These aren’t your run of the mill sweetie or should I say candy? They’re an American offering after all. They certainly intrigued me when I saw them sat in a random sweet shop in a random town on a road trip around the States earlier this year. I’m a sucker for old fashioned packaging and loved the simple paper wrapper. I purchased both the original and the chocolate roll.
They’ve been around a long time - since 1847 - that’s older than the old Victorian cottage I live in, a little piece of history. Apparently they were originally called Hub Wafers and were invented by a chap called Oliver Chase, an English immigrant. They became Necco a bit later on, which stands for New England Confectionary Company. During the Civil War and World War II soldiers would carry them, I’m guessing because they’re hardy and long lasting - my packs have a best before date of two years time. I love a product with a story and these sweets definitely have that.
Sadly though, for me, the history is the best bit about them. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s just that they’re not good. They’re a treat that I could take or leave which, for me, kinda ruins the point. I’m sure had I grown up enjoying Necco I’d feel a bit nostalgic about them, in a similar way that here in the UK many of us still hanker over Palma Violets or Love Hearts.
Necco, the ‘original candy wafer’ and an ‘American Classic’ are fat free and, as far as I can tell, they’re essentially sugar, little crunchy discs of sugar. The flavours in the original pack are orange, lemon, lime, wintergreen, clove, liquorice, cinnamon and chocolate. I didn’t particularly like 50% of them and several of the flavours taste slightly medicinal which isn’t overly appealing to me. The fruity ones aren’t as full of flavour unfortunately as they were the only ones I could really stand. I think if you are a fan of liquorice or cinnamon though, then you might just rather enjoy those flavours.
Anyway, as I've already suggested, they’re
not really wafers as we’d know them nowadays, they’re more like sugary chalk. It’s an unusual
texture for a sweet, especially for the chocolate version; I’m not entirely
convinced about powdery chocolate discs.
I’m still deliberating
whether or not I actually like them and, three months on, I still have over half a pack
left of each of them which probably says it all. Still I would recommend everyone try them,
they deserve that, they’ve done their time (boy, have they done their time), they’re still super popular and
selling well today so they’re doing something right I guess?! And, if you don’t like them, maybe you have a
great aunt or grandparent out there who might!
If you want to read a bit more about Necco, check
out their Wiki page here.
