joey Levine, to advertise Almond Joy and Mounds in tandem.[10] The TV commercial was first aired in January 1977.[11] In a play on words, the "feel like a nut" portion of the jingle was typically played over a clip of someone acting like a "nut", i.e., doing something unconventional, such as an equestrian riding on a horse backward or a bride carrying her groom over the threshold.

In the 2000s, Hershey began producing variations of the product, including a limited-edition Piña Colada and Double Chocolate Almond Joy in 2004, a limited-edition White Chocolate Key Lime and Milk Chocolate Passion Fruit Almond Joy in 2005, and a limited-edition Toasted Coconut Almond Joy in 2006. In 2009 Hershey's came out with an Almond Joy Pieces product that were similar in size to M&Ms, but contained the coconut, milk chocolate and almonds ingredients in brown, white and blue colors.[12]Although well received, Almond Joy Pieces were later discontinued.[13]

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