Ubiquitous Chocolate Shops

Annmarie Throckmorton, M.A.

May 22, 2024

In the 21st century there were chocolate shops in all major American cities, and in some of the nicer small towns. These were fancy shops, selling beautiful boxes of chocolates with very pretty bows, chocolate hand-picked and sold by the pound, one pound, two pounds, five pounds, and more! Individual chocolates were displayed in long glass cases, quite expensive but the chocolatier was happy to sell chocolate by the piece, even just one piece. Many times I stopped in for just one morsel, choosing my favorite from all the filling flavors: nuts, caramel, pastel fruit creams, nougat, or ganache which is a luscious mixture of cream and chocolate.

Godiva was one of the most expensive brands readily available, and I remember very clearly once buying FIVE POUNDS of hand-selected Godiva chocolates in their signature gold box with a gold lace bow. I knew that it was beyond my budget and it was way too much chocolate for a middle-aged woman, but it was my birthday and somehow I sensed that it would be the last time that I fully enjoyed chocolate. Each bite was a delight!

Then over the years I realized that I do not even like chocolate, or perhaps my taste changed, because those expensive chocolate confections just tasted moldy to me. Once when I was traveling through Pennsylvania I stopped at Hershey park, taking time only to do the gondola ride on a sort of chocolate river between dioramas of Hershey history and into dark, dank tunnels with a miasma of old, wet chocolate smell. It was foul and that was the final blow to my enthusiasm for chocolate. I still occasionally eat some chocolate, but I am no longer enthralled by the delusion of a chocolate utopia.

Chocolate Shops Were Everywhere In The 20th Century