Sassafras Candy

Sold in stick form, reddish in color, Sassafras candy was a hallmark of the American general store before the rice of the grocery chains.  In the 20th century this hard candy became scarce.  While Claeys candies offers a version made from sassafras oil (lozenges not sticks), they state “uses artificial flavors” conspicuously on the packaging. The old home style candies made from a decoction of boiled sassafras root, admixed with sassafras oil and a spice (clove, cinnamon, allspice) became the preserve of a few candy artisans. 

Sassafras candy in the middle 20th century was the specialty of Greenup Kentucky where the Cartee family manufactured a hardy candy from a decoction of sassafras roots and shipped it to drugstores throughout the South. For years it was sold as the signature treat of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. The Cartee recipe was proprietary, though some averred that they could taste cinnamon as well as sassafras in the irregularly shaped chunks. When Mrs Cartee was invited to the Mall in Washington D.C. as part of the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival in 1969 a reporter from the Evening Star noted the candy was “made of sugar, syrup, sassafras tea, and fruit coloring” (July 4, 1968), p. 29.  It disappeared in the 1980s after Mrs Cartee had a heart attack.

In the 1950s the Sassafras Products Company of Cotter Arkansas sold a sassafras hard candy on a regional basis.   The one home candy maker I’ve ever witnessed make sassafras candy boiled peeled roots in water, about 2 cups worth, eventually added 2 cups of sugar and a cup and a dash of Karo syrup, and some powdered sassafras root to boiling root liquid. The roots were removed before the sweetening was added.  He said don’t boil the roots too violently—a long low boil is best.  He sometimes peels the roots, chops, the root bark and adds those particules in with the sugar.  But that is optional if you want intense flavor.  Claeys makes sassafras candy in 2021 using sassafrene oil. 

Because sassafras root, tea, and oil have always had a place in folk pharmacology, you can find suppliers for all three on etsy or eBay. The roots, while they require some processing, impart a less artificial flavor than the extracted sassafrene oil.

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