Many bloggers may not be aware that there is a not-all-that-secret-really exchange of commodities going on here in the Community Blogosphere.
Pssst…. Hey buddy!… Want some chocolate?
Between the Sometimes-Wintry-But-We-Don’t-Want-To-Talk-About-It wastes of Wisconsin, the Oh-Look-It’s-That-Building-From-That-Movie city of Toronto and the We-All-Walk-On-Our-Heads land of Oz, there has been a steady movement of sweet commodities.
It all started when M-J from Mary J Melange posted about her mother’s change of confectionery habit which lead to the following comment exchange:
This was soon followed by:
The goods were duly dispatched from New York City to Wisconsin and you can read about how they were received here.
Simultaneous to this experiment in international chocolate diplomacy, Joanne over at My Life Lived Full was taking her blog premise to new extremes by testing the hypothesis that millions of Australians couldn’t be wrong and that Vegemite was actually edible. You can read about her results here.
As it turned out, she agreed with the hypothesis and subsequently I had the following exciting news to share:
Well, that’s no fun, is it? None of my Australian readers want to know what I think of Vegemite chocolate. A Canadian blogger trying Vegemite chocolate on the other hand….
This was delicate territory, however. Vegemite chocolate was a limited release commodity and sending it out of the country had to be handled with discretion. So a top secret communiqué was sent to Maggie at The Zombies Ate My Brains to enquire if she knew of Joanne’s address as they had previously met up for a Blogger Meet-up. The sensitive information was duly dispatched and the wheels turned. (That would be the wheels of the postie’s bike/scooter/van depending on your cultural mode of postal transport.)
After too many weeks (the wheels of postal diplomacy spin slowly), the package finally arrived. Read about how it was received and what Vegemite chocolate really tastes like here.
About the same time, I posted a piece lamenting my inability to purchase Milk Duds in New York City. This is my favourite American candy and not to be able to buy it when I’m actually in the country was ridiculous. However, in the comments, the following mysterious exchange took place:
Something was up………..
Many weeks later (more slow wheels), just as I’d almost forgotten about it, a box arrived on my doorstep. Perfectly timed to arrive on a day I came home from work on crutches (I fell over), it brought chocolatey joy to my heart and my aching skin-shredded hand (it had an argument with the bitumen onto which I fell over).
TWO boxes of Milk Duds! I’ll be picking caramel out of my teeth for weeks!
The two chocolate bars, I was assured, are unique to Canada and the biscuits (cookies) are Joanne’s favourite.
I shared the chocolate bars with the four male members of the MOSY household (although my usually very accurate mathematical division may have been a bit off that day as one piece was mysteriously cut larger than the other four). I found them both quite strong in taste and the chocolate tasted different but I can’t quite say how. The Eldest Son thought the Crispy Crunch tasted like a Snickers (in flavour not in texture) while the Youngest Son was impressed with the coffee flavour of the Coffee Crisp as it wasn’t too strong.
The Mr Maple biscuits were taken to our monthly family dinner bringing a gasp of surprise and a smile of happiness to my Canadian soon-to-be-niece-in-law. As coffee was served at the end of the meal, I opened the packet and a strong, beautiful waft of maple syrup drifted over the table. I could happily sit around with my nose in the box all day but that would probably worry people. The biscuits were delicious with two crisp biscuits sandwiching a creamy maple-flavoured centre. They kind of look like little people when you stand them up. I guess that’s why they’re called Mr Maple.
Thank you, Joanne (and Maggie as co-conspirator) for bringing much joy, laughter and sugar into my life.
I wonder where the Great International Chocolate Exchange will take us next?
What I love best about blogging is the conversation each post starts in the Comments section. This is just one fun outcome of those wacky and witty exchanges. 🙂
It does not get better than this: joy, laughter and sugar. Except the comments, maybe. ❤
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Comments that lead to joy, laughter and sugar. The best kind! 😀
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Joanne is an awesome chocolate/sugar enabler, and so is Maggie for helping with this scheme.Have you suffered a sugar overdose yet? Or is that impossible given your love of most things sugar/chocolate in the first place?
I’m intrigued by Mr. Maple…tastes like maple syrup, huh? That might go well with morning coffee and bacon.
