Seasonal Candy

Chocolate covered Oreos

Once or twice a month I do some work for my former employer, the New York City Department of Education, at their human resources building located at 65 Court Street in what we call "downtown" Brooklyn.  I put "downtown" in quotes, because if you look at a map of Brooklyn , this building located at Court and Joralemon Streets is really located in the northwest sector of Kings County, otherwise known as Brooklyn. The only real "downtown" that is near to it is a subway stop away in lower Manhattan.
On my way to the office is a interesting store that only sells seasonal candies.  It is called "It'Sugar", and it is always packed with kids and adults who line up every day to satisfy their "sweet tooth". The window displays are the real "eye candy" in the neighborhood, and the window-dressers do a meticulous job in creating temptingly delicious theme windows for every season. From January through December, they feature a candy or two for each season.  



Necco Sweethearts

   Having worked yesterday, I noticed that the February flavors of the month have arrived. Frilly heart-shaped red and pink boxes of hand-dipped chocolate covered Oreos sit nicely next to the classic Necco Sweethearts with their greetings: "Be Mine", "Kiss Me", "Call Me", "Let's Get Busy", and "Miss You".  If you are so inclined, you can get these in Spanish under the brand name "Hola!".  These candies have a long history as they were first produced in their present format in 1901. The company tried making them with "all natural" ingredients a few years back, but sales dropped and they are back to their original recipe.

Original Peeps

As a "thank you" gift from my granddaughter, I recently got an early supply of "Peeps", a classic

Easter candy of marshmallow shaped chicks encased in crystallized spun sugar.  Their classic color is yellow, but you can now get them in green, blue, pink and purple.  They are also making bunnies in Easter colors, but the chicks are still the benchmark as far as I am concerned.  In the past, they had a limited shelf life, and I have been known to freeze them.  I also admit to a penchant for slightly stale, and thus a bit hardened, Peeps.  I understand they have recently added ingredients to extend their shelf life and have new packaging.  I hate it when folks tinker with a classic, don't you?

My beloved Cadbury Eggs

And I am sad to say that this year a beloved Easter candy will NOT be in any Easter Basket at any of the Swanson-Redden clan households.  Those wonderful "Canbury Eggs" that we have looked forward to every year will no longer be available in the format we have come to love.  A rather large American candy manufacturer, Hersey's, to exact, has actually used the United States Court system to block Cadbury products from the US saying their products can be confused with Hersey's.  Well, gentleman, that is just not true.  Cadbury milk chocolate actually has more milk in it then do yours, and thus have a smoother and purer milk chocolate taste that is far superior to those made on this side of the Atlantic. Some of the Cadbury Eggs available in the US are made by Hershey, but in the NYC area, we can buy the British version at various Irish, English and Scottish purveyors who specialize in overseas comfort foods.  They will no longer be permitted to stock the Cadbury products made in Britain. I guess I will have to wait for later in the year when I am going to Europe; I believe I may have a lay over in Heathrow...you know what I will be buying!

During the summer months, especially at ball games and county fairs, cotton candy is indeed king!

This magical finely spun pink sugar confection is like eating clouds on a summer afternoon....absolute pure joy! It brings back lovely summer time memories just thinking about it!

Cotton candy is made by heating sugar and then spinning the liquefied sugar out through tiny holes where it re-solidifies into strings of sugar glass. Machine-spun cotton candy was invented in 1897 by a dentist (interestingly enough) and confectioner. It was first introduced to a wide audience at the 1904 World's Fair.  There is even a National Cotton Candy Day in the United States on December 7th.

Candy Corn

Into the autumn and winter new seasonal candies emerge. Halloween at the end of October, is kind of a candy free for all, and anything goes, but come November the one constant in the candy business has to be candy corn. Found in the United States and Canada, this three-colored candy – a broad yellow end, a tapered orange center, and a pointed white tip – mimic the appearance of corn kernels. Each piece is approximately three times the size of a real kernel from a ripe or dried ear.

Candy corn is made of sugar, corn syrup, confectioners wax, artificial coloring and binders.  It was never one of my favorites, but I guess it has its fans.


And of course, during the Christmas Season the candy cane rules. According to legend the candy cane was invented around 1670 in Cologne in present day Germany.  The choirmaster at the Cathedral, wanting to eliminate the noise caused by children in during the service on Christmas Eve, asked a local candy maker for some sweet sticks for them. In order to justify the practice of giving candy to children during services (!!..things do not change much, do they?), he asked a local candy maker to add a crook to the top of each stick, which would help children remember the Christmas shepherds. In 1957, an ordained a Roman Catholic Christian priest, Gregory Harding Keller, whose family was in the candy business, patented his invention, the Keller Machine, which automated the process of twisting soft candy into spiral striping and then cutting them into precise lengths as candy canes eliminating a 20% loss of the final product that had plagued his family's company for years.


In a few weeks it will again be Lent, a time when many of us attempt to "give up" something in order to prepare for the great feast of Easter.  This is something that Christians do as part of their spiritual practice.  Now I know that many of us would rather add something to our practice instead of  denying ourselves, but maybe a few less sweets is not a bad thing.  I would also commend to you all a bit of "Lent Madness", an interesting Lenten discipline that melds the lives of the saints with football brackets. Take a look here: http://www.lentmadness.org/about/