candyfreak

a long weekend staffer read this one awhile ago but it recently appeared on our radar (again) as we are doing a future feature on candy bars from the late, great 70's.

"candyfreak" by aptly named author steve almond is a chocolately, gummy, gooey, delicious adventure through all the halls of candy. steve also goes across country to discover the sugary underbelly of some of america's smaller candy makers, who, sadly, are a dying breed up against today's big candy players (hershey's, cadbury's, et al) vying for shelf space in a real life game of candyland.

"candy freak" casts fond remembrances upon some of childhood favorites such as the marathon bar (who can forget chocolate and carmel goodness braided together complete with a ruler printed on the wrapper), bottle caps, razzles (a candy or a gum?), abba zabba and the chunky bar (disappointingly raisin and nut filled square hunk of milk chocolate. nuts and raisins are so NOT treats LWS readers) as well as pondering the coconut flake's participation in the candy market, the texture of which steve likens to dry skin.

as aforementioned, steve road trips it across the continental united states, discovering local candy bars made by small, mostly family run candy companies. the twin bing by palmer - they of the easter candy variety - which looks like king kong's ahem, balls, a cherry swathed in a coating of chocolate and filled with crushed nuts. the old faithful by owyhee, boyer's mallo cup - a marshmallow version of a reese's, peanut chews, the goo-goo cluster - a mash-up of chocolate, marshmallows and peanuts and the interesting nougatty-something filled idaho spud.

steve writes passionately about candy, almost like a longtime obsessed lover. or junkie. he apparently thinks about candy at least once an hour, he routinely has pounds of candy of all varieties at his finertips scattered throughout his home and an undisclosed warehouse plus steve writes funny. and we swear that is his real name, not a nom de plume.

just a word of caution: "candy freak" will make you hungry. hungry for candy. you'll be like a zombie but instead of brains, you'll want candy candy and more candy. almond's descriptions are so absoutely spot on, detailed and just plain good that you can almost taste what he's writing about. "candy freak" also makes for a great gift but do take care to include a very healthy supply of chocolate/gummy/carmel/nougat/peanut/coconut bars of goodness for the intended recipient.

check out steve's website for more of his wacky candy fueled humor: www.stevealmond.com/candyfreak.html

and mama says don't forget to brush.