I am truly honored, Heather, that I am part of the International Chocolate Brigade (ICB) (do we need decoder rings?) and this post. If you ever get to the “wastes” of Wisconsin (it’s actually called “the frozen tundra”)(we are not Siberia), I will give you a tour of chocolate heaven in these parts, including the best place for a chocolate martini and mint Oreo custard. I would love to send you a box of Wilmar’s chocolates (local and award winning), but I fear they would not survive the journey. I’ll have to ask them about shipping.
Great post. This tickled me to no end and now I am dreaming of dark chocolate goodness. 🙂
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THANK YOU for kicking off such a fun turn of events!
I’ve been remarkably restrained really. I’m trying to make the Mr Maples last as long as possible since there’s no chance of replacement. And I’m almost too scared to open the Milk Duds because the next thing I know they’ll be gone too. But my will power lasts only so long… Definitely going to have to try that coffee and bacon combo with one, though.
Yes, but “Wintry Wastes of Wisconsin” has such an alliterary ring to it. (I think I just made up that word.) Oh, to be able to taste the Wilmars of the Wintry Wastes of Wisconsin. (Do all your things start with W??)
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Heather, you just made me choke on my Warm Wisconsin coffee and sprouted Wheat toast. NO…not everything in Wisconsin starts with a W. Only Wilmars and Lake Winnebago and the City of Wauwatosa.
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What? Why?
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Well …
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ALLITERATIVE ! Tsk ! Still, words we make up are usually better … and yours does smack of literary (which I am absolutely sure you intended).
How about “The weird but wonderful, widening the wasitband: wafers or waffles ?”
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Pfft. I like mine better.
Wunderbar.
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Me too. 🙂
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M-J … what would your life become if there were a sudden total cessation of bacon ?
[grin]
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I would run in circles, arms flailing, yelling “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”
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Figures.
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Wow. What a wonderful exchange! Isn’t it amazing how enriching this community is? After all….friends share chocolate…..but only true friends pay to ship to share chocolate!
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Yes! Such dedication to the cause… 🙂 I think the postage was as touching as the contents.
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As a member of the family Friday reveal of the Mr Maples – they were delish! Will have to go to Canada to find some!
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Bring some back.
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I’ve been following this since Joanna did her post on Vegimite. Who knew that blogging could effect your diet and your teeth! I would offer to join in the chocolate exchange but I live in Hershey country and I’ve heard that most chocolate connoisseurs find it has a funny aftertaste. I would be more than willing to run some taste test of my own comparing chocolates from all over the world with our local favorites. Just putting that out there…😉
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My only concession to Hershey’s is Milk Duds but I tend to suck off the chocolate as fast as possible so I can get to the caramel.
You never know…… 🙂
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Haha… wonderful. What a generous bunch of bloggers you have found yourself mixed up with H. So you liked the maple biscuits? I can’t say that I like maple syrup anything, it is far too sweet and has such a sweet smell too. A very small amount on a stack of pancakes goes a looong way. Much prefer golden syrup myself. Reading this is making me crave some chocolate. Milk chocolate with sea-salt is a favourite at the moment, though I do like dark with ginger too. I may have to go to the supermarket tomorrow. For rabbit food you understand…
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I have, haven’t I? How lucky I am! 🙂
I love maple syrup, even just the smell of it. And early this year I discovered the bacon and maple syrup combination. Oh my…. 😀
I didn’t take to the sea salt chocolate which is weird because I love salted caramel. My Dad’s favourite confectionery was chocolate-coated ginger from Darrell Lea. 🙂
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Chocolate ginger is my Christmas treat! I adore it! You not a fan of ginger? Actually it is good that we all like something different. Going back to childhood days my favourite then was Dolly Mixtures – you get those in Oz? Or Parma Violets? Frys 5 cream bar? Sherbert Dabs?
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I love gingerbread and I love ginger in stir fries, etc but was never a fan of the glace kind. I remember Dolly Mixtures! Are Sherbet Dabs like a Whizz Fizz? Or we used to have this sherbet thing with a piece of licorice stuck in it. I loved those (whatever they were called). The only Frys brand thing I know is Turkish Delight. Not familiar with Parma Violets.
