The healthiest region in the U.S. has major nostalgia for… Marshmallow Fluff.
I
t was a rainy fall day in Massachusetts, the kind that makes you want to curl up on the couch and not leave the house. And yet, New Englanders flocked to the Boston area by the dozens in their rain gear, all waiting eagerly for one thing: Marshmallow Fluff.
The sticky, saccharine goo was everywhere. It was piled into ice cream cones and oozed out of whoopie pies, stuffed into Fluff-filled samosas, and slathered onto Fluffernutters (that all-time New England favorite sandwich of peanut butter and Fluff).
But it wasn’t just on plates. People were jousting with it, limboing under it, and even plastering their hair in competition to make the best fluffy marshmallow mohawk. Nearby, they were waiting in a 30-person deep line to explore a mini museum dedicated to Fluff and buy Fluff merch.
Any outsider could be forgiven if caught with a confused look on their face. It was all in the name of a zany festival called “What the Fluff?” celebrating the sugary sweet spread being invented in Somerville in 1917—drawing an astronomical following that was nothing short of baffling.
You’ve probably seen a jar of the stuff: whipped and airy, white as a cloud, nostalgic retro lettering, and ready to give you a sugar rush like you wouldn’t believe, it’s the pride and joy of New England.
Every year, 7 million pounds of it are sold, more than half of that in New England. That’s despite the fact that four New England states are ranked the healthiest states in the nation, Massachusetts topping the list with one of the lowest obesity rates. So, what is it about this stuff that New Englanders are so sweet on?
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“I can’t explain the mania, except pure sugar,” says Jennifer DePrima, Fodor’s Editorial Production Manager. “It was the ’80s.” She grew up in New Hampshire and says every child’s bag lunch included a Fluffernutter (except hers, because her nurse mom wouldn’t send her to school with a sugar sandwich).
“Since it was invented here in New England, there’s a certain amount of nostalgia and pride,” says Mike Katz, a Somerville, Mass., resident of 30-plus years, affectionately rattling off an old jingle about Fluff that was popular on TV in the 1960s. A member of the Fluff Festival planning team, Katz dresses up in a yellow checkered suit to impersonate Archibald Query, the inventor of Fluff, every year. “But also, have you tried it? It just tastes good,” Katz says matter -f-factly, naming combinations that are popular in these parts: on top of hot chocolate, in fudge, and sandwiched in a Fluffernutter.
“I’d be curious to know if little kids are still eating those abominations,” DePrima says.
Not without a fight, apparently. One state senator, Jarrett Barrios, even proposed an amendment to the Massachusetts “junk food” bill in 2006 to limit the peanut butter, Fluff-filled sandwiches from being served in schools. Just one thing went wrong: he underestimated how much people in the community revered Fluff—it’s practically untouchable here.
It received such a backlash that not only did the bill not pass, but also State Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein introduced a bill to make Massachusetts’ official state sandwich the Fluffernutter. That didn’t pass either, but there’s still a petition going on today, nutrition be damned.
“In its defense, spoon for spoon, it has less sugar than jelly,” says Katz. (Which is technically true. Since it’s so airy, the volume used likely has less sugar compared to a denser jam.) And contrary to popular belief, despite the gooey, sticky nature of the product, there are actually no artificial preservatives or stabilizers in it, just artificial flavor (vanilla). In fact, there are really only a handful of other ingredients: corn syrup, egg white, and sugar.
But Fluff’s “natural” properties haven’t stopped people from conducting science experiments with it, some determining its “high cohesive properties”; others note that at higher altitudes, it expands and explodes from the jar. “It just becomes alive,” Katz says. The backbone of any childhood treat.
Dubious though its nutrition is, New England loves Fluff so much, it’s been to space more than once, with Space Station Commander Sunny Williams and with Massachusetts astronauts Rick Linnehan and Sunita Williams, who both ate Fluffernutters on the International Space Station.
“Our collective love of Fluff just brings the community together and celebrates Somerville innovation,” Katz says.
Does the sticky sweet stuff hold the community together? Maybe. No matter what side you fall on, cherished cream or sinful spread, people have thoughts about it. It even divides households—just ask Bostonian couple Caitlin and Barry Varys.
Caitlin, from Portland, Maine, always had Fluff in her house growing up and says, “The fudge recipe on the back of the Fluff jar was iconically good, like the best-thing-I’ve-ever-eaten good.” Meanwhile her husband, Barry, a New England transplant by way of Kentucky says with a laugh, “I think it’s a childish thing for childish people.”
“I want to double down,” Caitlin said, looking at her husband and taking a long sip of her hot chocolate topped with Fluff. “I thought maybe I was hyping it up since I loved it as a kid, but no. It’s still freaking delicious.”
Her friend Carrah Olive-Hall of Medford, Mass., piped in, “Look, I’m a big Marshmallow Fluff stan, and I’m from the South. It’s like the nectar of the Northeast.”
Love it or hate it, it’s almost as divisive here as declaring loyalty between a hot or cold lobster roll—everyone has an opinion. The best way to see where you stand? Next time you’re in the area, try it for yourself; no need to wait for a festival.
Year-round, almost every New England area supermarket carries it, and neighborhood restaurants incorporate it into their recipes. In the Boston area, including the culinary hotbed of Somerville, you can order the locally loved, marshmallow-lined Fluff cone at Gracie’s Ice Cream in Union Square, the Somerville Cream donut at Davis Square Donuts & Bagels, and classic Fluffernutters at Local 149 in South Boston, to start. Maybe, as Katz says, “see what all the Fluff is about.”
