16 Discontinued Wonka Candies We're Probably Never Getting Back

Movies have been feeding our imaginations for more than a century, but food-related tie-ins are a much newer phenomenon – global chain McDonald's is among the many companies to have quickly seen their potential. But when "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," written by children's author Roald Dahl, was published in 1964, he had no idea that colorful confectioner Willy Wonka would be the inspiration for a real-life company.

Three big-screen interpretations of Dahl's tale have been made: Mel Stuart's iconic 1971 musical "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," starring Gene Wilder, Tim Burton's 2005 "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," with Johnny Depp as the eccentric chocolatier, and Paul King's 2023 musical fantasy "Wonka," starring Timothée Chalamet.

They prompted a range of delicious, tie-in treats that delighted millions. While some had the staying power of the Everlasting Gobstopper, others were yanked from store shelves before we could get a proper taste for them. Come with us into a world of pure imagination as we look at 16 discontinued Wonka candies we're probably never getting back.

As recounted in "Pure Imagination: The Making of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," the 10-year-old daughter of director Mel Stuart loved Dahl's book so much she urged him to make it into a film. Coincidentally, Quaker Oats, the firm behind the delicious breakfast cereal, was looking for a way to launch a new product. It financed the $3 million movie, changed the title and planned to produce a range of lucrative chocolate bars bearing the Wonka name.

Unfortunately, as producer David L. Wolper explained in this "Special Features" documentary: "The candy bar had a problem in the formula and it melted in the stores." Even worse, the film was a box-office bomb (video sales in the 1980s turned it into a classic) and it was 1975 before fans could get their hands on Wonka candies. That year, Quaker sold the Wonka brand to Sunmark, before they handed it off to Rowntrees in 1986. 

In 1988, food giant Nestlé snapped up the Wonka company, and expanded the range of products further. By 2014, interest had waned and Nestlé withdrew Wonka bars from sale, before rebranding to Candy Shop in 2015. Three years later, Italy's Ferrero Group bought the Wonka brand for around $2.8 billion. The only candy still on sale today that featured in the book and the 1971 film are Everlasting Gobstoppers. 

Let's kick off with the candy that started it all: The Wonka Chocolate bar. While the initial product is a cautionary tale for cereal companies dipping a toe into the chocolate business, once the production problems were sorted out, Wonka Chocolate bars eventually did find an audience.

They accompanied the 2005 film, and while in the book Grandpa Joe says Willy Wonka invented hundreds of flavors of Wonka bar, in the real world, they were Whipple Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight, Triple Dazzle Caramel, Chilly Chocolate Creme and Nutty Crunch Surprise. Nestlé also took this cheesecake base favorite and made it part of a Wonka Chocolate bar that many fans loved. Sadly, just one year after Tim Burton's film hit cinemas, poor sales of Wonka chocolate prompted Nestlé to stop production, leaving devotees heartbroken. 

Willy Wonka's workers, the Oompa Loompas, have changed their appearance many times since the book's original publication. As well as providing much entertainment, these hard-working fellows from Loompaland also inspired their own candy product.

Willy Wonka's Peanut Butter Oompas originally launched in 1971, alongside the doomed Wonka bar, but quickly found favor among lovers of peanuts and chocolate. The sweet treat was reminiscent of M&Ms, but bigger and with separate layers of chocolate and peanut butter inside the shell. One Redditor commented: "I dream about them still!! And I thank you, no one seems to remember them and it's the first thing I look for in a rogue candy shop."

A strawberry version was briefly on sale in 1980, before the peanut and chocolate candy was finally discontinued a couple years later. In the 2000s, Nestlé tried to cash in on the "Harry Potter" frenzy (who remembers Bertie Botts jellybeans?) by launching crazy fruit versions of Oompas in the U.K. until 1983. Flavors included snozzberry, mashed potato, and caterpillar. 

The Super Skrunch bar was another of the very first candies to be sold under the Wonka brand, hitting shelves in 1971. Originally sold weighing 1 ¼ ounces, they were cut to 1 ounce three or four years later but consumers remained delighted by their bars' blend of crisp rice and peanut butter, all wrapped in chocolate.

Bizarrely, in 1980, the 'Super' was dropped from the Skrunch name and in 1981, the recipe included full peanuts for the first time, before the Skrunch bar was discontinued. The following year, the Willy Wonka Peanut Butter Bar — with the exact same recipe — briefly went on sale, only to vanish again from stores. 

Both Oompas and Skrunch bars may not be around any more but the love for them burns strong among some fans. In 2021, a petition was launched by a fan, who aimed to revive the brands: "... not only for the people who originally had them back when they were children, but also the children of today, so that the memories and taste of these candies can get passed down from generation to generation."

The passage of time hasn't been kind to this former member of the Wonka stable. There are several images of the box on the internet, which was similar to Nerds packaging — but there's very little information about how Volcano Rocks actually tasted.

