Does The Idaho Spud Bar Actually Contain Potatoes?

You'd be out for a root awakening if you had your eyes peeled for potatoes on the ingredient list of Idaho's favorite candy bar, the Idaho Spud Bar. But no one could blame you for trying. Even though potatoes are grown in every state in the United States and approximately 125 countries, nine out of 10 Americans associate Idaho with potatoes. The state, which has been growing potatoes since the 1830s, is now the largest producer of potatoes in the country. But it also produces one of the 10 most iconic candies of the past, the Idaho Spud. If you like dark chocolate, coconut, and marshmallow, this spud's for you.

The Idaho Candy Company first began coating cocoa-flavored marshmallow with a dark chocolatey coating, sprinkling it with coconut and shaping it to look like a potato for its best-selling bar in 1918. Unlike most marshmallows, which are made with gelatin, the Idaho Spud is made with agar-agar, a vegetarian substitute made from seaweed. According to some reviewers on social media, this gives the marshmallow an odd consistency, more spongy than creamy.

Idaho Candy Company was started by T.O. Smith, a candymaker in Chicago and Salt Lake City before he made his way to the Gem State. Smith began selling candy door to door out of shoeboxes until teaming up with a family named Adams to build a new factory in Boise and expand the operation. The company still operates today after being sold to Don Wakeman, a former plant manager.

The company plays homage to its home state with other candies like Huckleberry Gems, milk-chocolate covered, huckleberry-flavored, and gem-shaped marshmallow creams, which celebrate the blueberry-like fruit as well as Idaho's gem-mining industry. It also makes the Old Faithful, a chocolate peanut cluster with a marshmallow center, named after the famous geyser in Yellowstone National Park. If you're not up for a full Spud bar, the company also offers bite-sized versions in a mini potato shape. Or you can try the company's Toffee Taters, bite-sized butter toffee nuggets that look like potatoes and are packaged in a burlap bag.

The Idaho Spud isn't the only tater-shaped treat celebrating the official state crop. The Westside Drive-in located in Boise sells its famous Idaho Potato Ice Cream, vanilla ice cream with whipped cream that is made to look like a baked potato with dirt and sour cream. Between the ice cream dessert and the Spud bar, the two tuber-shaped treats are going to have to hash it out to see which is the state's true favorite.