Born disguised as chicken feed, candy corn is now Halloween's most divisive sweet

Candy corn is very likely to end up in many trick-or-treating baskets in the United States this Halloween. But the controversial tricolour sweet has not always been associated with the spooky holiday; it once had a completely different identity.

Candy corn is more than 100 years old. According to the National Confectioners Association in Washington, D.C., it was invented in the 1880s in Philadelphia by George Renninger, an employee at the Wunderle Candy Company.

At the time, confectioners were fond of making treats inspired by nature. Following that trend, candy corn was made to look like corn kernels. The Wall Street Journal reported that it was initially marketed as faux chicken feed.

Its unique layered tricolour design, combined with a lack of automated machinery, made for a difficult production process, with each layer having to be made separately.

That is why candy corn became a seasonal item. According to the National Confectioners Association, production began in late August and ran through the fall.

Around the turn of the 20th century, another company, Goelitz Confectionery, started selling candy corn. The company is now known as the Jelly Belly Candy Company. Although it did not invent the treat, it is widely credited with producing it on a larger scale and marketing it as a Halloween product.

About 35 million pounds of candy corn are produced annually, according to Farmers' Almanac. Despite that popularity, it remains a notoriously polarising item, with some people loving it and others staunchly against it.

One fan said on Reddit that it is the only other candy they would hope for aside from Reese's Pieces when trick-or-treating. Another said they liked the treat but could only have a handful at most before the sweetness became overwhelming. A third was fully against it, calling it disgusting, tasting like chalk, and disliking both its texture and colour.

Expanding beyond the grocery store aisle, this fall Brach's, a large producer of candy corn, released a non-edible variation of the treat: a limited-edition perfume called Ode to Candy Corn, which, according to parent company Ferrara's website, smells just like the iconic treat tastes.