Scottish Country Dance of the Day

A taffy pull is a favourite vintage pastime, making use of the fact that boiled and pulled sugar and corn syrup will change its nature to form long strands if stretched and manipulated enough. The name "taffy" began to appear in the early 1800s in the United States and by 1887 a recipe for Molasses Taffy appeared in the official White House cookbook in the administration of Grover Cleveland! As the taffy's dark molasses color lightens when continually pulled to beautiful dark and golden shades, people would often complement a young lady's hair color by likening it to the color of "molasses taffy." Another traditional American treat, salt-water taffy, often found in candy shops by the seashore, contains neither salt nor ocean-water, and is a molasses-free variation. Candy lore has it that in 1883, a storm hit Atlantic City off the New Jersey coast. The boardwalk at the time was small and low and several business were flooded by the waves with sea water, including a candy shop owned by David Bradley. Later after the storm, a young girl came into the shop to buy some taffy, Bradley jokingly told her all he had was “salt-water taffy.” Allegedly, this term was picked up by other vendors in Atlantic City, and then borrowed by candy makers in other coastal towns from Florida to Massachusetts. By the 1920s, "salt-water" taffy had become a candy store staple on both the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines, and today, can be found in old-fashioned candy shop! 🍬🍭🏖️ ☀️