The exact origin of the Martini is unclear. In 1863, an Italian vermouth maker started marketing their product under the name of Martini, after its director Alessandro Martini, and the brand name Martini & Rossi may be the source of the cocktail’s name.

By 1922 the Martini reached its most recognizable form in which London dry gin and dry vermouth are combined at a ratio of 2:1, stirred in a mixing glass with ice cubes, with the optional addition of orange or aromatic bitters, then strained into a chilled cocktail glass.

Over time the generally expected garnish became the drinker’s choice of a green olive or a twist of lemon peel. Over the years, the Martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages.

Franklin Mars, whose mother taught him to hand dip candy, sold candy by age 19.

He started the Mars Candy Factory in 1911 with Ethel Mars, his second wife, in Tacoma, Washington. This factory produced and sold fresh candy wholesale, but ultimately the venture failed.

By 1920, Mars had returned to his home state, Minnesota, where the earliest incarnation of the present day Mars company was founded that year as Mar-O-Bar Co., in Minneapolis and later incorporated there as Mars Incorporated.

Forrest Mars, Sr., son of Franklin Mars and his first wife, Veronica, was inspired by a popular type of milkshake in 1923, to introduce the Milky Way bar, advertised as a ‘chocolate malted milk in a candy bar’, which became the best-selling candy bar.

In 1929, Franklin Mars moved the company to Bakersfield, California and started full production in a plant which still exists today. In 1930, Franklin Mars created the Snickers Bar and first sold it in US markets.

In 1932, Forrest Mars, son of American candy maker Franklin Mars, rented a factory in Slough and with a staff of twelve people, began manufacturing a chocolate bar consisting of nougat and caramel covered in milk chocolate, modelled after his father’s Milky Way bar, which was already popular in the US.

Mars bar and the proportions of the main components have changed over the years. With minor variations, this version is sold worldwide, except for the US, and is packaged in a black wrapper with red gold-edged lettering.