Dorothy Lane Market's Buckeyes Called Out as Best Snack in Ohio by Food + Wine Magazine

Buckeye candies Photo: CC BY 2.0 / Flickr Steven Depolo

Ohio has one more reason to refer to itself as the Buckeye State.

And it’s a sweeter accolade than just referencing our abundance of Buckeye trees and the existence of The Ohio State University’s mascot Brutus Buckeye.

Food & Wine magazine recently compiled a list of the “Best Snack in Every State” and Ohio’s beloved buckeye candy was called out as the best bite in this neck of the woods.

The magazine’s strategy for figuring out each state’s superior snack involved one major caveat: “In order to be considered, the food in question needed to be able to ship without a lot of effort. (In other words, probably no dry ice.),” reads the article.

So, 3-Ways and chili cheese sandwiches were out of the question.

Food & Wine also says they also “aspired to paint a broad picture of American food culture, and to celebrate the considerable breadth and diversity of what’s on offer, from sophisticated tinned seafood in the Pacific Northwest to the humble but mighty boiled peanut in the Deep South.”

To elevate the local connection, the magazine specifically named buckeyes from Dayton’s Dorothy Lane Market as one of the state’s best iterations of the chocolate-dipped peanut butter confection.

Food & Wine‘s full write-up reads:

Named for the poisonous nut that grows on the official state tree, the very edible buckeye candy is perhaps the most ubiquitous confection in the state, sold at every chocolate shop, grocery store, gift shop, and gas station (okay, maybe not all, but close) from Akron to Zanesville. It’s hard to imagine a time when Ohioans — incidentally, also known as Buckeyes — weren’t hooked on these peanut butter confections partially dipped in chocolate. Legend states that the candy was only invented back in the 1960s, when Gail Tabor began making them and bringing them to Ohio State football games, where they were, obviously, a huge hit. Not all buckeyes are worth your time, but you’ll never go wrong with the ones made at Dorothy Lane Market, a Dayton institution, or the flavorful renditions made by hand in the heart of the Holmes County Amish country at Coblentz Chocolate in Walnut Creek. Their buckeye fudge, looking a little bit like a tray of melted chocolate peanut butter eyeballs, is a minor revelation.

Among the rest of the best snacks in every state, Kentucky gets credit for its bourbon balls, specifically Rebecca Ruth Chocolates version. And Indiana is singled out for its popcorn — just in general.

Food & Wine also noted they specifically did not want to “find potato chips representing 25 different states” in this list (otherwise we’re sure Cincinnati’s Grippo’s Bar-B-Q chips would have made the cut), but the magazine did credit Ohio in the article intro for mass-producing the upstate-New-York-spawned and Montgomery Inn staple Saratoga chip.

Read Food & Wine‘s full list of the “Best Snacks in Every State” at foodandwine.com.

Cincinnatians won’t have to drive to Dayton for any of Dorothy Lane Market’s goodies once the gourmet grocer opens its planned outpost in in Mason. According to Dayton.com, the mixed-use project on Mason-Montgomery Road where the store will be located got the go ahead to move forward at the start of this year.

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