To celebrate winning the No. 1 spot in the 2024 USA Today 10 Best Candy Store competition, owner Mark Igel arranged for a group photo in front of The Taffy Shop on West Elkhorn Avenue.
The photo shoot – which included some 200 people – took place on Saturday evening and included employees, family, friends, and summer visitors.
Igel, a member of the Estes Valley Fire Protection District since 1990, was able to pull a few strings to have a Ladder Truck No. 1 parked across the street from The Taffy Shop. Estes Park photographer Chris Layton, shooting for Visit Estes Park and fellow firefighter Lt. Ron Bruchwalski took positions on top of the rig. While Layton shot the official still photo Bruchwalski operated the fire district’s drone to capture the fun moment.
Voters in Estes Park and across the country weighed in on USA Today Readers’ Choice contest to give the top honor to The Taffy Shop.
The Taffy Shop opened Feb. 2, 1935, when Lowell Slack moved to Estes Park to open his salt water taffy business with his first wife, Jane Nottingham.
According to Igel, Jane’s mother hand painted the mural of a cottage, swans, lily pads, and a forest that runs across the wall behind the candy counter.
The couple divorced in 1946 and Lowell married Juanita Pratt in 1947. After her death in 1959, Slack married Lavonna Mahaffey in 1964. They were married for 30 years before Lowell died in 1994 at the age of 90.
Lavona continued to operate The Taffy Shop until she sold it to Igel in 2014 who has carried on the original recipe for making the time-honored taffy. Lavona died in 2019 at the age of 92.
The tiny retail store has a vintage art deco vibe with its blinking light bulb lettered marquee. As a customer opens the door, a brass bell jingles. Crossing the threshold is like stepping back in time to a simpler era.
Visitors are greeted by the fragrance of the sugary confection that, despite its name, contains no salt water. After the connection is cooked and cooled, the mixture is pulled on a machine that dates to 1947. The puller, as Igel calls it, aerates the candy, before it is flavored, cut and wrapped.
Behind the shop’s glass display case are bins with hundreds upon hundreds of individually wrapped pieces of taffy – the only thing the shop sells – in dozens of colors.
The results of the USA Today readers’ choice contest were announced June 19. The Taffy Shop, which will mark its ninetieth anniversary next year, is one of the oldest businesses in continual operation in Estes Park.
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Fun Taffy Facts
Despite the name, salt water taffy does not contain salt water or sea water.
Salt water taffy is a style of taffy that originated in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1880s.
When it comes to salt water taffy, the words salt and water are separate words.
The word taffy is related to the word toffee which is used Brittan and dates to the 1820s.
The word is also related to tafia, a rum-like drink made from molasses.
Early recipes for toffee included boiling sugar and molasses.
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