Mallomar Season!

While at the grocery store this morning I decided to give in to a week long chocolate craving and check out the cookie aisle. I was browsing but then, well,  there was really no choice. It wasn't that the shelves were not laden with goodies, but when I saw the Mallomar boxes, I knew what I needed. It's 15 October. Do you know where your Mallomars are?

The seasonality of Mallomars is legendary. In this day and age, with year-round imports, it almost impossible to find seasonality even in the fruit and vegetable section. Yet Mallomars continue to be available only from September to March. After that, you're outta luck for a good chunk of the year.

Supposedly, this seasonality dates to the early years (starting 100 years ago in 1913) of the product when the real dark chocolate covering couldn't handle the heat. There's still no wax added to the chocolate on these babies to extend shelf-life. That, in itself, is amazing - and delicious.

I can't help but think that the continuation of this seasonality thing is just a fantastic marketing ploy. But, I don't really care. If it is just marketing, it's brilliant. I can support brilliance.

For me, Mallomar memories are tied to my after school milk and cookie break. I never liked the taste of milk, so chocolate cookie accompaniment was required. Sometimes there were Melodies (large flat circular chocolate cookies with a scalloped edge and dusted lightly with sugar - what ever happened to them?); sometimes Oreos; and, September through March, there might be Mallomars. Each had their own eating ritual.

Melodies (and I think I owe my brother for this idea) were best dunked in milk. The wet part would them be slurped off and the remainder dunked again. Ultimately, small pieces of the cookie would be at the bottom of the glass. But, that only made the milk much more tastey. I also vaguely recall someone spreading cream cheese on them - but that was never my preference.

Oreos had to be eaten by separating the biscuits. The goal was to leave an intact cream center on one half, eat the cream-less biscuit and then the creamed one. I was not a dunker of Oreos.

And then there was the Mallomar ritual - almost as complex as eating a whole lobster. Press down on the center. This results in pie-slice shaped chocolate bits. Carefully peel the chocolate from the center. Peel the remaining chocolate from the sides of the marshmallow dollop. Suck the whole marshmallow off of the soft graham cracker cake. Eat the cake.

Mallomars are celebrating their 100th anniversary. Since they are covered in dark chocolate, may we now consider them health food?