The Goo Goo Cluster is an American

candy bar A candy bar is a type of portable candy that is in the shape of a bar. The most common type of candy bar is the chocolate bar, including both bars made of solid chocolate and combination candy bars, which are candy bars that combine chocolate wi ...

created in 1912 by Howell Campbell and the Standard Candy Company in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. The disk-shaped candy bar contains

marshmallow Marshmallow (, ) is a confectionery made from sugar, water and gelatin whipped to a solid-but-soft consistency. It is used as a filling in baking or molded into shapes and coated with corn starch. This sugar confection is inspired by a medicina ...

nougat,

caramel Caramel ( or ) is a range of food ingredients made by heating sugars to high temperatures. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons or candy bars, as a topping for ice cream and custard, and as a colorant ...

, and roasted

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

s covered in

milk chocolate Milk chocolate is a form of solid chocolate containing Chocolate liquor, cocoa, sugar and milk. It is the most consumed types of chocolate, type of chocolate, and is used in a wide diversity of chocolate bar, bars, tablets and other confectione ...

. Variations include Goo Goo Supreme (

pecan The pecan ( , , ; ''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the Southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed primarily in the U.S. states of Georgia ( ...

s replace the peanuts) which was renamed the Pecan in 2019, and Peanut Butter Goo Goo (

peanut butter Peanut butter is a food Paste (food), paste or Spread (food), spread made from Grinding (abrasive cutting), ground, dry roasting, dry-roasted peanuts. It commonly contains additional ingredients that modify the taste or texture, such as salt, ...

replaces marshmallow nougat and caramel).

History

Goo Goo Cluster is considered the first combination candy bar, meaning it contained several types of candy rather than an all-chocolate bar. The name is thought to refer to the sound a baby makes. The company uses the phrase, "So good, they'll ask for it from birth," in retelling the Goo Goo story. Originally, the candy was sold, unpackaged, from glass jars only in the factory's local area. At the time of the Goo Goo Cluster's invention, there was no automated packaging machinery, so packaging required costly hand work. As a result, packaging was unusual unless the candy (like caramels) required wrapping to keep pieces separate. During the 1920s, after increased public attention to hygiene, the company began wrapping it, and it was sold all over the United States.

Marketing

The candy was sold at the

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...

(GOO), which was established in 1925, 13 years after the candy's debut. However, Standard Candy (with particular emphasis on the Goo Goo Cluster) was a long-time sponsor of the program. During the 1920s and 1930s, the company advertised Goo Goo Clusters as "a nourishing lunch for a

nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...

". At this time, the primary nutritional concern was caloric undernourishment, especially for working-class people, and high-calorie candies were promoted as valuable and inexpensive sources of food energy.

References

External links

* {{Official site, http://www.googoo.com/ Peanut confectionery Products introduced in 1912 Culture of Nashville, Tennessee Chocolate confectionery