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ChocNut: yesterday, today and always

10/21/2011 //  by Connie Veneracion

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Eating at the library was forbidden. But at the U.P. College of Law, we got away with a lot of things. In many ways, it was like high school. We had yearly “balls” which were more like proms and the girls would agonize over clothes, make-up and dates. And, like high school students, we sometimes played truant. We also broke a lot of library rules. Like the “No Eating” rule. At the first floor of the library which was filled with large tables that could each sit ten, one would often see wrappers of ChocNut on the tabletop alongside the notebooks, volumes of SCRA (Supreme Court Reports Annotated) and stapled photocopies of case digests.

ChocNut: yesterday, today and always | casaveneracion.com

Before I discovered Reese’s, there was only ChocNut. Decades before friends smuggled in bags of ChocNut into the U.P. Law Library, I’d get my fix from a sari-sari store across the street from our house. I wasn’t allowed to cross the street by myself so I would always be accompanied by my yaya. There were only five candies that I’d repeatedly buy — Serg’s (a chocolate bar), Curly Tops (nugget-sized chocolate wrapped in tiny paper cups), Orange Kist (a sugar-coated jelly similar to gummy bears), de limon (a lemon flavored candy) and ChocNut.

Filipino chocnut

I know I am not alone when I say that ChocNut has been a favorite among several generations of Filipino candy lovers. It is sweet nostalgia, literally and figuratively. There’s an interesting story about a newscaster who courted a girl with three pieces of ChocNut everyday. Filipinos who immigrated to other parts of the world still reminisce about the ChocNut of their childhood and have created wonderful concoctions now that ChocNut is being exported. There’s ChocNut Chocolate Crackle Cookies that are a paler version of chocolate crinkles. Then, there is the ChocNut muffin.

casaveneracion.com ChocNut

In Philippine food culture, ChocNut is an icon. Made with ground peanuts, milk powder, cocoa and sugar, ChocNut is not dense nor sticky like most chocolate candy bars. It is delicate and it crumbles easily. The texture is a bit grainy (because of the ground peanuts) and somewhat powdery– like polvoron. It does not melt in the hands the way chocolate bars do yet it totally melts in the mouth. Neither does it turn rock hard when placed in the fridge. It isn’t greasy when held but don’t think for one moment that it is oil-free. Never leave ChocNut in the sun. One time, Speedy bought a bag of ChocNut and left it in the car that was parked under the sun. The peanut oil separated from the solids and the lovely peanut-chocolate bars became an indescribable mess.

It has often been said that getting copied should be treated as flattery. Only the good ones get copied, they say. Personally, I don’t subscribe to that philosophy but, in the case of ChocNut, getting copied never hurt its supremacy in the Philippine ChocNut market. King’s ChocNut, in the photo, has its copycats. But they don’t measure up to the original. They really don’t.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really want to go downstairs and eat ChocNut while watching TV.

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Category: Kitchen & PantryTag: Filipino Delicacies, Food Shopping

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ellen

    10/22/2011 at 5:03 am

    i love choc-nut!! i’ve lived in melbourne most of my life but i still have my fix of choc-nut. it’s easy for me to satisfy my craving because my aunty has a filipino store here and she often has them =)

    as i write this i’ve just put one in my mouth! hehe

    • Connie Veneracion

      10/22/2011 at 11:17 am

      Lucky you! Some Filipinos abroad have to ask fellow Filipinos who visit the country to bring back bags of ChocNut. :D

  2. u8mypinkcookies

    10/22/2011 at 8:52 am

    my favorite!!!

  3. taj

    10/22/2011 at 7:03 pm

    a college friend who came home recently from the US can’t get over her happiness when i included a pack of choc nut with the things i gave her as send off gift. it was a marvelous idea and also brought back college memories. back then wala pang blood sugar to worry about :))

  4. Liezl

    10/22/2011 at 7:21 pm

    I love chocnut too! Ms. Connie, i’m an avid fan of you’re blog. Everyday i visit here :) God bless u always!

  5. MoM from Manila

    10/23/2011 at 10:14 am

    chocnut, oh chocnut…even my nine year old kid share the same passion for the chocnut.

    nakakatuwa kasi my brother who works in Singapore wooed her Singaporean girlfriend with chocnut din…ah, the power of these small bites of heaven!

  6. Lance

    10/23/2011 at 3:04 pm

    I didn’t know it was quite popular then—thank you for sharing.

    Even in college, classmates would sell it in class sometimes for fundraising purposes. Siyempre, bentang benta siya. :)

  7. Albert Rendal

    10/24/2011 at 10:48 pm

    love them… we make it a point to include choc-nut in our groceries every week… :) <3

  8. HeroZero

    10/30/2011 at 11:48 am

    It taste good but as most like other chocolates-wonder if they have gluten…that’s another article :-)

  9. skip to malou

    11/09/2011 at 11:54 pm

    Hi Connie,
    Thanks for the mention here. I love Choc-nut and I could munch the whole package easily.. yep non-stop haha.
    Im glad it’s readily available at out groceries here in the US.

    • Connie Veneracion

      11/10/2011 at 12:32 am

      You’re welcome, Malou. I love reading great posts and I certainly enjoyed yours. :)

  10. Emillio C.

    12/12/2011 at 4:11 pm

    Chocnut is the best… i used to eat Vital when i was still back in the Philippines but now im here in Canada i enjoy Chocnut more hehehe…
    all in ALL ang masasabi ko lang eh! CHOCNUT IS THE BEST TREAT THERE IS! :)

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