Gobstopper

Gobstopper is a fictional candy created by Roald Dahl for his 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In the story, gobstoppers are large, hard candies that reveal new colors and flavors as they are eaten. A prominent variant, the Everlasting Gobstopper, is designed to last indefinitely while retaining flavor, a concept central to the plot and to subsequent adaptations. The term gobstopper also appears in British English as a generic label for a large jawbreaker.

In Dahl's book and its film adaptations, the gobstopper is produced at Willy Wonka's factory and stands as one of the marvels of his confectionery ingenuity. The Everlasting Gobstopper serves as a key plot device, enabling schemes and evoking themes of invention, temptation, and competition.

In the 1971 film adaptation, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and the 2005 remake, the Everlasting Gobstopper is introduced as a supposedly never-ending candy that maintains flavor, fueling the intrigue of rival characters and testing the protagonists' ethics.

Outside fiction, gobstopper is also used as a general term for real-life jawbreakers—large, hard candies that dissolve slowly in the mouth. While the name is widely recognized, no true everlasting variety exists in reality, and the concept remains a fictional invention associated with Willy Wonka.