The Science and History Behind Pop Rocks

The Science and History Behind Pop Rocks

Today I will walk you through how important science plays in creating sweets that many enjoy, focusing mainly on pop rocks. Here's a little history first. Pop Rocks were created in 1956 by William A. Mitchell, a food scientist working for general foods research. He was trying to make an instant soda by trapping carbon dioxide in soda tablets. When the Pop Rocks were heated to a certain temperature they would start to pop because the carbon dioxide would instantly leave the candy. Clearly he failed but created this fun candy!

His clever mistake soon turned into massive amounts of packets being sent all around the world. Each packet cost 15 cents but with the rise of popularity the prices skyrocketed allowing them to sell each small packet at a whopping 1.25 per pack. How did such an odd candy become so popular? Well it's the science behind it that makes the candy unique. Before the creation of Pop Rocks there were tootsie rolls, hot tamales, M&M's etc. They are all very good but they are all still candy. Pop Rocks allowed the audience to enjoy their candy while still having fun!

In the late 70's however Pop Rocks decreased in popularity when talk about mixing the candy with soda would cause your head to explode. Crazy right? Well most people believed it causing a decrease in sales. This video to your left explains how they are not actually dangerous. An interesting story that he told was that once a truck delivering Pop Rocks got so hot inside that the Pop Rocks all popped at the same time causing the door of the truck to blow open! Even though there have been little cases of whether Pop Rocks are dangerous or not I can promise you they are not. The only thing people should be watching out for is the amount of sugar!

The scientist that started it all was able to retire with 70 patents to his name. While his most popular product were Pop Rocks, he had a big part in the creation of Cool Whip and instant Jell-O. This scientist was clearly on a roll but he didn't want to stop there. He continued to create many products that could one day be even more popular than Pop Rocks!

In the 70's General foods released a candy called space dust. This failed miserably for many reasons. One being that they are the same exact thing as Pop Rocks but have a different name. It made me think why a company would try to create competition for themselves. The second reason they did not sell is actually quite funny. Many children were afraid to buy the candy because the ad released in the 70's had flying cherries that actually ended up scaring many children enough that they wouldn't want to buy it. They got to caught up with the fame that they didn't think before releasing. Even though the product was not very successful I highly recommend watching the ad because for me it was actually very funny!

Cites used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrtPJmdEDUo

http://gabescientasticblog.blogspot.com/

https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/poprocks/
https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/science-questions/question114.htm
https://www.thekitchn.com/the-science-behind-pop-rocks-candy-224718