When Peter Paul got bought out, it disappeared. This is what happened to my favorite bar, the Caravelle. The Big Three (Mars, Hershey, Nestle) buy out smaller companies and discontinue their bars, if they compete with existing bars. As for the disappearance of candy bars, this is the result of consolidation. People are so freaky about their favorite candies, that they’re willing to order the stuff off the Internet if they can’t find it in the local stores. Companies like have made a good deal of money by selling hard-to-find products. Where have all the candy gone? Is there a speculative market in endangered candy bars? You mentioned that there once were thousands of candies in the U.S. That honor belongs either to the ‘Nut Applicator,’ which is the device that, uh, applies nuts to a Goo Goo Cluster, and which narrowly beats out the ‘Coconut Depositor,’ which snows coconut flakes onto a candy bar called the Idaho Spud. What was the strangest machine that you saw? When you were writing Candyfreak, you visited a lot of old-time candy factories. I know more about candy than any woman I’ve ever been involved with. I have between three and seven pounds of candy in my house at all times. I think about candy at least once an hour. I’ve eaten a piece of candy every day of my life. Please give us a short primer on the importance of candy in your life: Author of the short story collection, My Life in Heavy Metal, and Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America.Īnother lifetime: Chocolate engineer. Site: Occupation title(s), both real and desired-in-another-lifetime: Real: Writer. Born just before the Age of Aquarius, appropriately enough, naked. Name, era of birth, website: Steve Almond. Steve Almond is the author of My Life in Heavy Metal, and Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America.

Steve almond candy freak