Gobstopper
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A gobstopper, also known as a jawbreaker in Canada and the United States, is a type of boiled sweet. It is usually round, and usually ranges from Template:Convert across; though gobstoppers billed as having a diameter as large as Template:Convert have been marketed.<ref name="Stone">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The term gobstopper derives from "gob", which is slang in the United Kingdom and Ireland for mouth. The sweet was a favourite among British schoolboys in the first half of the twentieth century; author Roald Dahl, who wrote about a jar of gobstoppers featuring in the prank he played in his local sweet shop in 1924, also referred to them in his fictional Everlasting Gobstopper which was featured in his 1964 children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.<ref name="Gobstopper popularity">Template:Cite book</ref>
Gobstoppers have been sold in traditional sweet shops for at least a century, often by weight from jars. As gobstoppers dissolve very slowly, they last a very long time in the mouth, which is a major factor in their popularity.
ManufacturingEdit
Gobstoppers are made by slowly depositing layers onto a core, such as a pressed ball of sugar, a single seed of anise or a gumball.<ref>How it's Made Season 7 Episode 02</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Gobstoppers are made in large, rotating, heated pans in a process known as "hot panning". The sweets take several weeks to manufacture, as the process of adding liquid sugar is repeated multiple times. Natural and artificial colours and flavours are also added during the panning process.
Everlasting GobstoppersEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The Everlasting Gobstoppers, sold under Nestlé's Willy Wonka Candy Company brand, were first introduced in 1976 by Breaker Confections,<ref name="zeldes">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and are named after the Everlasting Gobstoppers in Roald Dahl's children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In Dahl's story, Everlasting Gobstoppers are purported to last forever. Dahl named the sweet after gobstoppers, which were a favourite among British schoolboys between the two World Wars.<ref name="Gobstopper popularity"/> A jar of gobstoppers featured in the prank Dahl played on the owner of his local sweet shop in 1924, which he recorded in his autobiography Boy: Tales of Childhood.<ref>"Blue plaque marks Dahl sweet shop". BBC. Retrieved 24 December 2014.</ref>
In popular cultureEdit
Charlie and the Chocolate FactoryEdit
In the 1964 children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl described "Everlasting Gobstoppers," a fictional gobstopper that could never get smaller or be finished.
Ed, Edd n EddyEdit
The animated series Ed, Edd n Eddy revolves around jawbreakers. Most episodes feature the title characters running a variety of scams to earn money to buy the confections.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The jawbreakers in the show are depicted as comically oversized, often with a circumference larger than that of the heads of the characters;<ref name="Stone" /> characters' cheeks would balloon to the same size when these jawbreakers were placed in their mouths. Jawbreakers are also the main subject of one of the show's tie-in video games, Ed, Edd n Eddy: Jawbreakers!.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
JawbreakerEdit
The 1999 American teen comedy Jawbreaker centres around the main characters accidentally killing their friend after gagging her with a jawbreaker.
LawsuitEdit
In 2003, Taquandra Diggs, a nine-year-old girl in Starke, Florida, US suffered severe burns, allegedly from biting on an exploding Wonka Everlasting Gobstopper that had been refrigerated, left out in the sun, then refrigerated again. Diggs and several other alleged victims' families filed lawsuits against Nestlé for medical bills resulting from plastic surgery as well as pain and suffering; the matters were later settled outside of court for an undisclosed amount.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>