Seasonal foods include candy canes, and it turns out there’s a favorite way to enjoy them

Whether hanging on Christmas trees or kept as a festive treat, candy canes are one of the most recognizable foods of the holidays.

But is there a right way to eat them?

A recent survey wanted to find out the answer.

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More than half of respondents – 54% – said the correct way to eat a candy cane was to start with the straight end first.

But 30% of respondents said the correct way to eat a candy cane was from the curved end first, said the National Confectioners Association (NCA), based in Washington, DC

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The remaining 16% said breaking a candy cane into pieces was the correct way to eat it.

No matter how these tube-shaped peppermint sticks are eaten, the group is happy to see they are still enjoyed.

“Candy canes are an iconic part of the season and a joy for everyone who receives them as a gift,” association spokesman Christopher Gindlesperger told Fox News Digital.

The origin of the candy cane can be traced back to the 17th century in Germany.

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“Legend has it that in 1670, the choirmaster of Cologne Cathedral in Germany gave his young singers candy canes to silence them during the long Living Creche ceremony,” says the NCA website.

“In honor of the shepherds featured in the story, he bent the candies into little shepherds’ crooks.”

The German tradition apparently came to the United States via a German-Swedish immigrant named August Imgard. He celebrated Christmas in Wooster, Ohio, in 1847 by decorating a small blue spruce tree with paper ornaments and candy canes, the website says.

However, the first known record of a “stick candy” in the United States dates back to 1837 at the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, where candy was judged in competition.

It was written that the candies were “excellent” and that “a sample of peppermint is made of significantly superior material than any the committee has seen.”

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A few years later, in 1844, a recipe for straight peppermint candy sticks with white stripes was published in The Complete Confectioner, Pastry-Cook and Baker.

The earliest known documentation of a “candy cane” comes from the short story “Tom Luther’s Stockings,” published in Ballou’s Monthly Magazine in 1866. There was no mention of the candy cane’s color or taste, although it was described as “mammoth.”

Originally, candy canes were solid white, but stripes appeared around the turn of the 20th century.

It’s not entirely certain when the red and white stripes now commonly associated with candy canes first appeared, but Georgia candy maker Bob McCormack is often credited with creating the barber cane look.

McCormack founded the Famous Candy Co. in Albany, Georgia in 1919, which later became Bob’s Candies.

In the 1920s, he began making candy canes as Christmas treats for his children, friends and local shopkeepers, the NCA said on its website.

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According to candy retailer Redstone Foods Inc., Bob’s Candies was the first company to wrap candy canes in cellophane to protect the holiday treat from moisture and make it easier to sell in smaller quantities.

“But pulling, twisting, cutting and bending the candy canes by hand was a laborious process, so in the 1950s, Bob’s brother-in-law Gregory Keller, a Catholic priest, invented a machine to automate candy cane production,” the National Confectioners Association said.

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Keller filed a U.S. patent for a “candy cane forming machine” in 1957. Patent records indicate it was granted in 1960.

This made Bob’s Candies the first company to mass-produce candy canes.

“Packaging innovations from future generations of McCormacks made it possible to transport the delicate candy canes to communities across the country, and Bob McCormack’s candy canes became a nationwide holiday treat,” the NCA said.

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Although the McCormacks sold the company to Farley’s and Sathers Candy Co. in 2005, Bob’s Candies remained the largest striped candy manufacturer in the world, according to a 2014 Georgia Public Broadcasting report.

The biggest week for candy cane sales is the second week of December, the NCA said on its website – and National Candy Cane Day is celebrated on December 26 each year.

“This is probably because most people decorate their Christmas trees this week,” the website says.

Original source of the article: Seasonal foods include candy canes, and it turns out there’s a favorite way to enjoy them