Saltwater Taffy on the Boardwalk at Atlantic Center, New Jersey

If you've taken a stroll along a boardwalk on the East Coast then you have most likely tasted salt water taffy, that ubiquitous wax paper-wrapped chewy confection that has appealed to the sweet tooth of Americans for over a hundred years. There's a good chance that even if you've never been to a Jersey beach boardwalk that you've still eaten saltwater taffy from one of the many candy companies that sell their own brand of this distinctly American treat.

Taffy has been made for more than a 1,000 years worldwide with the earliest recipe being found in a Baghdad cookbook. A taffy that is very similar to the one hawked on Jersey seashores and boardwalks began to evolve and spread through medieval Europe, even though it didn't make its way to England until the early 19th century.

The English version was made from boiled sugar, corn syrup, or molasses, butter or cream and flavored with vanilla and peppermint. After reaching what is called the hard-ball stage, the candy was poured out and cooled just slightly until it was cool enough to begin the pulling stage.

Large sheets of the candy sheet would be pulled , stretched and folded over hand by hand until it became pliable and shiny. Small snippets of the pulled taffy were then cut into short lengths, wrapped in oily paper, twisted at each end and sold to eager customers.

While children might have been the targeted market, adults were just as intrigued by the taffy deliciousness and soon taffy pulling parties became all the rage, where guests would pair off, stretching strands of candy with buttered fingers and hands. When the taffy reached its satiny sheen, eager party participants would reap the reward of their "hard labor"!

In the 1840's, these traditional taffy making parties had arrived in the United States with immigrants bringing their favorite taffy recipes with them. It became quite a fad in the East and eventually made it's way to Atlantic City, New Jersey. At the time this area had become a popular Oceanside health resort.

Originally Atlantic City became a haven for patients who had been prescribed fresh sea air by their physician as a cure-all for what ailed them. What ailed them was probably the growth and impact of crowded city living with the influx of millions of immigrants into the East Coast cities. The growth of these Jersey resorts led to the development of the boardwalks that prevented sand from being tracked back from the beaches into the hotels and resorts that lined the coast. This raised "boardwalk" connected the beach areas with the towns and their businesses.

American capitalism promptly embraced the area along these boardwalks with vendors setting up all manner of business; ice cream stands, hot dog stands, knickknacks and sourvenirs and eventually taffy and candy stores. However, it wasn't salt water taffy that these first boardwalk candy vendors sold. Not yet.

Saltwater taffy can be traced back to a boardwalk taffy and postcard shop where one night, the incoming tide rose higher than usual and his shop was flooded and his booth was covered in sea foam. In a desperate attempt to save his taffy inventory, he brushed off the salty residue, tasted it and claimed that it was even better! He named his new "taffy" saltwater taffy and his gambit worked.

The taffy with its new name but its same old recipe and taste, sold well and won a prize at the Pennsylvania State Fair in 1885. No saltwater was added, it wasn't soaked in saltwater, nothing changed in the making of saltwater taffy from its original candy making method. The only thing that changed was that this vendor found a way to make his product beach friendly. Who would buy plain old taffy at the beach, if the guy next door was selling that "special" saltwater taffy?

Soon there were several vendors labeling their taffy with the saltwater eponym and history was made. But it was one Joseph Fralinger, an experienced taffy maker on the East coast, who began to play around with the taffy formula and began to expand his line by adding an array of flavors and pale pastel colors, reflective of the sunny beaches and summer pastels of the boardwalk.

Fralinger became known as "the taffy king", and the rush to create the perfect taffy with new flavors, fillings, and varieties with swirls, stripes, and ever more variety of color and hue became the boardwalk rage. Every new flavor or refinement to saltwater taffy was greeted eagerly by tourists and consumers who loved the flavor and the cachet of saltwater taffy from the beach. It was like a mini vacation in your mouth.

Taffy and candy makers from Massachusetts to Florida and clear across the country to Salt Lake City Utah brought saltwater taffy to the entire nation, with over 450 companies making and selling it by the 1930's. The popularity of saltwater taffy may have slackened with the invention of the wide variety of more modern candies but with mail order sales, taffy making has left its summer production days behind and is now a year round operation. The same little rectangle log with its see through wax paper wrapping still appeals to die hard fans and new converts. Those tasty little logs of taffy have come to symbolize the beach.

Tourists on the boardwalks of the East Coast still can't help but stop and stare as saltwater taffy, in many shades is pulled, stretched, turned, folded and wound until it turns into the pastel satin ribbons of confectionary delight. It may have no saltwater in it, but saltwater taffy evokes a wistful memory of a summer beach and the taste of the seashore on a summer vacation outing.

How is saltwater taffy made?

There are several large candy making companies along the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where you can watch saltwater taffy being made. A personal favorite of this author is James Candy Company or Fralingers, both of which have survived to become two of the most well known saltwater taffy makers in the country and along the boardwalk.

First, saltwater taffy begins with butter and sugar being heated to a precise 250 degrees in large copper cauldrons. The hot liquid is then poured into large tubs and cooled overnight in cooling room. The next morning, the taffy is poured onto a cooling table and fed into a pulling machine where it is stretched and aerated. Various flavors and colors are added in during this pulling and stretching stage. Eventually the taffy reaches its finished stage and is then fed through a batch roller machine where the 100 pound batch of saltwater taffy is thinned into slender rolls. Finally the rolls are snipped into their traditional log shaped snips and hand wrapped in the correct paper for that flavor and color.

500 pieces of saltwater taffy are produced each minute of the day at James Candy Company, more than a half million a year.That's a lot of saltwater taffy, but the desire for this truly American confection continues to remain popular. Once you become a saltwater taffy convert, those cheap store brands you can buy at discount stores will never be purchased again. If you haven't tried James Saltwater Taffy, you don't have to journey to the boardwalk in Atlantic City. You can go here...and order some for Christmas gifts this year or your own authentic replica 1915 tin of James Candy Company Saltwater Taffy.

And if you want to try and make your own saltwater taffy, it's still possible to create this creamy chewy confection in your own kitchen. Have a taffy pulling party this fall and invite lots of taffy pullers to create their own unique new flavor or color of saltwater taffy, without any beach or sand anywhere near your taffy! Here's a website with a recipe similar to that used hundreds of years ago by taffy pullers in England and the United States.