Vintage Candy Monday: Necco Wafers
Editor's Note: We're back with Vintage Candy Monday in celebration of Halloween. This week, the Necco Wafer!
As far as nostalgia candies go, Necco Wafers go way back. Since its launch in 1912, not much has changed about the chalky candies except the price. It was 5 cents in the '50s, and remains a low 90 cents per roll of 38 to 40 wafers today (making each wafer as close to penny candy as you’ll get in the twenty-first century).
The Necco Wafer has an illustrious history. In 1913, explorer Donald MacMillan took Necco Wafers on his Arctic expedition as nutrition for his men, and as rewards for Eskimo children. In 1930 Admiral Byrd took two and a half tons of the candy to the South Pole, nearly a pound a week for each man. And during World War II, the wafers were commissioned by the United States government as treats for American soldiers, because they are fortuitously resistant to destruction, making them something of a victory candy.
Original wafers and chocolate wafers.
The fat-free wafers come in eight old-time flavors: chocolate (brown), lemon (yellow), lime (green), orange (orange), clove (purple), wintergreen (pink), cinnamon (white), and licorice (black). The chocolate wafers come packaged in individual rolls as well (they are the best flavor). Tart varieties are available, and also “Smoothies” flavors: Blueberry, Banana Caramel, Tropical, Peach, and Strawberry Crème—a little update for these old timers.
For Halloween, mini "junior" rolls are available. And keep those leftovers for Christmas (they are indestructible, don’t forget) as they make the perfect shingles on a gingerbread house.
To me, they are the perfect after-dinner candy, and I keep the penny-wafers in a beautiful old-fashioned candy dish, for a bit of low-end, high-end old-fashioned charm. Do you have Necco Wafer memories?
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22 Comments:
The Wafers are the only candy I will eat. I am not interested in any new shi-shi flavor. When we were little we played Wafer poker and Wafer "go fish".
izatryt at 10:12AM on 10/13/08
When I was a kid, they cost five cents. We used to buy them and use them as BB-gun targets. And eat the rest.
pcullie at 10:40AM on 10/13/08
I must say I love the clove and licorice flavors. Neccos also make excellent edible poker chips.
Laurel E at 11:15AM on 10/13/08
I remeber sharing Neccos with my great-grandfather when I was very small. We both liked the locorice ones best.
VerasTastyFreeze at 12:05PM on 10/13/08
I adore the chocolate, and the citrus flavors...I had a hard time defending these here at Serious Eats. Keep the Necco love coming! Are any of you giving them out at Halloween this year?
Kerry Saretsky at 1:13PM on 10/13/08
When I was a (good Catholic) kid, we played priest with Neccos. We would line up and my brother would put 'em in our hands and then we'd cross ourselves. Weird kids.
lo82070 at 2:14PM on 10/13/08
In the late 1960's I would walk past the Necco factory on Mass Ave in Cambridge, Mass. and marvel at the smells coming from the old brick building.
ligature at 3:17PM on 10/13/08
I don't actually like Necco wafers...so my memories consist of being unhappy with the people who passed them out at Halloween.
Also, I've walked passed the Necco factory in Cambridge all the time. Though, a few years ago Novartis bought it and converted it into a lab. There's still that other candy factory on Main St that makes the area smell like Junior Mints. Delicious.
wunami at 3:39PM on 10/13/08
I love Neccos! They're not widely available, so when I find them, I'll typically buy five or six rolls. Sometimes the cashier is a fellow Necco-phile and will tell me s/he keeps a stash, too.
baboo at 4:15PM on 10/13/08
My mom would always give me a small roll during church in order to keep me quiet. I would eat the purple and pink ones first, and they yellow ones were always last. NO GREEN OR BLACK ONES, GROSS.
jimbojones at 5:13PM on 10/13/08
Necco wafers remind me of my grandma. If my sisters and I were really good while spending the weekend at her house she would take us to the Woolworths for Necco Wafers and Charleston Chews.
SusanP at 7:19PM on 10/13/08
Has anyone found the "tart" or "smoothie" varieties?
Kerry Saretsky at 9:31PM on 10/13/08
If you live in NYC, you can just go to Economy Candy on the LES - http://www.economycandy.com/. They carry both the regular and smoothie Neccos all the time (as well as a wonderful amount of other vintage candy!) Haven't found the tart version yet though!
katja1024 at 10:32PM on 10/13/08
I've been struggling with health issues for the last ten years and am hospitalized about 6 times a year. One day about a year ago, I snuck out of my hospital room and made it down to the gift shop (complete with IV pole) and saw Necco Wafers on the candy rack. I wanted to jump up and down in glee! They were a favorite as a kid, and I hadn't seen them around for quite some time. I bought 4 rolls (all the money I had on me) and smuggled them back to my room. (You have to get the mental picture of me strolling through the hospital lobby with my backside exposed clutching my IV pole in one hand and my Neccos in the other.) I swear, the Neccos were better medicine than anything the doctors were giving me! Plus, I provided a free show of my droopy butt to all the old geezers on my wing. A good time was had by all!
Josdean at 1:19PM on 10/14/08
Man I had no idea the purple ones were Clove flavored. I guess I never really thought about it that much, they were always just purple-flavored.
DanielJ at 2:47PM on 10/14/08
I had no idea the purple were clove either! Interesting. Although they all taste pretty similar, apart from the chocolate, if you ask me.
I used to (my cousins still do) use these as the shingles on our gingerbread houses every year. Using two or three colors in diagonal lines or a checkerboard pattern looks very sophisticated, for a house made of candy. Granted we ate almost as many neccos as we stuck to the roofs, I remember my grandfather making several emergency trips to the store for more.
cupcakelust at 4:07PM on 10/14/08
lo82070, I believe I can go you one better. Not only did my family of Irish Catholic kids play Holy Communion with Necco wafers, we convinced our next door neighbors (the very Jewish Harris kids) to play along with us! Thanks to great parents in both houses, and the lovely innocence of the 50's, no harm done to anyone.
maryg100 at 1:43PM on 10/15/08
Will anyone here take my green, orange and yellow Wafers in exchange for the black and white ones? ;-)
izatryt at 7:07PM on 10/15/08
I saw them in half ton bags at wal-mart in south alabama and they brought a smile to my face. That being said... I hate the taste or lack thereof of neccos. But they always make me think of Halloween in New Hampshire.
Pavlov at 8:56PM on 10/15/08
maryg and lo beat me to the punch. You couldn't play Mass without Necco wafers, and I -- we -- did it long enough ago that the nuns and priests were freaked by it. Told us we would burn in hell. We won't. And I still love the things when I can find them.
expat39520 at 11:12PM on 10/15/08
I used to work at the Court House next door to the Necco factory.
Each day you could smell what flavor they were making that day.
andywho at 9:38PM on 10/18/08
Man, what's the connection between Neccos and church? My mom and I used to eat them in church all the time when I was a kid. As far as I can remember, that's really the only time I remember eating them. Weird.
ladypilot at 11:59AM on 10/30/08