Taffy is an old-fashioned candy which has been made in one form or another for centuries. That makes sense, because it combines two of the most basic possible flavors and ingredients: sugar, and fat (ideally butter, but all too often confectioners use vegetable oil).

It's not just as easy as mixing the sugar and butter together, though. They have to be boiled together, but that creates a thick, sticky mass. Once you get that mass of sugar and butter, it has to be pulled and stretched over and over again. A long time ago the mass would have to be manipulated manually, which could take hours and was very taxing. Now, though, taffy pullers use a taffy machine, which consists of three bars that spin around each other.

This contraption pulls the taffy automatically, which saves a lot of effort for the candy maker and certainly reduced the price and increased the output of taffy. You've probably seen these machines when walking past home made candy shops; they can actually be kind of hypnotic to watch.

There's a good chance that you have heard of salt water taffy. This is actually kind of a famous invention that came out of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Contrary to popular belief, salt water taffy does not actually contain any amount of salt water.

Many different stories purport to explain the origin of the name "salt water taffy." One popular (albeit unlikely) explanation is that one David Bradley, confectioner, had his whole store flooded as a result of a huge storm. In theory, his entire supply of ordinary taffy was soaked with ocean water. Naturally he was quite put out about the whole thing, because it meant that his stock was apparently ruined. However, when a customer came in to ask if he had any taffy for sale, he despondently replied that he had only "salt water taffy." The customer thought it sounded great, bought some, and loved. When the store owner's mother heard the name, she loved it, and it stuck. Or maybe not. It sounds a little unlikely, but it's a nice story.

Taffy nowadays is made from corn syrup, butter, and glycerin, though the most common brands you'll find in stores--like Airheads and Laffy Taffy--contain palm oil instead of butter.

Taffy is a largely American phenomenon. In other countries it is extremely rare to find anything called 'taffy,' although there are many similar candies, like Starburst, Chewits, and Now and Later, for example, which could perhaps go by the same name.

One very popular type of taffy is the Airhead. Let me tell you a cool trick that you can do with one of those. As you probably know, Airheads come in little cellophane paper sleeve things. Just pinch one end of that little sleeve deal (unopened of course) and start flapping the candy up and down. It sounds stupid, but try it. As you continue to repeat this motion, the Airhead will get smaller and smaller. As it gets smaller, you may want to move your hand down the wrapper so that you maintain some amount of tension between your fingers and the candy.

If you do that for a while, you'll end up with this little compounded, compacted sack-of-flour looking thing, because you've condensed the long, thin strip of taffy into something tiny and magical. Then you can just chomp on that mother and be happy, and David Bradly would be proud of you, so help him.

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