In Love

Hi Everyone,
I am completely and totally, 100%, head over heals, IN LOVE with Candy Freak. It is just so interesting! I am learning so many new things about the chocolate and candy industry that I feel dumb for never understanding what goes into the candy bar I buy at the grocery store. The history that Almond provides is truly eye opening. I am about 100 pages in and I just finished the chapter on Ray Broekel, who let's admit is probably the coolest closet collector of all time. If you were curious about the two books Almond mentions that Broekel wrote they are The Great American Candy Bar Book and The Chocolate Chronicles. These books are out of print but can still be found if you really did some digging. Also, the guy (can't remember his name at the moment) who started the Candy Direct website is still going strong. Here is the Candy Direct website. Who knows you might stumble across a candy from your youth that you can freak about :)
http://www.candydirect.com/?utm_source=GPPC&gclid=CNDKupSPvqECFR16gwodCET2_A&ad=4309359456

I think I will start looking up a lot of the old candy bars that Almond mentions. Below is Fat Emma and Pie Face.
This is a salesman advance card printed on a U. S. government postal card. Fat Emma, made by the Pendergast Candy Company of Minneapolis in the 1920s, was one of the classic American Candy bars of the past. Pie Face was her male companion. Fat Emma is included on a list of "Ten Immortals" by Ray Broekel (a candy bar historian) in his article "Land of the Candy Bar." It was the first candy bar to use the type of nougat center later used by Mars in Milky Way. This nougat resulted from using too much egg white in the recipe which made it fluffy and thicker than expected (thus making Emma "fat"). The nougat became known as Minnesota or Minneapolis nougat.

I hope you are enjoying Candy Freak as much as I am. Please feel free to post comments about the candy you remember from your youth. It truly is fascinating stuff!