Quite Possibly the Best Candy in the world

When I was growing up in Boise Idaho my father was a sheet metal worker and it was the practice of the shop where he worked to send a turkey or a ham home with the employee at Christmas. One of the other tradition then shop practiced was to also send a box of Oywhee Butter Toffee. This toffee is made by the Idaho Candy, a perennial Idaho industry started way back in the early 1900's. The toffee is heavily butter flavored with huge chunks of almond liberally interspersed throughout the toffee. The toffee itself is dredged in some sort of finally ground nut meal. The texture and flavor is incredible. I loved the stuff. The box sent home with my father was a “large”, they must have known how large our family was. The pieces of the toffee were not uniform in size, just large chunks of the candy. My parents were careful to break the candy in bite sized bits to make sure the candy lasted as long as possible. I must confess I pilfered my share of the treats over the years. In fact I did find out that the company does make a bite sized uniform treats. I don't know why the shop never chose this type to send home . The bite sized would have made life more simple for my parents.

Over the years I had not really forgotten these confectioneries and I found some candies which were similar but not Owyee Butter Toffee. But about year ago when I was exploring Idaho websites I discovered that the Idaho Candy Company actually had a website and suddenly all the sweet memories of these treats came flooding back to me. I even contemplated ordering a couple of boxes to share with my wife but it was just a fantasy. I even bookmarked the site but soon forgot about the website.

My brother, who was up this weekend for my mom's birthday, is a contractor in Boise. Paul actually runs crews and builds incredible homes. We were lucky enough to have Paul over to the house to spend some time with us visiting about the old days. As we were visiting he halted the conversation and went out to his car and returned to with a box of the coveted sweets. He said that he had been given a couple of cases to discriminate to his employees and customers. I was amazed! Here was my own box of Owyee Butter Toffee! I was secretly pleased to find others not as impressed with the candy as I . True, now, fifty years from my first contact with the toffee the candy was not quite the same but close. Still I am having to exercise great restraint not pig down the whole box the first night. In fact, I am pleased to report that a major portion of the boxe's contents remain. I doubt the candy will remain long but but I have enjoyed the flavored and the link with my past the gift has afforded. I will see if i can get a couple of boxes from my brother next year and use them as gifts. What a sweet thought.