Chew on This Snack Food History Quiz

Red Bull may give you wings, but the popular energy drink wouldn’t have taken flight without a Japanese “energizing tonic” known as Lipovitan. Debuting in 1962, the drink featured a key ingredient called taurine, an antioxidant-rich, sulfur-containing amino acid that's still used in energy drinks today. As for Red Bull, it has roots in Asia as well. It was invented by a Thai pharmacist in 1976.

The original game plan for Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's was based on their proximity to New York: They were going to deliver bagels, lox, cream cheese, and “The New York Times” on Sunday mornings. Just one thing stood in their way: the expensive cost of bagel-making equipment. Instead, they turned their attention to the local dairy scene and debuted their vanilla ice cream in 1978.

Invented in 1863, the oldest cereal ever was the blandly named Granula, which was made from dried graham flour dough broken into pieces. It wasn't until 1890 that Shredded Wheat made its debut out of Denver, Colorado, with the original intent of being sold to vegetarian restaurants. In 1893, Shredded Wheat appeared at Chicago's World Columbian Exposition and exploded in popularity.

Debuting in 1912, Life Savers were invented with a simple mission: To create a candy that could withstand the summer heat. Naturally, a treat best enjoyed in the summer should help you cool off, which explains why they were originally flavored peppermint. Fruity options including lemon, lime, and orange debuted in 1921, with cherry and pineapple joining the bunch in 1935.

Cotton candy is one of the “lighter” sweet treats, as it's made from only two ingredients: sugar and air. That might explain why it got the stamp of approval from dentist William Morrison when he invented it in 1897. It was introduced as “fairy floss” at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 and sold 68,000 boxes.

Arriving on shelves in 1906, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes is one of the oldest cereals around, and was the first to offer a bonus treat to encourage more sales. Just three years after launching, in 1909, Corn Flakes started coming with a sweet incentive: Families who bought at least two boxes could send away to receive a picture book. Kellogg’s offered this incentive for 23 years, paving the way for other cereals to provide a prize.

Thanks to its iconic red bag, it is easy to assume that “nacho cheese” was Doritos' original flavor. However, the “taco” flavor actually came first. And even then, taco seasoning was only applied to the chips after consumers found the original, unflavored corn tortillas from 1964 bland. Since then, there have been more than 100 flavors, with the classic nacho cheese debuting in 1972 — five years after taco.

In 1905, when Frank Epperson was 11 years old, he left his soda in a cup outside with a stir stick in it. That night happened to be a cold one, and it froze Epperson's drink into a surprisingly tasty, sweet “icicle.” The treat was originally called the “Epsicle,” but Epperson’s kids nicknamed it “Pop's 'sicle,” and the catchy name stuck.

The Curtiss Candy Company rebranded their Kandy Kake bars in 1921 as Baby Ruth bars, likely tapping into the popularity of the baseball player. However, the company has always maintained that it was named after President Grover Cleveland's daughter Ruth, despite her passing away 17 years earlier. The slugger tried to trademark his own Babe Ruth candy, but in the ensuing legal battle, the courts bought Curtiss' claim that the candy was named after Ruth Cleveland.

Although the earliest creation of peanut butter can be traced back to the ancient Incas and Aztecs, modern peanut butter wasn't invented until 1895. It is widely thought that inventor George Washington Carver created peanut butter, as he developed hundreds of peanut-based products. But it was actually Corn Flakes creator John Harvey Kellogg who patented the process for peanut butter as we know it.

There have been more than 100 animals in the edible menagerie known as Barnum's Animals, also known as “animal crackers.” Originally debuting in England as a special holiday treat, the crackers made their way overseas in 1871. Today, the original recipe is used to make the crackers, with four of the original beasts still in circulation: lions, tigers, bears, and elephants.

Candy apples were invented in 1908 when a candymaker in Newark, New Jersey, was experimenting with a new red cinnamon flavor. William W. Kolb dipped apples into the candy to showcase the new sticky sweet, and the apples turned out to be more appealing than the candy. Customers bought the candy apples for five cents a piece, and eventually Kolb’s confection became an American mainstay at carnivals, theme parks, Halloween parties and beyond.

When the Catholic Church enacted stricter Lenten fasting rules in the seventh century, monks began experimenting with recipes that did not feature eggs or dairy. These constraints led to the creation of the pretzel, which could be made with just water, flour, and salt. In fact, some early pretzels were called “pretiolas,” or “little rewards” for hardworking monks and their pupils.

Twinkies as we know them now are simple: yellow cake filled with vanilla cream frosting. But when the sweet snacks first appeared in 1930, the filling was banana-flavored, not vanilla. With the onset of World War II, bananas were rationed, forcing Hostess to switch to vanilla cream filling. The change proved to be so popular with customers that the filling was never switched back.

Ketchup has been around a long time, but not the tomato-based version we know today. Early “ke-tchup”was a fish sauce made of salted and fermented anchovies. In 1834, a physician named John Cook added tomatoes to the concoction, and marketed it as a medicine that could cure diarrhea, indigestion, jaundice, and rheumatism. It became a condiment after people realized it had no beneficial effects.

Soda wasn't originally promoted as the sweet treat we know today. Instead, it was recommended for medicinal purposes and brewed by pharmacists and doctors. Dr. Pepper was invented by a pharmacist in 1885, but his last name wasn't Pepper — it was Alderton. No one knows where “Pepper” came from, as there are dozens of stories about the name’s origin.

In 1965, Gatorade was invented at the University of Florida to help the school’s athletes regain fluids more quickly in the Floridian heat. The product was tested on the school’s athletes, who weren’t originally fans. But since then, Gatorade — named in honor of the university’s gator mascot — has gone on to sell billions of dollars in rehydration each year.

Ronald Reagan loved jelly beans. The President was such a fan of the candy, in fact, that more than three tons of red, white, and blue jelly beans were served at his inauguration. In 1981, a Jelly Belly jelly bean jar was created with the presidential seal, and was used for diplomatic gifts. If you visit Reagan's Presidential Library in California, you'll find a portrait of him made entirely of jelly beans.

Caleb Davis Bradham invented Brad's Drink back in 1893 at his drugstore in North Carolina. The drink combined sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, nutmeg, and other natural additives. It quickly became a hit, and in 1898, the drink was renamed Pepsi-Cola. Bradham continued to market the drink as a “healthy” cola, hence its name, which comes from the word “dyspepsia,” meaning indigestion.

M&M's aren't a sweet success story by mistake. The candy's inventors, Forrest Mars and William Murrie, were the sons of the Mars candy company’s founder and the Hershey Company’s president, respectively. For several years, M&M's were made with Hershey's chocolate, before Mars bought Murrie out and steered the future of the company to its ubiquitous state today.

Potato chips were declared a “nonessential food” during World War II, and the U.S. government mandated production to stop. Yet by that time, potato chips had become such a large industry that manufacturers successfully lobbied the War Production Board to change the “nonessential” designation. As a result, potato chip sales increased as other snack foods, such as chocolate, were rationed.