Smack It Crack It! Turkish Taffy

This was (is again) a pretty popular, mass-marketed, standard size candy taffy bar. Turkish Taffy was re-released in 2010 but I didn’t get the pleasure of getting and eating any until early this year (2011). Taffy type bars are not the norm for candy shelves so with few taffy products on your local candy shelves it’s nice to have one of the great ones back on hand. They make Turkish taffy in 4 flavors (Vanilla, Chocolate, Banana and Strawberry) and each one is just as good as the others. I haven’t seen these around too much yet so I was really happy to pick up all four flavors at the 2011 NCA Sweets and Snack show.

1912 – Turkish Taffy was invented by Herman Herer in New York.
1915ish – Once it was purchased by M. Schwarz & Sons it was renamed “Turkish Chewing Taffy”.
1936 – The Bonomo family, of Coney Island, New York purchased M. Schwarz & Sons’ Turkish Chewing Taffy and dropped the word “chewing”.
1944 – (Sometime during WWII) Bonomo & Sons was renamed to Gold Medal Candy Corporation, but they kept the name “Bonomo’s Turkish Taffy”.
1972 – Tootsie Roll Industries purchased the rights to Bonomo’s Turkish Taffy and produced the taffy until the mid 1980s.
1980s – (mid 1980s) Tootsie Roll Industries altered and used the original formula to make a softer version called “Soft and Chewy Tootsie Taffy”
2010 – Turkish Taffy was relaunched at the National Confectionery Association Sweets and Snack show in Chicago