## The Candy Itself
A few details about the candy that fell over West Berlin are worth establishing, since the word “candy” covers a range of things and the specific products matter to the story.
Halvorsen’s initial drops drew on military ration candy: Hershey bars, Mounds bars, Baby Ruth bars, and Wrigley’s gum. These were standard components of American military rations in the postwar period, familiar to American service personnel but considerably less familiar to German civilians, particularly children who had grown up during the war years.
Hershey bars were an American-specific product. The Hershey Chocolate Company had produced millions of them for the military during the war, and the distinctive taste of American military chocolate was different from European chocolate traditions. For German children who had not had access to chocolate for years, the specific product was less significant than the fact of chocolate at all. For American servicemen, handing out Hershey bars to foreign civilians was an act that had precedent throughout the war and occupation years; it was one of the most recognizable informal exchanges between American military personnel and local populations.
Wrigley’s Doublemint gum, the specific product Halvorsen had in his pocket at the fence, was an American product with global distribution. Its distinctive green-and-white wrapper was recognizable well beyond the United States. The fact that Halvorsen had gum rather than other candy is a small biographical detail but not an insignificant one: gum was lighter per unit of satisfaction than chocolate, and two sticks of gum could be divided in ways that two chocolate bars could not.