We could smell them from outside, a sweet, coconut/vanilla aroma that made our mouths water. A small sign, dwarfed by the bright yellow building extending down the block, told us we were in the right place: “Suaves – Malaviscos cubiertos de coco.” We knocked on the huge wooden doors and were ushered through the cozy plant-filled foyer into a tidy living room, where Doña María Clara García, the 84- year-old family matriarch, sat in a cushy armchair overseeing the daily operations of the family business. Shelves filled with bags of fresh Suaves filled what used to be the dining room, ready for the day’s sales.

Suaves (pronounced SWAH-vays) have been a Mazatlan specialty since 1950, when the Doña’s husband, Don Salvador García Guzmán, got the idea for them. Combining his experience in a candy-making factory in Culiacán with a recipe for marshmallows brought by a friend from the US, he created a soft sweet to compete with the traditional Mexican hard candies. Mazatlecos and visitors alike have been in love with the spongy coconut marshmallows ever since – and deservedly so.

The secret to Suaves’ deliciousness lies in their simplicity and the García family’s dedication to purity. While they freely share the ingredients - pure corn syrup, coconut oil, gelatin, sugar and vanilla – the recipe itself is a tightly guarded secret, and Doña Garcia laughs, shakes her head and wags her finger when asked for details.

Each clear plastic bag, emblazoned with a galloping red dinosaur, holds 50 soft, squishy malvaviscos. Because they’re made without preservatives, they should be stored in a cool place and eaten within two weeks. But they won’t last that long. Eating one or two is impossible, three or four, merely a beginning, and “too many” might be just the right amount.

Production takes about four hours each weekday morning and is done mostly by family members, with shifts shared by Sra. Garcia’s 11 now-grown children and “mountains” of grandchildren. Output varies depending on the season, special events and day-to-day demand, ranging between 80-300 bags per day, or some 4,000 to 15,000 pieces. While the traditional white squares still predominate, younger family members talked Doña García into accepting custom orders for different shapes and colors for special events such as birthdays, showers and quincineras.

The García family home has been the Suaves workshop for more than 60 years, with various rooms turned into production and packaging spaces. First, the ingredients for the dough are cooked in a covered outdoor kitchen, where abejas – bees – are a constant hazard, drawn by the sweetness that wafts into the air. Next the now-jelled mixture is brought inside, where it’s rolled into puffy 12-foot long pieces on long tables, looking like giant white sheet cake. These are patted down with water, sprinkled with slightly toasted coconut, and then cut into more manageable squares for the final shaping. Using a specially made metal rolling pin, the Suaves are cut into the trademark squiggly squares – mountains of them every day – and then packed into regular-size bags of 50 or smaller bolsitas of 15.

The popularity of the treat, particularly with children, has garnered Sra. Garcia many opportunities to sell the business or market the product beyond Mazatlán and its neighboring cities. But she firmly rejects all offers to sell the recipe and retire, and adds that because the Suaves are made without preservatives, distant distribution would be difficult.

You can find these delightful confections in local dulcerías, most of the small neighborhood tiendas and convenience stores and in some of the bigger grocery stores like Walmart and Soriana. A bag of 50 sells for about $18 pesos and the smaller 15-piece bolsita is $5 pesos. The price has stayed the same for many years.

And if you, like most people, find yourself eating “too many,” there’s no need to feel guilty, said Doña García.

“They’re healthy,” she said. “You can eat them with confidence. The process is clean, the ingredients pure, and the sweetener has the vitamins of corn.”

Staff writer Linda Baker contributed to this story.