Fralinger's Peanut Butter Chews: Taffy Elevated to a New Standard

On a recent visit to a discount department store, my shopping companion and I hit the jackpot somewhere in the back aisles, among the cooking utensils and gourmet food products. While most of the decoratively packaged food items back there are gift basket rejects, a gold and red box jutting out from a lower shelf caught my eye, if only for its understated elegance. Fralinger's Peanut Butter Chews, the box proclaimed in scrolled text plucked from a bygone era. Taffy, straight from the Jersey boardwalk. Not quite the real thing, but rather a salt water taffy variant. A chew. I'm usually wary of buying salt water taffy when the nearest ocean boardwalk is 600+ miles away. It just feels wrong when my nearest body of water was carved by a bulldozer in the early '90's. No ocean, no taffy. But my resolve softened at the prospect of chewy molasses taffy filled with peanut butter centers. I put the box in our basket - a special treat to be tucked in the cupboard and unearthed some time when the weather turned warmer.

Fast forward to July. The taffy was pliable and moist, even months after our purchase and probably many more months perched on that back aisle shelf. True to form, the flavor was mild yet pronounced enough to register "peanut butter" to our taste buds. The gritty centers made for a pleasant surprise and extra burst of peanut buttery goodness. The tactile side of me finds the waxy paper enshrouding each piece strangely appealing. Wax paper feels pure and classy, hand-wrapped with care, unlike the shiny, crinkly mainstream candy wrappers lining drug store aisles, glinting under the fluorescent lights as if to beckon: "Come buy me, sugar addict." No, salt water taffy masks its unhealthiness under the clean-cut aura of vintage packaging and a "salt water" title. Surely something linked - by name, no less - to one of nature's greatest wonders cannot be bad for you....or can it? Five of these chewy peanut butter nuggets will cost you 170 calories and six grams of fat - could be worse, I suppose.

I had been familiar with James' salt water taffy, but did not realize that one Joseph Fralinger had also claimed patriarchal status over the salt water taffy empire, as well. The company website frames the story as one of friendly competition between two taffy innovators who ultimately perfected taffy recipes less likely to rip out your teeth or bind your mouth shut. Both James and Fralinger's original taffy recipes are still in production today and taste great whether in their land of origin or a suburban strip mall. Few things provoke a nostalgic longing for boardwalks and beach houses better than salt water taffy. Landlocked and wishing for water, you, too, can transport yourself to a coastal getaway through the sensory device of taste. And the Peanut Butter Chews stand out as a unique twist on the original.