{moszoomthumb imgid=237 itemid=74 style_m=2}New England Confectionery Company

Peanuts and peanut butter flavor are a staple of the candy industry, but there is one quiet giant that has stood above them for almost a century, and she has the face of a little girl: Mary Jane.

The Mary Jane isn't just peanut-flavored; rather, it tastes, feels and looks like the candy reincarnation of an actual peanut. It's peanut sized, in a pale yellow wrapper, and inside it's tan and tender and almost earthy—eat one with your eyes closed and you can feel the sun of the heartland on your face, nearly smell the hay and hear the slow rustle of grasshoppers. It makes you think about more than the generic one-note "peanut" flavor we're used to, making you contemplate the whole peanut with its soft, airy shell, its funny, quirky shape, the mix of sun-dry and nut-oily. It makes you think about what it means to be a peanut, the funny little legume that no one respects.

The 21st century is a hard place for a soft peanut candy, and the name "Mary Jane" has turned into one joke after another: whether you think first of marijuana, Spider-Man's girlfriend, or Tom Petty videos about necrophilia, the name of this sweet little candy has been unfairly twisted against it.

It's not Mary Jane that's changed, though. Originally manufactured by the Charles N. Miller Company starting in 1914, in 1990 production of Mary Janes was taken up by NECCO, who will hopefully make them for at least another hundred years.