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Chunky candy bar memories... I grew up on the
lower east side of Manhattan, where my father and his father had
typical little candy stores. About two blocks away from where we
lived, on Delancey Street next to the Williamsburgh Bridge, there was
a nondescript building from which floated the marvelous smell of
liquid chocolate. It was more wonderful than the smell of my father's
store when I went there with him and he opened the door on Sunday
mornings.
Sure enough, the building
turned out to be the place where Chunky Bars were made. My father
called the factory, and they arranged for us to visit. I was just a
kid, but I clearly recall the vats of chocolate liquor and the men --
all wearing peculiar hairnets -- mixing nuts and raisins into it.
One man said that the chocolate
had to be kept at just the right temperature, which was very hard to
do while it was being stirred. Otherwise, the nuts and raisins would
end up all on top or all on the bottom. Another man said that on the
hottest days they couldn't make Chunky Bars because the bars wouldn't
cool off in time. They had what looked like very crude wrapping
machines -- almost every bar had a fold that was off a little bit, and
it looked like they were all wrapped by hand.
They made other chocolates in
the factory, like chocolate cigarettes. But none of them tasted like
the Chunky Bars. A few years later, the company was sold and the plant
was closed. While the smell of the chocolate was gone forever, 50
years later I can still remember it as though I smelled it yesterday.
Thanks for the memory. ~ Ira from New York Chunky candy bar
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