Every chocolatey, gooey, crunchy s’more comes with a secret ingredient: nostalgia.
S’mores have been around since people have poked sticks into campfires, or at least since Milton Hershey invented the chocolate bar.
The summer treat with the weird name – short for some more, of course – has been a mainstay of camping trips for as long as there have been vacations.
Those memories of sitting around a campfire with friends in dark woods at night, marshmallow stuck on a stick, just close enough to the flame to get it toasty brown and soft enough to squish between graham crackers and a melted chocolate bar, resonate through the years.
A treat that’s not only tasty but fun, too, covers all the bases.
“It’s more than the food; it’s a whole experience,” said Todd Kohr, global marketing manager for The Hershey Experience, explaining the allure of the s’more. “Every single one of us has a memory associated with eating s’mores. In general, consumers love that flavor combination, too.”
To answer the request for more s’mores, Hershey’s Chocolate World recently opened a new area called the “S’mores Experience,” where customers can watch their double-chocolate s’more go through an oven so that it’s nice and warm and melty when it reaches their plate.
“This is the first time we’ve taken one of our food items and turned it into a full experience,” Kohr said. “Everybody likes to have a part in making it.”
The chocolate company discovered that customers went crazy for the s’mores in Hershey’s Times Square establishment; they debuted at the New York store in December.
“It was so popular that we wanted to bring the S’mores Experience back to Hershey,” Kohr said.
On a recent warm afternoon, Andrew Manning of Orlando, Fla., was in line for a s’more.
While waiting for his flight, Manning headed to Chocolate World to grab some goodies to take home.
“I remember s’mores from 4-H camp,” Manning said. “They were chocolate, sweet and smoky. It’s messy, but that’s part of the fun; the messier, the better.”
After watching their s’mores being heated in an oven, guests get to “smoosh” the two halves of the gooey, chocolate-y dessert between their graham crackers on a special square paper plate.
“Smoosh is a word we kind of made up,” said Jonathan Sartini, manager of Hershey’s Chocolate World Food Service.
The paper is engineered to fold over the very warm s’more like a sandwich, which helps to facilitate the smoosh, Sartini said.
When the just-melted s’more comes out of the oven, the heavy paper plate is functional, too, Sartini said, protecting fingers from the heat.
“The key thing is, it’s a social sharing,” Sartini said. “You order, it takes about two minutes to make, and you can capture the moment when you smoosh your s’more.”
At the S’mores Experience, guests can take photos in front of giant posters and also at a faux grill, so it looks as though they just created their s’more while doing some outdoor grilling.
“People take pictures of their moment of smooshing and put it on Instagram or Facebook,” Kohr said. “We’ve given folks all the tools they need to show it on social media, including making it look as though it just came off the grill.”
“That was the insight for us,” Sartini said. “It’s a great dessert, and people like to put it together, so we thought, ‘Let’s make it easy for our guests to smoosh their s’mores.’ “
The graham crackers are custom made, developed especially for the s’mores experience, so they are a bit softer than store-bought and won’t crumble.
The marshmallow is also specially designed, formulated to get soft but not liquefied.
It took a good deal of research to get those ingredients just right, Kohr said.
The chocolate was already perfect, but while s’mores are usually made with half a Hershey chocolate bar, these s’mores use a whole bar, all the better with more melted chocolate to smoosh.
“The most important part is the chocolate,” Kohr said.
And, yes, there is a tiny bit of liquid smoke flavoring in there, too.
“It’s to trigger the memory, an inkling to give you a little bit of that taste of nostalgia, of sitting around the campfire,” Kohr said.
Also included in the tray of s’mores is what Sartini calls “mission critical,” the moist towelettes.
“It’s messy, but it’s hands, fingers and face messy, not ‘ruin your shirts’ messy,” Sartini said.
The s’mores are so big that they come with a bag in case you can’t finish your s’more in the store.
The double-chocolate s’mores go for $9 at Chocolate World.
The three components of the s’more also have been transformed into cartoon characters and have their own names: Graham (no surprise there), Melton, the chocolate, for Milton Hershey, and Smooshy, the cute little marshmallow.
Greta Scott of Palmyra brought sons Ezra, 5, and Ethan, 3, to give s’mores a try.
Ethan decided to eat his with a spoon, while Ezra gamely tried to eat the melted marshmallow without getting all his fingers involved.
Mildrine Sanon of Palmyra brought daughters Chelsey Jules, 10, and Deborah Jules, 7, to the s’mores experience.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever tasted one,” said Sanon, who grew up in Haiti.
Busy tackling the large s’more on her plate, 10-year-old Chelsey described the treat in two words: “It’s delicious.”
More about s’mores
Not every dessert has its own special day, but National S’Mores Day will take place on Aug. 10.
From Aug. 6 though 12, Chocolate World will celebrate all things s’more during National S’mores Week.
Some new treats will be rolled out at that time, including dark chocolate s’mores and raspberry-flavored marshmallow, the first time a flavored marshmallow has been squished into a s’more, according to hospitality and food service supervisor Joshua Walmer.
Merchandise is always available in Chocolate World, so you can take home grilling equipment and make s’mores anytime.
Summer dessert recipes
If the livin’ can’t be easy in summertime, when can it?
The time for cream-filled pumpkin rolls and fancy Christmas cookies will be here soon enough; hot weather calls for quick and easy desserts. Here are a few:
Milk Chocolate Pots de Creme
Makes 6 servings
- 2 cups (11.5 ounce package) Hershey’s milk chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup light cream
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Sweetened whipped cream
Place milk chocolate chips and light cream in medium-sized microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium (50 percent) 1 minute or until chips are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred. Stir in vanilla. Pour into demitasse cups or very small dessert dishes. Cover; refrigerate until firm. Serve cold with sweetened whipped cream.
S’mores Pops
Makes 6 servings
- 4 Hershey milk chocolate bars or a bag of chocolate chips
- 6 regular sized marshmallows
- Crushed graham crackers
- 6 lollipop sticks or skewers
- Parchment paper
Push one stick through each marshmallow. Heat chocolate in bowl in microwave for 20 seconds. Remove bowl and stir chocolate. Repeat 20-second heat and stir process until fully melted. Quickly dip each marshmallow pop in the chocolate then roll in crushed graham crackers. Place on parchment paper and allow to cool.
S’mores Rice Krispie Treats Sliders
Makes 4 servings
- 4 Rice Krispies Treats original bars
- Graham crackers
- 1 cup dark chocolate morsels
- 1 teaspoon vegetable shortening
- Marshmallows
- Skewers are optional
Melt 1 cup dark chocolate morsels with 1 teaspoon of vegetable shortening. On graham cracker, place 1 tablespoon dark chocolate and then a Rice Krispie Treat bar. Add half a marshmallow and toast lightly in oven. Drizzle with remaining chocolate if desired. Insert skewer if preferred.
Chocolate-Covered Banana Pops
Makes 9 pops
- 3 ripe large bananas
- 9 wooden sticks
- 2 cups Hershey’s special dark chocolate chips or semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons shortening (do not use butter, margarine, spread or oil)
- 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped unsalted, roasted peanuts
Peel bananas; cut each into thirds. Insert a wooden stick into each banana piece. Place on wax-paper-covered tray. Cover; freeze until firm.
Place chocolate chips and shortening in medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at medium (50 percent) 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth when stirred.
Remove bananas from freezer just before dipping. Dip each piece into warm chocolate, covering completely; allow excess to drip off. Immediately roll in peanuts. Cover, return to freezer and serve frozen.
