Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Do you remember ribbon candy?

Ribbon candy always brings fond memories of my childhood Christmases!


Along with a few other old-timey candies, my family always included ribbon candy in the holiday candy dish. It's not the easiest candy to eat without shattering the "ribbon", but it's so colorful and differently-shaped from any other type of holiday candy. According to a history of ribbon candy at eHow.com, the striped pleated confection has been around since 1856 and was invented by the F. B. Washburn candy company in Massachusetts. The Sevigny brand of ribbon candy pictured above is now owned by F. B. Washburn too.

I always wondered how it was made, so I did a little looking around on this new-fangled computer internet to see what I could see.

Note: You can pause the music by clicking the pause button on the red music player in the right sidebar.

Here's how Hilliard's House of Candy makes theses lovely treats...




And here, the ribbon candy is made entirely by hand...



What holiday candy stirs your childhood memories?



4 comments:

Valerie Boersma said...

Ribbon candy was always a big part of our Christmas when I was a kid. The candy I remember most was Almond Roca. We lived in Seattle, and Almond Roca is made in Tacoma, and so everyone had it at Christmas. A friend of mine got to visit the factory where Almond Roca was made, and when the president of the company offered her a piece she said "No thanks. I don't like it." Her poor parents!!

Rachel said...

I sure do remember it, because it lingered around the house for months,,,well because no one actually ate it. Looked tempting and then when you placed it in your mouth, it was disappointing.... I think my mom only put it in the candy dish for display.

Mod Betty / RetroRoadmap.com said...

Thanks so much for digging up these videos- Hilliards is one of my fave candy stores back home!!! I posted about the Ribbon Candy and the shop on RetroRoadmap and gave yo a link and a big ol' holiday Thank You!!!

Miss CherryBubbles said...

Valerie - I have seen Almond Roca here on the east coast - sounds like I'd better try it sometime!

Rachel - I don't remember if we usually had some left over - I used to eat the stuff - loved the anise-flavored ones (of course). ;)

Mod Betty - Thank you so much for the link & shout-out! And so awesome that you know the Hilliards store! :)