In your article lamenting Chicago’s loss of the Frango Mint, you asked “how could something from Pennsylvania chocolate country have the same soul as a candy cooked up in the Loop?” (Page 1, March 5). Anyone raised in Pennsylvania knows that distance there is measured not in miles but by counting valleys, and greater Scranton, home of new Frango Mint manufacturer Gertrude Hawk, is Penna coal country at least five valleys (light years) from Hershey. Scranton’s local confection is “coal candy,” a hard lump of amorphous sugar, not soft chocolate.
Take it from someone born and raised there, Frango Mints will be in good hands as they will still be made by hardworking people who keep spotless homes (and sidewalks) and can effortlessly pronounce surnames like Czyzk and Wojciechowski.
