There are candies that beg you to buy them as you walk down the grocery checkout line, and some that don’t even make you flinch. Caramels – those cubed, hard, sticky creatures – never made me even look twice.
But after having my entire world of what caramels should taste like turned upside-down upon sampling those fine morsels from The Choke Cherry Tree, I began to look at this candy with renewed interest. Could there be more caramel candies out there that I had mistakenly neglected because of my preconceptions?
Being über-impressed with Atkinson’s Chick-o-Stick and Peanut Putter Bars, when I spotted Long Boys in the bulk candy aisle, I couldn’t really refuse. After all, my thought process was very complex: Caramel + Atkinson’s = Oh My Bob!
Long Boys are described as a caramel infused with coconut. Though not originally a product produced by Atkinson’s, they acquired it from a New Orleans company that first marketed the confection 50 years ago, making it the freshmen product in the Atkinson’s confectionery lineup.
Though they come in several sizes, the ones I purchased resembled the length of the long and skinny Tootsie Rolls. Unwrapping it, you can plainly see a dark beige-brown, indicative of caramel.
The scent of coconut milk exudes from the piece. I take my first bite. It’s firm in terms of how the candy adheres to itself, but chewy in respect to the ease of biting into it. They weren’t as soft as Choke Cherry Tree caramels, but softer than you’d still expect from a caramel nonetheless.
The flavor reminds me of freshly shaved coconut, though there are texturally no shavings to be accounted for. If you have ever eaten Brach’s Sundaes Neapolitan Coconuts, these share a certain affinity with them.
Being a fan of coconut, I enjoyed these. It was not only a great twist on a classic flavor, but also the caramel itself was a pleasure to consume. Those who dislike coconut will probably find these merits pointless, as it is most certainly a coconut candy. They do manufacture a chocolate variety of Long Boys, and being impressed with the original, I would definitely seek out its companion piece.
Buy Atkinson’s Long Boys Online:
- at Candy Crate
- at Old Time Candy
- at Amazon.com
[...] but nothing is going to make me seek them out. If you’re in the mood for caramel, I recommend Long Boys. I guess if you were seeking a candy you could enjoy for about an hour or two, these might be your [...]
April 15th, 2009 at 2:00 am