Hershey's First Candy Wrapper Is Unrecognizable Today

Sweet, sweet chocolate: what would we do without you? We know that for us, any shortage of chocolate in the household is an immediate cause for concern. Whether we're stocking up on cocoa powder to make brownies, chopping semi-sweet bars into chunks for our favorite cookie recipe, or simply chowing down on milk chocolate as a well-deserved snack, we pretty much need to have easy access to this delicacy at all times.

And when it comes to the aforementioned milk chocolate, there's one company that comes to mind every time: Hershey's, of course. Anyone living in the United States or around the world has likely been snacking on Hershey's milk chocolate bars — or any of their flavored cousins — since childhood, whether that meant hoarding Miniatures come Halloween or breaking into a full bar in the cool silence of a movie theater. When you think of a Hershey's milk chocolate bar, you can probably picture the chocolate-brown wrapper with gray and white lettering, right? Well, when the Hershey bar debuted in 1900, its packaging looked a whole lot different.

If you've ever sunk your teeth in a Hershey's milk chocolate bar — and chances are, at sales of about 250 million bars per year, you have (via Eat This, Not That) — you can likely picture the chocolate's iconic dark brown wrapper (via Insider). But as you might imagine, styles were a bit different way back in 1900 when the Hershey's bar made its United States debut.

According to Insider, the original Hershey's bar featured an off-white wrapper embossed with fancy gold lettering reading, "Hershey's Milk Chocolate." Below, the chocolatier added a bold (and inaccurate, according to the Washington Post) claim: "A nutritious confection." Along with the fancy script, the wrapper featured charming illustrations of, in one corner, a cherub emerging from a cacao pod holding a chocolate bar, and in another, a cow — to remind customers of the milk inside the bar, of course.

On the other side of the bar, Hershey's printed some interesting information. "Hershey's sterilized milk chocolate is especially recommended for Cyclists, Athletes, Ladies and Children," the wrapper read. "It is most sustaining, being amalgamated by special process with the finest Fresh Milk."

Hershey's sure has a lot of sugar — clocking in at 24 grams per serving, via SmartLabel — so it probably could give athletes a boost, however temporary. Still, we think we'll tuck it into desserts such as s'mores rather than using it to fuel our gym sessions.