Toffee

When I left Haiti to go to South Africa one of the guys who works for HOM asked me to bring him back an elephant…then he changed it to two elephants so he could breed and raise them. Then he changed his mind to lions and finally said even a snake would be fine…well I knew that wasn’t going to happen by any stretch of the imagination…I also knew that I couldn’t get something for just one or even a couple of people…so I thought about it and thought about it…when I got to Bloemfontein I asked Reinette about something like candy that is typically or at least quite South African…she suggested biltong which is kind of a meat jerky with special spices. I like it a lot but I wasn’t sure about getting meat—even dried meat—through customs. Then she suggested toffee made by Champions. Sounded good to me so we went to buy some. The store we went to is bulk store and the only way to buy toffee was to buy at least 120 pieces of it (already boxed). There were many different flavors. We were so indecisive that we ended up buying one box of the original, going outside to open and try it, and then going back in to buy more…I bought 3 boxes—there are a lot of people to give to…and so far it has been a big hit! (I’ve shared with all of my teachers and staff) But something I’ve noticed when watching different people eat it…those of us from US, Europe and SA put the whole square in their mouths in one bite…about the size of a Laffy Taffy and much stickier it is a real work out for your mouth and feels like you might pull your teeth out. (Dentists don’t like this stuff too much). When I got back to Haiti and gave it to people, they would unwrap it and take a small bite of the piece and continue to kind of nibble at it…This way it didn’t really hinder conversation or wear the person’s jaw out…just an observation (this observation has not changed the way I eat the toffee)

2 of the 3 boxes