Big Hunk Candy Bars (History, Varieties, Pictures & Commercials)

If chewy candy bars are your favorite kind of candy, this is the right one for you to try. Big Hunk candy bars are a very unusual candy bar because of this texture and the flavor is also unique. This is a candy that has been around since the 1950s and it has not changed significantly since the first days that it was on the market.

Big Hunk is one of those candies that has always had a very loyal following despite being an unusual treat. There are few candy bars that are this atypical and that have remained popular for so many years. If you are interested in giving this traditional candy bar a try, you can still find it on shelves in the US.

History

This candy bar is made by the Annabelle Candy Company. It was first produced in the 1950s by the Golden Nugget Candy Company and sold in the US. Annabelle Candy Company bought the product from this company in the 1970s and changed some of the ingredients as well as the packaging.

The Annabelle Candy Company was formed by Russian immigrant Sam Altshuler. He named the company after his daughter and made a few specific items that were quickly quite popular. This was one of the earlier products that the company made and it established itself as popular almost right off.

The candy company also made Abba-Zabba, Rocky Road, U-NO, and Look! Bars that have a similar design. The unique nature of these candy bars has been as important to their marketing as their oddball names. Abba-Zabba in particular was a very off-beat but successful candy bar. The candy company is still in existence today even though it no longer makes the Big Hunk candy bars.

Most of these famous candies were originally made in Altshuler’s kitchen at home before they were marketed to grocery stores and other locations like movie theaters. The original candy bars that the company made were sold by Sam himself outside movie theaters from a cart. This family-crafted legacy is a big part of what has made all of the candies from this company so successful.

The Big Hunk candy bars are a nougat candy bar that contains roasted peanuts as well. This is one of the few candies that was sold by such a small company and with such success. The Annabelle Candy Company has managed to claw out a foothold that has been quite successful inside the candy bar market and this is one of the more unique products that it made along the way.

Big Hunk candy bars are honey-sweetened and crunchy as well as chewy. This makes it a very special candy bar and one that might not remind you of any other candy bar that you have ever tried. This is not the easiest candy bar to eat and you probably will enjoy it in small amounts rather than sitting down to eat it all in one go. Nougat is tasty but often hard to chew and you will find that it does take a little time to work your way through the full-size candy bars.

The candy bar that you can buy these days is not the same as the original bar. The recipe was changed when the product was sold in order to improve the flavor. At one time there were fruit ingredients added briefly but this was quickly discontinued when it drove up the cost and made production timing hard to manage.

One of the other changes that happened over time was that the original white packet was changed out for one with more color in the candy logo and behind the lettering. The packaging was also changed to add more information about the candy bar. The old-style wrapper was not completely done away with but it was improved and made more modern.

The slogan and tagline, “Put big profits in your pocket with Big Hunk” were added to the branding of the candy as well. Before this, there had not been a lot of work done to market the bar in a specific way. It was a word-of-mouth product in many ways.

Varieties

There are a few varieties of the Big Hunk candy bars. The traditional nougat with honey flavoring and peanuts is the one that is most popular and well-known. There is a newer chocolate covered bar as well that offers the same interior ingredients but with a chocolate layer on the outside. The company has also created a mini version of these varieties recently which is a great choice since the full-size bars are quite hard to get through.

There is also an almond bar that is sold in a white wrapper that looks a lot like the original wrappers for the candy. This candy bar offers all of the same ingredients without the peanuts. Not as popular as the original bar, this is still an option that you can try for a different flavor profile than the peanut version.

The candy bar is less chewy than it was originally with the modifications to the recipe but the newer bars are still hard to eat quickly. The mini bars make a great chewy snack which is easier to access than the full-size bars. The large size candy bars are 2 whole ounces of roasted peanuts and nougat in an 8-inch bar which makes it easy to see why it can take a bit of work to eat them.

Logo

Buy Online

You can also buy Big Hunk at Old Time Candy by clicking the image below.

Ingredients

From the allcitycandy listing:

• Corn Syrup
• Sugar
• Peanuts
• Honey
• Dried egg whites
• Coconut oil
• Salt
• Artificial flavor
• Soy lecithin

These are simple candy bars and you can avoid a lot of artificial ingredients in your candy bar if you pick this candy. This candy bar is technically gluten-free but there is risk of cross-contamination due to wheat and other allergens that are used on shared equipment in the facility. This candy bar is not vegan either due to the egg whites that are in the product list.

Nutrition

Serving Size:	1 bar (12g)	% Daily Value*
Amount Per Serving
Calories from Fat	0.5
Calories	50
Total Fat	0.1g	0%
Saturated Fat	0g	0%
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	0mg	0%
Sodium	35mg	1%
Total Carbohydrates	11g	4%
Dietary Fiber	0g	0%
Sugars	5g
Protein	1g
Vitamin A		0%
Vitamin C		0%
Calcium		0%
Iron		0%

• Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Will Big Hunk Candy Bars Break My Teeth?

Many people have been worried over the years that they would break their teeth on this candy bar due to the chewy and thick nature of the nougat that is inside each bar. That is not likely but you probably do not want to use one of the more common nougat candy treat tricks and freeze dried candy bar before breaking it into pieces. The candy bar is thick enough that freezing it will make the bar even harder to chew.

This is a candy bar that is made to be enjoyed slowly and it will melt in your mouth with a little patience. Many people enjoy this treat by allowing it to dissolve in their mouth rather than by chewing it. You get the most out of the flavor of this candy if you enjoy it slowly anyway, so chewing on it is not really necessary. Most people consider this treat most enjoyable in the summer but it can be purchased all year round.

The original candy was made not to melt in the hot weather during the summer which is something that not many people realize was necessary in the days before refrigeration. While today this is not necessary, the flavor profile of this candy depends in part of the texture so the company has not changed it significantly. This means that you will have to struggle a little to eat your way through a large candy bar of this type but you will get the original eating experience without significant alterations.

Big Hunk Candy Bars In Popular Culture

This candy bar has often been the source of joking references that have to do with its unique name. More than one person has used this candy bar as a means to flirt with someone that they thought was quite cute and there is more than one story of this candy bar being involved in requests to go to prom and other kinds of dating activities.

The Big Hunk candy bar name has always been a source of lots of humor related to its name. The silliness of the name has made for many a fun commercial that was based around the lack of hunkiness of people in the commercial as well. Big Hunk candy bars were probably named this way because it is such a large candy bar but most people associate the name with silly dating references and funny interactions with other people.

Pictures

Commercials:

A classic Big Hunk candy bars ad:

One of the classic ads that focus on the “hunk” aspect of the candy bar:

Another ad from the same series of ads:

A taste test: