Cabot's Candygram: The Seashore in Winter

It can be pretty hard as we fill up our digital clouds to keep space for the physical objects in our home and the stored memories in our minds, but we do it because that is what makes us human - to understand the past and keep it for the future.
Last weekend, my daughter and I set aside some time to be together and try something new - we made candy apples. It is fall after all! The farm stands have been brimming with New England apple varieties: McIntosh, Cortland, Baldwin, Braeburn, etc., etc.! We chose McIntosh (since they are perfect for little mouths ;) and Granny Smith apples. She helped me set-up the apples with sticks poking out of the top and lined them all up ready to be dipped.
We added all of the ingredients to the saucepan and waited as the candy thermometer rose ever-so-slowly through the candy stages: Thread (235 degrees), Soft Ball (240 degrees), Firm Ball (250 degrees), Hard Ball (265 degrees), Soft Crack (290 degrees), and finally Hard Crack (310 degrees).
At the Hard Crack stage I had my daughter pick the apple to dip, and then I rolled the hot liquid sugar over the apples one-by-one to a surprisingly beautiful and satisfying result! Once done and cooled, we each tried a candy apple and a new seasonal favorite was born.
The Cabot’s Candy tradition is very much the same; an idea becomes a family recipe, tested, copied and passed down from generation to generation delighting other families visiting the seashore of Provincetown, Massachusetts year after year. New ingredients are tried and new favorites become old ones and the process begins again. We are always trying new things and adding them to our growing list of family recipes. If you stop by in the summer, winter, spring, or fall you will always see your old favorites and some new things too! For a taste of our fall tradition, check out our maple taffy, made with quarts of the good stuff from Vermont. Keep up with us and say hello by liking us on Facebook and following us on Instagram. You can also check out what is going on in the store and factory by visiting our homepage.
Stay sweet!
When you think of a candy factory what do you imagine? Do you think of the wild and fantastical world of Willy Wonka, Charlie, and the Oompa Loompas? Or maybe it looks a little bit more like the candy factory in Dick Van Dyke’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - everything toot sweet and truly scrumptious?
Well as much as we love sentimental candy factories in the movies, the reality is even more delightfully fizzy-pop!
I recently took a tour of our candy factory located beneath the store at 276 Commercial Street in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Cabot’s started hand producing our signature candy in 1927 as the seaside-leisure boom was in full 1920s swing, and finally had to open a factory and store in 1955 to accommodate the demand for our taffy. As I entered the factory floor my senses prickled with the bouquet of sweets being cooked, cut, rolled, and wrapped all around me. The master candy maker to my right was boiling special ingredients in a 10 gallon copper cauldron over flames that reach up to 500 degrees fahrenheit. The apprentices to my left stretched and kneaded each 50lb slab of cherry, sea salt caramel, beach plum or any one of the more than thirty five flavors onto stainless steel cooling tables ready to receive the sticky-sweet, hand-formed treat. Straight ahead, gleaming and hulking machines of unmatched strength pulled and formed the salt water taffy bands into the poppable-unwrappable treat that we all know and love.
It is quite a sight to see and if you have a chance to stop by the Ptown store, you may catch a glimpse as we pull and wrap on the sales floor! In the meantime, we have been busily posting videos and photographs on our Facebook and Instagram pages - Like and follow us to stay up-to-date on happenings in the stores and factory!
Stay sweet!
Belgian Chocolate, real maple syrup, premium nuts, creamy butter -these are some of the fine ingredients that go into our time honored fudge. And we're cooking up a storm as we head into Spring. If you're walking through the streets of Provincetown and you get a whiff of irresistible chocolate, just follow your nose and stop in for a sample of our famous fudge.
Not quite ready for a visit? Have some fresh fudge shipped today.
We want to thank our new friends at Best Dressed Signs in Boston for creating our BEAUTIFUL windows! They spent a week in Provincetown hand painting two new window designs, and refreshing our older window signs. They'll be back again in the fall if you want to watch these incredible artists at work!
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