The Reject Stash of Tootsie Rolls
I don’t know about all of you, but Tootsie Rolls are really
low on my list of preferred candies.
They’re even below black licorice and those wax lips that claim to be
cherry flavored but end up tasting like, well, wax. And it just so happens that after a
successful night of trick or treating, my kids end up covered in Kit-Kat’s and
sour gummies and I end up with what I like to call the “reject stash,” which is
made up of broken sucker bits, rock-hard bubble gum, and more Tootsie Rolls
than I would want in a lifetime.
Whatever it is I think I see, turns out to be a Tootsie Roll for me…
I’ve never quite understood the little chewy chocolate
confection that has been around for so very long, but surely there must be more
to this popular candy than my taste buds realize. A quick survey among friends revealed to me
that people actually enjoy these
things, although I’d like to see someone consume half of the collection I’ve
accumulated since the reject stash of the summer parade candy. The Halloween supply might put me over the
edge, but somewhere, someone would jump for joy.
It’s no surprise that we amass so many of these sweets. According to the official Tootsie Roll web
site, 64 million are produced every single day.
And theoretically, every roll produced has a tiny bit of the very first
Tootsie Roll ever produced because of their special technique of incorporating
yesterday’s batch into today’s. That
means that if you eat one this Halloween, in theory you are eating a very
little piece of the first Tootsie Roll ever made in America. Keep in mind that the first ones were made by
Leo Hirshfield in 1896, which might explain exactly what is that odd flavor
that sticks in my teeth whenever I do eat one.
My children do not only share my dislike for the original
rolls, which were named after Leo’s daughter’s nickname, but they also have
something against the inside of a Tootsie Roll pop—that giant-sized sucker with
minimal sucker and maximum tootsie.
These lollipops have been known to be passed out as ghosts on
trick-or-treat night, where a tissue is draped over and tied with a piece of
yarn. Two eyes drawn in felt pen stare
at you as if to say, “go ahead. Try to
figure out how many licks to get to my middle.” If any one of my kids had the
actual patience to count the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a
Tootsie Roll Pop, they would jump for joy and then hand me the chewy
chocolateness on a stick. Lucky, lucky
me.
A bit of research will show you, however, that you might not
actually even have to count the licks.
Children who write to the Tootsie Roll company to report their lick
count are rewarded with a “Clean Stick Reward” (also printable online for
cheaters everywhere,) and while the numbers range from 100 to 5,800, the
average is about 700 licks.
I, for one, will not be doing any such experiments.
And so it stands that while I sit surrounded by the piles of
Tootsie Rolls we have collected over the year and my kids run around on a
Snicker’s sugar high, I have to wonder if I really am missing something. A candy so with such a solid history and so
many fans must have something to offer that I’m missing.
The secret may not be so secret anymore. As stated on the Tootsie Roll web site,
Minnie Larson, age 105, of Muskegon, Michigan says that the secret to long life
is “peace and quiet, a single life, and an endless supply of Tootsie Rolls.”
She’d live forever at my house.
What's your favorite reject candy? Let me know in the comments below. Just don't leave me any Tootsie Rolls.
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