Gibralters

When my mom's mom was a young school girl, her fondest memories were of a candy store in jeffersonville, in known as schimpff's confections. the store opened in 1891 and is one of the oldest continually operating candy stores in America. their maple cream gives a new meaning to the word complexity, man these guys know their stuff. my parents took my daughter and my niece over there a couple of weeks ago and it got me thinking- if this is one of the oldest candy stores, what is THE oldest. a google search revealed the answer- Ye Olde Pepper Candy Store- salem, mass. since 1806.

i was intruiged by the history i read on their website yeoldepeppercandy.com and ordered a box of gibralters. after a week and a day they arrived at my business (monday). there are two flavors of this candy, peppermint and lemon. i believe the best way to describe these treats the sailors used to carry across the waters is an after dinner mint on steroids. they are trapezoids that come wrapped in a paper bag. the lemon is good, but the peppermint is not my cup of tea. they are quite the novelty, though- maybe the first piece of candy made in the US. the early people used to go up from boston just to get them ( not an easy feat in 1806 ). the box of 12 (6 and 6) was $20 with shipping. would i order them again, no. but they make good gifts to hand out. and they are historically aesthetic. AE