Illinois Factory Makes An Incredible 65 Million Candies a Day

Looking at the calendar, I see we've finally reached Halloween, so it's no surprise to see all sorts of stories being published about Halloween candy. There are articles all over the place about the candies we love, the candies we hate, each state's favorite and least favorite candy...yada, yada, yada.

Since I already know what I love (100 Grand bars, Snickers, Skittles), and what I hate (Candy Corn, Circus Peanuts, popcorn balls with cat hair on them), I thought it would be fun to look at quantities instead of just the favorites and least favorites in the candy world.

In particular, the absolutely massive numbers of candy produced each day by some candy manufacturers, including right here in Illinois.

Tootsie Rolls Are Probably Not The Top Candy On Most Of Our Favorites Lists, But They're Still Beloved, And Tootsie Roll Industries Is Literally Making Tons Of Them

And they're making them right here in Illinois at 7401 S. Cicero Avenue in Chicago, where they've been cranking them out since the company moved to Chicago in 1968.

According to the Tootsie Rolls website, on average, 65-65 million Tootsie Rolls are produced every day. Taking those numbers and moving outward, we find that 64-65 million Tootsie Rolls per day means that they're knocking out:

• 44,440 every minute
• 740 per second
• 23 billion Tootsie Rolls per year

Just think, all of that work only to have someone leave one of them in their pocket or purse until the Tootsie Roll is crushed and lint-covered. Tell me that's never happened to you.

Tootsie Rolls Produce A Huge Amount Of Product, But Skittles Make Even More

Not to say that Tootsie Rolls and their 64-65 million pieces per day isn't impressive, it's just that Skittles, according to their website, produces 200 million pieces per day, which breaks down to 70 billion per year.

Here are a couple more candies, along with their production numbers:

Peeps reportedly produces 5.5 million per day, which works out to being 2 billion every year.

Hershey's Kisses are cranked out at a rate of 70 million per day, or 25.5 billion a year.

Ever wonder why Hershey’s Kisses are called “Kisses”? The name comes from the “smooching” sound early candy machines made as they dropped each chocolate onto the conveyor belt.

When the nozzle pulled away, it left that familiar teardrop shape. Well, someone at Hershey decided the motion and sound looked just like a kiss. The name stuck, and more than a century later, the story still holds up.