WTTW’s Chicago Stories series has a new episode titled “Candy Capital” that includes a segment about the sweet treats born at the 1893 World’s Fair. The profile discusses Milton Hershey, Frederick and Louis Rueckheim’s precursor to Cracker Jack, Bertha Palmer‘s brownies, and more. The reversed shot of the Court of Honor (shown above) was a little strange, though. If you have recovered from your Halloween candy pile, check out their short stories and images from the Columbian Exposition at https://interactive.wttw.com/chicago-stories/candy-capital/sweet-treats-born-at-the-1893-chicago-world-fair
Not full yet? Check out our stories about “Maillard’s Mammoth Chocolate Statues” and “The World’s Fair in a Cup of Cocoa”.
Germany’s Stollwerk Brothers exhibited a temple made out of thirty-thousand pounds of chocolate and cocoa butter that enshrined a statue of Germania, ten feet tall in solid chocolate. [Image from Bancroft, Hubert Howe The Book of the Fair. The Bancroft Company, 1893.]
How on earth did they keep this from melting! Was it in the cold storage building? Because if so, I’m worried that this exhibit did not have a happy ending
The chocolate statues reportedly were coated in some sort of “eatable varnish.” The result would be similar to how M&M’s “melt in your mouth but not in your hand.” A coating could perhaps insulate the chocolate and inhibit deformation of the sculpture, but how this completely prevented melting during the hot Chicago summer is unclear. A bigger problem was World’s Fair visitors breaking off pieces to eat!