Honey Buns: N.C. History with a Sweet, Sugary Glaze
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The air-conditioning blasts you at the grocery store as you pass aisles of shimmering, highly-processed snack foods.
The sound of a wrapper crinkles as the vending machine’s metal coil slowly relinquishes its wares.
At the center of it all: a honey bun.
Introduced in Greensboro more than six decades ago, this plastic-encased pastry remains a fixture of gas stations, grocery aisles and snack bars. It’s also a fixture of so many childhoods, especially in North Carolina.
The gritty sugar glaze is delicious or cloying, depending on personal taste but regardless, it evokes deep-seated nostalgia for consumers as they hearken back to a time when they didn’t bat an eye at more than a dozen grams of sugar in one package.