That was a mean article. I grew up in New England and Necco Wafers and Moxie are the tastes of my childhood. Still have Moxie in the garage fridge here in NC.
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Ha! I can certainly be that 50+ year-old guy! Whenever I stop for gas while traveling, I almost always go in the convenience store and buy some old-school candy like Chick O Stick or a Zero bar or Chuckles, not so much because I love them (though I kind of love them), but because I don’t want to live in a world where those things are gone. They’re usually on the bottom shelf, with a patina of dust on them, and an iffy expiration date.
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I don’t think Moxie’s going anywhere, thankfully. Besides being owned by Kirin, it has a pretty loyal following, especially on the Cape and in New Hampshire. I’m told that the older folks up there like to mix it with milk. I find that it makes a terrific mixer with spiced rum.
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The Motown museum has the reception, sound booth and studio in the same building and everything is preserved from their 60s heyday. The candy machine had period-correct candy in it, including Chuckles with what looked like a distinct 60s package design, presumably there are 50+year-old candies in there.
The temptation to drop some coins in there and buy them was palpable but I realized that doing it just to say I had old candy from Motown would have been pointless not to mention a dick move.
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My 5 year old is learning a phrase:
“Don’t yuck my yum”
I would suggest the same advice to adults.
Chocolate Necco wafers are incredible.
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Bragging rights and a case of Moxie is the prize for one of MrsTobinL’s deadpools. I know I can get it in the ritzier grocery stores in the Pacific Northwest not that I like it.
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MARY JANES?! Nooooooo!
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…more for me!
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stealing that phrase.
Clove is mysterious.
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I’ve run across those, but I live in the Newly Arrived Immigrants Neighborhood and have poor impulse control in grocery stores.
There’s candy here called Bottlecaps that comes close in taste and chalkiness:
Bottlecaps Wiki
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It came from my wife’s grandma. She also imparted the sage-like “Icky things happen when you’re being icky.” to describe Karma to children.
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Had you not said that, I would have guess it was a sex ed talk…
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I happen to like Neccos
So there
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Quoted recipe incorrect, is for Greenies. Add 2 tbsp HFCS for Necco Wafers recipe.
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I love Bottlecaps! I haven’t had those for a few years, though.
Good thing for my mom Cherry Mash and Bit 'O Honey are still safe.
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I suspect that the story behind the closure is grim and tragic; (probably involves private equity funds and financial hocus-pocus that puts the debts incurred during aquisition on the target and/or a scheme to finish terminally underfunding one of America’s endangered pension funds?); but starting with an emphasis on NECCO wafers rather than the backstory really makes it tricky to get back on topic. Especially when most of the other products are rather obscure even in their home territory. The wafers and hearts are a definite thing; but this thread is the first time I’d heard of quite a few of the others.
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The NECCO factory in Cambridge, MA was about a block from the MIT Museum. Occasionally one could smell it from a block away.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:30-4 the internal candy store would open. It was the weirdest place: something like a chemistry department stockroom, except instead of glassware and reagents you could buy Tootsie Rolls for reasonably cheap.
“NECCO wafers. They remind me of when I ate the chalk in kindergarten. I was sick for a year and nearly died” – Strong Sad
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