When I was a kid, my family consumed a lot of See's Candy. We always seemed to be giving someone a box of it or receiving a box of it…and those assortments presented a problem for someone like me who had major food allergies. Unlike the Whitman's Samplers that we also sometimes had, a See's assortment had no diagram to tell you what was what. Some of those candies, I knew, were incredibly delicious. And some, I knew, could make me very, very sick.
So I usually dove for the Molasses Chips, which were harmless to me and had a distinctive shape. They're the ones in the lower right corner in the above box — long and flat. But then once they were gone, I'd look at a piece like this —
— and I'd ask it, "What are you, little piece of candy? Could you hurt me?" I couldn't take the chance and I didn't want to break into it to peek because that would spoil it for someone else. So I passed on further See's. As it turned out, that was usually a wise decision. The above piece was Milk Chocolate Coconut Creme which would have about the same effect on me that Chocolate Covered Cyanide would have on you.
My mother often took me with her into the See's shop that was then in the shopping center on Pico Boulevard near Westwood. There, they had the pre-packaged boxes of assorted, unidentifiable treats. They also had all the different varieties on display individually on trays with labels. So you could purchase a quarter-pound of orange creams (yum) or divinity puffs (lethal). I don't know if this is still a custom at those stores but when we went in, a nice lady behind the counter would randomly select a piece of candy from the display case and present it to me as a freebee. I'd always watch to see which tray it came from and it was always something I knew I shouldn't eat. Always.
I'd turn it down as politely as I could and she'd look at me in shock. A child declining free candy? What was wrong with that boy? She'd stare at my mother and think, "That woman is raising the Spawn of Mephistopheles. Maybe I should save humanity and kill him now!"
But I'd ignore her withering glares or maybe I'd work up the courage to ask politely for a Molasses Chip. One time, I naively asked for chocolate-covered cashews and the clerk gasped and then said, putting an indignant pause between each word, "Young man! See's Candy does not make chocolate-covered cashews!" I never felt more out of touch with reality in my entire life.
Anyway, here's a little video about how they make See's Candy featuring a man who probably spends his weekends entering John Goodman Look-Alike Contests. And by the way, do you know who owns See's Candy these days? Warren Buffett. He bought the firm in 1972, little suspecting that 33 years later, I would stop eating candy of any kind. Hope he was able to weather the horrific plunge in sales that must have occurred then.