Necco Wafers! The Candy Nobody Likes!

[pyat]

commanderteddog has returned from her remarkable sojourn amongst the Yangs (E plebista!) Like most world explorers, she has returned to her native land bearing the exotic bounty of foreign realms. In my specific case, she returned bearing candy.


The Sky Bar, and Chocolate Necco Wafers! Both products of Necco, the oldest candy maker in the Western Hemisphere, founded at a time when wig powder was still being sold at Ye Olde General Store. Their candies do have the feel of a simpler time, and it's not just the retro packaging.

The Sky Bar was introduced in 1938, and it definitely has a sort of pre-War feel to it. It's not a half-pound of wax for one thing, but a small sticky bar, filled with gooey pockets. It's the candy bar you can imagine one of the younger Little Rascals eating, and getting all sticky-faced, then swallowing soap powder when they try to clean him in the wash tub, and hiccuping bubbles.

As for Necco Chocolate Wafers...


I poured some out on the stovetop for the photo, and they made a sound like poker chips, a sort of hollow rattle. They're covered in a dusting of sugar that comes off in your hands. They feel light and slippery, and when you eat them they shatter like bits of chalk. They also taste like chalk. Chalklate!

Necco wafers were invented in 1847, and it shows. They're like some kind of patent medicine that ended up just being eaten because it had a dusting of sugar - "Yes, Doctor Isambard Necco's Patented Wafers! For treatment of Female Hysteria and Colic! (Medicinal use only, not to be taken internally)"

Also, they are horrid. Also, I seem to have eaten them all, and want more.

Comments

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Your wife mentioned Canada as being the land of the Comms. Hmmm...

[leonard-arlotte.livejournal.com]

Necco wafers rock. The multi-flavor packs are great too.

[halfelf.livejournal.com]

I *love* Necco wafers!

[redregon.livejournal.com]

Also, they are horrid. Also, I seem to have eaten them all, and want more.

do you think that maybe that (what looks like) sugary coating could be something that's very much not a sugary coating? :P

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

Bahahahaha...that would explain how "Also, they are horrid. Also, I seem to have eaten them all, and want more," works.

[redregon.livejournal.com]

it could be confirmed if a future post of his has "Necco Wafers" and "jonesing" in the same sentence. ;)

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Also, they are horrid. Also, I seem to have eaten them all, and want more.

Sadly, I understand. OTOH, the Sky Bar actually sounds good.

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

Your candy review cracked me up!

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

They have chocolate bars with mild depressants in them in Maui!

Not ones I got to see, or sample. But I'm told they exist.

Shouldn't - and I'm just blue-skying here - shouldn't chocolate wafers be more wafer-like, and ideally, at least look as though they came once into contact with.. oh, I don't know.. chocolate?

[ladyringo.livejournal.com]

Necco wafers, both all chocolate and the other set with the minty fruitish flavors are my favorite candy evar.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Your Obedient Serpent is allergic to chocolate, but has, on occasion, encountered the "fruit"-flavored Necco Wafers.

Our reactions are identical. "Horrid. Want more."

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Necco Wafers are indeed perverse but not horrid, or you would spit them out rather than finding yourself eating them all.

Google Fit!


New England Confectionary COmpany, formed 1901 by the merger of three previous candy-making companies dating back as far as 1847. (http://www.necco.com/AboutUs/History.asp) Much good things there, they seem to be a decent enough crew historically. Note that they started advertising NECCO wafers around 1912 and that they were taken by Donald MacMillan on his Arctic expedition. Admiral Byrd took 2 1/2 tons of them to Antarctica.

The wafers are especially a favorite of military logistical types because they don't melt, don't go stale, and are relatively light.

They seem to have spent most of the last 25 years being acquired, re-acquired, purchasing, selling, and buying up other odd candy brands. They own the Clark Bar, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and of course, Canada Mints.

Now I want a Canada Mint.

Quoting the page:

In 1847, a young English immigrant, Oliver Chase, invented the first American candy machine, a lozenge cutter. After initial success selling his new candy, he and his brother, Silas Edwin, founded Chase and Co., which became the pioneer member of the NECCO family.

The original recipe for the NECCO Wafer remains basically unchanged today, and the Wafers are still made in the original eight flavors: orange, lemon, lime, clove, chocolate, cinnamon, licorice, and wintergreen. The ingredients are simply sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, gums, colorings and flavorings.

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

These products are as readily available as Hershey bars in this town -- no surprise, the factory (http://www.frogsonice.com/photos/cambridgeport/necco-building.jpg) used to be right here in Central Square. You'd walk by and smell sugar and perfumey artificial flavors. I always wanted to see inside, but Necco made a point of never opening the place to the public. Novartis has the building now, and I bet they're using some of the same machinery that stamped out Necco wafers to make pills.

By the way, as nast as the chocolate wafers are, they're much, much better than the "fruit flavored" Necco wafers, which are even more bland and insipid. 200 ppm of cocoa powder erases a multitude of sins. I end up buying a pack of chocolate Necco wafers about once a year, the same way I seem to eat at KFC or Burger King about once a year. I don't quite know why. Maybe it's some kind of penance.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

What's a Canada Mint?

[thebitterguy]

It's the big building on Sussex.

[kores-rabbit.livejournal.com]

There's a candy store at Eglinton and Yonge here in TO that sells "retro" and "American" candy. I believe they have Necco wafers in stock.
A friend of mine told me she and her brothers would pretend they were Communion Wafers and offer them to one another. "Body of Glucose" Amen.
I think they're pretty gross and they give me a headache when I eat them. Bleh! You may consume them all if you like!
:D

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Isn't it that pyramidy thing out in Winterpeg?

[thebitterguy]

It is, in fact, both. But he lives in Ottawa.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

CLOVE! THAT'S the flavor I could never identify!

(and why I put BS-quotes around "fruit".)

[summerfields.livejournal.com]

The fruity flavoured Necco wafers aren't too bad - Craig's mom loves them.
Stil, American candy is kinda ew.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but I want one!

[forkly.livejournal.com]

They look like those things you get in church.. o_o

[forkly.livejournal.com]

Love your icon!

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

They're like some kind of patent medicine that ended up just being eaten because it had a dusting of sugar

Yeah, just read the side effects listing on that one. ;)

[archai.livejournal.com]

I don't know, it sounds medically sound to me. Left to her own devices, the female will frequently self-medicate with chocolate and its derivatives for treatment of hysteria.

[archai.livejournal.com]

I have for quite a while now been in the habit of picking up a pack of Necco assorted wafers whenever they were being sold somewhere in a convenience store I was visiting, whether I particularly wanted some or not (though I usually do, usually because I stop at convenience stores mostly while travelling and they make great trip food). I have half of your reaction to them, and it's the "they're gone and I'd like more" half.

I didn't know they sold just the chocolate ones. I don't particularly like those. What they really need to sell in packs are the licorice and/or clove varieties. Mmmmmm.

Necco wafers

[scarras]

Since this article was published and the above replies were posted, Necco unsuccessfully tried to naturalise their wafers and also remove their lime, unable to create a natural lime, then in 2011 WENT RIGHT STRAIGHT BACK TO THE ORIGINAL FORMULA ! I love Necco..and I've had (It's Sugar, Vegas Venetian) Chocolate Neccos..