by Megan L. Phillips

The author of Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America (Algonquin, 2004), an exploration of the world of chocolate and the author’s obsession with it, spoke at the June 18 contributors meeting of the Somerville News.

“The Caravelle bar was my favorite chocolate bar, and it disappeared from the stores. One day, you go to the store and can’t find your favorite candy,” said Steve Almond, also author of My Life in Heavy Metal, a collection of short stories.

Originally launched as a portable alternative to liquid chocolate, candy bars evolved from goods produced mostly by local confectioneries into mass-market commercial products, said Almond.

Boston, once known as the capital of candy-making, has only a few confectioneries left. “Corporations purchase other companies, or make it economically infeasible to exist, and don’t keep anything but profitable brands,” Almond, a California native and Somerville resident, said.

Candy isn’t only political for Almond, it’s also sexual, he said. “There are some passages where I think there should be an age limit on the audience.”

Almond said he doesn’t attribute the sensuous nature of chocolate to its trace amounts of psychoactive ingredients. For him, the actual consumption of chocolate is sensuous. “You’re not supposed to talk about the world in your mouth. This culture’s people tend to eat candy in a covert manner—it’s almost masturbatory in a way.”

Milk chocolate is standard form in the U.S., which ranks ninth in world consumption, but not in other countries, Almond said. The largest consumers of chocolate are the Belgians. “They really know what they’re doing. The have it for breakfast with their coffee.”

Almond, who said he has eaten candy every day of his life, recently attended the Chicago Trade Show to sample new brands. He said contenders include Mazing by Mars, a new Skittles gum, Starburst cream suckers, and Hazelnuts.

Also a journalist and creative writing professor at Boston College, Almond is working on a collection of short stories, tentatively titled The Evil B. B. Chow and Other Stories, to be published by Algonquin in spring of 2005. “It’s not as dirty as My Life in Heavy Metal, but it’s pretty good,” he said. Algonquin also has plans to publish a novel Almond co-wrote with Julianna Baggott called Which Brings Me to You.