Snack History and the 1893 World Fair

One of the things we love about history are those magic moments when things just seem to naturally come together. If you happen to have a hankering for the specialized field of “snack history,” you will find no better crossroads in the paths of time than the 1893 World Fair in Chicago, Illinois. It was there that many of the tasty treats we take for granted made their grand debut on the world stage.

The 1893 World Fair in Chicago wasn’t just an architectural marvel or a chance to gawk at a 264-foot-tall Ferris wheel for the first time. It was also a sugar-coated, butter-laden explosion of creativity that changed the way we snack. This was the debutante ball for inventions like the zipper, the dishwasher, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and the aforementioned Ferris wheel. But the culinary world also got its own glow-up, particularly in the realm of candy and treats.

As Beth Kimmerle, author of Candy: A Sweet History (a book you don’t want to read if you are trying to adhere to a diet, by the way), put it, “At the Columbian Exposition, it was like candy went from black and white to color.” So, in honor of this snack-vention extravaganza, let’s unwrap the stories behind some beloved treats that owe their fame—or at least their big break—to the White City on Chicago’s South Side.

Origin of the Brownie: The World Would Never Be The Same

It all started with a socialite and a sweet tooth. Bertha Palmer, Chicago’s philanthropist extraordinaire, wanted a dessert that was both decadent and portable. She instructed the kitchen at the Palmer House Hotel to whip up something small enough to fit in boxed lunches at the Women’s Pavilion.

Pastry chef Joseph Sehl rose to the challenge. Armed with chocolate, sugar, butter, flour, eggs, vanilla, and crushed walnuts, he whipped up a fudgy masterpiece we now call a brownie. Well, sort of. The original recipe had an apricot glaze on top — something that hasn’t endured the test of time. At least his recipe wasn’t 26 pages long, like the official Pentagon brownie recipe.

To this day, the Palmer House serves up brownies made from the original recipe, which means you can eat a piece of history while contemplating how a simple boxed lunch treat became a global dessert phenomenon.

Juicy Fruit and the Rise of Branded Candy

William Wrigley Jr. arrived in Chicago just two years before the World’s Fair with a mere $32 in his pocket. By 1893, he was already elbow-deep in the chewing gum business and ready to make a splash.

At the fair, Wrigley debuted Juicy Fruit gum—yes, that same Juicy Fruit that’s probably stuck to the bottom of your desk right now. Wrigley’s Spearmint followed soon after.

Wrigley’s contribution at the Fair was much more than the introduction of an iconic gum. He brought branding to the annals of snack history. The 1890s saw a boom in candy manufacturing, thanks to machinery that made mass production possible. The World Fair gave people like Wrigley a stage to promote their products on a national scale. Just like that, chewing gum became omnipresent in American culture, your grandmother’s purse, and the bottom of desks in classrooms everywhere.

Cracker Jack: Sweet, Salty, and Surprisingly Musical

The German-born Rueckheim brothers, Frederick and Louis, came to the fair with a snack idea: molasses-coated popcorn and peanuts. While the name “Cracker Jack” didn’t come until later (a salesman tasted it and declared, “That’s crackerjack!”), its introduction to the masses happened right there in Chicago.

The treat’s addictive sweet-and-salty combo earned it a loyal following, but it wasn’t until 1908, when the song Take Me Out to the Ballgame dropped, that Cracker Jack truly hit the big leagues. “Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,” crooned the lyrics, effectively giving the snack a lifetime of free advertising.

And let’s not forget the iconic prizes. The combination of a catchy tune and box surprises was “a stroke of luck beyond anything a marketer could muster.”

Milton Hershey and the Chocolate Epiphany

What Do You Call the Piece of Paper That Sticks Out of a Hershey’s Kiss?

You might associate Hershey’s chocolate with Pennsylvania, but it was Chicago’s World’s Fair that gave Milton Hershey his golden ticket to the chocolate biz.

At the time, Hershey was running the Lancaster Caramel Company and had yet to dip his toes into the chocolate pool. When he stumbled upon German engineer J. M. Lehmann’s machinery at the fair, everything changed. This machinery transformed bitter chocolate into sweet milk chocolate, and Hershey was hooked.

Hershey was blown away by the aroma alone. You know what we’re talking about — that unbelievable, heavenly smell of milk chocolate! Imagine if you’d never smelled that before. When that scent hit Hershey’s nose, he bought the machinery on the spot, shipped it to Pennsylvania, and launched the Hershey Chocolate Company the very next year.

From the Windy City to Your Pantry (and Waistline)

The 1893 World’s Fair was more than a spectacle—it was a turning point for snacks as we know them. From brownies to chewing gum to Cracker Jack and Hershey’s milk chocolate, the fair turned the world into a much sweeter place to live.

If you want to learn more about what happened in the Windy City during those months in 1893, be sure to check out one of our favorite blogs: World’s Fair Chicago, 1893.

---