Shelters are preparing for frigid temperatures expected in town overnight Sunday and into the week.
Hydro-Quebec is going to be asking us to turn down the heat.
Extra warming shelters will be opened during the cold snap.
Updates from January, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Several media are covering the story that Hershey Canada is discontinuing the Cherry Blossom, a candy with history in Montreal, where it was produced at the Lowney factory in Griffintown. The Gazette says fans are buying up the last stock. Wikipedia.24 heures ran the story with the clickbait front page headline Les adeptes disent adieu au chocolat controversé. Not to everyone’s taste, maybe, but not exactly controversial.
At left, a photo I took in 2006 when the Lowney factory was being turned into condos.
Adding: Taylor Noakes thinks the company ought to make the recipe public domain.
Janet
Love your photo, Kate!
Kate
: )
GC
Me, too. I’ve only seen it since it became condos. I know some people who live in that building. There’s a giant cherry statue in the courtyard and I knew it had been a factory before. I never made the connection that it produced those specific candies.
GC
I personally didn’t like them, but I agree that “controversial” is perhaps a bit melodramatic. “Polarizing” perhaps. It’s not the headline I see when I click on it now, though. Was it updated?
GC
Oh, never mind. You said “front page” and it IS still there. #readingcomprehension
Kate
GC, I linked to the article rather than the front page, because that’s likely to be changed quickly, so it’s not surprising you didn’t see it. I’ve screenshotted that bit here. Sorry about that!
Uatu
Immediately thought of this whenever Cherry Blossom is mentioned
https://youtu.be/xgawtIMv39s?si=IkDpnQOJ2vzFZK55
Remember seeing it as a kid and later on only realized that whoever made it was high AF. Lol
Taylor
Makes me think of when General Mills torpedoed Liberte cream cheese in 2022. An American company can simply decide to stop making a given product, irrespective of its cultural significance, without even attempting to find someone else to produce it.
The Europeans, by contrast, go to considerable lengths to protect their culturally significant foods. If France can define and protect champagne and Italy can define and protect pizza or pasta, why aren’t we doing the same for our home grown foods?
The irony here is that, if the Lowney Cherry Blossoms recipe was public domain and there were certain guidelines governing what a Cherry Blossom candy is, that could actually stimulate competition – think of how many kinds of champagne there are.
Food for thought (no pun intended): the cherry blossom candy is roughly as old professional hockey in Canada.
JP
I think Cadbury has a version, which I actually prefer.
JaneyB
@Uatu – Oh my! I remember that jingle. It takes me right back.
DeWolf
@Taylor AOC-style protections are for artisanal products, not ultra-processed industrial foods. They’re meant to protect regional origins and methods of production. The goal isn’t to make industrial recipes public domain.
There’s nothing unique to Montreal about cherry chocolates – it’s a standard treat made by any chocolatier.
dhomas
Queen Anne Cordial Cherries are similar, but not quite the same as Cherry Blossoms. Funnily, I saw a stack of the Queen Annes at a store yesterday, before reading this story.
DeWolf
That’s the thing. Liberté cream cheese tasted unique, but every cream cheese tastes different. Even with a controlled designation, there would still be natural variation because nobody makes things exactly the same way even if they’re using the same general method and ingredients.
I probably gave the impression that I’m dismissing Cherry Blossoms. That’s not my intention. They have a long history and are a distinct take on a classic style of candy. But we know the ingredients, so if someone was motivated they could make a better version that didn’t have nasty stuff like palm oil and preservatives. They could even call it something similar like a cherry bloom. It could be the start of something that actually made it a real Montreal treat.
Ian
So much of Montreal’s industrial history is buried in condos.
Kate
It really is. The Northern Electric, the Redpath sugar refinery, the Viau cookie and the Lowney candy factories, so many more.
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Kate
The Quebec government’s decision to delay its plans for returnable bottles for two years is threatening 400 jobs at the Owens-Illinois glass factory on Wellington Street in lower Point St Charles, probably the last remnant of the Point’s industrial history.
Ian
At least the glass kilns are too ugly for condos
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