Tennessee is known for a lot of things, but of any of them probably the most sought after item to come out of the state is the Goo Goo Cluster. These tasty treats were America’s first combination candy bar and have been hitting the sweet tooth for a hundred years.
The Goo Goo Cluster was the creation of Howard Campbell and the Standard Candy Company back in 1912. Campbell started putting some inexpensive extras into the chocolate to give it a little bit more substance. He began to add peanuts, nougat, caramel, and marshmallows to the silky smooth chocolate that the candy company was popular for. The Standard Candy Company had a small cart that wound its way through town selling the delightful treats.
These chocolate creations became so popular that soon they were being sold under the glass countertops at candy shops throughout the city and quickly became everyone’s favorite candy. The name came from Howard Campbell’s son who started saying ‘goo goo’ when Howard was first having the idea of making this new candy. And so it was named the Goo Goo Cluster. But the popularity of these clusters would grow until it became the main sponsor of the Grand Ole Opry. After that people assumed that the GOO of the clusters were initials for the Grand Ole Opry.
From the time that Goo Goo Clusters fell in line with the Grand Ole Opry, there have been hundreds of programs showing the Opry’s biggest stars learning how to make the famous cluster. Then that opportunity was extended out to all the people of Nashville and they could go and try their hand at making this treat.
And that is what brings us to Nashville on this venture as we experience the wonder of making our own Goo Goo Cluster. With some of our family in tow, we went to downtown Nashville to the home of the Goo Goo Cluster, entered the delicious smelling store, and went to the back corner where a red door led to our Goo Goo Cluster classroom.
We filed into the classroom and took our places behind the tables while John our leader adjusted his microphone. We started with the history of Goo Goo Clusters and how they came to be the first of America’s combination candy bars. He said we could munch on a sample of the ‘little goo’ or the peanut butter cluster while he talked.
Then we were directed to our trays in front of us. There was a pre-made chocolate cup waiting to be filled with goodies. We pulled on the hair nets and gloves with many comments and jokes revolving around memories of cafeteria ladies from school.
We came up to the counter and had to make the difficult decision of what we were going to add to our cluster from the table of options. You get to pick two sticky options and 3 of the dry options. Little cups of peanut butter and different kinds of nougat and caramel (including a bourbon caramel with hints of whiskey it in compliments of the Jack Daniels Distillery down the road) were lined up on the table. These were followed by rows of jars of dry ingredients like nuts, sprinkles, pretzels, toffee, and chocolate chips. There was no question that our clusters were going to be epic.
Taking the decided goodies back to our tables, we were then instructed to put one of our sticky components into the bottom of the chocolate shell making sure to press it down across the entire bottom. Then we filled it to the brim with our dry components. We finished it off with our second sticky component, again making sure that it was all covered. We then went up to the chocolate fountain at the front of the room where we let that smooth chocolatey goodness fall over over our creation. We took a scraper and slid off any excess back into the fountain.
As our clusters set and cooled, we listened to John talk about chocolate and where it comes from and how it is made. We got to try little chips of Goo Goo’s ruby chocolate, golden chocolate, and dark chocolate. It was an interesting to hear more about chocolate, but we kept eyeing our cluster anxious to see (and especially to taste) our final product. We turned our tray upside down and gave it a tap on the table and our giant chocolate delight came out. We placed them in the red box and a small cooler bag that they gave us.
After the class was done we went back out into the store. They have an ordering system where anyone can create their own cluster and have it mailed to them. Apparently this has been put on hold because the heat lately has made delivery of chocolate a messy affair. And there was a wall of the iconic treats still sporting their original advertising.
We had such a blast getting in touch with this lesser known experience of Nashville and making our own Goo Goo Cluster. What could be better than making candy filled with all the best things!
{Know if you go: You need to reserve a time beforehand for the class as it has limited spots. To make reservations go to googoo.com under experiences. We did the ‘ taste of goo goo’ experience which was $55/person. But they also offer a ‘spirits and chocolate’ experience where the candy making has the added wine and whiskey tasting for $90/person.
If your mouth is watering for more Tennessee originals, then you may want to check out:
Thanks for coming along to the Goo Goo Cluster experience in Nashville. May your chocolate run smooth and your treats be full of crunch.
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