Chocolate Ration
This obscure sweet was sourced from the Katoomba Salvation Army store, where a box of these plain looking, army green chocolate bars was underneath a sign reading "Free". I immediately remembered that Nicholas once expressed a liking for this type of chocolate, when we were wandering through an army recruitment fair in Newcastle, and there was an exhibition of what soldiers carried in their packs.
The plain, military packaging covers a plain, cartoonish block of chocolate divided up into little squares. My first impression of it was that it was so hard that it would need strong, army man jaws to crack through it. It didn’t melt as readily as a block of Cadburys, but there was something engaging about its dry texture. Tim noted the thin oily coating that it left on the roof of the mouth, we both wondering if it had enhanced caffeine content to spur on troops in battle. After eating it I felt a bit more tingling and awake than I usually do after eating chocolate, I was hoping it was dosed with special army alert-drugs.
I was disappointed that the army ration coconut ices had all been taken by the time I got to the shop, the empty box was still beside the almost full chocolate ration box (it must have had a better looking wrapper). I was confused why coconut ice was chosen, surely it’s too pink and girly for the army.
I like the idea of rations, my grandfather had a book about wartime Britain, and my favourite picture in it was the ration book and a typical weekly ration of things like eggs and bacon. My grandmother would tell me how people pooled their rations so the person who could make the best cakes would get everyone’s cake ingredients and make cakes for everyone with them.
It’s probably good I didn’t develop a fascination with the army chocolate, not knowing how to get a supply without joining the army. If I did, I’d be sacked in disgrace for smuggling out boxes of ration chocolate from the main supply. The thought of joining the army is terrifying, I don’t think I’d last a day.