The "Shriver's" Story

Top card is from the early 1900s while the
bottom card shows Shriver's  as it is today.

It was an ordinary day.  Just got back from a visit to Shriver's on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ.  Made arrangements last evening with candy maker, Joshua, after buying some licorice wheels and taffy, to return today to take a tour through the manufacturing area and see and photograph how they make their salt water taffy.  Salt water taffy actually started in Atlantic City in 1890 when a man named Bradley had his taffy stand inundated with sea water one evening.  The following day a little girl asked if he still had any taffy for sale and he sarcastically said it was now salt water taffy.  A relative overheard the remark and catchy phrase and thereafter his taffy was known as salt water taffy.  Ocean City's original salt water taffy maker, Shriver's is located on the boardwalk at 9th Street.  Has been there since 1898 when it was founded by William Shriver who started the company as a restaurant, ice cream  and candy store.   It is the oldest business on the boardwalk in Ocean City and is owned and operated today by the third generation of the Shriver family.  The Shriver's legacy of Salt Water Taffy, Fudge and other fine confections still remains 100 years later with the claim that they sell the only salt water taffy that is made on the boardwalk.  The original wooden building was destroyed in the great fire of 1929 that claimed most of the neighborhood and rebuilt as a brick business which still stands today.  My trip today showed me the process that is, and has been for the last century, used to make the sweet confection.  I met Joshua as I entered the rear of the store where they make the taffy and he gave me a tour of the manufacturing facility.  The main ingredients of corn starch, corn syrup, sugar, water, salt, butter and other minor ingredients are cooked in hundred pound batches in a steam-jacketed kettle.  Because of the high temperatures needed I was not able to see this procedure.  The resulting material comes out as chocolate, molasses or plain.  It is then placed on large water cooled slabs in 50 pound batches.  After cooled, the gooey mass is placed on a pulling machine to stretch it which will make it chewy.  During this step the coloring and flavoring is added.  At this point the chocolate base will become chocolate-peanut butter, chocolate mint or remain plain chocolate.  The molasses becomes peanut butter, molasses mint, or plain molasses, while the plain becomes all other flavors.  After the pulling, the mixture is placed on the wrapping machines where it is rolled to join colors together and stretched through the machine to the packaging section.  As the stream of taffy enters the packaging end it is cut, wrapped, sealed and sent into a bin below the machine.  Joshua and his partner candy maker, Darko, were operating their machines at 200 pieces per hour.  The machines, which were made in 1967 and 1970 can produce taffy at a rate of up to 400 pieces per minute, but if the paper tears at the higher speeds, more of the product will be lost.  While the taffy mixture is on the wrapping machines, corn starch is spread on it with a brush to keep the taffy from sticking to the machine.  Both candy makers grabbed handfuls of their result from the buckets at the end of the line and shared them with the viewers who were watching the procedure through the windows of the manufacturing section.  I can tell you that a piece of the delight right off the machine is a real treat.  My grandkids got to sample the results when I got back to the condo and couldn't wait to pop it in their mouths.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Photo tour follows:

Taffy from the kettle cooling on the cooling tables.

Joshua placing the taffy on the pulling machine.

Adding of the flavoring and coloring in the pulling machine.

Darko and Joshua removing the the taffy from the pulling machine. 

The taffy has been placed on the wrapping machine.  Here it is rotated to form the round mass that you see.  Joshua is using a brush to coat the sticky taffy with corn starch to keep it from sticking in the machine.  Note: The taffy in this wrapping machine is not the same taffy that was removed from the pulling machine.

This is the end of the wrapping machine where the taffy will be placed in the waxed paper.   He has set the machine so that it will produce 200 pieces per minute.

The taffy is stretched from the rollers to the end where it will be placed in wrappers.

Joining of the taffy and the wrapper.

Wrapped candy coming down the chute into the bin.  This particular flavor is watermelon.

Darko is dusting his batch of taffy.

Worker prepared to pass out fudge samples to customers.

Interior of Shriver's Salt Water Taffy store.