Some words are hard to parse (and pronounce, like Persephone). Not s’mores. Embedded within this wonderful word is the desire you feel every time you have one: More. “Some more” is precisely what the Girl Scouts called their invention in “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts,” a (perplexingly-titled) manual published in 1927.
The recipe, which promises a yield of eight “sticks,” calls for 16 graham crackers, eight bars of plain chocolate (“any of the good plain brands broken in two) and 16 marshmallows. The instructions direct the scouts to “toast two marshmallows over the coals to a crispy gooey state and then put them inside a graham cracker and chocolate bar sandwich.” Foreshadowing the debate that would ensue over whether or not to heat the chocolate/graham situation separately, the authors tentatively promise “the heat of the marshmallow…will melt the chocolate a bit.” Despite coming up with THE campfire concoction, the authors take a prim tone at the end: “Though it tastes like ‘some more’ one is really enough.”
Thank goodness we can now see the error of their willpower ways. With National S’mores Day fast approaching on August 10th, we encourage you to buck the girl scouts’ self-control credo by spending the next 10 days perfecting your technique in time for the s’mores extravaganza we are hosting with our friends at the Anvil Hotel next Friday on their premises (BYO sticks). To fan your campfire flames, we have stocked our retail shelves with fixings—from baggies of our homemade grahams and vanilla marshmallows to our signature Emergency S’mores Kit, a handy tin filled with the essentials: Persephone grahams, mallows, artisanal chocolate, mini skewers, matches and a tea light candle. Et violà. You’re in the business of being a tabletop girl scout. So even though hindsight may be 20/20 (and judgy of the scout leaders’ tisk-tiskness), we embrace the hunger of this history lesson—for all the s’mores.
