Hershey’s Kisses are one step closer to being the official candy of Pennsylvania
The state House of Representatives voted Tuesday to advance a bill that would make it official.
Pennsylvania House lawmakers showed their sweeter sides on Tuesday in Harrisburg, advancing a bill that would designate Hershey’s Kiss as the state’s official candy.
But it’s fair to say that the passage of House Bill 1030, which was approved by a vote of 150-52, moved as slow as molasses.
The Bucks County eighth graders who wrote the bill in their civics class are now high school seniors, according to the bill’s prime sponsor, State Rep. Thomas Mehaffie, a Dauphin County Republican.
He said Tuesday that the Kiss is a fitting symbol of the Keystone State, noting that Hershey has been a good corporate citizen. Hershey announced last month it was opening a new chocolate processing facility that would add 125 jobs in Dauphin County, he noted.
“Seventy million Hershey’s Kisses are made every day with local milk,” Mehaffie said. While the bill took a long time to move through the legislature, there’s a lesson for the students, he added: “In Harrisburg, there is gridlock, and things happen slowly, but what I want them to take away from this is hard work and perseverance leads to the right thing, eventually, being done.”
Even after the students graduated from Newtown Middle School and moved on to Council Rock High School North, they continued advocating for their bill, according to a memo from state legislators last year. The bill passed the Pennsylvania House in 2024 before being tabled until the current legislative session.
“We believe that denoting Hershey’s Kisses as the state candy will not only bring more attention to our state and promote tourism, but also commemorate a company and candy that has forever impacted our state’s economy and values,” the bill’s sponsors said in a memo in January.
Official state foods are common, and even include specific subcategories. For your next trivia night or should you be cast on Jeopardy!, remember: Connecticut’s state food is pizza, Texas’ state pie is pecan, and popcorn is the state snack food in both Illinois and Indiana. But the Hershey’s Kiss, if the bill is approved by the Pennsylvania Senate, will be the country’s first state candy.
The race to name an official Pennsylvania candy has been a competitive one. One state senator attempted to introduce Peeps, the marshmallow candy most consumed around Easter and produced in Bethlehem, as the state’s candy last month. Around the same time, the House Tourism, Recreation, and Economic Development Committee passed the Hershey’s Kiss bill unanimously.
Hershey introduced the Kiss in 1907, and its popularity sped past a similar offering from a competitor chocolate company, Wilbur Buds, because of Hershey’s mass production and individual packaging, according to Time magazine.
The origins of the name are still disputed — while Hershey says the name comes from the sound its machine makes while plopping the chocolate onto a conveyor belt, historians say other candies wrapped in a twist were called “kisses” going back almost 100 years before Hershey made its own version.
The bill now advances to the Pennsylvania Senate for consideration.