Necco Wafers returning to store shelves this summer

Good news for people who like their candy crunchy and slightly chalky — Neccos Wafers will soon be back on store shelves after a 2-year absence.

Spangler Candy Co., which now owns the iconic brand, says the candy will return in all its multicolored glory beginning this month.

“Major drugstores will have them in June, other stores will have them in July,” according to the company website. Other major retailers will be added later.

Necco wafers returning to shelves this summer https://t.co/IBu743Q0mK pic.twitter.com/q5YK5N8PGt

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Spangler also says the reintroduced candy will be made following the original recipe — mostly.

“The eight all-time favorite flavors and colors are returning including lemon (yellow), lime (green), orange (orange), clove (light purple), cinnamon (white), wintergreen (pink), licorice (dark grey) and chocolate (brown). Seven of the eight flavors were designed to identically match the originals,” Spangler says.

“True Necco Wafers connoisseurs may detect a richer cocoa flavor in the chocolate wafers due to a minor improvement made in the cooking process.”

The company also will revive the original waxed-paper wrapping.

In an interview with Today, Spangler CEO Kirk Vashaw said there was no reason to crank out a new and improved version: “People want the same thing they remember as a kid.”

Franchises with stores in western Pennsylvania that the company says will carry the wafers include Big Lots, Cracker Barrel, CVS, Dollar General and Walgreens. The complete list can be viewed here.

Necco wafers were created in 1847 by Oliver Chase, an English immigrant to the United States who formed Chase and Co. with his brother.

In 1901, the company merged with several others to form the New England Confectionery Co., or NECCO. Spangler purchased NECCO assets in 2018, when the former company went into bankruptcy.

Those assets included the Clark Bar, originally produced in Pittsburgh’s North Side by the D.L. Clark Co., which went to the Altoona-based Boyer Candy Co.

Over the years, the wafers have been carried by Civil War soldiers and on expeditions to the Arctic and the South Pole. The U.S. government requisitioned a large portion of production of the durable candies to ship to troops overseas during World War II.

This year, they’ll no doubt return to trick-or-treat bags at Halloween.