(Editor’s Note: The following article was made available by the author Sarah Gove and by John Womble of Georgia Fruitcake Company in Claxton.)
Enjoying a sweet slice of fruitcake with a steaming cup of coffee is not a pleasure reserved only for the holiday season; in fact, some of Georgia Fruitcake Company’s loyal customers order cake all year around. But not all fruitcake lovers are as fanatical as Don Sherman. In his basement, the retired Navy man from Connecticut stocked up fruitcake he purchased at the commissary decades ago. While cleaning out the basement a few months ago, Sherman bravely popped open a metal container of his favorite snack, now more than 20 years old. “The Georgia fruitcake was the one that I liked and if I liked something, I tried to get as much as I could afford,” Sherman recalled. “But I forgot about them (in the basement).” To Sherman’s surprise and great delight, the 20-year-old fruitcake was still tasty! “I brought them out, took one to my girlfriend and we opened it up,” he said. “It was a little browner than normal, but tasted pretty good.” Sherman was so impressed he drove nearly 1,000 miles to visit the bakery in Claxton where the fruitcake was made all those years ago. Sherman walked into John Womble’s bakery with that decades-old container and insisted they enjoy a slice together.
“I said, ‘I’m from Connecticut and I love your fruitcake!’” Sherman shared.
Womble recalled about his first encounter with Sherman, “A man was standing there with a can of fruitcake and said, ‘I’ve got this fruitcake that’s 26 years old. I brought it to you!’” The visitor from Connecticut insisted that he and Womble enjoy a slice of the vintage fruitcake together.
“I’m thinking why is he punishing me like this?” Womble remembered, laughing. Womble is quick to tout the excellence of his company’s family recipe. Georgia Fruitcake takes pride in a consistent recipe —the only thing different in the cakes Womble makes now is the nut mixture — but even he was hesitant to sample such an old cake.
Still, exemplifying customer service at its best, Womble inspected the container, confirming by the batch number that the cake was indeed more than 20 years old, and then steeled himself to sample it.
Womble cautiously broke off a piece of the mahogany-colored cake. “Doggone it —it tasted like a fruitcake. I was amazed. There was no rancidity to it. The nuts were still like they’re supposed to be.” It did not taste fermented. “I don’t know what it’s done in there. It has a different texture, but it’s still moist,” Womble observed.
Womble has tastetested pounds of fruitcake in his years at the bakery, including a 10-year-old cake, but even that one wasn’t as tasty as Sherman’s cake. Perhaps the way the cake was stored in that Connecticut basement preserved its flavor somehow, he pondered. “It was probably down there next to a wooly mammoth or something. The ground does not thaw out down there,” Womble joked.
Sherman now tells all his friends about Georgia fruitcake and makes sure never to run out. He left the bakery that day with a free cake to replace the one he brought in and 10 more he bought to stock up.
Womble looks back on that day fondly. “It makes me feel good to know I made that cake,” he said. “I would eat another piece of that and it wouldn’t bother me at all.”
FRUITCAKE CLOSEUP — Although the 20-year-old fruit-cake had darkened in its container, the taste was amazingly well preserved. Perhaps storage in a chilly Connecticut basement was a factor in keeping the cake flavorful.
TOP BAKER — John Womble of Georgia Fruitcake Company stands in his company’s kitchen with containers of his fruitcake. He and a surprise visitor from Connecticut shared a still tasty slice of the visitor’s 20-year-old, Georgia- made fruitcake, proving that like wine, some fruit-cake ages gracefully.
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