“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. 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.

Zotz candy where to buy