The Great Laffy Taffy Mystery

[sleepy]

Okay, not so great, but it really sucks.

I found Laffy Taffy in the mid 1980's.
These were Not Wonkas dammit!
These were single-piece bulk candies sold in 1 inch squares wrapped in a folded waxed plastic paper similar to a Starburst and sold for a nickel a piece at the local 7-11 and I would frequently buy a buck's worth, sometimes $2 worth and twice a week, they were That Good.

They had Cherry. They had Strawberry. They had Grape, Watermelon, and a "Hawaiian Punch" flavor.

Now, around 1989 the Nestle company bought Laffy Taffy and changed the name to Wonkas Laffy Taffy, and then shortly afterwards dropped the bulk candies and the extra "Hawaiian Punch" flavors.

Now, before the buyout of Laffy Taffy by Nestle, the original Laffy Taffy wrapper had a horizontal diamond pattern which contained a calligraphic depiction of the company name, like handwriting in the font style of The Ball Canning Company (the manufacturer of home canning jars) and, for the life of me, I can't remember now what the original company's name was.

The shame of it is that the Wikipedia page for Laffy Taffy only lists Wonka Laffy Taffy as if the candy was always a Nestle Wonka product which was created in the 1970's.

This is a Lie.

The second shame of it is, today I went to the old neighborhood 7-11 to try the Wonka version for the first time and God Dammit, the thing tastes like the smell of a cherry urinal cake, and Trust Me, I am only going by The Smell of a Fruity Urinal Cake.

In fact, I never have eaten a cherry urinal cake in my entire life and have Never even thought to try one. I'm not stupid, and I did have Hepatitis B in the 70's. I ain't going to risk eating a urinal cake just to check the authenticity of the Wonka Laffy Taffy Cherry flavor to that of A Urinal Cake.

Though I have in fact drank a Mountain Dew Baja Blast at the local Taco Bell, and it tastes just like how a fruity urinal cake Smells Too.


So friends, if there is anyone out there who can remember what the name of the company was that originated those 1 inch bulk candy Laffy Taffys, I will be much obliged. But Dammit, don't tell me Wonka!

 

[tiltjlp]

I'm pretty sure Laffy Taffy originally was made the New England Confectionery Company, better known as NECCO, as in Necco Wafers.

 

[sleepy]

I'm not sure about that tiltjlp. I looked all over the internet in the past to figure it out and there was absolutely No Information available other than the corporate Wonka stuff, but today after posting here I later found the name of the 80's company on perhaps the only web page in the entire world that knew anything about it, so, unless anyone is dying to know, I'll just hold on and see if anyone else can come up with it.

But to be sure, if you really need to know and, as long as Nestle hasn't changed the wikipedia page for Laffy Taffy, I went ahead and edited that page to include the former company name for the candy and I will also post it here after allowing some time for the correct answer to be offered.

 

[sleepy]

And Necco Wafers. In cocoa and wintergreen flavors!
And they would often ship half orders of each in the same box to the local stores, so I would often end up with a roll of "cocoa-wintergreen" flavored Necco Wafers, or visa-versa, due to the wintergreen vapors.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

yow... feels like a million years ago since i last allowed myself to eat anything with sucrose in it. even carbs from grains are out. this paleo diet can be pretty severe.

last candy i remember eating besides dark chocolate are these wax tubes filled with flavored sugar water. the only reason i got some of those ridiculous things is because i remembered them as a kid from 40 years ago. although the leftover wax tubes are kind of interesting-- probably some cool things to be done with them, even if it's only candle making.

sorry, no help here on the taffy mystery. for some reason i never much got in to willy wonka candy back in the day.

recently i read that because of some legal and manufacturing agreement, kit-kats are made by one company nationally and another company overseas. the companies being nestle and hersheys. also, i've been reading more about japan lately and apparently there are always different flavors and varieties of kit-kat being tested. pretty interesting if you're a kit-kat appreciator:

similar things go on around the world with various products, of course, but the japanese tend to take this stuff to an extreme IME.

