![]() The Zotz Brothers talent at improvising fizzy encounters produced a cascade of quizzical looks and raised eyebrows. Their idea was to periodically appear on campus wearing Spider Man masks and hand out candy to students, faculty and staff.īy November 1980, Roberts, Raducha, and Reyna were well on their way to “Zotzifying” Countdown College. People get really wrapped up in the pressures, the grades.” The Zotz Brothers decided to “break the chain of depression.” Using the house they shared on Auburn Avenue as their base of operations, the Zotz Brothers formulated their plans. “At FIT there’s a lot of technical courses,” Raducha continued. Later Peter Raducha explained that the Zotz Brothers felt it their “mission from God” to make people laugh. Their mission was to bring a bit of whimsical fizz to Countdown College. The three honors students christened themselves the Zotz Brothers and swore an oath of loyalty declaring “all for one and Zotz for all”. By the end of the summer, Roberts and Raducha had drawn their roommate, Erick Reyna, into their plan. Drew Roberts and Peter Raducha were charmed. What made the hard candy unique was that each piece had a flavored fizzing center. One day Roberts’ younger brother, Sean, returned from the Seven-Eleven on Babcock Street with a package of Zotz Fizz Power Candy. Roberts and Raducha were hard at work on their summer marine field project. Three ocean engineering students, Drew Roberts, Peter Raducha, and Erick Reyna decided to add a bit of zaniness to FIT during their senior year. For the better part of a year, students making their way across campus would encounter three masked individuals handing out candy. They went on a campaign to prove you can take candy from strangers. In the early 1980s, three Florida Tech students set out to prove Mom and Dad, Gene Pitney, and Britney Spears wrong. ![]() After all if he hadn't been such a pain then I may never of happened onto the best candy in the world - Zotz Sours.In 1965, Gene Pitney, America’s wholesome response to the Beatles and Rolling Stones British invasion, recorded a hit tune entitled “ Don’t Take Candy from Strangers.” Forty years later a somewhat less than winsome Britney Spears picked up this refrain in her 2008 comeback album. From that day forward Zotz Sours was my favorite candy and I made a conscious effort to spend at least a little time with my brother. I popped one in my mouth and I bit it and even though it was sour it was the best candy I ever ate. He opened the pack and chomped one then another until they were all gone! I was amazed even more when he asked for more. I acted as if I was angry and finally said sure. As I was walking home the store he came running after me asking if he could have some of what was in the bag without even knowing what it was. ![]() I thought to myself, that if these were horrible enough, maybe he would think twice about always having to have everything I had. The lady behind the counter told me they were terribly sour. I went to the local candy store one day and just happened to see a candy named Zotz Sours. I finally felt I needed some way to stop this tag-along in his tracks. This, of course, didn't sit well with an older, more worldly boy of ten, such as myself. ![]() Anything I did he had to be right beside me and everything I had, he wanted. I was three years older than him and it seemed like all he wanted to do was be under my feet. Growing up with a little brother was, at times, trying to say the least. Zotz are an Italian made candy that were first introduced into the US in 1968. It looks and tastes like a regular hard candy, but when you bite into the center there is a sour fizzing taste because of the powder reacting with saliva. Zotz is a candy with a fizzy, sour center. ![]()
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