How Filipino Candy Favorites Got Its Names
For all the sweet-tooths out there, here’s a sampling of how some candies and chocolates that have become true Filipino favorites over the years got their names.
Transcript
00:11Ever wondered how your favorite filipino sweets got their names?
00:16Peter’s Butterball
00:18This butterscotch-flavored hard candy
00:20is named after the Peter Paul Candy Manufacturing Company
00:24It was an American candymaker
00:26that was licensed by a local partner
00:28here in the Philippines in the 1960s
00:31The company is now known as PPC Resources Group
00:36which is still churning out the strangely addicting
00:40sugary sweet candy until now
00:42Choc-Nut
00:43There’s no official word on how it got its name
00:46(the makers are notoriously media-shy)
00:50but we can safely assume that it’s a contraction
00:53of the words 'chcocolate' and 'peanut'
00:56Bazooka Bubble Gum
00:59while not technically Philippine-made,
01:01Bazooka has been a popular brand of chewing gum
01:04in the Philippines for decades
01:07Introduced in the U.S. in 1947,
01:08Bazooka is supposedly named after the rocket-propelled weapon
01:14developed by the U.S. army during World War I
01:18The weapon itself was so-named because of its resemblance
01:21to the wind musical instrument made of brass called a bazooka,
01:26which was invented in the 1910s
01:29Maxx
01:31Introduced in the late 1960s,
01:33Maxx is a hard candy manufactured by
01:36Universal Robina Corporation or URC
01:40According to a URC executive,
01:42the name was suggested by Lance Gokongwei,
01:45son of US founder John Gokongwei Jr.
01:49In the 1990s, legendary actor Max Alvarado
01:53lent his name to the candy,
01:55starring in a tv commercial to launch the brand
01:58Flat Tops and Curly Tops
02:01manufactured by Commonwealth Foods Inc,
02:04the two chocolates have been a staple
02:07in Filipino households for years
02:09Originally, Curly Tops were made with a swirly design
02:13on top, which is why they called it by that name
02:17Eventually, they produced a variant that didn’t have the swirl on top,
02:22so they ended up calling those Flat Tops.
02:25Nipps
02:28URC has been making Nips since the 1960s
02:35The name reportedly comes from the reverse of the word “spin,”
02:40which refers to one step in the manufacturing process of the candy
02:46Lala
02:47Lala Milk Chocolate was first introduced over 40 years ago
02:52It was invented by Salvacion Bernal,
02:55who moved to bulacan from bicol in the early 1970s
03:00The name is an acronym
03:02for the founder’s four children:
03:04Louie, Arlet, Luisa, and Arlene