- Today I'm at the Brooklyn Armory,
and I'm gonna visit Salty
Road where Marisa Wu
is gonna show me how
to make taffy by hand.
(playful music)
- When I think about taffy
and when I first started
I was like I am not
making saltwater taffy.
Like it's like gross, it's
like artificially flavored,
it's colored, it's like
who wants any of that?
- Right.
- So I started doin' a little research,
and I didn't see anyone
making sort of like
a boutique higher-end saltwater taffy,
so I played around one night,
and I used like real vanilla beans
and I added large grain sea salt.
And I tasted it, and I was
like this is really good.
And no one was doing anything.
- No, I'd imagine no taffy
that you're used to eating
and seeing is in anyway being
made with anything natural.
(laughs)
So this is really, really cool.
This is a big deal what you're doing here.
What you're choosing to do.
- We get to play around
in a different way than,
especially with something that's so iconic
as saltwater taffy.
- It is, it is.
- [Marisa] We've emailed all of our fans,
and we're like what do you
actually want to taste?
It was banana and licorice.
- [Katie] Really?
- [Marissa] Yeah.
- Well I'm excited to try that
because we're using real bananas,
which I'd imagine effects
the outcome dramatically.
- Yeah, it's huge.
And it tastes like banana bread,
like that caramelized
sort of banana flavor.
- Even better.
- Yeah.
(bright music)
- So the agitator basically
just moves and scrapes
the bottom and makes sure
the milk solids don't burn.
- Oh, that's huge.
- Yeah.
- So this is a constant mixing?
- Yeah.
- [Marisa] We basically get bananas,
and we ripen them super
brown and splotchy.
Like something that would be, yes.
- So they're super ripe.
- Yeah, like for banana bread,
you want those really, really dark.
- You want that deep banana flavor.
- [Marisa] Yes.
- [Katie] Oh my gosh, it
smells like banana bread.
So what were you doing
before you were making taffy?
- Yeah, I was.
- And also, why taffy?
- Yeah, I was actually
working in film production
for like 12 years, but
I used to make candy
when I was little.
Like I used to make hard candy, lollipops
when I was like in elementary,
like in sixth grade.
- Wow.
- Which when I think about
it now is terrifying.
- You were doing sugar work.
- Like in cast iron pots.
Like Le Creuset pots.
My mom was just like, yeah sure.
- You kind of just drew back to that?
- Yeah, I was definitely
coming back to a place
for sure, and I think it's
yeah, I think it's kind
of funny how often that happens
when you're like go find
something you truly love.
And you're like wait, I did
this when I was like little.
- Absolutely.
And taffy's something
that is so nostalgic.
It's old school.
- Yeah, totally.
- [Katie] This is looking
like caramel to me.
- So basically we just
have less fat and dairy.
There's a lot of caramelization
of the proteins inside
the milk, which is similar to caramel.
- Right.
- But just not quite as much.
So even in our like our peppermint flavor,
you'll have that just
warm caramelized milk.
- So this banana flavor is
really gonna come through,
and the caramelization is
helping that deep banana flavor.
- Yeah, and that's what we
were talking about before.
Which is like having those
bananas that are turning,
all those carbohydrates
are turning into sugar,
and then have it like in the kettle
and it just caramelizes more and more.
- Did you always know you
were gonna add sea salt
into the taffy?
- Well, it was the first
time I tried my recipe,
I put salt in it.
- So from the beginning.
- Yeah from the very beginning.
- That's a pro move right there.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's like I translate
that to finishing salts.
Those are little touches
that restaurants often do.
- Yeah.
- But people don't really do at home.
- Yeah.
So this table actually there's cold water
that runs through the entire table
that cools it from 250
degrees within five minutes.
- [Katie] So those crystals are just gonna
be spread throughout, so
when you bite into it,
you're crunching on sea salt crystals.
- [Marisa] Yeah, and it's bringing out
the natural flavor, so yeah.
- [Katie] So what are we
looking for at this point?
- Right now we're actually just gonna be,
we want it all to, yeah,
we want all the salt
to kind of be connected.
Like you can feel the
table, it's really cold.
- Oh my gosh that happened
like instantaneously.
- Like you can still, like
the heat is radiating off
of the candy, right?
- It is.
- So we're just waiting
until it's cold enough
that we can start actually
moving into each other.
