14 Vintage Chocolate Brands Your Grandparents Loved

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Candy bars feel pretty modern, right? Well, they've been around a lot longer than you think. The first chocolate bar was invented in Britain back in 1847, when Joseph Fry worked out a way to mold chocolate paste into a snackable shape. Since then, there have been thousands of different chocolate bars and brands that have been released to a constantly hungry market. The years immediately following World War Two were especially exciting for chocolate, with roughly 40,000 different types of candy bar being released since the '40s. Naturally, that means that a lot of chocolate brands have come and gone, and a lot of those treats that your grandparents once loved have disappeared from view forever.

Although some long-gone chocolate brands from the middle of the 20th century have been fondly remembered, like the Seven-Up Bar or the curiously named Chicken Dinner, others have pretty much vanished from vision. We're willing to guess that you don't remember the Forever Yours or Smooth Sailin' bars (if you'd asked your grandpa about it, though, you might do). Furthermore, it's interesting to see how familiar companies, like Nestlé and Welch's, had popular chocolate bars that have since totally evaporated from people's memories. Ready for a trip to chocolate's past? Let's go. 

You know it was a different time when a chocolate brand called Chicken Dinner could become one of the most popular snacks out there. This candy bar first appeared over 100 years ago, when the Sperry Candy Company conceived the idea of covering a nut roll in chocolate. When the chocolate was released in 1923, it quickly became a sensation, which was aided significantly by the heft of the marketing campaign behind the snack. In the years following its release, specially designed chicken-shaped trucks were used to advertise the chocolate, with billboard and print ads bulking up its presence. People just couldn't get enough, and the Chicken Dinner bar remained popular for almost 40 years before it was eventually discontinued in the '60s.

Let's cut to what everyone's thinking, though: Where did that name come from? That much remains unclear. Some folks think that its out-there name was conceived simply to grab the attention of the public, which definitely worked. Others think that it was related to the phrase "a chicken in every pot," which we'd buy if it wasn't thought of years after the Chicken Dinner was actually invented. We personally think that it referred to the bumpy texture and nutty filling, which when crumbled up would have given the appearance of chicken feed. Given that the folks who designed this bar are long gone, we guess we'll never know the truth.

You're probably used to drinking 7-Up — but what about eating it? We'd imagine a lot of people in our modern-way world thought that the Seven Up Bar, a long-gone chocolate popular in the 1930s and beyond, had something to do with the citrus soft drink. However, that's not quite the case. The truth is that the Seven-Up Bar's slightly confusing name was completely unrelated to 7-Up soda, and instead referred to the seven different sections on each individual chocolate bar, which all contained a different filling.

Those fillings were part of what made the Seven Up Bar so appealing. Over the years, there were loads of different flavors tried out in these bars, but snackers would commonly find butterscotch, nougat, coconut, cherry cream, orange jelly, caramel, fudge, and mint in the mix, to name but a few. Seven Up Bars came in both milk and dark chocolate, creating more flavor dynamics for folks to enjoy. Sadly, though, all good things come to an end, and in the late 1970s the chocolate brand was discontinued. Perhaps those good old folks at the Pearson Candy Company, which made the bar, ran out of flavors to try.

Most of us are pretty familiar with Nestlé's line-up of foods, and the company has done an excellent job of establishing its flagship chocolate brands so firmly that it's hard to imagine life without them. Elsewhere, though, it wasn't so successful. Evidence of this can be found in the Nestlé Bonanza Bar, a chocolate bar that was released in 1964 and soon disappeared, despite being a tasty snack with a strong association to a popular show and wide scale marketing campaign.

Nestlé's Bonanza Bar jumped on the popularity of Bonanza, the Western TV series which broadcast over 400 episodes between 1959 and 1973. With its all-American branding, complete with red, white, and blue packaging covered in stars, Nestlé's bar certainly looked the part. Flavor-wise, it was a mass of fudge and peanuts covered in milk chocolate, ensuring wide appeal amongst the candy-hungry masses.

So, it's kinda wild that these days, nobody but your grandparents remember this chocolate product. Perhaps it was merely swept aside in favor of Nestlé's other candies, or perhaps people realized that it was somewhat gimmicky and lacking in any real uniqueness. Either way, it's all but disappeared from the history books.

If your grandparents or great-grandparents are of a particular age, they may well remember the Whiz Bar. When this candy bar was first released in the 1920s, it quickly generated word-of-mouth success, aided in no small part by its slogan. Kids around the land would sing "Whiz, best nickel candy there iz-z," alerting their parents that they were craving the snack and likely forcing them to the candy store to get it. The Whiz Bar was a milk chocolate bar with a marshmallow center, which the Beich Company, who made the candy, took to calling "whizmallow." Look, it was a different time, people.