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Sherbert Dabs are the ones with the liquorice stick which never worked! Frys Turkish Delight is so NOT like real Turkish delight – too sweet and gooey. Parma Violets were small lilac coloured sweets in a tube-like wrap and smelled of sweet violets like the perfume old ladies wore. And there were Floral Gums too which also smelled and tasted perfumy! We have an old-fashioned sweetshop in Ludlow that sells a lot of these things still though some have changed their ingredients and are not the same. Bonbons for instance.
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That’s fantastic! What fun to be exchanging treats across the continents. I’m pretty fond of those Canadian maple cookies I must say. 🙂
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So much fun! 🙂
For once I found myself wishing for excessive packaging. I wish the box had come with two separate sealed packets so I could have saved some for later.
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Lucky youse. Imagine what would happen to me if I ate them thinggies. 😐
Just as well I’m not a sweet person – yes, go for it ! – because were I one, like this terrible trio (quartet, including M-J), I shouldn’t be able to fit through the door to the study. Or any door, come to fink of it.
Sighh …
This is blogging sans pareil, team – GOODONYOUSEALL !!!!! 😀
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Given the running has ceased for some time and all these temptations are still around (and I am hopeless to resist), I’m heading that way myself. Running – and lots of it – has to recommence toot sweet before I expand out of my running clothes. 😦
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OK; run around the whole of the big G tomorrow, and then stop. [grin]
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I’m delighted you liked the maple cookies!!! 🙂 They really are my favourite and I can’t have them in the house. They are irresistable to me.
I’m sorry to say that the Milk Duds didn’t do anything for me. Ugh. Thankfully I didn’t lose any teeth or fillings in the test tasting 😉
… and I’ve been told that maple and bacon are a lovely combination, but I haven’t dared go there.
I do like the sound of an International Chocolate Brigade …especially if there is a special decoder ring.
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Just the smell from an open packet would be anyone’s undoing.
You’ve “been told“?? You haven’t eaten bacon and maple syrup together? And you call yourself Canadian….
I think Milk Duds for me is like that embarrassing tv show you love to watch but would never admit to watching. I know they’re rubbish but I still like them and don’t really know why. It’s my appalling guilty candy.
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We all have a guilty food .. mine would probably be Twizzlers. When I think about it, it’s like chewing on rubber hose, but I can’t have just one piece.
Yes – in many ways I’m a *bad* Canadian.
Here’s another one for you … chocolate covered bacon. uhhh – can’t bring myself to trying it. It sounds just wrong.
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I had to look those up. Could be worse. Could be Twinkies. Now there’s a thing you should be ashamed of eating.
Er, chocolate-coated bacon? I don’t think so…. but if someone offered it to me, I’d try it. 🙂 One of our favourite cafes has a burger that includes salted caramel bacon. I’m yet to try it but it sounds kinda good actually.
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The problem with Twinkies … and any other product like it … is that it’s devoid of any flavour satisfier. After you eat one, it doesn’t feel like you’ve had anything .. so you need another, and another, and another, waiting to be ‘satisfied’.
… not to mention the chemically after-taste. Ugh.
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What a delightful post and outcome. (I must say vegemite chocolate sounds hideous, Heather). Glad to hear that your day ended so deliciously.
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It sounds horrible but is weirdly addictive. I’m very sad it’s disappeared off the shelves. 😦
It was a wonderful end to a trying day. They couldn’t have timed it better. (Actually, the next morning when I was off work, I got the email to tell me I’d been Freshly Pressed. Falling over seems to be good for me. 😉 )
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Congratulations for being freshly pressed, Heather. You have found the right balance! 🙂
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Thanks, Barbara. 🙂
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There’s no doubt about it, blogging is good for you! What a fun story. I had a similar experience over on my other blog https://theadventuresofjustinbeaver.wordpress.com/ when Elaine from I used to be Indecisive met up with Justin Beaver in London. He brought her a bag of Caramello Koalas all the way from Australia. We’ve been in touch ever since and I’m hoping Elaine might come and visit soon.
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Fancy getting to hand over the chocolate in person! That’s fantastic! 😀
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Quick. Call this number 992 774-8989. It’s the number for Chocoholics Anonymous. I’ll even be your sponsor for a family size bag of M & M’s.
