Butter Brickle facts for kids

Butter Brickle is a yummy chocolate-covered toffee candy. It was first sold a long time ago, on November 20, 1924! It was made by a candy company called John G. Woodward Co. in Iowa. Later, another company, The Fenn Bros. Ice Cream and Candy Co. from South Dakota, also made Butter Brickle, especially for flavoring ice cream.

The First Butter Brickle Candy

The John G. Woodward Co. in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was the first to sell Butter Brickle candy. This was in 1924. They even registered the name "Butter Brickle" as a trademark in 1928, specifically for candy bars.

A candy maker named Arthur E. Dempsey, who worked at John G. Woodward Co., is believed to be the person who first created this famous candy.

Fenn Bros. Ice Cream and Candy Co.

The Fenn Bros. Ice Cream and Candy Co. was started in 1898 by Henry C. Fenn and James W. Fenn. This company became very well-known for its chocolate-covered toffee and a special ice cream flavoring, both called Butter Brickle. They sold products like "Fenn's Butter Brickle English Toffee Chocolate Covered" and "Fenn's Butter Brickle Candy Ice Cream Flavoring."

How Butter Brickle Ice Cream Started

People say that the famous Butter Brickle ice cream was first made at the Orleans Room restaurant inside the Blackstone Hotel in Omaha, Nebraska, in the late 1920s. They would take small pieces of the Butter Brickle candy bar and mix them into ice cream. This idea became so popular that Fenn Bros. later sold it as a special product for ice cream.

Other Fenn Bros. Treats

Besides Butter Brickle, Fenn Bros. made other candies too! Some of their other popular treats included Walnut Crush, Blue Seal Nougat, Smooth Sailin’, Royal Brazils, and Big Bogie (which was later called Big Nougat). Of course, they also made lots of different kinds of ice cream.

The company even sponsored a musical show on KSOO Radio, which was a big deal back then!

Working at Fenn Bros.

At its busiest time, more than 200 people worked at Fenn Bros. This made it one of the biggest employers in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Workers would help make the candy, often cooking ingredients like nougat in huge copper kettles. They would add things like walnuts to make candies like the Walnut Crush.

During World War II, when sugar was hard to get, the company focused on making candy bars because they were so popular. Over the years, the price of candy bars changed, from a nickel to a dime.

Butter Brickle Today

Fenn Bros. made Butter Brickle candy and flavoring until the 1970s. After that, the company closed down. The "Butter Brickle" name and its secret recipe were sold to another company called Leaf, Inc., which also made Heath Bars.

Today, you can still find a bit of the Butter Brickle name in "Heath Bits 'o Brickle Toffee Bits," which are sold by The Hershey Company. Also, many ice cream makers still sell Butter Brickle flavored ice cream, using the name with permission.

In Popular Culture

Butter Brickle has even appeared on TV! In the show Two and a Half Men, a character named Rose asks Charlie to get her some Butter Brickle ice cream.