POP ROCKS Still Rock

(From The Hartford Courant -- By William Weir)

Despite bad publicity and several health-food crazes,
POP ROCKS soldier on.

For 50 years, in fact.

To celebrate the anniversary, POP ROCKS INC. has released a limited edition line of CHERRY POP ROCKS in their original 1970s packaging.

They were developed by GENERAL FOODS chemist
WILLIAM A. MITCHELL in 1956 while trying to create an instant soft drink (he holds a patent on TANG).

For their first two decades, though, no one quite knew what to with this odd concoction.

In 1975, they were given suitably garish packaging and christened POP ROCKS.

They took off immediately.

A hard candy like no other -- little fragments containing hidden pockets of carbonation -- they explode in the mouth, fizzling and darting about.

Soon, there was even a Pop Rock mythology. Rumors emerged that MIKEY ("Give it to Mikey -- He'll eat anything!") from the LIFE CEREAL commercial died after ingesting an ill-advised combination of pop rocks and soda.

The rumors were so pervasive that General Foods executives took out ads in major publications and sent out up to 50,000 letters to school administrators extolling Pop Rocks' virtues. Inventor Mitchell even hit the road and spoke to audiences about his product.

Pop Rocks, he told crowds, were safe, good and right;
Mikey was alive and well.

But rumors die hard.

Pop Rocks were briefly discontinued in the mid-1980s.

Rising from the rumor-fanned flames just a few years later, Pop Rocks are now distributed by Pop Rocks Inc. of Atlanta.

And talk about reinvention. No longer just some novelty candy, Pop Rocks have made their way into avant-garde cuisine. Dine at a big-city hipster restaurant these days, and there's a chance your foie gras, rice or dessert will crackle and fizz with that special brand of Pop Rocks magic.