I wonder what humorous mischief Henry used to get into.
So far in my candy travails I have discovered only two things for certain:
People love Peanuts, caramel and chocolate and the candy business is like a big inbred family.
Well, sort of. But more on those two things later. First, lets meet Oh Henry!
Another oldie but goodie, the Oh Henry! bar was invented in 1919 by one Tom Henry. You might think it a little narcissistic of Tom, if not clever, to name a candy bar after someone exclaiming his own name. However, you'd be wrong, because Tom didn't call his candy bar Oh Henry!, he called it The Tom Henry Candy Bar. See, that isn't clever at all.
Luckily for Tom, the candy bar tasted better than it's stupidly long and boring name sounded, and in 1920 he found someone to sell the recipe to - the Curtiss Candy Company (CCC). The CCC liked the way the bar tasted, but recognizing immediately how idiotic the name was, they decided to change it.
Grade A pork and fresh chewin tobacca covered in chocolate.
Now, there are conflicting reports about how Oh Henry! was decided upon, but I'm going with the one on the company websites (plural? all in due time).
Apparently the CCC eventually became the Williamson Company of Chicago. Or so I'm guessing. Anyway, what's important is that Mr. Williamson was trying to think of a name for the candy, and there was this handsome young man named Henry who kept coming into the shop. Whenever Henry came in the, no doubt buxom, female candy makers would flirt with him. The girls, who I am forced to assume had a great deal of visible cleavage, would often ask things like , "Oh Henry, can you pick up that heavy box for me" or "Oh Henry, will you give me a back rub, pleasssseee?"
You get the picture.
Anyway, after months of listening to these girls say "Oh Henry" over and over again, Mr. Williamson did what anyone else would have done. No, not come into work in a bathrobe carrying a 12-gauge shotgun and laughing all the way to jail. He named the newly acquired candy bar Oh Henry!
Proving once again that the stupidest names are often the most genius, the bar skyrocketed to new heights of popularity and is now one of the more popular bars in America.
fig. 1.1 As this scientifically accurate graph shows, renaming the Tom Henry Candy Bar was a great idea.
Now back to the two things I've learned about candy. First, people love chocolate, peanuts and caramel. That's the truth. The only people who don't love one or all of those things are people who are either allergic to them or who have had some previous psychological trauma involving them. For instance, being touched by a Snickers bar.
The Oh Henry! bar takes advantage of this cardinal rule of American Candy by having only three parts - peanuts, caramel and chocolate that comes in milk and fudge form. Genius.
The bar is basically just chewy. The peanuts have a slight crunch to them, but otherwise the texture is one note. The taste is good, but varies from bite to bite with surprising severity. One second it isn't particularly nutty, next bite its like a peanut factory. Now it isn't particularly caramelly, next bite you taste full bodied caramel all over the surface of your tongue. Meanwhile, the chocolate fudge and chocolate coating don't really stand out, mostly adding more sweetness rather than chocolate flavor. And although the bar has no nougat in it, the "fudge" might as well be nougat in disguise.
Overall the taste is pleasant, not too sweet with an OK texture, but also lacking in body and depth. The result is a candy bar that's just fine, but never really satisfying.
As for the second thing I've discovered, let me ask you a question: who makes Oh Henry's!? Well, according to the wrapper it's Nestle. But then, if you go to Canada, what's this?
F**k, I'm confused.
Hersheys? Who the hell let him in here? How are they both selling the same candy? Don't believe me, check Nestle's and Hershey's websites.
Like the Kit Kat bar, Hershey's has somehow managed to eek out a license to sell the Oh Henry!, even though Nestle owns it. "Why would Nestle let this happen?", you're wondering. Well, I don't know why exactly. But more then likely Hershey's worked out a deal with the old owners before Nestle obtained the rights and, as with Kit Kats, Nestle can't legally do anything about it.
Whatever the case may be, both companies are making the candies in different countries, and for that, I think, we should be glad. A lot of candy as old as the Oh Henry!, and often better, has been discarded over the years, and the truth is that it matters less to me who is producing it, so long as someone is.
After all, candy this old is like eating history. Like history, the contents have been altered slightly, or drastically, by the victors. But nonetheless, each candy bar carries with it millions of memories and experiences that have been embedded in the public imagination and help define an entire culture, and that makes them worth keeping.
Source for the Hershey's O Henry Is From A Hershey Website in like 2009.