The popular chocolate bar "Three Musketeers" got its name because when it was first introduced in 1932 there were three individual bars. The flavours were strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla.

Variety is the Thing

Candy lovers who pick up a Three Musketeers bar today, and bite into that luscious chocolate nougat smothered in milk chocolate, often wonder how it got its name. Was it really linked to three dashing young men wielding swords? No, it wasn’t. Actually, the bar drew its name from the very first way it was made in 1932: with three layers of flavors- strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. Even then, it was not the first sweet treat to layer those three flavors.

In Naples, Italy, when ices, then ice cream and “gelato” became popular, starting way back in the 17th century, someone decided that one flavor was too tame, and added two more, combining cherry, pistachio and chocolate ice cream. Italian immigrants brought their delightful variation to America, where it was known as “Neapolitan” ice cream. But the manufacturing here, turned to using the more popular flavors of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla in the 1800s.

Neapolitan ice cream is rated third or fifth most popular in flavors, according to which survey you consult. But it is certainly out of sight, or was in 1969, when astronaut Neil Armstrong dined on some in space, during the famous voyage to the moon.