The Beich Company's curious naming habits didn't stop there, though. Capitalizing on the chocolate bar's success, the company instructed Justin Alikonis, it head food technologist, to stretch the limits of how many Whiz Bars he could make. Alikonis then conceived of a machine which became known as the "Whizolater," which would use pressurized air to make large quantities of marshmallow quickly. Not only did this ramp up production of the chocolate bar itself, but also of other marshmallow and nougat products around the country.

A candy bar that tastes like a milkshake? Sign us up! The Milkshake Candy Bar was once a seriously popular chocolate brand, and remained on sale for well over half a century before it was quietly, unceremoniously phased out of production. This chocolate bar's journey started way back at the start of the 20th century, when Frank Martoccio, the head of a pasta manufacturing company, was talked into buying an unused candy factory after his pasta machines broke down. Martoccio eventually switched to candy production full time, starting the Hollywood Candy Company and releasing the Milkshake Candy Bar, among other creations.

The Milkshake Candy Bar's flavor mirrored a chocolate milkshake, with each bar containing a center of malted milk nougat and caramel, which were both coated in milk chocolate. Clearly, this combination of flavors was a real winner, and the Milkshake Candy Bar remained a bestseller well into the 1970s. Unfortunately, though, its downfall began when the Martoccio family sold the Hollywood Candy Company to Consolidated Foods (the former name for Sara Lee), which eventually decided that it was time to discontinue the Milkshake Candy Bar. By 1980, its days were numbered, and it soon disappeared.

Be honest. When you hear the name "Old Nick," you probably think of the Devil, right? That's definitely the most common association, but readers of a certain age's minds might also leap to a forgotten candy bar. The Old Nick chocolate bar was launched in the 1940s, by the Chicago-based Schutter-Johnson Company. This bar was advertised as a "nut roll," but in practice it was a fairly straightforward combination of peanuts, fudge, and caramel, all coated in milk chocolate.

The Old Nick was advertised pretty confidently, with the tagline "America's Favorite Candy Bar" emblazoned on its marketing. If the Schutter-Johnson Company was making that claim, you'd expect it to have stuck around for a little longer, right? Unfortunately, the Old Nick wasn't built to last. This chocolate brand continued for approximately 20 years before it was discontinued in the 1960s, and it's become a footnote in candy history. Nowadays, the Schutter-Johnson Company is much better-known for making Bit-O-Honey, the almond and honey-flavored beloved vintage candy which you can still find to this day, and which was released around the same time as the Old Nick.

It seems like there's not a lot of room in the candy world for coconut-flavored chocolate bars. If you need any proof of that, take a look at Coconut Grove, the discontinued coconut chocolate that once stood toe-to-toe with Mounds and Almond Joy. The Coconut Grove bar was made by the Curtiss Candy Company, and it first appeared on the market around the middle of the 20th century. Like its other coconut-based competitors, The Coconut Grove was composed of a filling of creamy coconut, which was then smothered in bittersweet dark chocolate. The contrast of the two made a light-and-heavy combination which was infinitely moreish (well, if you like the flavor of coconut, that is).

However, some chocolate brands are only as strong as the company that owns them, and when that business folds, they're in trouble. This was the case with Coconut Grove, which didn't quite have the sticking power to remain in production when the Curtiss Candy Company was sold to Standard Brands in 1964. It seems that during or shortly before the changeover, Coconut Grove ran out of steam, and it wasn't transferred over with the rest of the Curtiss Candy Company's brands.

Nowadays, endorsements and tie-in products championed by athletes are common. However, it kinda all started with Babe Ruth. Dubbed "the first celebrity athlete," Babe Ruth's name and image was everywhere, including on candy bars — and not the ones you think.

Although the still-popular Baby Ruth bar is commonly tied to Babe Ruth, the truth is that the baseball star had nothing to do with its creation. Baby Ruths got their name from President Grover Cleveland's daughter, Ruth, and as such Babe Ruth made no money from it, despite people associating it with the athlete. At some point, it appears that Ruth realized that he could be earning money from a candy bar of his own, and he therefore lent his name to Ruth's Home Run, a chocolate released in 1926 by the George H. Ruth Candy Co. The candy had his name and signature emblazoned on the packaging, clearly staking his claim on the product.

The Curtiss Candy Company, the business that made the Baby Ruth, weren't happy about this. It took the George H. Ruth Candy Co. to court, alleging that Ruth's Home Run infringed on its Baby Ruth bar and its branding. Curtiss Candy Company won its lawsuit, and Ruth's Home Run was subsequently discontinued.

Generally speaking, you have to make a choice when it comes to chocolate. Do you go for milk, white, or dark? Well, back in the middle of the 20th century, you didn't have to deal with any such dilemma — you just had to reach for the Nestlé Triple Decker Bar. With this bar, Nestlé realized that its customers really could have it all, and gave them the three different chocolate styles in every bite. The bottom layer was a slab of dark chocolate, followed by a "milky bar" (which we assume was white chocolate), and then a piece of milk chocolate finished everything off.

