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Mallomars are a cookie in the marshmallow sandwich genre, produced seasonally at Nabisco. A circle of Graham cracker is covered with a puff of extruded marshmallow, then enrobed (not dipped) in a hard dark chocolate shell.
Mallomars are not made available during the heat of summer. In New York City, their home town, they reappear on shelves in mid-September. New Yorkers keep them in the refrigerator. It's a New York market: seventy percent of all Mallomars sold are sold in metropolitan New York, and a majority of the rest are sold in outliers such as Miami and Los Angeles.
Mallomars came onto the market the same year as the more plebian Moon Pie, 1913.
Mallomars in popular culture
Mallomars feature in a moment of When Harry Met Sally (1989): Harry, all forlorn, watches TV on New Year's eve with a box of Mallomars.
Mallomars add local color (very dark brown) to Wally Lamb's coming-of-age novel Shes Come Undone.
Similar cookies
There are numerous cookies which look like Mallomars but few have the pure dark chocolate coating which makes them so sensitive to summer temperatures and renders their distribution a risky affair.
Whippet cookies first came to the market in 1927, but they had already been produced and distributed by Viau under another name, "Empire", as early as 1901. Whippets are still produced in Montreal at the east end Viau factory, which is now owned by Culinar Inc.. As in 1901 they are still coated in pure chocolate, which melts at body temperature. Opening a box of Whippets immediately sends a very marked odor of chocolate in a room. Because of this, and the distribution problems noted below, Whippets are the object of a near-cult following in the province of Quebec and some outlying areas. Unlike Mallomars, Whippets are produced year long, given that Montreal and its surrounding areas have a lower average temperature than the New York conurbation.
Dangerous environments
Warm environments are not the only dangerous ones for Mallomars and their cousins. Because of the numerous air pockets within the marshmallow, changes in air pressure can cause drastic changes in the size of the biscuit, thus destroying the integrity of the chocolate coating. For instance, most airlines keep their aircraft cabins pressurized at a level which is slightly below that of normal ground pressure. This causes grievous ruin to the unblemished surface of such a cookie, and removes part of the visual pleasure and anticipation that comes when the box is opened. Fortunately, this does not affect the unmistakable strong chocolate aroma.
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