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Food History

The Old-School 1800s Peanut Candy Almost No One Eats Anymore By Garrett Palm Oct. 26, 2025 7:39 pm EST

Liudmila Chernetska/Getty Images

If you're wondering where the classic circus peanut has gone, you're not alone. There are tens of us out there missing the candy from our youth. Many people didn't get it — being shaped like a peanut while flavored like a banana was a part of its charm, not what made it "weird" or "off-putting." Created as a penny candy in the late 1800s, they are hard to find now as fewer and fewer people are eating them.

No one really knows why it's orange. Or shaped like a peanut. Or banana flavored. Yes, they are banana-flavored, but not the flavor of our modern bananas, as the artificial version is based on an earlier banana calle

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