Horehound and Iced Tea Slippers

I finally made it to the candy factory. I just don't know what happened to April, but the month is done OVER already. Mike challenged me to explore some Colorado local foods for this month's challenge, and it appears I've been practically sleeping through this thing. But I want you to know J and I woke up early on Saturday morning and drove to a factory to help round out this challenge, so I did expend some energy. And who doesn't love candy first thing on a Saturday morning?

My mom kept saying that Hammond's is pretty famous for their ribbon candy, but I wasn't paying attention because who eats ribbon candy? Seriously. I'm not even sure HOW you would eat ribbon candy. Do you break it up? Suck on it like a misshapen lollipop while drooling all over yourself? Plus, I love sugar, but I can only get so excited over hardtack candy. Everyone knows chocolate is where it's at. And if you look at their website, there is evidence of chocolatey goodness, even if the focus is on suckers and stupid ribbon candy. So I shouldn't have been too surprised when I saw we were going to witness them make candy canes and candy coal (some black hard candy that resembles coal and turns mouths blue).

But I was a little disappointed. After a cursory stroll through the welcoming area, it became clear that Hammond's is the candy company that makes all your grandma's candy. There were ginger drops and peanuty chicken bones and freakin' HOREHOUND candy and something called iced tea slippers (what?). No one knows what those things are. Okay, I did know what chicken bones are, although I've never heard them called "chicken bones." They're like Chick-O-Sticks. What, you don't know what Chick-O-Sticks are? Because you're not 85? Fine. They're like Butterfingers without the chocolate. I actually kind of love them.

Anyway, after the video on the history of the company, our guide got us all excited about the "factory tour," telling us we could take as many pictures as we wanted. Go nuts, she told us. I prepped my camera. Only to be led into a smallish area that revealed the entire factory at once, on one floor, behind plexiglass. This was to be our "tour." Okay, it was pretty fun watching the dudes pull candy and wrap giant boulders of sugar that would eventually become candy canes.

What, you can't really see it because it's so blurry? That's because we were behind PLEXIGLASS. Now that I think about it, I guess we were behind a bunch of plexiglass when we toured the Jelly Belly factory, but at least that one you got to wander through many different rooms and see many different things. On this tour, we pretty much saw that guy.

Sorta lame tour aside, we were left to go crazy in the candy store. The best part of factory tours is inevitably the discount bin, and here Hammond's did not disappoint. Not the least of which because their discount tables were under a giant sign reading, "Oop's!" as in "Oops, we stuck an apostrophe in there for no reason!" They had bags of messed up Mitchell Sweets, which are supposed to look like this:

But which ended up looking like this:

Awesome. We did not get the bag of goo, but did depart with some small treats, not all of which we were certain were actually made at this factory. We also tried the horehound drops, which tasted like dirt. Sweetened dirt. All in all, the factory and the candy was a lot of fun for the eyes if not necessarily for the tongue. I guess we'll have to hit the Coors factory next to really get a handle on these Colorado manufacturers. I'm guessing the samples might taste better.

Also, in the Colorado food department, I did grab some locally grown tomatoes to contribute to some amazing pressed sandwiches I made a few weeks ago. I didn't notice a taste difference between these tomatoes and any other vine-ripened variety, but they tasted delicious, and were red and juicy all the way through.

That's goat cheese on the bottom. I added some chopped kalamata olives, a handful of fresh baby arugula and popped these babies on the sandwich press. Delicious.

We also experimented a little with some Denver tofu, which I didn't know existed. I mentioned it to our friends who basically rolled their eyes up in their heads and dropped to the floor in orgasmic exultation at the mention of Denver tofu. We had high expectations.

Again, I'm not sure it was that different from the standard tofu we get, but the firm texture was really nice and it tasted fresh. After sampling it, I cubed it to add to a veggie ramen dish, which was yummy.