I feel like the luckiest person in the world right now. My best pal who lives in NYC came to town for Thanksgiving to share the holiday with family and friends. She came bearing a simple lovely gift: the ooey gooey self-described “sweet goodness” of Sweet and Sara vegan marshmallows. A palate-altering, mind-blowing experience. Soft sugary pillows of ecstasy. Really. I’m not exaggerating. They’re that good.

I’ve never had the pleasure of eating homemade marshmallows before that first bite of Sara’s. She calls them meltaways with good reason. They really do melt in your mouth. They’re soft and moist; puffy and chewy. It’s a confectionery triumph. She sells them in several varieties including the two well-chosen by my pal: vanilla—which is most like a standard marshmallow—and toasted coconut. Though they can be used in s’mores, in hot chocolate or roasted on a stick around a campfire, I am quite at home just eating as is right out of the container. MMMmmm.

As marshmallows go they’re not cheap. But they are worth every penny. The 8.5 oz containers my friend bought for me set her back $6.99 each. But, honestly I consider them a distant well-bred cousin of the dear old low rent bag of white puffs we ate as kids. And, as such, they really can’t be compared in price or otherwise. Sweet and Sara’s are in a class of their own.

I’ve been loosely following the soon-to-be infamous saga of the vegan marshmallow. Not long ago, there were a handful of small U.S. businesses that developed the very difficult to produce vegan marshmallow. Because there had never been such a product on the market, all emerging brands were received by an ecstatic vegan consumer base. Most of the formulas were developed in home kitchens and grew into bonafide businesses in a very American Dream sort of way. In a dramatic twist, word broke that the main ingredient they were all using in good faith—Emes kosher vegan gelatin—was not, in fact, vegan. As the story goes, Emes was discovered to have mis-labelled and mis-marketed their animal derived gelatin, and the company up and vanished without a trace. The vegan marshmallow businesses were then in the position to start from scratch and develop a subsequent product using a truly vegetable gelatin. Easier said than done. All the confectioners decided to cut their loses and fold up shop. That is, all but one: Sweet and Sara’s Sara Sohn. Some sources report she spent close to a year perfecting a new product that had a puff, texture and taste that she deemed worthy. And, find the formula she did. Thank Goodness! I can only imagine the growing number of taste buds she will delight as word of her culinary coup continues to spread.

To find out more about the torrid vegan marshmallow story and how to get your hands on some of Sara’s sweets go to sweet and sara dot com.

Thanks to Alisa for being the best friend a girl could ask for. You rock!

3. Read a book: Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems or Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See by Eric Carle

2. Sing a Song: Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple or her self-penned “Potty Song”

1. Give copious amount of zerbits/raspberries all over arms, hands and feet. Make silly faces when switching to new zerbit target.