Didn't know there were this many sizes of Life Savers?
Pretty cool, right?! So here are the types I have:
- The smallest, called the Life Savers Minis™️. These were first produced in ~2002 by Kraft Foods North America. They came in clear boxes with the following flavors: Pep⭕Mint, Mixed Fruit (Strawberry, Cherry, Pineapple, Orange).
What kind of Minis came in a green box with fuschia writing or the red box with green writing? Contact us if you have documentation.
- The next size up are the Life Savers Fruit Tarts. Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company produced them in the USA, starting in ~2006. As far as I can tell, these only came in the following flavors, all sugar-free:
- Plum-colored box: Grape Berry, Green Apple, and Strawberry Watermelon
- Gold/orange-colored box: Watermelon, Cherry Lemonade, and Mandarin Orange
- Standard Life Savers. The ones I've shown are the Candy Cane flavor. Please note that I am not sure whether standard Life Savers vary in size. They could vary from timeframe to timeframe (ie, 1920s vs 2020s), or even from flavor to flavor (pressed candy like the mints vs. boiled candy like Wild Cherry).
- Life Savers Lollipops.
But this photo from my collection actually doesn't include all the sizes of Life Savers.
Even larger, I believe, are the Life Savers Lollipops, introduced in 1974. They were wider and actually had a hole in them.
The ones in the 2020s have an indentation, rather than a hole. I don't know the specific purpose of this change, but I suspect that those without the holes are less damage-prone, and the equipment used for the original Lifesavers was probably decommissioned ages ago.
Even smaller are the Holes™️. These were introduced by Planters Life Savers, Winston-Salem, NC, in 1990, recalled, and then reintroduced in 1991 with safer packaging-- only to be discontinued that same year. Flavors: Butter Rum (Planters Life Savers, Winston-Salem, NC), Five Flavor, Island Fruits, Outrageously Fruity, Sunshine Fruits, Tangerine, Pep⭕Mint, Wint⭕Green.
Source:
- I don't, however, agree with the author's notion that the goal was reducing waste--a peek at the product shows they were different than simply being a pushed-out hole. (I'm hoping that was just intended to be a joke.)
- They weren't *Wrigley's* attempt at anything, given that they didn't own the company until 2004...an odd mistake for Business Insider, of all sources.