When I was a kid Whoppers were made by Leaf who also made Sixlets, Rain-Blo bubble gum and a lot of different novelty type gums (like Hot Dog Gum). Mostly I knew Whoppers as a candy for movies, but like Sixlets, Whoppers came in a little clear cellophane sleeve, there were five of them and they were called Fivesomes.
Leaf had a couple of versions of Malted Milk Balls, their small ones were called Malt-ettes and were barely larger than an M&M if they were spherical and their largest version were called Whoppers. I feel like Whoppers were bigger when I was a kid, but I could be confusing the mockolate coated year-round version with the Robins Egg Easter version.
The Whoppers we know today weren’t always so grand. When they were first introduced in 1939 by the Overland Candy Company and called Giants. Leaf took over the brand in 1949 and changed the name to Whoppers. Hershey’s now markets them and calls them the Original Malted Milk Balls.
While they may have the same name as the original, I highly doubt that this is the original recipe: Sugar; Whey (Milk); Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil; Corn Syrup; Malted Milk (Barley Malt; Wheat Flour; Milk; Salt; Sodium Bicarbonate); Cocoa; Contains 2% Or Less Of: Soy Lecithin; Resinous Glaze; Sorbitan Tristearate; Natural And Artificial Flavor ; Calcium Carbonate; Tapioca Dextrin; Salt.
They’re nicely spherical, about the size of a Peanut M&M. The shell of mockolate is mercifully thin, more of a protective wax sealant for the crunchy malted center. The coating is always a little rancid tasting to me, not terribly sweet but grainy and only the lightest touch of cocoa to it. The center is what redeems Whoppers. They’re very consistent - a dense crunch with a sweet and milky flavor with a good dollop of malt in there. They’re salty, but not too much to make me thirsty.
I can’t say that Hershey’s ruined Whoppers, but they’re certainly never done anything to make them better.
Whoppers are sold in a lot of packaging different formats, little single serving packets, small boxes and the big theater box shown and a fun size usually available around Halloween. But really the only kind of Whopper I think is worth eating is the Easter or Christmas version, which has a hard candy shell ... and even that isn’t as good as some other brands that use real chocolate.
Related Candies
- Target’s Market Pantry Malted Milk Balls
- Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Malted Milk Eggs (Plus a Bonus)
- Whoppers Reese’s Peanut Butter Flavored Candy
- Whoppers Milkshake Strawberry
- Brach’s Fiesta Eggs
- Whoppers Twosomes
- Bulk Balls
Which brands of malted milk balls use real chocolate rather than mockolate?
Thank God somebody else remembers maltettes!! I thought I was imagining that name or something. I loved them when I was a kid….the closest thing to the flavor are the robin eggs, love them for Easter…I miss maltettes and I agree with the flavor of Whoppers now, waxy chocolate, yuk…
Im eating a 2 pound bag of robin eggs well im reading this
we were wondering what was the inside called not what it was made of
I noticed the article about Whoppers and you mentiond how consistent they are (in their production & taste I presume)... well, I can’t agree with that at all. I absolutely LOVE Whoppers but I’ve had the same complaint about them that I always had for 60 years - I’d say roughly one out of every 20 or so whoppers are bad. I mean REAL BAD, something with both the covering AND the malted milk part. Bad taste and very chewy not crunchy at all. This has never changed. Every package I have to dread the bad 1 or 2 that will certainly be in it.
Whoppers don’t seem to be nearly as good as they use to be. I remember them being bigger and the texture much better. The other day I had a taste form some Whoppers and bought some and they were old and very hard. I looked at the package and it said good till January 2015. I went to another store and bought another container. They were a little better. Some big ones mixed with some very little ones. Some were chewy, some were hallow and others were very hard. I was disappointed. I just wonder where they are made now. China? The box says distributed in USA but that doesn’t mean they are made in USA. I bought a Mars bar once and it had a thread in it. I looked at the package and it said it was made in Venezuela. Last Christmas I bought a can of traditional Christmas cookies. They tasted awful. I looked at the container and it said they were made in China. Just recently I read an article that a lot of the processed meat used in fast food restaurants comes from China. I really wonder what we and are children are eating anymore.
Whoppers were at one time my favorite Malted Milk ball. What I do like about them is that they are chocolate. I not tasting a lot of vanilla favoring which in some of the larger and no name malted milk balls I taste. What I do have against them is the following many are defective, they have a slightly salty taste to them, and their center is a bit more crunchy or hard. My favor Malted Milk balls that I have tried is Brachs, but where I live they are hard to find.
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