Short Stuff: Necco

If you think Necco Wafers are the most disgusting candy on the planet, you are not alone. But it turns out there’s a rich history behind those chalky discs that make them fascinating, if horrible.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh and
there's Chuck and this is uh Neco wafer short stuff
on Eco wafers, the wafers from Echo. Go ahead and
ask your question, Chuck. Uh huh have you ever thought
about putting a necko wafer in your mouth? Oh? Boy?

(00:30):
That was good, good drama. Uh. You know, I've never
had one of these. I haven't either, I've gone my hole. Really.
Oh yeah, I know. Can we pledge to never have them?
Or now do you want to? I don't know. It's
it could go either way. That's a really good, good question, like, um,
like I could I could see going your whole. I
like getting that engraved on your tombstone, Like, yeah, it

(00:52):
never had an Echo wafer. So what we're talking about
is a candy. Um. It's referenced you prominently in some
movie in a line and I could not think of
what it was, which really bugged me. Um. But that's
sort of where I even heard of Neco wafers was.
I think just through pop culture. It's not something. Not

(01:12):
only have I not had one, I don't know anyone
who's ever had one. Like I've never been with someone
who was just chowing on Necco wafers, or had a
family member that was an eco enthusiast. No, it's a
it's typically and I don't mean to be a just
but it's typically viewed as kind of like a Grandma candy,

(01:33):
you know, where, like saltwater taffy, even though I know
you love that, Oh dude, it's so good. Saltwater taffy
is just so good when it's done right. I'm not
arguing that. I'm just saying it's a bit of a
Grandma candy love with our grandma's God rest their souls
exactly right. Um. But no, that it has just kind
of that whole um doily kind of aura around it,

(01:55):
you know what I'm saying. Sure you gotta. I think
when you buy Nicco wafers, it comes with the doily.
It it does. You just unroll the wax packaging. And
so if you've not seen this, you probably have. If
you don't know what we're talking about, you probably have
seen it. Um. Uh. It's like it comes in like
a kind of a wax paper roll tube tube um.

(02:16):
And then the wafers themselves are um a little bigger
than the size of a quarter maybe, Uh. And they're dusty, chalky,
weirdly colored to the colors are brown and gray. Um,
but they're like, no, not at all. But they're like
a multi colored roll of of this chalky, dusty um,

(02:39):
multi flavored candy that that they're not complimentary flavors either.
It's a mess. Neco wafers are a big giant mess.
I'm just gonna say it. They're a hundred seventy year
old mess. Yeah, I guess we'll just go ahead and
mention those flavors. Um. You've got the lemon yellows, the
lime greens, the orange orange, U light purple is clove.

(03:01):
Do not ever get one of those near my mouth.
Cinnamon is white, a little weird. Um, winter green is pink,
also weird. Licorice is dark gray. And then there's a
chocolate flavor which is brown and I guarantee you it
does not taste like chocolate. No. Um. And I was like, like,
you can look at Eco wafers and be like, I

(03:22):
know what that's going to taste like, and I'm not
going to like it. Um. But you and I have
had basically Neco wafers because the Echo Company, um, we
should say the name is kind of an acronym. It
stands for New England Candy Company, right, m hm um.
They also are the makers of UM conversation hearts, you know,

(03:47):
those little herds to say be mine, I'm yours. Those
are differently shaped Eco wafers. It's the same exact thing.
So those things, when you've tried them before and been
like these are absolutely horrible, you would think the same
thing about Neco way first, Yeah, that makes a lot
of sense. So it's just a it's neck away fer.

(04:07):
It's just a thinner, sort of UM coin like version
of those yes that don't say something like be mine
or I'm yours. Apparently the ones these days say email
me or or grab a glass of water. Right, this
is going to this is going to be terrible. Alright,
let's take a break here. We'll talk a little bit

(04:28):
more about where they started and why they're still around.
Right after this, all right, let's if we got back

(04:59):
in the way back machine and went back to nineteen
o one, we would see Neco wafers being cranked out
from the New England Candy Company, even though apparently they
were around since eighty seven. I didn't quite get that. Yeah,
one of the UM one of the co founders of
New England candy company UM invented this lozenge miss machine,

(05:21):
the machine that basically popped out these little wafers, and
one of the first things they did was use it
to make Neco wafers. So Neco wafers actually predate predate
Neco itself, and they used to be called um Hub wafers,
and Hub was like an old timey name, like slang
term for Boston, so they were Boston wafers originally. But

(05:42):
they predate the company that made them famous. And they
predate virtually every popular candy that we know of, and
I think Hershey Bar officially came out one year pre prior,
but um every every they're sort of candy bar that
you know in love came around the nineteen twenties and thirties.

