PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The sweet smell of chocolate fills Shane Confectionery in Old City.
Eric and Ryan Burley, co-owners and brothers, are gearing up for one of the most chocolate-filled days of the year: Valentine’s Day. But the candy historians say it wasn’t always that way.
Before industrialization, chocolate was expensive and often only consumed by the elite. And, it wasn’t wrapped in the heart-shaped foil we recognize today.
“Chocolate for thousands of years has been consumed traditionally as a beverage,” Eric Burley explained. “It was ground with honey as a sweetener and the nibs were ground with a mortar and pestle, like a ground tea.”
The chocolate industry was eventually revolutionized by Milton Hershey, who had roots in Philadelphia and brought chocolate to the masses.
“He had a soda fountain here in Philadelphia in the 1880s that also made in front of people bean-to-bar chocolate bars,” he said. “Hershey went to Europe and brought back the scientists and the engineers to build his factories.”
Let’s fast-forward — what’s new with chocolate today? The hot trend is the hot chocolate bomb. Shane Confectionery puts a Philly spin on it.
“The Incredi-Bell is a Liberty Bell-shaped Liberty Bell (chocolate) with marshmallows inside, and you can hit that with hot milk at home,” he said.
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There are all kinds of new flavors too, like CBD chocolates and caramels.
One thing that hasn’t changed: “(Chocolate) brings happiness and pleasure and delight in a time when we all need that.”
For more about the history and top trends in chocolate, listen to the KYW Newsradio original podcast What’s Cooking below or on the RADIO.COM app.
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