The Mysterious Reappearance of the Reggie Bar

How a beloved 1970s candy got called back up to the major leagues.

- CHRIS NASHAWATY

A FEW MONTHS AGO, I saw something out of the corner of my eye when I stopped off at Boccato's Groceries in Hermosa Beach, California. Something I hadn't seen in 45 years. Something I assumed that I'd never see again.

The bright orange wrapper with bold blue lettering was exactly how I remembered it from when I was a 9-year-old with a sweet tooth in the late 1970s. And once again, I was drawn to it like a mosquito to a bug zapper. Standing in the checkout line, I put down the case of bottled water my wife had sent me to pick up and began racing through some quick math: Twenty dollars divided by $2.99 equals... six! I had enough for six Reggie Bars. I walked out of the store feeling like a kid again.

Of course, this is not how grown men should act. But here I was, like Jack from "Jack and the Beanstalk," blowing the last of his family's savings on some magic beans. Except in this case, the magic beans were delicious discs of chocolate, caramel, and roasted peanuts endorsed by a power-hitting New York Yankees legend.

As I tried to spear caramel from between my teeth with my tongue, I began to ask myself questions: Where had this delicious piece of my childhood come from? Had they been making Reggie Bars all along and I simply didn't know it? Or had some wonderful company doing the Lord's work brought it back? And if so, why now? I decided to do some digging. I started by calling Mr. October himself.

"THIS IS REGGIE..."