(06:03):
As far as the classics go, uh Eminem's in the
nineteen forties. UM, but the neck a way for in
nineteen o one, they pack it in soldiers rations in
the Civil War, which would should be your first like
stay far away from this candy in one sort of warning,
like if they put it in Civil War rations, you

(06:24):
probably don't want to be eating it today. Also, so
that's debatable whether it actually wasn't the Civil War, Like,
that's a longstanding thing that Neco has been saying for
a while, but I think some historians I've looked into
it are like, no, I'm not a hardy percent sure
about that. But it definitely was in the rations of
American soldiers in World War Two because the government actually

(06:45):
took over the Neco factory and requisition like a sizeable
portion of their production to to give to soldiers. Because
they don't melt, they're really portable and it's like a
high um calorie dense snack. Yeah, and the Civil WARLD
was over in eight so I had to have just

(07:07):
been that first version that whatever they were called the
hub the hub ones. Yeah. So at any rate, um,
they're made from sugar and corn syrup. Uh, they're, like
you said, super chalky. And if you um, if you
take a a survey or a see a survey even
online for candies, it's usually kind of right at the bottom.

(07:31):
I feel bad because we're doing nothing but bagging on
this classic candy. And people love them really from what
I've seen, um from one of the company's spokespeople, Yes,
some people love them. Get a sweet teart if you
want something like that, or a spree spreezer even better

(07:51):
spree What is a spree Oh, it's like the shiny
um the shiny slicker version of sweet tearts. It's not
at all powder. It's got a like shiny coating and
it's and taste as well. And I really love those.
Really they were like game pieces, Yes they did. So
it was a lot more fun to eat them because

(08:12):
you'd be like, I'm not supposed to be eating this,
I'm supposed to be playing and ts I'm gonna eat
it well. And that's a nice transition actually, because as
far as nicco wafers go, people sometimes buy them and
use them for uh kids to train them on communion,
UM edible poker chips, uh shingles for gingerbread houses that's
a nice application, or place markers. So there is actual

(08:36):
evidence that some people do enjoy the taste of them
because UM the current company that owns them as Spangler
from Brian, Ohio. It's family run outfit that's I think
over a hundred years old. UM and Spangler very appropriately
also are the ones who make Circus peanuts, which is
a lot of people's second most hated candy, So poor

(08:59):
Spangler's putting out a lot of stuff that people don't like.
But whatever, we're you know, hats off to them for
for staying at it. But um, I guess Spangler did
uh or no, pre Spangler, the company that owned them,
change the recipe like um to kind of make it
a little little less artificially flavored and colored, and there

(09:22):
was a thirty five drop in sales as a result,
so they went back to the original recipe. UM. So
that does mean that people out there do actually eat
Neco wafers, They don't just use them as poker chips
like you were saying. Yeah, And you know, hats off
to the Spangler company. We love these small, kind of
old school, family run candy companies. UM. I don't think
that us saying that we probably won't try an echo

(09:44):
is gonna hurt their sales. Hopefully this shines a little
light on that company. Um. But they did a survey
last year in that said, uh, that found that seventy
three percent of Americans are familiar with or at least
had an echo wafers. Pretty good coverage there a baby
baby boomers and gen X obviously lead that pack, but

(10:07):
see of millennials know about Neco wafers and whatever is it?
What's behind Z? Is that eighteen to twenty year olds
or is that even something else? I think they fall
within gen Z. Yeah, we need to do that Generations
podcast at some point. But UM apparently they obviously are

(10:28):
sort of bringing up the rear with awareness. Eco awareness
is what they call it. It is eco awareness. But
I mean that's still pretty respectable for the set, you
know what I mean? And how much good these things?
I mean, what are they cost? What's the two of
those costs? I genuinely don't know, but I will tell
you that there was a dark time where they were

(10:50):
not around. UM Neco wafers were purchased by UM Spangler
in two thousand eighteen. Uh, and they went offline and
reissued them in two thousand and twenty. But now I
guess they're here to stay, all right. Well, I just
looked it up out of curiosity. Apparently you can get

(11:10):
them delivered during COVID, which is great. You can get
a six pack of Neco wafers for about eighteen fifty,
so about three dollars a tube. Wow, I did not
expect that. Did you expect like nine cents. No, I
expected it to hover more around a dollar price point. Yeah,
an American classic, the original in bold letters, candy wafers

(11:34):
since eighty seven. That's great. What's cool about collecting them too.
There's a lot of people who clearly collect like the
old nostalgic neco wafers is um. You can eat them
and they'll taste exactly the same today as they did
when they were first made back in the nineteenth century.
Does not surprise me. That's great. I made that up,

(11:55):
by the way, but it was just a jambel. That
doesn't surprise me. There. Okay, Well, since Chuck's not at
all surprised, and I think we've reached the end of
this episode, I say, Chuck, short stuff is out. What
do you say? Agreed? Stuff You should know is a
production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts

(12:16):
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