Seaside has been making salt-water taffy since the early days of the resort era, and several shops on Broadway still pull and cut the candy in the front window as a demonstration. The process is genuinely interesting to watch: the cooked sugar is stretched repeatedly on a mechanical hook until it lightens in color and develops a chewy, slightly aerated texture. Flavors run from the traditional (peppermint, vanilla, strawberry) to things that are clearly aimed at children with no sense of restraint.
Whether you buy any is entirely up to you. But the smell of cooked sugar drifting down Broadway on a summer afternoon is part of the Seaside experience, and a small bag makes an honest souvenir — inexpensive, locally made, and genuinely connected to the place's history. The shops cluster in the lower Broadway blocks near the Prom.