Life Savers is an American brand of ring-shaped mints and artificially fruit-flavored hard candy. The candy is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in aluminum foil rolls.
In 1912, candy manufacturer Clarence Crane of Cleveland, Ohio, invented Life Savers as a "summer candy" that could withstand heat better than chocolate. The candy's name is derived from its similarity to the shape of lifebuoys used for saving people who have fallen from boats. The name has also inspired an urban legend that Crane invented the candy to prevent children from choking, due to his own child having choked on a hard candy.
After registering the trademark, Crane sold the rights to the peppermint candy to Edward John Noble for $2,900. Instead of using cardboard rolls, which were not very successful, Noble created tin-foil wrappers to keep the mints fresh. Pep-O-Mint was the first Life Savers flavor. Noble founded the Life Savers Candy Company in 1913 and significantly expanded the market for the candy by installing Life Savers displays next to the cash registers of restaurants and grocery stores. He also trained the owners of the establishments to always give customers a nickel in their change as doing so would increase sales of Life Savers.[citation needed] Since then, many different flavors of Life Savers have been produced. The five-flavor roll first appeared in 1935.
Life Savers was a subsidiary of Kraft Foods before being purchased by the Wrigley Company in 2004. In recent years, the brand has expanded to include Gummi Savers (currently known as Life Savers Gummies) in 1992, Life Saver Minis in 1996, Creme Savers in 1998, and Life Saver Fusions in 2001. Discontinued varieties include: Fruit Juicers, Holes, Life Saver Lollipops (still sold in carnival wheel games in Seaside Heights, New Jersey) and Squeezit.
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