I read a book one time where the author said that the best candy bar in the world was The Five Star Bar. Not true, the Five Star Bar is nothing but a bit of candy removed from a heart shaped box and sent out into the world on it’s own. Real candy bars exist only in their own little wrappers and compete for our attention at checkout stands and candy aisles.
One such bar is the Cherry Mash-an old fashioned candy bar that looks like a random pile of chocolate. Inside the chocolate coating is a bit of bright pink super sweet cherry flavored something. It’s a soft center that still has a bit of stiffness to it. It’s a wonderful bit of business. There are a couple of bars that are very similar to the Cherry Mash, one is the Twin Bing which has two small, very Cherry Mash like bits of candy instead of one large one. Anther is a Cherry Cocktail which has a real cherry inside the pink goo inside the chocolate coating. I seem to recall that there was one more bar called Big Cherry which also had a real cherry in the center, it had a pink wrapper and was another clone of the Cherry Mash.
I have a soft spot for all kinds of odd candies, I’m one of those people that buy the limited runs with the Dark Chocolate variations. But I also love odd and wonderful bits of business like Wax Mustaches and Wax Lips and those Black Jelly beans that only seem to be around at Easter Time. I have been munching on them a lot recently.
The Wife found me a wonderfully weird candy bar that was Absinthe flavored. There aren’t really words to describe the sensation of wormwood, licorice, and chocolate combining in the mouth. It was a shocking and wonderful bit of business, but a tad pricey at four dollars a bar-the store soon stopped carrying them. Oh well.
When I was a kid Pier 1 Imports was an actual import store-they had all kinds of odd foods like chocolate covered ants and grasshoppers and all those odd mints that the Brits are so fond of. I have tried every odd little bit of candy I have run across in my travels, I’ve liked most of them. Dr Who turned me on to Jelly Babies-but they are kind of an acquired taste. Clotted Cream Fudge was love at first bite though.
I recently found a box of 24 Cherry Mashes for $7.00-a veritable steal, so I bought a box. They taste just as I remember them tasting-of course, it has not been that long since I ate one. I love all the retro candy sites like Candy Crate that have all these old style candies.
I love to make my own candies as well, but that’s another story.
