An Ode to the Sky Bar, My All-Time Favorite Candy Bar
I am once again in the grips of nostalgia, so I feel compelled to wax poetic about New England’s own Sky Bar, the best-ever candy bar.
If you grew up in the Boston area in, say, the last 80 years, chances are you’ve scarfed down a Sky Bar or two in your lifetime. The confectionary delight was introduced all the way back in 1938 via a skywriting campaign. Because back in 1938, that’s how you got the word out on something new: you hired a plane. Today, we have the internet. Far less fun. We should get back to skywriting.
The Sky Bar was made by NECCO, the New England Confectionary Company. They had manufacturing facilities all over the Greater Boston area; I remember the one in Cambridge. They’re likely best known for their infamous Necco Wafers and Valentine’s Day staple Sweethearts Conversation Hearts. But it’s their Sky Bar that I celebrate the most. Because in ever Sky Bar is every candy bar.
An Ode to the Sky Bar, My All-Time Favorite Candy Bar
It’s a stroke of sweet genius, really. A chocolate bar that features not one, not two, not three, but FOUR different flavors: caramel, vanilla, peanut, and fudge. Each flavor is lovingly–and separately–ensconced in delicious milk chocolate, offering the candy consumer four scrumptious munching experiences. The trick was always to peek at the bottom of the bar and try to figure out which was which.
Wakefield Bowladrome had Sky Bars in their vending machine when I was a kid, and it was always my go-to bowling treat back in the ’80s. Years later, when the candy became harder and harder to find, my then-girlfriend tracked down a distributor and ordered an entire box to be shipped to our apartment in Albuquerque, NM. A taste of childhood, a taste of home. I savored them all.
And that’s why I think the Sky Bar sits atop my personal candy bar ranking. It was one of my early favorite candies because of its uniqueness. But it was also homegrown, which created a more intimate relationship, if that doesn’t sound too weird. You can love a Milky Way, sure. But everyone could get those. New England kids could get a Sky Bar. Kids in other parts of the country couldn’t.
When NECCO closed back in 2018, the Sky Bar went the way of the dodo, but only for year. The rights and recipe were purchased at auction, and today the Sky Bar is made right here in Sudbury, MA. Pay them a visit and pick up a bar or two. Oh, and if you want to eat yours like I eat mine, do it like this: vanilla first, then fudge, followed by peanut, then caramel.