The Hershey company has ended production of Cherry Blossom, a candy that existed for nearly 150 years and was long made in Quebec.
“I bought all the ones from the Jean Coutu in my neighborhood. There were 17 in the display,” says Journal Jean Benoît Duval, a Montreal artist who loves this ball of coconut chocolate containing a maraschino cherry bathed in a sweet syrup.
The Hershey Company confirmed Wednesday to CityNews Toronto the end of this candy.
It’s at 19e century that the American entrepreneur Walter Lowney developed this recipe in Massachusetts. It will continue to grow in popularity to the point of becoming one of the favorite treats of… Canadians.
This is because the Lowney’s company opened a division in Canada in 1905 and the Cherry Blossom became one of the country’s iconic candies, according to Lindsey Becker, author of a site dedicated to the history of candies.
phioto taken from the Hershey’s website
Quebec cuisine
It was the Sherbrooke factory that manufactured Hershey chocolates from 1959. The Montreal factory took over until its closure in 2007.
For Mr. Duval, the Cherry Blossom was a “vintage” piece of pop culture, much like KFC’s breaded chicken. “20 years ago, when I bit into a Cherry Blossom for the first time, I was seduced by the chocolate flavor with which the juicy cherry mixed in the mouth. There was something comforting about that.”
For this accomplished film buff, this sad news does not come alone since the filmmaker David Lynch (Elephant Man, Blue Velvet) experienced the same sad end as the Cherry Blossom on January 16.
“We’re going to have to deal with all this nostalgia,” he sighs.
