Tootsie Roll
noun

- a US sweet bar that tastes of chocolate and is very chewy

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary


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ORIGIN

On February 23, 1896, a candymaker from Austria named Leo Hirschfield opened shop in New York City.

It was in that shop that Hirschfield came up with one of the 20th century’s iconic candies: the humble Tootsie Roll. Not long after, seeing how popular his creation was, he merged with Stern & Saalberg Co. to produce the candies on a bigger scale.

The wax-paper-wrapped sweet, produced in NYC beginning in 1905, was the first candy to solve two confectionery issues: the penny candy didn’t melt, and it was individually wrapped.

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HARD-BUT-NOT-TOO-HARD

The patent associated with the Tootsie Roll-making process describes how Hirschfield achieved that hard-but-not-too-hard texture that still characterizes the Tootsie Roll today.

Most pulled candies (which the Tootsie Roll is) are “light and porous” after being made, the patent reads. But the Tootsie Roll was baked at a low temperature for about two hours. Afterwards it would be shaped and packaged. The idea was to give the treat “a peculiar mellow consistency” the patent reads, that would help it maintain its shape and not melt.

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TOOTSIE ROLL FACTS

- Leo Hirschfield named his creation in honour of his 5-year-old daughter Clara, whose nickname was “Tootsie”.

- During World War 2, the U.S. military valued them an efficient source of “quick energy” because they wouldn’t melt in hot weather or go bad over time. In at least one instance they proved to be life-saving: A pilot whose plane was shot down over the Sahara sustained himself on Tootsie Rolls for three days.

- The standard Tootsie Roll (40 g) has 155 calories. To burn this number of calories you would have to bike for 22 minutes, swim for 18 minutes, or run for 16 minutes.

- Nowadays, 64 million Tootsie Rolls are made every day - that’s around 50,000 every minute.

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SYNONYMS
for edible, sweet-tasting confectionery, typically containing sugar

candy, candied fruit, sugar-plum, sweet(s), sweetie, sweet treat, bonbon(s), confectionery, goody, sucker, dainty, toffee, jawbreaker

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Practice OWAD in a conversation today, say something like:

“I wonder how many tooth-fillings get lost per year after chewing TOOTSIE ROLLS.”

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and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40