I discovered Grandma Ste-Catherine Halloween kisses on a road trip to Quebec last year.
We were with Carole and Andy, friends from Calgary, staying at a cottage in the Laurentians. While in town shopping for groceries, we spied Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses.
Now, if you’ve ever trick or treated on Hallowe’en, you know what a Hallowe’en kiss is. Gooey, taffy-like candy and done right, made with molasses. In my old neighbourhood, Halloween kisses were popular. They came in orange, black and yellow wrappers. They were cheap. And they were shelled out by the handful. Here’s the deal: Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses are different. They’re better, WAY better.
Bigger, softer and good. Very good. Too good. The four of us went through an entire bag in a week. At Christmas, Glenn and I looked for a bag to send Carol and Andy thinking they’d get a good giggle. We never found the kisses
Julie’s tweet for our favourite souvenir food was my motivation to find out the story behind the kisses. My online / telephone journey took me across Canada from Vancouver all the way east to the city of Saint John, New Brunswick and the home of the Grandma Molasses company. Turns out it Grandma Molasses doesn’t make Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses but it does supply the molasses.
Molasses is made from 100% sugar cane juice and has been a staple in North America for over 200 years. According to Grandma Molasses, it used to arrive in Saint John by ship in ‘puncheons’ (big wooden barrels) and was sold in bulk at local general stores. That got me to wondering if my dad’s habit of serving us toast topped with molasses on winter mornings didn’t come from his New Brunswick roots. Original Foods , a Quebec company, makes Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses. So my next call was to Original Foods, based in Montreal. Two calls later I found out that you can’t buy Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses in Vancouver (Sorry Julie!). but Metro and Walmart sell them in stores in the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario.
Speaking of yearning … the butcher, the baker … I was thinking about how rare it is to find these shops, anymore.
The grocery store meat and bakery departments still have a lot of catching up to do!
Yeah, I am with you. Did you see the post on Red Steer Butcher that our PR student Kelly wrote about last wk. What I loved about her story was how the guy relies totally on word of mouth to sell his product.
My friend Janet also swears by the guy. Knew of him right away as soon as I told her. Got a butcher or baker you would like to spread the word on in your area of Canada? We would love to hear about it. Thanks for taking the time to comment on Roadstories.ca Much appreciated!!
“Ain’t” that the truth!!
Actually, I thought I was commenting on that post, when I clicked Leave a Comment. Ah well. C’est la vie.
It’s funny, because just this week, as I was driving home I was thinking that there aren’t any butchers or bakers in our community that I know about.
I’ll be back! I hope you’ll come visit me on my blog, too!
I’d looked for a few years, after trying the garbage that Kerr and Dare make. ‘Original Candy Kiss’ as it says on the labels in traditional yellow-orange-white-black labels, are made in Dunnville Ontario, by a division of Original Foods Ltd.
They are only sold in Ontario in 600gram bags in Giant Tiger stores, or by how much you want in various BulkBarn stores as well.
I stock up for winter on Nov. 1st, because they sell the day-after Holiday candy at 50% off.
Bad for the teeth? Naw, I got dentures! HA!
I just purchased a bag at the Dolorama and either they changed the recipe or they were an old batch because I always got them in the past and they used to be good and chewy and real sticky like pulled molasses toffy should be! But these were soft no texture almost like a old fudge. Very disappointed I will not be buying those again. Love the molasses though I grew up with that molasses in Quebec we always had some it was a must in our cupboard.