So what we're gonna do, is we're gonna mix
this all together, and then
we'll tear off some chunks
and we'll try out doing
the taffy pulling by hand.
(laughs)
- [Katie] Can I rip a piece
off or do I not wanna try this?
- [Marisa] Yeah, yeah no, absolutely.
Oh my god.
That is so good!
- It's different right?
It's not like any other taffy you've had.
It's like another, yeah.
- The flavor's exactly what
I was picturing and hoping
it would be.
- And the idea is you,
like the more surface area
the better, right?
Because it means that
the air's getting trapped
in the candy.
- So mine's not as nice as yours.
- So this is also kind of like warm
which is good, because it
makes it easier for us.
- Can we just pause for a
second and just compare.
What is happening?
Well I'll just take this piece home.
- Yeah.
(laughs)
Just in your pocket?
- Yeah, I'll just, it can
fit, I'll make it work.
- Now I'm gonna show you
what the machine can do.
(bright music)
- [Katie] So how long
do you keep it in here?
What are you looking for?
- It's two minutes,
you can do it by sight.
Like as soon as it gets
really much lighter,
and it's completely incorporated,
you don't wanna over aerate it.
It starts to agitate sugar crystals
and it can crystallize the candy.
- So this is very temperamental.
Every step of the way,
you really have to know
what you're doing.
- Yeah, I mean it's strangely science.
- Sugar work is very scientific.
- Yeah, it has a lot of chemistry.
- I love this, I love this process.
- Yeah, I know it's fun.
- Oh my god.
What a difference with
getting some air in there.
- Yeah, and the texture is like totally,
and then the flavor becomes.
- The flavor is so clean, but so deep.
- [Marisa] So I'm gonna
put this back on the cooler
for a little bit, and
then we'll stretch it.
So basically we want it even cooler,
and then we'll put it on the batch roller.
(bright music)
So we're turning it into
a consistent cylinder,
and it's cooled down quite a bit, so.
- Right it's getting more and
more difficult to work with.
- Yeah, this is where
the strength comes in.
- Yeah, that's for sure.
(machine whirs)
- [Katie] So we made a 25 pound batch.
- [Marisa] Yes.
- [Katie] How much does that give you?
- [Marisa] Yeah, that's about a 100 boxes.
It's about 1400 pieces.
- Would you ever branch out past taffy?
- Yeah, well you know I actually,
I love chocolate, always
have, always will.
But one of the reasons why
I called it Salty Road,
the company, was because
I would love to make
my own kind of rocky road.
With chocolate and marshmallows and then.
- So, okay, you're talking
getting into chocolate,
as if sugar work wasn't
temperamental enough.
- I know, I know.
Well I feel like this,
if we had cooked this
a little bit softer, and then enrobed it
in chocolate, 'cause it has
that real banana flavor,
but also chewy.
- The texture is just amazing.
- Yeah.
- [Katie] So this is a very
small, very hands on production.
Can you ever see this getting bigger,
becoming manufactured if
it gets to that point?
- I mean honestly, I rather
just have a retail aspect.
Getting bigger with food manufacturing
is such a (bleep) headache.
Anytime that you're gonna like
have someone else manufacture
your product, or like
they would be making,
we make 25 pound batches,
they would probably
be making like 500 pound batches.
- It's like you're gonna lose,
something's gonna change.
- Yeah, you're gonna lose quality.
- So we've made one batch.
My arms hurt.
- Yeah.
- You do six normally.
- Yeah, six a day.
- Whew!
- Yeah, it's legit.
(bright music)
- It's so satisfying to
come in here and go through
this process, start to finish.
- Yeah.
- Making the taffy,
packaging it, I mean it's,
it makes it taste better to me.
- Yeah, I know you get to see.
- I just hope people see
those cute little boxes,
and taste that when they open it up,
it's just unbelievable
what you're doing here.
- Oh, thank you so much.
Thanks for coming by.
- It's been an unbelievable day, so fun,
it's like my childhood
dreams have come true today.
- Yeah.
- It's been absolutely
great, thank you so much.
- Oh, thank you.
(bright music)
- I hope you enjoyed this episode here
at Salty Road Taffy.
If you'd like to see more, click here.
- How far in do we have
to go for collecting?
Because this water's looking pretty rough.
- We're gonna go, so up to pry
a little bit above our knees.
- Okay, right where
the waves are breaking.
- Exactly.
