Chocolate Mary!

Check out this Easter nugget from Michigan's Citizen Patriot. Dang, I bet Chocolate Jesus is pissed!

Virgin Mary statuettes made of chocolate
Sunday, April 08, 2007

By Brad Flory

Nuns who appreciated good chocolate started one of Jackson's more unusual Easter traditions. Three decades ago, the sisters from St. Joseph orphanage convinced Gramer's Fine Candies Inc. to render the Virgin Mary in chocolate.

"At that time we sold (chocolate) crosses and spring lambs," said Jack Knapp, partner at Gramer's, which makes hand-dipped chocolates at 803 N. Waterloo St.

"Some of the nuns ... asked if we could make Virgin Marys, too, so they could take them back to their mother houses."

Gramer's bought a mold and each Easter since has produced 5-inch-tall standing figures of Mary.

Easter is the second-busiest holiday at Gramer's, behind Christmas. Secular figures like chocolate bunnies, eggs and chicks are the biggest seller for Easter but Gramer's also sells hundreds of religious-themed chocolates.

Chocolate crosses, which are not rare in the candy world, are sold along with large and small versions of both praying hands and the Last Supper. Virgin Mary figures cost $4.99 and come in milk chocolate, white chocolate and white chocolate colored aqua. They sold out last week.

Chocolate Marys were once sold in many cities, especially in ethnic neighborhoods that were heavily Catholic, Knapp said. Over time, they have become rare.

"No one in the commercial end of the business makes them because there is not enough volume," Knapp said.

Cindy Wicht, a candy-maker at Gramer's, said most buyers do not intend to eat chocolate Marys. "They use them for Easter decorations on the dining room table," Wicht said.

Linda Newman, another Gramer's employee, said, "A lot of people are buying them but they simply won't eat them, because of what they represent. "One lady said she is dipping it in wax. She's going to keep it year-round in the China cabinet."

Still, Gramer's is a candy company. It does not offer counsel about eating the chocolate.

"You can do what you want because you're buying it," said Gramer's employee Tanya Gibson. "But a lot of people won't eat it. They think it's sacrilegious to bite Mary's head off."

Is it wrong to eat a chocolate Mary?

"I cannot think of any reason why it would be sacrilegious," said the Rev. James Shaver of St. John Catholic Church. "But I don't think it should be in high demand as a pop-in-your-mouth sort of thing." Shaver compared a chocolate Madonna to candles of Mary that burn down. Both are fine if used without disrespect. "I guess I'd defer to nuns at the orphanage," Shaver said. "If they wanted candy of Mary, it must be a good thing."