A taste of yesterday

September leaves a lot of people feeling nostalgic. The summer is drawing to a close, the days are shorter and all those back-to-school supplies remind us of days in class spent chewing on a trusty yellow HB pencil and looking out the window. For the big kids among us there might even be a yearning for a simpler time. A time before the mortgage and the corporate ladder. A time where running to the corner store on the way home from school was routine and the toughest decision you had to make that day was what you were going to spend that pocket money on - would it be gum? Penny candy? Soda pop?

Chances are if you have those memories, you remember this tri-coloured taffy from McCraw's and, if you were like my cousins and I, you spent your pocket money on this quite often!



Common legend goes that in 1900 Mr McCraw was in the popcorn business and, on a tip, invested a little capital (supposedly $0.50!) in some sugar, a candy thermometer and a hook. He and his wife set about making taffy and sold it alongside their popcorn until the popularity of the taffy outpaced the popcorn and McCraw's Old Fashioned Taffy was born. Over 100 years later they're back in business and pumping out strips of the famous sticky stuff, using the original recipe. And to make things even sweeter, McCraw's is located in a little town in Texas on Candy Street! Talk about community fixture.

A brief note on McCraw's taffy: this is the tangy, fruity flavoured taffy, not the neapolitan variety. That taffy, Koo Koo, is lost to the ages and while McCraw's does look like Koo Koo, it is not neapolitan in taste. McCraw's has a delightfully light and zippy flavour that is a treat unto itself!

Labels: taffy

posted by The Candy Store @ 2:54 PM