Sounds pretty good, huh? It's quite surprising, therefore, that the Triple Decker concept didn't last for too long. Nestlé's Triple Decker Bar was available throughout the 1960s, when it cost a mere 10 cents per bar, before it started to lose steam. By the early 1970s, Nestlé was slowly but surely phasing it out, and it soon became one of those chocolate bars that feels as though it never really existed. Nestlé is pretty coy about celebrating the bar in any official publicity, leaving it to amateur sleuths and those with a good memory to cobble together recollections of this snack.

What was the Denver Sandwich? If you're thinking that it was a couple of slices and bread and some meat served over in Colorado, you'd be somewhat mistaken. The Denver Sandwich was instead a chunky chocolate bar, which was so named because the Sperry Candy Company that made it was trying to sell the idea that it could replace your lunch. The thought went that the Denver Sandwich could act as a meal replacement, and the company packed it full of nuts, caramel, and wafers in an attempt to make it as filling as possible. It also advertised the chocolate bar with advertising that sold its ample proportions and ability to sate your appetite.

We do need to point out that the Denver Sandwich was released in the 1920s, when understanding of nutrition and the effects of candy on blood sugar were likely way less advanced. As such, we can forgive them for trying to sell this clearly unhealthy snack as a meal. It seems that consumers also got tired of being told this, as the Denver Sandwich's popularity began to wane in the 1960s, as people started to turn towards a combo of new options and more health-conscious lifestyles. Eventually, it was phased out entirely.

For a while there, the Hollywood Candy Company was a heavy hitter in the chocolate world. The company, which started almost by accident, ended up creating a host of candy bars which would become long standing favorites — including the Payday Bar, which remains in production and popular to this day, and the Zero bar, which has been widely criticized by reviewers but stays appealing enough to be widely sold.

Other entrants into the Hollywood Candy Company's product line didn't last the distance, though, and the Hollywood bar is one of these. The Hollywood Candy Company saved some of its most appealing flavors for its flagship product. This bar was a nougat, peanut, and caramel concoction, coated in dark chocolate. Sounds good, right?

Well, the problem was that it was just a little too close to Snickers' bars in composition and flavor. As such, when the Hollywood Candy Company was sold in the 1960s, the Hollywood bar itself just couldn't compete. The Hollywood bar was discontinued, leaving the market wide open for Mars and its Snickers bar to dominate.

We love a food product with a dreamy, romantic name, and the Forever Yours has one of the most romantic out there. This candy bar first appeared in its final form in 1936, although it had been around for a little bit longer than that. The Forever Yours actually started life in 1923 as the Vanilla Milky Way, a spin on the classic candy made by Mars, and featuring a combo of vanilla nougat and dark chocolate. At some point, though, Mars decided that renaming it would stand out, and the Forever Yours was born.

This renaming trick definitely worked to secure its place in the candy world, too. The Forever Yours bar remained popular for over 40 years, until 1979, when it was suddenly removed from circulation. Needless to say that it left a big hole in some customers' hearts — enough for Mars to boldly bring the candy bar back in 2017. We guess that this bar's appeal really is forever, huh? Sadly, Mars didn't keep the Forever Yours around for long and this appeared to be a limited-edition release, but we wouldn't be surprised if it turned up again on shelves at some point in the future.

There was a lot of optimism floating around in the 1950s. This was the decade of the post-War boom, of rock and roll, and of the Golden Age of TV — people were clearly looking for a good time, and for products that reflected this newfound carefree vibe. That attitude was embodied in Smooth Sailin', a chocolate brand made by the Hollywood Candy Company in the '50s. This chocolate bar was primarily composed of a combination of vanilla nougat and walnut pieces, which were encased in a thick layer of dark chocolate. The marketing for the Smooth Sailin' bar clearly demarcated what the Hollywood Candy Company wanted it to evoke: Each bar came enclosed in a wrapper covered in crisp, white sailboats, with the multipack boxes featuring images of gently undulating waves.

We've gotta admit, this all seemed very relaxing. Strangely, though, it doesn't seem like the Smooth Sailin' bar ever really took off amongst customers in a big way. There's limited information about it these days, and while we're sure it was some people's favorites, it seems that it's been largely forgotten about.

Today, Welch's is known across the board for its fruit juices, jams, and snacks. Back in the 1950s, though, it was trying out a few different avenues for products that were related, albeit a little loosely, to fruit. Proof of this is found in Welch's Cocoanut Bars, which appeared to be a candy bar combo of coconut and chocolate in the style of Mounds, Almond Joy, or the similarly vintage Coconut Grove. If you were in any doubt of its tropical vibe, Welch's even put a few palm trees on each wrapper, which was otherwise pretty austere.

One of the most notable things about Welch's Cocoanut Bars was how they were advertised. In addition to selling them as candy, Welch's also sold them as an ingredient in recipes for baked foods like brownies. Perhaps it didn't quite trust that people would enjoy them on their own, and had to think of a way to make them useful. Well, sadly, that didn't work to keep them around: These bars soon disappeared, and Welch's has since dominated the juice game.