 

[sleepy]

In my youth I think those wax "juice" novelties were called something like "Nips" or "Wax Nips".

Around Halloween there was a wax skull version of them, circa '67, filled with red sugar water.

And the Kit-Kat thing, is that something about Nestle bought the international distribution rights from the original Kit-Kat company, and then the company was later sold to Hershey? I think I read something like that years ago.

 

[Shockman]

Banana was my favorite, but for taffy I preferred the Abba Zaba. I Jones for taffy now. Living on the coast there were many saltwater taffy stores with all kinds of flavors.

 

[sleepy]

So do you know the company name Shockman?
I'm going to wait til tomorrow to post it.

 

[faralos]

we also had cherry flavored wax lips and the buck teeth
which tasted just like wax...yummy?
also the nips were little milk type bottles that when empty
made GREAT wax crayons for mischief night!
and then Zots came out (sodium bicarbonate filled hard candies)
so when soft or if bitten into your entire mouth filled with lemony foam
and pop rocks! ah the fun of blowing up the inside of your mouth

 

[Shockman]

No. I have no idea who first made the stuff.

 

[sleepy]

Pop Rocks is a def favorite of mine!

 

[faralos]

Laffy Taffy is a brand of taffy manufactured by Nestlé and sold under their Willy Wonka Candy Company brand. Laffy Taffy is a brand of candy first produced in the 1970s as "Beich's (Name of Flavor) Caramels", though in fact they were fruit-flavored taffy squares. The original company later changed the name of the product to "Beich's Laffy Taffy", which occurred some years prior to the acquisition of distribution rights and later purchase of the product line by Nestlé. The candies are small (about 1.5 oz or 45 g) individually wrapped taffy available in a variety of artificial fruit flavors, as well as a chocolate mousse flavor. The candy was advertised as having a "long-lasting" flavor. In 2003, Wonka introduced a variety called "Flavor Flippers", a piece of taffy that had a soft center with a different flavor.
The name refers to both the texture of the taffy as well as its embodiment of silliness; jokes are written on the inside of each wrapper. For example: "What do you call a cow with no legs? -- Ground Beef." Some jokes are pun-based, such as "What is Labor Day? -- That's when mommies have their babies." Other jokes are based on silly word play, such as "What's an owl's favorite subject? -- Owlgebra." These jokes are usually sent in by children who are credited on the wrapper. Laffy Taffy used to come in thick, square shaped pieces, but today, it is sold in thinner, rectangular shaped pieces.
so it seems they were sold first as caramels THEN became laffy taffy after the acquisition

 

[sleepy]

You son of a gun, that's my edit.
The wikipedia page originally made no reference at all to the original Beich's version.
Beich's was the original company whose name I could not remember.

And no. Beich's (Beich?) changed the name to Beich's Laffy Taffy, just as the wikipedia article states. Then in the late 80's Nestle bought the distribution rights, and later the manufacturing rights. This was when the candy was changed to Wonka Laffy Taffy, but as someone with the picture of the Beich's Laffy Taffy wrapper pointed out, the large Wonka Laffy Taffy sticks do not use the original Beich's recipe.

The large Wonka Laffy Taffy pull sticks used to be known as Tangy Taffy.
These are the taffys with the tart urinal cake fruit flavors. Woof.

The smaller taffys may or may not be the original Beich's recipe that actually tasted Good.

Btw, I received permission to update the wikipedia page with the photo of the Beich's Laffy Taffy wrapper from the photo owner, and in the photo, along the wrapper's edge, you can still see the "distributed by Nestle" print copy. I know from experience that this wrapper came from the late 80's after Nestle bought the distro rights before buying out Beich's as a competitor, possibly just to obtain ownership rights to the name and not the product. Please see the "References" link at the bottom of the page to catch the photo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffy_Taffy#cite_note-0