A Candy Bar for Every Era: Idaho Candy Company Turns 125

Idaho Candy Company turns 125 this year. America turns 250 on July 4th. Between those two anniversaries sits more than a century of shared history - and a candy bar for almost every chapter of it.

Here's how Idaho Candy's classic bars line up against the American story.

1901: A Company Is Founded

T.O. Smith founded Idaho Candy Company in Boise in 1901, just eleven years after Idaho became a state. He started making candy at home and selling it door to door, then built a factory at 412 South 8th Street by 1909. At the time, Theodore Roosevelt was president and America had fewer than 80 million people. Idaho Candy has been running ever since.

1918: The Idaho Spud Bar Arrives

The Idaho Spud Bar was introduced in 1918, the final year of World War I. A cocoa-flavored marshmallow center coated in dark chocolate and sprinkled with coconut, shaped like a potato. American soldiers were coming home, the country was changing fast, and Idaho Candy was making a bar that would outlast all of it. 

1925 and 1926: The Roaring Twenties Add Two More

The Old Faithful Bar arrived in 1925 - vanilla marshmallow, whole peanuts, milk chocolate - during one of the most prosperous decades in American history. The Cherry Cocktail Bar followed in 1926, with a whole cherry at the center surrounded by cream, then encased in freshly roasted peanuts and premium milk chocolate. Both have outlasted the era that created them by a full century. 

Today: New Bars for a New Idaho

Idaho Candy has added to the lineup over the years too. The Huckleberry Gem Bar celebrates one of Idaho's most beloved wild flavors. The Vandal Bar pays tribute to the University of Idaho Vandals. The Bronco Bites Bar salutes Boise State University. The company has grown while staying rooted in the same Boise building it has always called home.

According to the Smithsonian Institution, businesses that survive a century or more represent some of the most resilient examples of American enterprise. [External: smithsonianmag.com]

125 years. Six bars. One building in Boise. Browse the full lineup at idahospud.com.