We can at least get an idea of what they looked like. Willy Wonka Candy Co. posted on X: "Volcano Rocks was once a candy produced in the United States throughout the 1970s and the 1980s. They were like the colored gravel found at the bottom of many fish bowls except sugar!" One Reddit poster said: "Ooh, I forgot all about the volcano rocks. Those were the best."

They haven't been entirely forgotten, however. Volcano Rocks is among the subject of the 2010 book "Volcano Rocks: Candy, Willy Wonka, Sugar, Gravel, Tart 'n' Tinys, Nerds" — a collection of online essays exploring these colorful candies. Are they simply a 1970s version of Pop Rocks? Perhaps we'll never know.

If there's not much to know about Volcano Rocks, the same can't be said of Wonka's Wacky Wafers. Launched in the 1970s, they came in five flavors that changed over the yearsbut they have included grape, banana, blue razzberry, strawberry, green apple, and cherry. Wacky Wafers were described by a Reddit user as: "Tart and fruity with that odd almost styrofoam texture."

As well as fiddling with the flavors, the Wonka company changed the size and shape of the Wacky Wafers, first of all shrinking the candy's diameter, and then trying out a much smaller version, packaged in a box similar to tart n tinys. 

When Nestlé bought the Wonka brand in 1988, the candies were sidelined as they were deemed too similar to SweeTarts. However, in 2017, fans of Wacky Wafers were thrilled when they were reintroduced to the market by Leaf. Although the manufacturer had changed, they looked — and tasted — just like the original Wonka version.

Wonka's Punkys were for you in the late 1980s and early 1990s ... if small, fruit-flavored oval candies that packed a punch were your bag. The box said they were "ugly tangy speckled candy bites" — and these short-lived treats came in sweet and sour flavors. Just to keep the dentist working a little harder on your teeth, each oval was flecked with sugar crystals for an extra burst of sweetness.

The packaging reflected this tiny but mighty candy's personality: The box was a feast of vibrant colors and featured six cartoon pellets with punky personalities. Candy lovers at The Sugar Cube made their feelings known about Wonka's Punkys, writing on their site: "We are missing these tangy and delicious treats! They were one of the best to make our tongue cry for EVEN more!" RIP, Punkys.

Candy fans who liked their sweet treats with a hefty dose of sour found the perfect combination in Wonka's DinaSour Eggs. Launched in 1981, the trade advertising claimed they were the only giant sour jawbreaker capable of lasting up to an hour.

Each egg was covered in four layers of flavor – including grape and lemon – that would last for up to 10 minutes each, before the soft center was exposed. Initially sold in single or twin packs, over the next six years the DinaSour Eggs became smaller and smaller, until the giant jawbreakers were ditched in favor of mini-egg versions by 1987. There's no firm end date but DinaSour Eggs have not been seen in stores since the mid-90s. 

Devotees have never forgotten them, as one Facebook user said: "I wish they would bring these back!! They are everlasting Gobstoppers but with more intense sourness!!"

A year after the launch of Wonka's Nerds, the company aimed to repeat its stunning success with these guys. Rinky Dinks were tiny, colorful jawbreakers that came in a trio of flavors such as lemon, grape, and strawberry — each packaged separately, like their fruity predecessors.

While many fans loved the candies for the individual faces on each one, it was something Jason Liebig, of collectingcandy.com, didn't immediately realize. He wrote: "I've had that Rinky Dinks box for some time, and even though it says right on it "candy with faces" I just thought that it was the typical Wonka mascot illustration reference, not the candy itself."

The Wonka company boosted the appeal of Rinky Dinks even further in 1986 by using the packaging for a "match and win" game, with $525,000-worth of goodies up for grabs. Again there's no concrete date, but these candies appear to have been discontinued shortly after.

After a run of fruity-based treats, it's time to wrap our virtual taste buds around some chocolate from the Wonka brand. The Xploder had popping candy embedded in the chocolate, and was originally launched in the U.K. in 1998. Sales were quickly expanded to the United States and Australia, where it was named the K-Boom bar.

As this animated advert from 2000 shows, consumers were warned: "It's a bit unpredictable but don't let that stop you." Strangely, the U.S. packaging didn't have the cartoon Willy Wonka. Perhaps that's why the American wrappers ended up for sale on auction sites long after the chocolate had been eaten?

The Xploder was discontinued in 2005 and it would take another three years for Wonka to come up with a replacement of sorts: Tinglerz. Described on candyaddict.com as: "malted pieces of crisped rice covered in Nestlé's milk chocolate and pumped with a carbon dioxide blast to give them some serious popping power." According to Willy Wonka Candy Co., the candies were discontinued shortly after their release.

Proof the Wonka company would try anything when it came to sweet treats comes with this short-lived snack. Launched to coincide with the 2005 Tim Burton movie, Wonka Donutz weren't donuts in the traditional, deep-fried or baked bready way — so you didn't have to store them to keep them fresh!

