Almond, Steve - Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America

[oyceter]

Steve Almond is a self-professed candy freak—he longs for the discontinued candies of his past and admits to stashing who knows how much candy in various nooks of his house. And so, he decides to write a book about candy, all the better to get access to various candymakers.

I'm not actually the biggest candy fan (give me plain dark chocolate any time of the day), but Almond makes these bars sound so good that I'm almost tempted to mail order them. He reminisces about candy from his childhood, rails against the Big Three of the candy world, and wishes there were more independent candy makers still around. However, thanks to prohibitively high stocking fees, it's nearly impossible for independent candy makers to get their products on chain store shelves, so many of them are stuck with a very limited regional audience.

Almond doesn't focus on the economics of candy making, nor of the colonialist implications some candy has (cacao), but it does appear in the book (the economics more than colonialist implications, though). Instead, he's incredibly good at describing various candy bars and how they're manufactured, from the very weird Twin Bing and Idaho Spud to the amazingly tasty-sounding Five Star Bar.

Also, it helps that he too dislikes dried coconut as much as me!

This isn't a particularly deep book, but Almond has a very distinctive and funny narrative voice (read a sample in Rachel's post, link below). It cheered me up reading it, which is really all I was asking for.

Links:
- rachelmanija's review

Comments

[lady_ganesh]

Lake Champlain Chocolates does mail order. I'm just sayin'. (Also, it's as good as he says it is.)

[oyceter]

Haha, awesome!

[lady_ganesh]

I confess I have yet to take the tour!

[rachelmanija]

You read this! It really cheered me up too, though I was sad for the regional candy-makers.

[oyceter]

Yes! I love the narrative voice, especially when he's going on about his own candyfreakness!

[rachelmanija]

My favorite bit was when the marshmallow cup guy explains that they can't be transported by air because they explode in low pressure, then says, "Well, they don't really explode. That just sounds good. But they do leak."

[dhobikikutti]

Five Stars are the staple of Cadbury products in India. I much prefer the Cadbury chocolate taste to that of Mars and Hershey.

[oyceter]

Yeah, me too. It tastes much less fake somehow...

[sienamystic]

Hee, I had never seen a Twin Bing until we moved to Nebraska - I don't know if they're good, exactly, but they have a certain weird appeal.

[oyceter]

Hee! I feel that is one thing I might not try... it just sounds so bizarre!

[sienamystic]

Heh, well if you ever feel the need, let me know and I will put one in the mail to you. They're pretty thick on the ground around here *g*