CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It's Halloween, that time of the year when you dress up in a costume your mom inevitably makes you cover up with a jacket (it's cold out!) and go door-to-door all in the name of free candy.
Trick-or-treating, which originated in the U.S. in the early part of the 20th century but didn't really become popular until the 1950s, is big business in this country. In fact, Halloween candy sales this year are expected to reach $4.1 billion, a 4.1 percent increase over last year, according to NPR.
Still, Swiss-based Nestle, which makes Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, Nestle's Crunch and Wonka brands like Nerds and SweeTarts, is exploring a possible sale of its U.S. candy business.
Here are 11 things to know about that and other candy-related tidbits.
1. Earlier this month, Nestle's solicited bids for its U.S. chocolate and candy business, valued between $2 billion to $2.5 billion, according to CNBC.
2. Sources told the network the companies believed to have submitted bids include Hershey and Ferrara Candy.
3. Hershey already owns the U.S. distribution rights to Kit Kat, which it acquired in 1970 from Rowntree before that company was bought by Nestle in 1988. Nestle owns the rights to Kit Kat in the nearly 20 other countries it is sold.
4. Ferrara is the company behind Halloween favorites such as Lemonhead, Now and Later, Jujyfruits, Boston Baked Beans and Brach's.
5. Hershey, the makers of popular brands such as Almond Joy, Milk Duds and Twizzlers, is the top candy company in sales in the U.S. Nestle, behind Mars (Snickers, Twix, 3 Musketeers) and Lindt (Ghirardelli, Russell Stover, Whitman's), is fourth, according to Reuters.
6. Hershey's Reese's Peanut Butter Cups is, hands down, America's favorite Halloween candy.
7. According to a survey by HalloweenExpress.com of over 2,000 people, Reese's ranked as the favorite candy in 38 states. It is the most popular candy among all demos surveyed, which included Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials.
8. Reese's, in its various forms, took four of the top eights spots on FiveThirtyEight's Ultimate Halloween Candy Power Rankings. Like the other survey, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups is ranked No. 1, followed by its siblings Reese's Minatures at No. 2, Reese's Pieces at No. 6 and Reese's Stuffed with Pieces at No. 8.
9. The five least favorite candy according to HalloweenExpress.com: Candy Corn, Licorice, Jawbreakers, Raisinets and Hot Tamales. People in FiveThirtyEight's survey didn't care for licorice either, ranking Good & Plenty as the candy they preferred the least.
10. If you're like most kids, you'll be dumping your bag of candy on the table or floor when you get home, looking to trade with your friends or siblings. Mashable has a handy candy exchange rate guide to assist with your transactions. For example, a Nestle Crunch is worth three Hershey bars. A Twix is good for two Nestle Crunches. A pack of M&M's will net you two Twix bars, while one Kit Kat should be able to get you two Almond Joys and a Nestle Crunch.
11. It takes 364 licks to get to the center of Tootsie Pop, at least according to the licking machine created by engineering students at Purdue University solely for the purpose of answering that question.
Source: cleveland
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