An Ode to Madagascar Chocolate Truffles and Hersheypark

One two-dollar Madagascar chocolate truffle from Theo's chocolates, in Fremont, can take you on a priceless nostalgic odyssey.

I think the day I was fired from my producing job, I discovered these delicacies. Went to Theo's right after that fateful phone call, in search of comfort. Theo's Chocolates is an artisan chocolate maker - they buy the best, fair trade beans they can find from around the world and make small batches. They have dark chocolate bars with up to 91% cacao content. They also have smaller chocolate bars with flavors. Chai Tea Latte is my favorite of the milk chocolate variety. When I have no money, I go to the factory store and scarf up samples and hope nobody is paying attention!

Luckily, I live about a mile and a half away from the little plant, housed in the brick building that used to be the original home of the Red Hook Brewery. So, I justify my cocoa purchase by saying I'll "walk off" the calories. However, in my mind, I don't really think the calories produced by Madagascar Chocolate Truffles are harmful in any way at all. My taste buds and brain are so busy dissecting the complex flavor combination, and my endorphins are going wild with all of that theobroma cacao that I think these things provide a life-affirming essence.

Why Anne! You know so much about chocolate! I'm so impressed that you know the word "theobroma cacao"!

Well, there's a reason for that. My mother was born and raised in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the land of chocolate. My younger sister, Linda, was also born in Hershey (Lisa and I were welcomed to the world in Baltimore). My mother was a tour guide at the original Hershey's Chocolate Factory. She would lead groups through the candy-making process and charm them with her perfect smile and easy laugh. One summer, my father worked at the chocolate factory between semesters. He became smitten with my mother but they would not date until years later.

When Lisa and I were 15, we started working summers at Hersheypark, the big theme park located near the chocolate plant. We wore unbelievably ugly German-inspired uniforms with blue sneakers. She was a shop girl in the area known as "Lower Rhineland", near the park entrance, and I manned the registers in "Upper Rhineland", just up the hill. Upper Rhineland had 3 stores: a general merchandise (more trinkets, wooden spears, Spode plates and giant lolly pops than you can imagine), A small jewelry shop that carried Hershey's Kiss earrings and necklaces and a "Plush" shop that sold stuffed animals!

As you might imagine, I LOVED working in the Plush shop. I wasn't allowed to stock the merchandise and open the shop until after I was 16 and "more mature". It was the best! ESPECIALLY when I got to open the shop with my boyfriend, Bruce Ebersole. We got to the store at 10 am and lugged the unwieldy critter-filled boxes into the store. Then for 3 glorious and fun-filled hours, we would laugh and re-stock the shelves with 5 and 15-foot snakes, Cookie Monsters, incredibly soft and snugly walruses and my favorite toy, "Harry the Hound". Since it was just us, occasionally, we would steal a kiss. Anyhow, Harry, I think, was just a brown and white cuddly long-eared puppy. But he was so much fun to hold. When I wasn't working the cash register and was on "shoplift patrol duty", I would stand by the front door and cradle Harry in my arms. I would also cradle a bag of Hershey's kisses inside my dress' left front pocket. I learned how to surreptitiously unwrap them with only my left hand and sneak them into my mouth, without anybody ever finding out.

Every morning, when I walked through the employees gate of Hersheypark, my nostrils were greeted by a barrage of aromas coming from the cocoa mulch landscape covering. Overnight, crews had watered the plants, soaking those bean husks. The smells were renewed by the water and the morning sunshine caused a cocoa mist to permeate the air. The entire park smelled like chocolate.

Walking by Theo's chocolates, I smell the same thing. They also use cocoa mulch as a ground covering. That smell really takes me back.

Takes me on a priceless nostalgic odyssey back to some very good memories. Can I get another Madagascar truffle, please?