Chocolate Salt Water Taffy and Dreams

I totally got beach fever last week and took off Friday and drove to the Outer Banks like someone was chasing me. Hey, it's the summer - what can I say? And I'm sooo lucky to live in such a gorgeous state!!

I got to spend a few hours on the beach until a thunderstorm rolled in. When that happened I did the obvious - went shopping. And, of course, for me, shopping means checking out the candy. And what candy represents the beach more than salt water taffy?

Now the store I stopped in was packed and this stuff was flying off the shelves. Yahoo! This taffy is made by http://www.forbescandies.com/ another small candy maker based in Virginia Beach, VA. They say this taffy is full of "sea breeze and sunshine." Yeah and glucose, sugar and hydrogenated vegetable oil. But what the hell.

I also got some salt water taffy at Candy Expo from Sweet's. Sweet's makes those chocolate covered cinnamon gummy bears I didn't love. But hey, they are in the Salt Water Taffy game:

Apparently the sail boat as candy window is vital in the packaging of salt water taffy.

I am going on an assortment rant. I have done this before and I feel certain I will do this again. In the store there were bins of the different flavors. Two of the flavors were peanut butter and cherry chocolate (yum!). Did I get any of those in my assortment? Oh no. I got 12 orange, 12 vanilla, 13 of a flavor I cannot for the life of me identify - some fruit thing, 8 licorice, 6 grape, 6 chocolate, 2 lime, 3 blue raspberry (glaack), 2 banana, 3 peppermint, 1 cinnamon. Next time I'm just going to buy two pieces of taffy - peanut butter and cherry chocolate. The rest of these suck.

Okay, I'm being too hard on them, but I think a Tootsie Roll is 10,000 times better than these chocolate taffy blobs.

Why can't assortments be more assorted? Why do you get 12 orange and no peanut butter? The Sweet's assortment was no better. I got 1 juicy pear and 12 chocolate (although I was okay with that). They also have Neapolitan - good, and peach - horrifying.

And look at these from Forbes:

I thought maybe one was just a poorly colored grape taffy. Oh no - that truly ugly color is licorice. And apparently one flavor is just shoved in after another - I saw many weird combos like the mutant in the upper right. Taffy scares me.

Except for Sweetime's Valentine's Day assortment, which I could eat that until my teeth fell out, I can live without taffy. The Tootsie Roll still reigns in the low-fat-not-chocolate-chew department.

But I didn't go to the Outer Banks for the candy. Every time I go, I have to stop by the Wright Brother's Memorial in Kitty Hawk:

I LOVE this monument. It is absolutely gorgeous, is art deco, and rests on a base in the shape of a star. But best of all is the quote carved on the base of the wing:

"Conceived by genius, achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith."

What audacity the Wright Brothers had - how brilliant they were. And how they changed the world as we know it. This is sacred ground in my book and it always takes my breath away to stand on it.

What could the rest of us achieve if we had dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith? To what heights could we fly?

This summer - if you go to the beach - eat some taffy and dream some big dreams. That's what summer's for.

Old Time Religion

Okay, as if my mere mention of the dreaded Chick-O-Stick was not enough, look at this great review from my friend Jonny of Candy Gurus:

http://candygurus.blogspot.com/2009/02/chick-o-stick-islander-treat.html

He's in Hawaii right now on vacation, lounging around and blogging about candy. The Recession isn't raining on his parade either! Go Jonny!!

It makes me want to actually eat one of Dem Chicken Bones.

So, what do we learn by this trip to Mast General Store?

Candy is the drug of choice during the recession. Hey, you don't have to believe me! In Tuesday's edition of USA TODAY, the Sr. VP of Marketing at Ghirardelli said, "In hard times, chocolate is comforting and affordable." Uh - actually chocolate is always comforting and affordable. That's the best he's got?

Ghirardelli's 2009 sales are projected to surpass those of 2008. Hershey's also reported strong sales. (Clearly this is a direct result of this blog. And of all the chocolate I give out in my seminars. See, I TOLD you I was bailing out the chocolate makers!!! Who else would buy a $50 5 lb. Hershey bar?)

But I digress.

The bottom line is that we love our candy. It makes us feel better, it's fun, and it's relatively inexpensive. Candy is great.

Another possible lesson is that we might actually return to some simpler pleasures. I don't know about this for sure - we've gone pretty far down the path away from this. Just today I saw people out walking their dogs and all of them were on their cell phones. The dogs interacted way more than the humans did.

But nostalgic candy does remind us of our childhoods - of Halloween, of family holidays, of summer fun. I remember my Dad coming home from work and bringing me Now and Laters. I loved them because I loved my Dad. Well, maybe I loved my Dad because I loved Now and Laters.....but you get the point. Love was involved...in some way. Life was simpler and not so scary then - or so we like to remember.

I just know that candy makes me happy - it did then and it does now. And I am clearly not alone.

