Monday, October 4, 2010

Mary Jane & Mary Jane Wicked Mix

Necco Mary JanesI can’t think of another candy that embodies the description humble American treat better than Mary Jane. First there’s the fact that they originated in Paul Revere’s house in Boston by the Chas. N. Miller Company. Second, they’re made from molasses and peanut butter, two hearty American flavors. The wax paper packaging has remained largely unchanged (undated old wrapper & advertisement from 1927).

The Chas. N. Miller Company was bought by Stark Candy in 1985, and Stark was bought up by Necco in 1990.

Necco has kept the traditional candy largely intact. When I was a kid Mary Jane were still a penny candy, sold out of tubs positioned near the cash register at convenience stores. These days they still go for pocket change, I’ve seen them for 10 cents each at retro candy shops.

Mary Janes

The candy is simple, a rich and stiff molasses taffy rectangle with a small reservoir of peanut butter in the center.

I stopped eating Mary Janes about 15 years ago when it seemed that every time I bought them they were hard and crackly. But I’ve had better luck around Halloween when they’re fresh and packaged directly by Necco (beware of other repackagers like the generic drug store brands).

The chew is a little tough at first but softens with a bit of work and warmth. The taffy isn’t too sweet and has a toasted, earthy flavor from the molasses (the fourth ingredient). The peanut butter strip in the middle is undependable at best. Some pieces have a generous filling that gives the candy a beautifully balance of roasted nuts and burnt sugar. The chew is smooth and has a consistent flavor from start to finish.

I find them irresistible. So much so that I’m on my third bag since September.

Mary Jane Wicked MixNecco has been on a kick to create alternate versions of their classic candies and Mary Jane wasn’t left behind. The Mary Jane Wicked Mix popped up a couple of years ago at Halloween.

The mix contains a four flavor variations: Peanut Butter & Jelly, Peanut Butter & Banana, Smores and Peanut Butter & Vanilla. What you might notice is missing from that list is the classic Molasses & Peanut Butter Mary Jane. Unlike the Clark Wicked Mix, which contains the classic milk chocolate Clark plus the Dark Clark and Coconut Clark, this mix doesn’t have the original. (Which is how I got into this messy Mary Jane addiction in the first place, I had to buy a bag to do this post ... and then I ate them so I had to buy another bag, and another.)

Mary Janes

The little wrappers are similar to the original. They’re a thick waxed paper that protects the candy well and releases except when they get too warm. My bag was a little bit oily, which I blame on the peanut butter. The candies were all soft and easy to chew, but the wrappers were sometimes just a little bit greasy to the touch.

The wrappers have the same bold black bookface font for the Mary Jane logo and have the little cartoon of the Mary Jane character. They’re color coded for the flavors (they don’t have the flavors named on them) but don’t have the red stripe.

Banana Mary Jane (Wicked Mix)

The version that immediately made the most sense to me is the Banana & Peanut Butter Mary Jane.

The yellow waxed paper looks brighter than the original because the taffy beneath is a pale yellow instead of a medium beige. It smells like fake banana and a little like peanut butter. The chew is soft and immediately reminiscent of Circus Peanut. The peanut butter, on the pieces that have a generous quantity, cuts the sweetness and artificiality to create a pretty good candy. It was definitely the one that I was reaching for in this mix.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Mary Jane

The raspberry red wrapper gave me a little bit of hope on the Peanut Butter & Jelly Mary Jane, which is good because the idea of a grape taffy filled with peanut butter was not appetizing.

The taffy was lightly tangy and tasted a little like grape Pixy Stix. The chew was softer, so much softer than the rest that it was a completely different texture of chew. The peanut butter did a good job of covering the disappointing grape jelly effect, but not good enough to make me want to keep eating these after the review was over. Thankfully there were only a half a dozen of these in my big bag of 85 pieces.

S'more Mary Jane

I wasn’t quite sure what a Smore Mary Jane was supposed to be. I liked the look of the dark brown wrapper and I thought maybe it’d be a cocoa flavored taffy.

Sadly the flavor note they were going for here was toasted marshmallow with peanut butter. That’s a great idea, but I needed more darkness to the whole thing and less fake vanilla sweetness. A little cocoa would have been nice, too.

Vanilla Mary Jane (Wicked Mix)

The Vanilla & Peanut Butter Mary Jane got me to thinking about another vanilla taffy filled with peanut butter, the Annabelle’s Abba-Zaba.

Mary Jane Vanilla & Abba-Zaba

RiteAid always has Abba-Zabas, so I went by and picked up a bar to compare. (While I was there I bought bag #2 of the classic Mary Janes.)

Mary Jane Vanilla & Abba-ZabaLet me start by saying that the Mary Jane is far easier to eat. Abba-Zaba are a smack & unwrap kind of taffy. It’s hard to portion and often messy.

