Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America in Pick-a-Shelf

Mar 23, 2008 Luann rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, biography, 2010, nonfiction, alex-award

I had to read this one quickly because it was bad for me. Very bad. Is there anyone who has read this and didn't feel the overpowering NEED to eat chocolate while reading this book? If so, please post in the comments to this review because I want to know where you get your incredible willpower! And the problem was that if I wasn't eating chocolate, I just had to be eating something, anything, while reading this book! I defy anyone not to salivate at his descriptions of chocolate. Here's just one I had to read this one quickly because it was bad for me. Very bad. Is there anyone who has read this and didn't feel the overpowering NEED to eat chocolate while reading this book? If so, please post in the comments to this review because I want to know where you get your incredible willpower! And the problem was that if I wasn't eating chocolate, I just had to be eating something, anything, while reading this book! I defy anyone not to salivate at his descriptions of chocolate. Here's just one example of his description of a favorite candy bar:

The Caravelle tasted more like a pastry: the chocolate was thicker, darker, full-bodied, and the crisped rice had a malty flavor and what I want to call structural integrity; the caramel was that rarest variety, dark and lustrous and supple, with hints of fudge. More so, there was a sense of the piece yielding to the mouth. By which I mean, one had to work the teeth through the sturdy chocolate shell, which gave way with a distinct, moist snap, through the crisped rice (thus releasing a second, grainy bouquet), and only then into the soft caramel core. Oh, that inimitable combination of textures! That symphony of flavors! And how they offered themselves to the heat and wetness of the mouth--the sensation of the crisped rice drenched in melted chocolate, chomped by the molars in the creamy swirl of caramel. Oh, woe and pity unto thee who never tasted this bar! True woe! True pity!

He had me laughing from the very beginning with his bit about Baker's Chocolate as the cruelest food product ever invented. I have vivid memories of biting into that block of chocolate as a child despite warnings from my mom that I wouldn't like it.

There were parts I didn't find quite as humorous or as interesting - such as when he would veer off-topic into his thoughts on politics. But overall, I found this quite fascinating. They need to market this book with a sample box of all the candy bars mentioned! Some I had never heard of, and some I haven't eaten in a while and now need to go find, such as the Big Hunk! Ah, the memories. ...more

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Sep 27, 2010 Vivian rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2011

I read this and now want to go and find all these local companies that Steve Almond describes to try their chocolate, in particular the Valomilk and Five Star bars.

The historical tidbits are fascinating - like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was inspired by actual chocolate factories spying on each other (specifically, Cadbury and Rowntree, which is now part of Nestle). Never realized how crazy the chocolate business really was. I liked reading about the industry, how factories are run, the st ...more

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May 31, 2023 Joanna rated it really liked it

Shelves: foodie, nonfiction, microhistory, pas-lost-2023, 2023-read, rws-2023-spring

A quick read, now slightly dated, that was like reading a whole book of the episode of Mr. Rogers where he visits the Crayola factory. Almond takes the reader through the factories that make a variety of obscure chocolate bars -- Idaho spud, Huckleberry gems, Abba-Zaba, Big Hunk, Peanut Chews, Valomilks, etc. The descriptions of the machines are wonderfully done and painted a clear picture of the process involved. I also learned a new word--enrobing, which is the process by which chocolate is pu ...more

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