Instead, they were donut-shaped with chocolate that was covered in sprinkles — and the inside was like truffle. In a possible case of history repeating itself, the tie-in didn't really work, and poor sales meant the Donutz were yanked from shelves soon after.

However, candyblog.net did a taste test before they vanished, so we can all get a hint of what we missed. They wrote: "The Donutz is a plump, milk chocolate hoop with a firm, creamy chocolate truffle-like center. The outside chocolate is mild and sweet, like that found in a Nestlé Crunch bar. A little on the grainy side, but pleasant. The inside of the candy is a sweet and melty filling of chocolate with a slight rum aroma to it."

Fruit in all its forms (even canned fruit) can be delicious, and a huge source of inspiration for the Wonka brand. When it came to Peel-A-Pops, someone was definitely channeling their inner Willy Wonka, because this candy takes the idea of a sweet treat into a weird direction.

Described by Discontinued Foods! as: "A frozen treat meant to resemble an unpeeled banana. It was comprised of a stick of vanilla ice cream, surrounded by a 'peel' of either banana or grape flavored gelatin/taffy/gummy substance." They added: "I'm just going to offer the rare editorial here: These look absolutely disgusting."

While the post made their feelings about the fruity snack clear, not everyone agreed, with one admitting to having indulged in a Peel-A-Pop more than once, and a few deciding they wanted to try them. One commenter said: "They were amazing. The ice cream covered gummy was surprisingly enjoyable. I actually miss these tremendously." In a surprise to many, a petition to bring Peel-A-Pops back launched in 2021.

Not the kindest name for a candy but the chewy versions of the hard fruit were wildly popular in their day. Launched in 1982, flavors were cherry, orange, lime, strawberry, and banana, with the latter being a particular hit. According to one Redditor, the banana flavor was based on the rare Gros Michel variety, rather than its replacement, the Cavendish. 

Chewy runts were also available in tropical pineapple and mango flavors, while the most recent were green apple, grape, banana, strawberry, and orange. Sadly for fans of every flavor, when Ferrero Group bought the Wonka brand from Nestlé, bosses were unimpressed with the poor sales and Chewy Runts were discontinued.

An email from the company, posted on Reddit, explained the decision: "Please realize when a product is retired, it is not done impulsively, as we take into account many factors. Decisions to discontinue or introduce a flavor or size are made in response to consumer preferences and purchasing patterns throughout the country."

The Wonka brand clearly understood the popularity of its gobstoppers, churning them out in both giant and miniature forms, as well as heart shaped. Launched in 1983 as Heart Breakers, these fruit punch, cherry, and strawberry flavored gobstoppers were originally red and purple, while their centers were a sweet and sour blend. 

The flavors weren't the only thing that evolved with this candy. During the 1990s, the name was altered first to Willy Wonka's Gobstopper Heart Breakers, and again to Everlasting Gobstopper Heart Breakers. Alongside the packaging, the colors of the candies were also changed, from red, yellow and pink, to red, white and pink.

Heart Breakers gobstoppers were still available for Valentine's in 2016, but in 2023, one Redditor revealed that Ferrero had retired the candy. There has been no official word – the company has yet to confirm or deny the claim. In the meantime, candy fans can rest easy knowing the Everlasting Gobstopper is still going strong.

The Wonka experts have managed to wring every last bit of appeal out of the gobstopper, even going so far as to produce a softer version. In 2022, Willy Wonka Candy Co. posted the following question on X: "Did you know that Everlasting Gobstoppers are Available in Chewy?"

That was news to many fans. In response to a shout-out on Reddit, one commenter said: "I've been able to get normal gobstoppers pretty easily (at least for now). The chewy ones have been in and out of stores ever since I was a kid (10+ years ago) so not really sure what's going on with them. They did mainly seem to be found in convenience stores back then as well."

Further down the thread, another user who had contacted the Ferrero Group posted the company's reply, which read: "Unfortunately, due to capacity issues, many Gobstopper products (including our theater box) are currently paused until the end of 2023/early 2024." To date, chewy Everlasting Gobstoppers remain unavailable to buy.

Back in 2010, the Wonka brand unveiled its Exceptionals range, which included three new chocolate bars, as well as the intriguing Fruit Jellies and Fruit Marvels. The latter were described in a statement as: "Hard candies with soft centers, delicately sugar dusted. Clementine orange, white grape and pomegranate represent the delightful array of flavors that tantalize the palate."

Matty at candygurus.com reviewed the Marvels and, while initially unimpressed, they wrote: "The middle of these candies is where you get all the real flavor. Really juicy – which I like. It actually feels like there is moisture in there, but as you can see, there isn't. These would be SO good if they were sour."

Just two years later in 2012, production of the Exceptionals range ended, without a sour version. A Wonka spokesperson told businesswire.com: "... new chocolate concoctions are in development and hope our fans will stay tuned for more chocolate news in the near future." Sadly, for Wonka candy lovers, that never came to be.