Idaho Spud
The Associated Press has written up a piece about one of my favorite artisanal candy bars: The Idaho Spud. It’s a brief piece, but it gives some numbers to the amount of candy sold annually. That it’s able to sell about 3 million candy bars in a year provides evidence that candy producers can survive in a world dominated by Hershey’s and Nestle.
I have had the Spud on several occasions since they can be found at Bartell’s, a locally owned drug chain here in the Pacific Northwest. The taste is something that’s hard to describe, probably due to the agar they put into the recipe. Agar just happens to be a seaweed harvested in Morocco and Japan. No, this isn’t something that they’ve recently added to the recipe; the seaweed has been there since the bar’s earliest days back in 1918.
The piece also gives a bit of advice on how to best enjoy the Spud: freeze it and slice it up. “I feel like I’ve been brought into the inner circle,” said Beth Kimmerle, a New York City author who has written about Idaho Candy, after learning of this serving suggestion.
Then the article gives a sobering fact:
Kimmerle estimated Idaho Candy is one of about 10 similar small, venerable candy companies still operating in the United States.
Though I think her number may be a little off, I think it does adequately reflect the state of America’s candy industry. Thanks to the muscle of Hershey’s, the high cost of sugar, and the effect of slotting fees in preventing the little companies from surviving, America’s chocolate industry is in a sorry state.
So let’s give it up for the Idaho Spud. They may be one of the last of a dying breed.
