Hard candy bars are made from white sugar, corn syrup, water, and flavorings. Mixing these together first melts the sugar and then cooks all the water out of the mixture. Then the temperature continues to be raised so that pure syrup is made, and when the syrup cools it becomes hard lump sugar. And to make the hopping candy, carbon dioxide gas under high pressure is added to the hot syrup. The carbon dioxide gas creates tiny high pressure bubbles in the sugar. When the pressure is released after the sugar cube has cooled, the cube breaks up, but the pieces still contain the high-pressure bubbles, and you can see them through a magnifying glass. When you put the sugar cube in your mouth and the sugar melts and the gas is released, you hear a "boom boom" sound. What you hear and feel is actually carbon dioxide gas being released from each bubble, which feels like a jellybean bouncing around in your mouth.

Bouncing Candy is an innovative candy that began appearing on the U.S. market in 1974, invented by Mitchell, a research and development scientist at General Foods.

In 1985, Kraft Foods bought the rights to manufacture Bouncing Candy and rebranded it as ActionCandy, and it was produced through a subsidiary called Carbonated Candy. In the same year, Kraft Foods sold the manufacturing equipment, technology, and Asian sales rights for Jumper Candy to JeongWoo Confectionery Company (now GF Korea) in South Korea. Prior to GF Korea, Kraft made powdered jumping jacks, which GF modified into a crystalline form (and later combined with foot-shaped lollipops) to make them more convenient to eat. These crystalized jumping jacks were re-imported into the U.S. in 1988 by UniConfis, a Jumbo Jewel company, under the name CrazyDips.