Some of these crazy candies show us that if something is really good to four or five people, chances are it's good to many others. You don't have to sell as many Cherry Mash bars (are they really bars? More like Cherry Mash balls) as Snickers bars to still turn a profit. And with the Internet, small candy companies can get the word out and reach a larger market. They have a much tougher time getting into the grocery stores where Hershey and Mars have distribution locked up.

Some of them, however, might want to consider upgrading. I don't have access to their sales figures, but Kits are really sub par. And the process to make all those crappy little squares and wrap them all individually surely can't be completely cheap. Unless they are making a fortune, maybe they could try to get better?

I overheard a teenager in Mast commenting "These are all the candies that have gone out of business!" Obviously this teen was not the sharpest tool in the shed. After all, if the companies had gone out of business who did she think was making the candy? And I don't think that candies go out of business, the companies that make the candies go out of business, but you can appreciate what she was thinking. Maybe if she had texted her thought it would have been more literate.

Just because something has been around a long time doesn't mean it's good. But just because something is new doesn't mean it's good either. If the only competitive advantage you have is that you've been around a long time, you better reconsider. For example - Squirrel Nut Zippers are bad - they look greasy and creepy in their wrappers and don't taste much better. But that's a kicking name and I bet they could do some research, improve the product, and laugh all the way to the bank! That French Taffy was awesome!! But the packaging needs a serious redo. If it looked better and more people tried it, I swear they'd be hooked. The stuff is good! Work what you've got!!

These candies are all a lot like us - not everyone of us can be a Snickers (a Brad Pitt if you will), hogging all the shelf space, making millions, getting all the press. But we can all be great enough to have good friends and a great life. We can still draw a crowd at Mast General Store! Make the most of what makes you unique and special and keep developing those traits or growing in new directions. You'll have your fans - even if you are a Chicken Bone.

More of the Candy Undead

Dating update - last night's date confessed to me that his ex-wife took a restraining order out on him. Now before you think I'm dredging these guys up from the depths of Hell, this guy seemed respectable! He's a doctor for God's sake! But needless to say, I'll be passing on any more dates with him. Let's go back to Mast General Store - it's much safer there.

I just finished devouring Doscher's famous (I think "famous" is a bit of a reach here) French Chew Taffy bar. This one was chocolate and it was pretty darn good! Softer than I expected and fun to chew - I liked it! Only 160 calories too!

http://www.doscherstaffy.com/

This is from their web site and I completely agree:

We think you will find that Doscher's possesses a great taste, texture and shape. Doscher's Candies, founded in 1871, have been making the taffy for over a century. Doscher's is a small, independent candy company making taffy by hand in Cincinnati, in copper kettles dating back to 1893. It is made five days a week at a rate of about 75 bars per minute.


Although vanilla is the best selling flavor! Not chocolate. That just seems wrong.

Mast also has mini Heath and Clark bars as well as Kits and B-B-Bats. Heath and Clark bars will be reviewed elsewhere - I just liked getting these baby ones. Kits and B-B- Bars are just heinous. Too hard, crummy flavor - disappointing. One of the Kits flavors I got was peanut butter - I was so excited. Not so good. These are bought by people who just don't know any better. Get a French Chew Taffy bar! Get a Tootsie Roll! Just unwrapping these things is too much trouble.

This is a white chocolate Toberone bar (which I'll review elsewhere) and some Chocolate Cream Drops. Mast also sells several bags of candy like this - chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate malt balls, Jordan almonds, etc. These are nothing to write home about - they are just adequate. The chocolate is average and the cream is very sugary. But if you buy some, you might find them hard to stop eating. I have no explanation for this.

Now look at this baby:

I've been wanting to try one of these since I read about them in Candy Freak.

The Chase Candy Company is another small American candy maker based in St. Louis. They've been making the Cherry Mash since 1918. From the company's web site:

http://www.cherrymash.com/

Around 1918 Chase formulated what was to become the best selling cherry candy bar in the country, Cherry Mash. The candy consisted of a quarter pound mound of chopped roasted peanuts blended with chocolate coating over a smooth cherry fondant center. Interestingly the candy was called Cherry Chase then Cherry Chaser before becoming the Cherry Mash we know today.

Here it is naked:

And you know how I like to perform chocolate autopsies:

Wow - look at that cherry! Chase says this is the "best selling cherry candy bar in the country." I ask you - are there any other cherry candy bars in the country? But, hey, I'm all for bold marketing.

Now I'm a little conflicted about this bizarre concoction. I'm not a big cherry fan as you all know. And look at all that cherry!! But somehow the abundance of peanuts offsets some of the cloying sweetness of the cherry. It wasn't bad! If you like cherry, you should really try one of these. But it is VERY filling (it's about the size of a small fist) and has almost 300 calories. I can't really recommend this, but I can't really dis it either. I'm glad the Cherry Mash is out there and I'm glad I tried it.

I love this crazy candy adventure!!

As for the dating adventure......so far, not so much.