Who Made Twizzlers ^hot^ -

By the 1950s, Twizzlers were everywhere: movie theaters, lunchboxes, and gas stations. And in 1977, NASA even sent Twizzlers into space aboard the Space Shuttle Enterprise test flights—because what astronaut doesn’t need a zero-gravity licorice twist?

So, while David Hostetter twisted the very first Twizzler in a tiny Pennsylvania kitchen, it was Sam Born who twisted the world’s taste buds. And to this day, every red, cherry-flavored spiral carries a little bit of both their stories: a dreamer’s twist and a maker’s machine. who made twizzlers

One rainy autumn evening, while watching his wife roll dough for pie crusts, an idea sparked. What if candy could be rolled like dough, then twisted into a corkscrew shape? He rushed to his kitchen workshop, boiled a batch of strawberry-flavored syrup, and poured it onto a cool marble slab. As it thickened, he pulled it, stretched it, and—using a hand-cranked press he’d rigged from a cider mill—forced the warm, red taffy through a metal plate with two small holes. By the 1950s, Twizzlers were everywhere: movie theaters,