Sticky fingers with traditional taffy

Sticky fingers with traditional taffy

Kartika Bagus C., Contributor, Ponorogo, East Java

Have you ever entertained romantic thoughts while gnawing on
taffy?

Well, when you chew the traditional taffy from Ponorogo, a
town in the southern part of East Java, you also taste the
metaphoric qualities of love and marriage.

For the taffy is part of the requirements a Ponorogo man must
fulfill when proposing to a woman. Thus the taffy, made of rice
or glutinous rice, is a required element in a marriage proposal.

When a man brings along some rice taffy when he proposes to a
woman, it means that he has won the woman's heart. The sticky
rice taffy represents the bond that will exist between the two
until death separates them.

Sweet and delicious, the traditional taffy's basic ingredients
are rice and sticky rice mixed with palm sugar and young coconut
milk. In some cases, it can also be made of potatoes, squash,
bananas or melons.

Of course Ponorogo also boasts other unique foods, such as
skewered chicken, pecel (salad made of blanched vegetables served
with peanut sauce) and dawet gempol (a cold drink made from rice
or arrowroot flour).

The Ponorogo taffy, however, is different from the taffy found
in other areas because it has remained unchanged in shape and
taste. The taffy from Garut, West Java, for example, is mixed
with milk, cocoa and other modern materials.

In Ponorogo, the art of taffy making, which is usually a
household industry, is handed down from one generation to the
next.

One of the taffy makers in Ponorogo is Teguh Rahardjo, 56. He
said that he inherited the business from his parents. With his
wife, Sri Hariati, 49, he turned his taffy-making business into a
semi-modern business in 1982.

Usually, Ponorogo taffy is square-shaped and comes wrapped in
paper. But in the hands of Teguh and his wife, the taffy is
attractively packaged so that it can serve as a souvenir.

"Generally, people come here to buy taffy to take it home with
them. Even migrant Indonesian workers buy a lot for their mates
in Malaysia, Brunei or Saudi Arabia," Sri Hariati told The
Jakarta Post in her shop-house here.

Some of the ingredients for the taffy, such as palm sugar and
young coconuts, are found in Ponorogo. Others are bought in
neighboring cities, like the potatoes from Malang and the squash
from Nganjuk.

Making Ponorogo taffy is simple; what you need above all else
is patience and perseverance.

Some 15 people mix all the ingredients in a large wok with a
diameter of 30 centimeters. A special machine is needed to mix
the glutinous rice.

Hariati said that the longer it takes to mix the materials and
the more coconut milk added to the mixture, the nicer the taste
and the longer the taffy will remain refresh.

The main constraint facing the business, said Teguh, is the
amount of time the taffy can remain fresh. If the taffy can
remain good for a longer period, the business can grow even more,
he said.

Presently, he added, he had the only shop selling taffy at the
Seloaji bus terminal, run by one of his children.

But the business still can't meet the market demand. Hariati
said they received a lot of orders from some shops outside of
Ponorogo, but were unable to fill the orders because when packed
their taffy must be consumed within a month.

Unpacked taffy will only remain fresh for a week, she
added.

They attempted to add preservatives to the taffy, but it
affected the taste, Hariati said.

"We received complaints from our customers so we stopped using
the preservatives. We were afraid of losing our market," she
said.

Despite the constraints, the couple continue to search for
ways to develop their taffy-making business, including taking
part in food exhibitions to help spread the word about their
products.

They also are committed to ensuring their customers are
completely satisfied with their taffy-chewing experience. Teguh
jokingly added that if you buy taffy directly from his shop, he
can guarantee that it will be as fresh as a daisy.