Three days in Mexico City. It’s been a whirlwind of pyramid climbing, attempts to organize trips to candy factories (as of now unsuccessful, but I’m eternally hopeful!) and visits with distant relatives. I don’t have anything particularly insightful to say about the Mexican culture at the moment, so instead I’ll write about the different kinds of candy I’ve discovered up to now.

One of my first stops was the Dulceria de Celaya, a famous dulceria, or candy store, in the historical district of Mexico City. Besides sampling the candy, I was hoping to speak to the manager, with a little help from my Spanish-speaking grandmother, about the store’s history and candy. Established in 1874, it actually still manufactures most of what it sells. The silver scales, extensive wall embellishments, and shiny glass cases filled with unusual candy cultivate a turn of the century feel, along with the old-fashioned looking sweets.

The store appears to specialize in a few different kinds of candy made from various vegetable bases. Pastes flavored with nuts, caramel, and fruits line several of the shelves, along with other Mexican candy: brightly-colored, sugared, fruit flavored camotes looked like nothing so much as giant gumdrops; almond, nut, and vanilla aleluyas were stamped with the store seal; Spanish-influenced turron almendras with their crusty white pastry surrounding a brittle looking almond center; and colorful teardrop candy with a name that translates to “little tears” in English. Beautifully patterned fudges make up another prominent section of the store, while candied fruits are featured in the front window. Flavored nuts and seeds fill small trays, and sweet bars similar to the food you buy in the United States for birds are available for purchase. Patrons bustle in and out of the store often, generally either taking a look around or spending a few pesos on their favorite snacks.

Unfortunately, the service there left something to be desired, to put it mildly. It might have been bad timing on our part, but we were unable to meet with a manager in the 45 minutes we waited. Nonetheless I did manage to buy almost 100 pesos or 10 USD worth of candy. Yum!

We took it home excited for a candy-tasting session in the hotel. The picture to the right shows all of the different candies we tried: pine nut and dulce de leche aleluyas, limon con coco, a wide variety of yemitas, or stamped pastes made of a flavored egg yolk paste, lemon and strawberry comates, and two different kinds of cachitos, or caramels. All of the candy was attractive looking - beautifully colored with little nut flourishes where appropriate. Everything was fresh, and very soft and tender.

The lime filled with coconut was probably my favorite sweet. I don’t normally like coconut, but the bitterness of the lime juice helped compensate for its sweetness. It was juicy and refreshing tasting, and really quite good. The aleluyas were very sweet and pasty with a strange aftertaste - probably, according to Abuelita, the hamoncillo (giant cactus plant) the paste was made out of. The different flavorings were light compared to the strong flavor of the paste. I eagerly bit into the giant green gumdrop expecting a juicy, fruity lime flavor. Instead, I was unpleasantly surprised by the strong taste of squash or sweet potato. The lime was overpowered by the vegetable the candy is made from: a stringy, squashy sweet  potato. Not my favorite. The strawberry flavored camote also tasted far more like squash than strawberry. Definitely an acquired taste! I enjoy sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner but not in my candy.

The caramels, like most Mexican caramels, were made of goat milk with the strong, distinctive flavor that entails. The small pieces of nuts complemented well the caramel - I also liked these candies, although they were very rich. The yemitas were grainy and hard on the outside, but soft and sweet on the inside. We had a wide variety of flavors: chocolate, cinnamon, peanut, almond… the peanut flavor was by far the strongest and also my favorite. The other flavors were dominated with the chalky taste of the paste.

The next day, I ended up at a more modern department store candy shop while at the mall with my grandmother and her brother’s family. Here, the selection was enormous and it was possible to sneak little tastes of more of the sweets from the giant self-serve barrels. Also, I was guided by my Mexican-living relatives who had strong opinions about what was good, bad, or necessary for me to try so it was easier to pick out a nice varied selection instead of ending up with a bunch of pasty tasting treats.

I tried a selection of fruity candies: mango con chile, sugared tamarind, a coconut roll, gomitas, and a spicy tamarind paste. The chile flavoring added to the mango and tamarind was very subtle despite its bright red color. It helped to offset the sweetness of the fruit flavor - something desperately needed for the sugared tamarind which was actually so sweet it made my eyes water! Tamarind is definitely not a fruit that needs lots of extra sugar added. The coconut roll was soft and sweet, but slightly lost on me as I’m not a huge fan of coconut. The gomitas look very much like little gumdrops, but are actually MUCH better: very, very soft with stronger, sweeter flavors than an American gumdrop. I loved them! They’re my Abuelita’s favorite candy so she bought about two pounds, and I’ve been enjoying them ever since Saturday.

Additionally, there was a lollipop made with sweetened, fried, puffed balls of wheat dough, called a muegano. This was excellent! Flaky puffs, a light caramel coating combine to make a sticky, crunchy pastry. The dough used for the balls of dough was similar to the flaky pastry used in the gaznete, a horn-shaped marshmallow filled fried wheat shell. The creme was harder, drier, and stickier than I would have expected - not at all like the creamy white filling in cannoli’s.

In addition to all the tastings, I enjoyed an adventurous, independent visit to Teotihuacan on Friday - there was no candy but lots of climbing steep stairways to burn off all the candy! The bus ride out was a little trying, as we accidentally chose a local bus that stops at every single little town on the way (with speed bumps every 50 meters) but our ride back was blessedly smooth, and 1/3 the time. Oh, and only 1 peso (about 10 cents) more. Strongly recommended!