MoonPie General Store - Atlas Obscura
"MoonPies are an American snack that originated in 1917, when Earl Mitchell—a traveling salesman for the Chattanooga Bakery—encountered a Kentucky coal miner who wanted a snack “as big as the moon.” Mitchell brought the request back to his company and, soon enough, the “MoonPie” was born. A MoonPie consists of a marshmallow filling between two graham-cracker cookies, all dipped in chocolate and about four inches in diameter. These chewy treats are both filling and easy to transport—ideal for the coal miners who worked long hours, carried their lunches with them, and relied on an extra boost of carbohydrates to get them through their day. Today, these beloved snacks are the heart of the MoonPie General Store, a retail shop and bakery that serves up fresh MoonPies daily in a variety of flavors, as well as souvenir gifts such as T-shirts, coffee mugs, retro candies, and old-timey toys. There’s also a lunch counter where you can belly up for a MoonPie and RC Cola combo—a pairing that’s especially popular in the South, and one that likely came about during the Depression, when both affordable treats were just a nickel apiece. MoonPies were sent as a comforting ration to U.S. troops overseas during World War II, and in the mid-1950s, the Chattanooga Bakery transitioned to focusing solely on Moon Pies production. Today the family-owned company produces about a million of the treats daily. These include the MoonPie Double Decker, which features a third cookie and a second layer of marshmallow, Mini MoonPies (approximately half the weight of the original), and the MoonPie Crunch, which swaps out marshmallow for fillings such as peanut butter and chocolate mint. While chocolate was the only flavor of MoonPie until the 1970s, today they include vanilla, banana, strawberry, salted caramel, and even the new limited-edition key lime. There are also seasonal variations like pumpkin spice and blueberry. Coconut MoonPies are typically available during the Mardi Gras season, since they’re a prominent item to throw at float parades in and around Mobile, Alabama. In fact, they’re so synonymous with Mobile that at the stroke of midnight on each New Year’s Eve since 2008, the city’s been dropping a gigantic mechanical MoonPie from atop its RSA Trustmark building. Along with a MoonPie General Store that serves as the gift shop for Chattanooga’s Southern Belle Riverboat and duck boat tours, there’s also a smaller general store in the city’s St. Elmo neighborhood, located right beside the historic Incline Railway." - Atlas Obscura
