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Were you the kid who took forever to choose from a bowl of Halloween candy? Can you never decide which popular candy bars are the best? It’s time to fly high and try a Sky Bar. If it’s not available at a local brick-and-mortar store, you can still buy the classic New England candy online through retailers like Amazon and Walmart. It looks like an ordinary, slim milk chocolate bar. But snap it in half and you’ll see that each segmented piece holds a different filling: chocolate fudge, peanut butter, vanilla cream, or caramel sauce.
Sky Bars aren’t known around the globe or even the whole United States, but they’re worth seeking out for the indecisive candy lover. In the mood for peanut butter in the morning and vanilla in the evening? Eat one or two squares of the bar and save the rest. Got equally indecisive friends? Forget Kit-Kats or left and right Twix bars; a Sky Bar can be split between four people, and everyone gets their preferred filling — unless two of you want caramel. That is best resolved by keeping a second bar to yourself. After all, if you’re truly wishy-washy, you might go back and forth about which order to eat the squares.
The Sky Bar was released in 1938 by the Boston-based New England Confectionery Company, aka Necco (yes, like the wafers). It’s gone through some different fillings over the years, but has managed to maintain a fanbase in its native area. In fact, devotees once saved the bar from a sad end.
The up-and-down history of the Sky Bar
The Sky Bar had a soaring debut advertised by skywriting pilots, who used Sky Bar-branded airplanes to write out messages in the clouds. Print advertisements for the candy told readers to look out for the messages. And when World War II ended in 1945, a Sky Bar ad was one of the first to light up in New York City’s Times Square after the years-long wartime blackout. The treat was also billed as the first ever chocolate bar to contain four different fillings. In the 1930s, those were English toffee, honey nougat, nut butter toffee, and fudge parfait.
As groundbreaking as it was, the Sky Bar landed into serious trouble in 2018 when Necco went bankrupt. The company sold off the rights to its many classic candies. Louise Mawhinney — co-owner of Duck Soup, a food store in Sudbury, Massachusetts — scored ownership of the Sky Bar, which was beloved by many of her customers. Mawhinney began manufacturing the candy next door to the shop. By 2019, New Englanders were once again able to enjoy their favorite four-flavor bar. You can buy a Sky Bar online from its official website, or in-person at Duck Soup and many more retailers in states such as Connecticut, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and New York. While there are lots of vintage candy bars no one remembers anymore, it’s clear that the Sky Bar will continue to fly high.
