If you have a sweet tooth since you were a kid, for sure you know Tootsie Pops. Everyone wanted a tootsie pop simple because of the tootsie roll inside!
Tootsie pops are hard candy lollipops and they are filled with a chocolate-flavored chewy tootsie roll. This was invented in 1931 by one of the employees of The Sweets Company of America. Later in 1969, the company changed its name to Tootsie Roll Industries. The tootsie pop debuted in 1931. Aside from the original chocolate flavor, Tootsie pops also come in caramel, cherry, grape, orange, raspberry, watermelon, candy cane, and blue raspberry. Now, they have added the banana, pomegranate, blueberry, lemon, and green apple flavors.

If you can still remember, there was even a “how many licks does it take to get to the center” commercial that was aired a few years back. If you are lucky and you found a start in your tootsie pop wrapper, you can get a free lollipop. However, getting that star was as rare as winning that ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!

This is why questions arose if anyone was able to claim their prize or saw someone who did. Was this phenomenon real? Or was it all a hoax?

Sadly, yes that free lollipop for a star on your tootsie pop wrapper is not real.

There is no significance to finding this star on your tootsie pop wrapper. The company even released a statement on their website saying that they do not even know how, when, and where this rumor started.

The Tootsie website stated:

“It has been rumored that local convenience stores used to give a free Tootsie Pop to anyone who brought in a wrapper containing the image of the shooting star. Unfortunately, we do not know how this rumor started and Tootsie Roll Industries has never actually honored this promotion.”

They also added, “In fact, the shooting star appears on 1 in every 4 to 6 Tootsie Pop wrappers, just as frequent as the other images appear.”

This only means that your tootsie pop wrapper with stars do not mean anything special or will receive any recognition. These stars are simply just there! However, some stores honored the wrapper offer allowing people to actually ‘win’ a lollipop. Some stores redeemed lollipop wrappers with the shooting star for a free pop. This is the one with an image of a child who is dressed as a Native American, aiming a bow and arrow at a star.

What’s true though is the experiment on how many licks will it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop. These experiments were conducted by the Purdue University, Swarthmore Junior High School, and the University of Michigan.

Reports from Purdue University reveals that it takes an average of 252 licks to get to the center of the tootsie pop. The University of Michigan revealed that it takes 411 licks. On the other hand, the Swarthmore Junior High School reported that it will take 144 licks.

All of these results reveal that nobody in the world will know how many licks do you have to make to get to the center of that tootsie pop! Sadly, this will always remain as a huge mystery.