OrangeCoat

The reason why it is commonly unknown that one can make his/her own marshmallows has a bit of history around it.

In the 19th century marshmallows enjoyed great prosperity and diversity. Not only could one find marshmallows of quite a variety of colors and shapes but also great diversity in flavor. Sadly an underground movement of Dentists began pushing legistlation citing that marshmallows were a leading cause of tooth decay, and that tooth decay in turn led to immorality (hence why you never see a pirate with a full set of teeth). In the year 1920 a clause on the 18th Amendment of the US Constitution outlawed marshmellow production and consumption in the nation. At that time many of the vast numbers of marshmallow producers went out of business with only a small handfull managing to survive by utilizing some loopholes and claims of foreign exporting. Ironically there was more marshmallow consumption in the US during the 1920s than there had ever previously been, even though such consumption was illegal. When the 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933 marshmallows began to make a slow comeback. Unfortunately the diversity of marshmallow types had been greatly wounded. The only big players were the common white cylinders, marshmallow peanuts, and the Lucky Charms ones (Lucky Charms has actually been around for like 100 years). Only within the past couple of decades have people really begun to take up craft marshmallow making. A few of these micro-marshmallow productions are even finding relative success. It is a wonderful time to live if you are a sweet tooth and love the sponge delight that is a quality marshmallow.

• reply

That is a truly impressive rant.

• reply