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Gardner Village Blog A Sweet Piece of Utah History at Chocolate Covered Wagon
Wednesday Jul 6 2022

Did you know you can see the Great Salt Lake from space? Did you also know ALL taffy pulled at Chocolate Covered Wagon is made from salt taken from this great Utah landmark?

vintage taffy puller 

Since July is a month to celebrate not only our national history but also our state origins, we thought now was a tasty time to talk taffy!

Utah's history 

10 FUN TAFFY FACT-YS (and a free taffy sample!)

1. The famous taffy puller that draws crowds at Chocolate Covered Wagon is 80+ years old and has been a part of Chocolate Covered Wagon since the shop opened 36 years. 

best salt water taffy in Utah

2. When the taffy is loaded onto the puller, it’s actually a golden color and looks more like caramel. As the gooey goodness gets pulled, it turns white. The color comes as the liquid flavor/coloring mixture is in.

“It’s more like a puller AND a mixer,” Chocolate Covered Wagon owner Cindy Robison said.

For a real trip back in time, pick up a small bag and pull your own by hand!

ways to celebrate Pioneer heritage in Utah 

3. A whopping 20 pounds of taffy gets pulled at once, and the puller is running all day. That’s A LOT of taffy!

how taffy is made 

4. The record amount of taffy pulled was all 15 flavors being pulled three times each in ONE day. Talk about a sticky situation!

 Chocolate Covered Wagon

5. There is actually an official Winter Olympic pin for the 2002 Winter Games featuring taffy from Chocolate Covered Wagon. And! It’s the 13th most popular pin of all the pins. Clearly, this taffy is a crowd pleaser in more ways than one!

collectible olympic pins 

6. Cindy was only in her 20s when she purchased her first Chocolate Covered Wagon location. It was actually a popcorn store in Trolley Square at the time, but they had a taffy puller and sold taffy along with their corn. Cindy quickly discovered candy was the more popular seller, even though she admittedly knew next to nothing about making candy at the time.

rosette wrapped taffy 

“I didn’t know how to make taffy or anything at that time and there was no YouTube to turn to,” Cindy said with a laugh. “Instead, I went to the library and turned to other candy makers. I eventually reached out to a famous taffy maker in Atlantic City who took me under his wing.”

7. The beloved taffy sold at Chocolate Covered Wagon today is Cindy’s own recipe, which she developed three years after opening her first store (out of necessity when her local taffy supplier sold their business and left the state). To go from knowing very little to perfecting her own recipe and opening more stores at such a young age… Well, clearly Cindy was made for this delicious biz!

utah business woman 

8. If you thought the taffy pulling machine at Chocolate Covered Wagon was old, you should see the taffy (and caramel) cutter! This machine is more than 140 years old! It doesn’t even use electricity. Instead, you feed the taffy in and turn the crank. Neat! 

 old fashioned candy cutter

how candy was made in the old days

fun things to do with kids in Utah

9. Most taffy is wrapped at two ends, but this taffy is wrapped in a rosette fashion, making it look like a flower and adding to its charm. (No wonder it was such a popular Olympic pin. It’s cute!)

best candy shop in Utah

10. Both the taffy puller and the taffy/candy cutter machines are very rare anymore. No wonder, customers are quickly mesmerized by the puller in action. You just don’t see this kind of history in motion anymore!

family night ideas

Utah staycation ideas 

TRY A (FREE!) TASTE

Is your mouth watering yet? Now’s your chance to try a sample of the famous taffy for FREE and have fun in the process. Download the free Gardner Village Historic Scavenger Hunt and bring the completed form to Chocolate Covered Wagon for your taffy reward! Fun AND yum!  

Find more ways to celebrate Utah and Red, White & Blue in 2022 at Gardner Village here.




Labels: the chocolate covered wagon, best candy store in utah, famous candy shops, old fashioned taffy puller, where to buy sweets, utah history lesson, fun for kids, free things to do with kids in salt lake area, salt water taffy, great salt lake salt, how taffy