GREAT FALLS — When you think of things that have seasons, taffy may not be one thing that comes to mind. But at Candy Masterpiece in Great Falls (120 Central Avenue), taffy does have a season. It started February 24.
Because of the amount of time it takes to make taffy, it can only be made at certain times of the year.
When fresh taffy is stretching end-over-end on the puller, Candy Masterpiece owner Angie Bruskotter stands by ready to grab a handful.
"We do it a little bit at a time so that it can stay up here and stay light and fluffy," Bruskotter explained.
A few twists and a fold as she pulls off the handful, then she's off to the cutting table.
"Taffy season runs from after Valentine's Day through the end of October. During November, December, January, and February we are preparing for major holidays so there really is no time to put taffy up," said Bruskotter.
The shop will be closed for cleaning the week of March 6.
Cutting involves first stretching out the taffy by hand like dough for a pizza. On this day, she made cinnamon roll flavored taffy.
"Absolutely it's huckleberry. Welcome to Montana," Bruskotter quickly responded when asked what the most popular flavor of taffy is. "We're going to try and do a pickle taffy. I'm looking forward to that this spring. We are also getting our huckleberry and all of our flavors back up."
With the taffy stretched out on the cutting table and a healthy layer of cinnamon sprinkled over it, the taffy was rolled up, chopped into bite-size pieces, and individually wrapped to sell.
Typically, the business will make 40-60 pounds of taffy each day.
"When we start up, we're all so excited that we're doing something again. We enjoy this. Part of the fun is we get to sit there and hang out and enjoy the day together. That's one of the best parts of the shop, is that we get to do this together and have fun with it," said Bruskotter. "By the end of October, we're very tired of it and ready to go on to something else. But it is one of our favorite things to do. We sell a lot of taffy during the year."
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