By Rachel Sauer
The Daily Sentinel
Of all the impulsive decisions a tourist can make on vacation — the Caribbean cruise corn rows, the Vegas wedding, the curbside arepas, the “I’ll totally wear this again!” toe ring — perhaps none is so insidious as the fudge.
Maybe the shoppe at which it is sold is painted baby blue and has red geraniums blooming out front. Decorative white window shutters are involved, most likely, as are twiggy, wrought iron tables and chairs that turn your bum into a waffle.
Possibly lemonade is served in Mason jars, and probably the prices are written very fancily on chalkboards behind the counter.
The shoppe smells like warm sugar and is filled with sunshine. The pyramids of fudge squares behind the glass suddenly look like the most delicious thing in the world. Nutella and pistachio fudge! Candy cane fudge! Amaretto and orange fudge! Good ol’ chocolate fudge with walnuts, just like grandma used to make!
Must have the fudge. Must have the fudge!
Let us call it the Tourism-Fudge Corollary: A person goes on vacation almost anywhere in America and through forces possibly beyond his or her control is compelled to buy fudge.
(A case also could be made for a Tourism-Saltwater Taffy Corollary, though fudge seems a little more prevalent.)
So, as summer tourism season starts to wind down, it’s as good a time as any to ask which came first, the tourist or the fudge?
“In my experience, people tend to engage in different behaviors when they’re on vacation that they don’t normally do,” said Deb Holling, owner Farmhouse Fudge (farmhousefudgeandgifts.com) in Moab. “They get ice cream, they buy fudge. It’s an extra treat, an indulgence. Fudge is actually a highly impulsive buy. They don’t necessarily go in looking for fudge, but they come out with it.”
And that makes perfect sense, because who has ever said, while hiking a trail in a national park or lolling around a hotel room, “You know what would really hit the spot right about now? Some fudge.”
No, fudge is situational. It appears at Christmas time, often on a decorative plate alongside divinity, orange balls and misshapen homemade caramels, and is happily consumed a nibble at a time (even those with a high tolerance for rich foods must concede that more than one square of fudge is a lot).
But then it is forgotten, shuffled aside for a year in favor of brownies and Snickers and cupcakes — the seasonless treats.
Then, suddenly, in the midst of vacation, strolling the streets of Estes Park or Taos or Myrtle Beach or Key West, an unavoidable tractor beam of whimsy — a confectionery painted some delightful rainbow hue, with the geraniums and the chalkboards and the pristine white shutters, drawing the hapless tourist inside. It is named Lulu’s Sweetcheeks or Mimsy’s or something. It is a shoppe, no two ways about it.
Everything inside looks good. Everything. The truffles. The saltwater taffy. The dark-chocolate turtles. The row of self-serve Jelly Bellies. The fudge. The fudge! It’s probably $18 a pound.
But it’s so delicious! How is it possible to forget every year what a taste sensation fudge is?
The confection also benefits from the nostalgia factor, Holling said. People associate it with happy times and the loved ones who made it for them. Because its ingredients are fairly simple, it speaks to a time in life when sweets were enjoyed with uncomplicated gusto and not the fraught bargaining of “I’ll diet when I get home.”
Plus, said Debbie Kovalik, executive director of the Grand Junction Visitor and Convention Bureau, it makes a good gift.
“It’s small, it’s easy to take anywhere, it’s a present you can give to anyone, you can take it home in a suitcase or a purse,” she said. That is, if the fudge actually makes it home. It’s so tasty, and the variety of flavors can be truly astounding.
So, if any of the old-fashioned treats were going to become the tourist town staple, it’s good that fudge rose to the top. It doesn’t seem like many tourists would impulse buy horehound drops, say, or Necco wafers. Or, they might impulse buy them but give them away as gifts. Nobody really wants to eat those things.
Fudge just has mass appeal, Holling said. And surely it speaks to fudge-as-tourist-treat that Fudge Day, according to the National Confectioners Association (candyusa.com), is June 16.
The point, it seems, is to pack the suitcases, dive into the lake, hike the trail, gather the seashells, then wander into town and buy the fudge.