Snack Time Quiz

Question: Orville Redenbacher helped revolutionize which snack product?

Answer: Versions of popcorn date back over 5,000 years, but Orville Redenbacher developed hybrids for the light and fluffy “snowflake”-style kernels often used today.

Question: Created during the Great Depression, which of these snacks was named after a fancy hotel?

Answer: Thanks to César Ritz’s many opulent hotels, ritz became slang for fanciness. Nabisco’s Ritz crackers offered Depression-era eaters an affordable bite of the high life.

Question: Able to withstand warm climates like that of the Pacific without melting, which candy was included in World War II rations?

Answer: The “melt in your mouth, not in your hand” candy was first released by Mars in 1941, just months before the U.S. entered World War II. During the war, most of the durable candy-coated chocolate’s production was dedicated to filling soldiers’ rations.

Question: Which snack was created as a gift by Oscar Kambly for his wife, whose astrological sign was Pisces?

Answer: The astrological symbol for Pisces is fish.

Question: What snack’s name is derived from the Spanish word for “gold”?

Answer: “Dorito” is based on the Spanish word oro, describing the basic chip’s color.

Question: Scientifically designed to be stackable, which snack’s shape is technically a “truncated hyperbolic paraboloid”?

Answer: Supercomputers were used to design the saddle-like shape of Pringles in the 1950s. Getting the flavor right required several more years.

Question: PEZ was originally available only in which flavor?

Answer: PEZ is a shortening of pfefferminz, the German word for “peppermint.” It was originally sized to curb smoking and overeating.

Question: Which of these began as a rival to a sandwich cookie called Hydrox?

Answer: Hydrox cookies, with a familiar-looking pair of circular chocolate wafers sandwiching a cream center, were released in 1908, four years before the Oreo.

Question: Which of these snacks got its name because it was made using electricity?

Answer: A portmanteau of “electricity” and “biscuit,” the Triscuit was marketed in ads from 1903 boasting that the use of electric power in its manufacturing process was unique in the snacking world.

Question: The Swiss chocolate bar Toblerone has which mountain on its package?

Answer: Toblerone’s distinct triangular shape matches up well with the peak of the Matterhorn, which is positioned on the border between Switzerland and Italy.

Question: Named for a 19th-century minister, graham crackers were first made for which purpose?

Answer: Believing a bland diet could suppress unhealthy urges, the Reverend Sylvester Graham shunned meat, alcohol, white flour, and spices—even pepper. His graham cracker did not include the familiar honey and cinnamon of today.

Question: Which of these snacks was originally marketed as “a baked rarebit”?

Answer: Welsh rarebit is a dish made of a cheese sauce spread over toast.