A free association with the word “Brooklyn” may conjure many things: brick oven pizza, quiet streets lined with historic brownstones, a disco-dancing John Travolta, or the seaside towns of Rockaway Beach. Enter Salty Road Taffy.
The company’s founder, Marisa Wu, was inspired to create her own line of the classic chewy confection during a summer spent on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk in 2011. She was helping friends sell organic produce, when they suggested she try her hand (literally) at making salt water taffy. Undeterred by the physical exertion of making taffy—it involves quite a bit of pulling—Marisa put her self-taught candy skills to the test. Somewhere between the hand stretching and the wrapping, she fell in love. Her final result was a soft and creamy taffy, naturally enhanced by a real vanilla bean flavor and a salt crystal crunch.
While salt water taffy has been a popular candy since the late 19th century, there’s nothing old-fashioned about Salty Road’s candies, with flavors like Bergamot and Caramel Sea Salt. Not long after she began hand crafting her taffies, Marissa caught the attention of The Brooklyn Paper, who hailed her concoctions as “treats for the contemporary candy connoisseur.”