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Chocoholics Anonymous? Sponsor? Are you saying I have a problem? I don’t have a problem! It’s everybody else who’s the problem! Now let me enjoy my Mega Cadbury Block in peace.
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If there’s a chocolate exchange then I’m in!! It is always fun to send loads of tim tams and other Aussie treats to Scandinavia and have them return the favour. Great fun. And what a lovely surprise for you. I remember reading about the milk duds.
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Ooh, Scandinavian chocolate exchange! Now, that sounds good!
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Aw… it’s the International Language of chocolate.
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It’s a beautiful thing.
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This was a very fun post to read…so hard to get thought it without drooling. I read this at work earlier, and then had to stop because, well, it got too distracting and chocolate is life.
I’m not a fan of honeycomb or Crunchies. I’ve had quite a few and just find it too hard for my liking. Plus it sticks to my teeth and rubs against my gums. I haven’t seen the Vegemite chocolate around for a while now – they were really limited edition.
One American chocolate that I love is 3 Musketeers. It was so hard getting my hands on them as a kid. There’s a shop near me that imports and sells them but they are so expensive.
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The Vegemite chocolate was gone in a flash. If I’d known it was going to be so fleeting, I’d have bought a whole box. Which is what some others did by looking on eBay. But I’m not paying $10 a block for it!
Not familiar with 3 Musketeers. Next time I’m wandering past an international lolly/candy/sweets store here, I’ll see if I can get one. It sounds similar to a Milky Way.
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Chocolate.
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.
Chooooocoooooolate.
That’s all. Returning to normal programming.
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[bursts out laughing] Your comment came in just as I was sitting down with a cup of coffee and….you guessed it. 😀 Ah, the stuff of life!
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{deep belly laughs} I don’t know what possessed me to write that comment. It came out of nowhere 😀
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Chocolatey souls are always inextricably linked together. :).
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Crazy, but leading to all sorts of delightful memories. In the RAF barracks that were our home for my first term at University (UEA, UK), the ONLY food of any sort on site was a machine with Kit Kats (costing a little silver sixpence). Finding a sixpence and indulging in this treat was my only way of surviving my first heartbreak.
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Crazy makes the best memories. IMHO.
Thank goodness for the KitKats. Like a walking cliché, I’ll admit I need Vegemite wherever I go for lengthy periods. I can only eat so much jam on my toast.
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I’m glad I found your blog, and your chocolate trading. As you can see from my blog title, I have more than a passing interest in the stuff…
I’ve never tried vegemite, but I can go through a jar of Nutella in no time!
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Hi Margie! Always happy to meet a fellow chocohol… er chocolate aficionado. 😉
I have to tell you what I always tell Vegemite newbies. Never, ever equate it to Nutella. You will NEVER eat Vegemite with a spoon. Ever.
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Or a spatula, I suppose.
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Well, you could. I mean, it comes in a big enough jar. But you might not want the toxic shock eating that much at once is likely to induce.
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SO frustrating to read all this, now that I cannot eat any of it ever again. My favs: Milk Duds (yes!), Sugar Babies, Sugar Daddy/ies, (notice a caramel theme here?), Pixie Stix, the little sugar-water-in-wax-bottle thingies, Violet Crunch, Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut, Regal Crown Sour Raspberry candies, Flavigny Violet Pastilles, Regal Crown Sour Raspberry hard candies, and those hard lemon candies in England with the tremendously sour powder inside that took the skin right off the inside of your mouth. Gosh, they were good. And all hard and gel candies flavored like damson or boysenberry. It’s amazing I had only two cavities as a kid, isn’t it?
I remember those maple cookies. For some reason, I got them in Ohio. They were quite yummy.
As for maple syrup and bacon, I don’t understand how anyone could have grown up not eating this. Wasn’t a traditional breakfast, at least on weekends, eggs, bacon, and pancakes on the same plate? How could you not wind up getting syrup on your bacon? Delish! Now, I am not supposed to eat bacon made from turkey or pig.
😥
I would never ever cheat.
😛
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Sorry to rub salted caramel in the wounds, Babe.
You’re a sour lover too? I love sour lollies. Squirms are my favourite.
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Mmmm…Squirms… Though, I felt a bit surprised the day I worked out that all the sour was in the sugar. The squirmies aren’t all that tasty once you’ve sucked ’em smooth.
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