Chase Candy Co., St. Joseph, Missouri

When a simple chocolate-covered cherry isn't enough for you, you'd be lucky if you found a Cherry Mash. Made in Missouri, this cherry monster has been in production since 1918. It’s huge, maybe five or six times the size of a plain old chocolate cherry, a big, lumpy, indelicate chocolate meterorite.

Its thick outer hull is a conglomerate of chocolate and crushed peanut, while its middle is a nearly luminous pink creme center. There is no actual fruit body in the middle, but the sweet taste of maraschino cherries made into a creamy mash is delicious on its own.

If you go to www.cherrymash.com, you can even hear a song about the Cherry Mash:
West of St. Louis

They made something chewy...

Fun fact: over the course of the 20th century, Chase Candy Company also produced candies named Real Stuff, Opera Stick, Lulu Bar, Cherry Rummy, Mammy’s Pride, Candy Dogs and the Mint Barber Pole.