Eat Local: Local Treats in Nashville

Easy to wipe chocolate off the Infiniti Q50 leather seats

When I go to the south, I try to find local specialties like grits or vegetarian collard greens. What surprised me on a recent trip to Nashville were two local candies: Goo Goo Clusters and Leiper's Fork Distillery chocolate bars.

I was in Nashville to drive the new Infiniti Q50 and if you are the type who likes to eat candy in the car, you'll be happy to now that the leather seats in the Q50 can easily be cleaned. We drive a car with cloth seats and the dog fur sticks to it relentlessly. Whenever we drive a car with leather seats they are so easy to wipe down!

But on to the candy:

The old

Goo Goo Clusters have been manufactured in downtown Nashville since 1912. The milk chocolate surrounds caramel, marshmallow and peanut. The first ingredient is sugar, so these are definitely not an everyday treat, but since today is National Junk Food Day, it's appropriate.

The Goo Goo Clusters will bring you back to your childhood, or make your kids very happy. And if you go to the retail store, just off the music bacchanal of Broadway, you can find different flavors, like peanut butter.

And the new

Leiper's Fork Distillery is a small batch artisanal bourbon and Tennessee whiskey producer that opened in 2016. You can take a 45 minute tour of the facility, housed in a timber frame building; the gift shop is in a 200 year old log cabin. Since bourbon takes 5-7 years maturation in oak barrels, tastings are of white whiskey and rye. We were driving, so we couldn't taste either (plus, it was about 10am).

But the chocolate was another story This rich dark chocolate caramel bar had a bit of whiskey in it, lending it a smokiness and layer of complexity that is for the chocolate purist.

Note: Infiniti paid for my travel and gave me samples of the chocolate. Opinions and calories are all my own.