The Abba-Zaba taffy is sweet but silky smooth in the chew, it’s almost warm and buttery. But it’s also sweet, a little sweeter than I’m keen on. The peanut butter is thick and has a strong flavor to it, the proportion or perhaps that there was so much of it in one place gave it a lot more prominence than in any of the Mary Janes.

The Vanilla Mary Jane is like a bleached out sea shell, missing all the beauty and character of the original. The fake vanilla taffy is okay and I admit that it does give the peanut butter more dominance. But the whole thing is just too sweet and bland. The Abba-Zaba wins based on its superior texture and better balance of peanut butter.

Overall, this experience has proved that the Mary Jane deserves to endure untouched for all these years (96 years!). I can see this variety being fun for kids who might be turned off by the smoky notes of the molasses original.

More on Mary Jane at the Bewildered Brit.

Related Candies

  1. Clark Bar Wicked Mix
  2. Molasses Pops
  3. Mary Jane’s Bread Pudding
  4. Mary Jane Peanut Butter Kisses
  5. Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews
  6. Abba Zaba


Name: Mary Jane
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Necco
Place Purchased: Rite Aid (Glendale)
Price: $.99
Size: 7 ounces
Calories per ounce: 113
Categories: Candy, Necco, Chews, Kosher, Peanuts, 10-Superb, United States, Rite Aid


Name: Mary Jane Wicked Mix
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Necco
Place Purchased: Rite Aid (Glendale)
Price: unknown
Size: 24 ounces
Calories per ounce: 113
Categories: Candy, Necco, Chews, Kosher, Peanuts, 4-Benign, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:35 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyReviewHalloweenNeccoChewsKosherPeanuts4-Benign10-SuperbUnited StatesRite Aid

Comments
  1. Ooh, it’s always a bit exciting when you give a candy a perfect 10.  grin  I don’t think I’ve had the official Mary Jane, just those PB taffies that come in the plain black and orange wrappers at Halloween.  I love them.

    The thing I really enjoy about all candies of this form—and especially the Abba Zabba, which I adore—is the way the layers of taffy slide around on the filling.  I don’t know what it is about that, but I really enjoy it.

    Comment by JJR on 10/04/10 at 7:05 pm #
  2. A perfect 10, yeah! I adore Mary Janes, which is why I try to stay away from them. Like Peanut M&Ms;, they’re my kryptonite… once I start eating them, I. Can. Not. Stop.

    Comment by Alix on 10/05/10 at 10:32 am #
  3. Whoa, wait a minute, Mary Janes AREN’T supposed to be hard and crackly? I’ve never bought them in a bag before, so that might have something to do with it.

    Comment by Ben Gold on 10/06/10 at 6:17 am #
  4. I think I’d be a rabid fan of these but for one thing:  no salt.  Peanut butter without salt just doesn’t work for me.  If they were a little more aggressive with the peanut butter portion and salted it a bit, I’d be eating these things daily…

    Comment by David A. Spitzley on 10/19/10 at 12:40 pm #
  5. Most Mary Janes I have eaten over the past 5 decades were “crackly” and sometimes downright hard. But they do soften up when you chew. Occasionally you get some that are SERIOUSLY stale. The worst I have had came from TJMaxx, which sells some seasonal candy items around Halloween and Easter—they were like rocks.

    I’m an idiot for candy, of course, so I ate ‘em anyhow. I broke my left lower molar—just shattered that thing into a million pieces. I only noticed when chewing that “gee, do these Mary Janes have nut pieces in them now?” and then it was too late. My tongue of course discovered the giant missing gap. It was so bad, I needed a full crown ($1000, only 55% covered by my dental insurance). So that’s like the most expensive penny candy in the universe! LOL!

    Somewhat later and much chastened, I bought some Mary Janes at a candy shop at the local outdoor food market. Miracle of miracles, these were ultra fresh! FRESH Mary Janes are wonderful—seductively soft and creamy. I’ll never eat a stale one again. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell in a bag whether they are fresh or not.

    I do love ‘em, and find them plenty salty and I’m not even a peanut butter buff. On top of everything else, they have a wonderful and simple old fashioned charm, right down to the old fashioned wrapper and logo!

    Comment by Laurel962 on 10/26/10 at 4:57 pm #
  6. The Mary Jane Wicked Mix is my all time fave candy and we cannot find them ANYWHERE this year. I just looked online to try and buy some directly, and still cannot find them. Any help?!?

    Comment by Dinah on 10/21/12 at 6:00 pm #
  7. I had some regular Mary Janes for 25 cents at a local candy and toy store..very soft, surprsingly..smile (good since they, as we know, after all, pull one’s teeth out.).

    Comment by SteveCarras on 9/05/15 at 1:38 am #
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