Vintage Candy Monday: Abba-Zaba
We're back with Vintage Candy Monday, in celebration of Halloween. This week, an oldie-but-goodie from way out west.
There are other taffies, and then there are Abba-Zabas. It's weird to grow up eating (and loving) Abba-Zabas and only later realize that every child east of the Rockies didn't. The white outside has the look and chew factor of Airheads, but the inside filling is peanut butter—mildly salty peanut butter, which provides that sweet-to-salty factor we love (kettle corn, salted caramel, trail mix).
In 1917, a Russian immigrant named Sam Altshuler arrived in the United States and later founded the Annabelle Candy Company, responsible for the Abba-Zabas (which come in regular or sour green apple taffy flavors). The fact that the candy lasted this long has to mean something. Maybe it's the nonchocolate factor (a nice change), or the taxi-cab checkered pattern, or Dave Chappelle's famous line in the cult movie Half-Baked: "Abba-Zaba, you my only friend."
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4 Comments:
Oh, nostalgia. I loved Abba-Zabas when I was a kid! Plus my sister's name is Abby, so we thought it was named after her.
LiveToEat at 12:15PM on 10/20/08
ha~chapelle was the first thing i thought of when i saw this post-haha...
i've never eaten one, but apparently that's cuz' i'm an east coast girl.
gastronomeg at 2:01PM on 10/20/08
I'm an east coast kid, but I've had it! It tastes GREAT frozen ;D
forsheezy at 3:45PM on 10/20/08
I'm an East Coast kid raised on Abba Zabas by a West Coast Dad. Sometimes I fear for my teeth with these babies...
BrooklynBrownie at 1:22AM on 10/21/08