Feb 7, 2014

Bear from Wyndmoor Opens Candy and Fudge shop on HillBy Constance Garcia-BarrioChestnutHillLocal.com

Chestnut Hill, PA – The aroma from a sheik’s ransom in sweets can snare the unwary at Chocolate Hill Candy and Fudge Shop, 7833 Germantown Ave., which opened just before Christmas. The owner, Bob Bear, 49, of Wyndmoor, has combined savvy, energy and nostalgia in offering chocolate, a treat that has stirred passion and controversy for centuries.

Aztec royalty used to sip a chocolate beverage before Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes ground the indigenous civilization into submission in the 1520s. Cortes thought well of chocolate, if not the people who introduced him to it. “The divine drink builds up resistance and fights fatigue,” Cortes reportedly wrote. “A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food. Cortes brought cacao beans, among other plant and human specimens, to the Spanish court, which guarded the secret of making chocolate for some 100 years.

Read complete article »