Ganong Chicken Bones
The small town of St. Stephen in Southern New Brunswick is chocolate obsessed. It has a Chocolate Museum, runs an annual Chocolate Festival and has been the home of Ganong Chocolates, Canada’s oldest candy company, since 1873.
Ganong might not be the best known name outside Canada, but they can make a pretty credible case for inventing the chocolate bar back in the late 1800s, and were also the first company to sell heart-shaped boxes of chocolates for Valentine’s Day in North America. These days, Ganong’s focus might be boxed chocolates, but they are thankfully still selling what must be their signature product – Chicken Bones.
For the uninitiated, Chicken Bones are pink cinnamon candies filled with dark, bittersweet chocolate and they are really quite unique and very addictive. The name comes from their long, thin shape which is reminiscent of their namesakes, especially because of that darker core.
They have a healthy kick of cinnamon too. They aren’t quite up there with those little Cinnamon Hearts that appear every Valentine’s Day, but there’s enough of it to leave a satisfying post-eating tingle in your mouth afterwards. The sweetness of the candy is nicely balanced out by the bitterness of the chocolate, which has a grainier texture than most people might be used to but it works really well in this context.
They stand up to a variety of eating styles too. They can quite happily be crunched into a nice simultaneous mixture of chocolate and cinnamon, or sucked more slowly so that the chocolate is gradually released from its spicy shell. Either way, you’ll end up with a bright pink tongue as your badge of honour and isn’t that the important thing?
They are available all year round, but tend to be easier to find at Christmas when they appear in the gift boxes shown in the photos. In addition to the bag of Chicken Bones, Ganong also include a couple of pieces of their milk chocolate which is kind of forgettable after the feature presentation. I usually pick up the smaller bags instead because otherwise I’ll keep eating until they are all gone…
Information
- Buy it online from:
- Ganong.com (Canada)
- Filed under canada, ganong.
How bizarre!
there is a place in new york state that creates something called “Turkey Joints” that are somewhat similar. they’ve been making them for about 15 years and they’ve become quite famous nation wide, but they’re only available from a small candy store called Candy Land. it’s sugar/molasses hard candy shell filled with dark chocolate and almonds.
Oh these do look good, and I love their quirky name!!!
These sound delicious. I’ve never heard of this company before.
This Canadian company is very close to my hometown – we grew up with these candies and still enjoy them today! Thanks for the blog!
I really want to eat this kind of candies,but I am from China,so I just have heard its name, and they are not saled in China,so pity.If have chance,I want to have a try~
I’m from New Brunswick and Chicken Bones were a staple treat every Christmas. For those interested you can order them online from the Ganong website. Very cool treat. I’ve exposed many other Canadians/Americans to them over the years, and they always ask where they can get them. I only knew about the website starting last year. The Ganong Pal-O-Mine bar is another unique type of treat you can’t get in the rest of Canada. Their online store is at:
https://store.ganong.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=54
Chicken bones were a tradition in our Christmas stocking growing up. Still love them!!!
We are New Brunswickers, now living in Calgary AB. We get so excited when Care Packages are sent from home knowing Ganong Chicken Bones and Red Wrap Chocolates are inside, a real childhood memory passed down the generations. We love all of it and keep looking for it out here…please head West !!!!