![]() While the twin cities of Bristol, Tennessee, and Bristol, Virginia, have come to be known for racing and country music, the role of candy-making in their history should never be forgotten.Īt one time, the two Bristols were home to some 10 candy companies, all of them making versions of pure sugar stick candy. And in Kentucky and Tennessee, horehound is still big.” In Kentucky, they like cream stick, which is a vanilla. “They like those bright flavors down there, the spicier flavors. ![]() “Down in Georgia, clove is number two to peppermint,” Buzz tells me. But, like the world of barbecue, I discovered that there are regional variations in stick candy taste. Peppermint is still by far the best-selling flavor. Helms also sells candy under the Virginia Beauty label. In 2005, Helms acquired competitor Moretz Candy and its Red Band label. The little boy in neon lights that sits atop the Helms building on Lee Highway was Loudy’s creation. In 1976, Helms purchased Loudy Candy Company, a business started by the late Frank Loudy at a time in the 1940s when sugar was being rationed in America. The humidity of the room is under constant watch, ensuring that the final product won’t become sticky. When the candy is poured from a copper kettle onto a slab that is heated to around 275 degrees, it is amber in color. In impoverished sections of Appalachia, boxes of Red Band candy, or even just a few sticks, may have been the only presents children received for Christmas. Pure sugar stick candy brightened life in the coalfields of Southwest Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and West Virginia. A mention of them in almost any situation elicits stories of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and detailed memories of their candy jars. The peppermint-flavored sticks are sweet links to the past. Stacked inside are rows of pure sugar stick candy. It’s one of our region’s most beloved symbols: a stark white box with a red stripe around it.
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