![//graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/12/07/nyregion/08cook184.1.jpg' cannot be displayed]](https://i0.wp.com/graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/12/07/nyregion/08cook184.1.jpg "Mmm...Mmm...Mallomars!")
…If there is something vaguely quaint about Mallomars because they are available only during certain seasons, there is also something venerable. They are as old as the Federal Reserve System and Camel cigarettes. Unlike crossword puzzles, which also made their debut in 1913, they have not undergone a name change. When The New York World published that first puzzle, it was a “word-cross.” Mallomars did not begin life in 1913 as Marsomalls.” (New York Times )
The article leads one to ponder: why are 70% of the nation’s Mallomars sold in the New York area? Why have they refrained from reformulating the cookies so they do not melt in the summer? And, most important, what exactly is wrong with eating a melty Mallomar, for those of us who would prioritize year-round availability?? (Our more civilized ancestors must have had more of a thing about chocolate stained hands than I do — or, certainly, more than my children do at least. Consider how the longterm success of the marketing decision to advertise M & M’s as the candy that “melts in your mouth, not in your hands.”)
