Chappie

You can always tell from the wrapper if it is bubblegum, raspberry or banana...

Before the smell gives it away, the spearmint will be wrapped in a dark green almost wax paper with red and navy stripes!

It can be hard or really soft and mushy; depending on how long it has been sitting in a cookie jar at the Spaza shop. The wrapping paper can be stuck onto the chappie and if you are unlucky, you will chew both but won't die.

Chappie is a common, cheap brand of chewing gum all colors wrapped in a colorful, blue and red pin stripe intercepted by a smiling squirrel.

The burst of flavour when you chew a fresh one, is enough to get you addicted. Did I mention it comes in grape?

It expands and fills your mouth while the flavour seeps through your nostrils and your sweetened saliva gushes and swirls around your mouth when you chew it.

A really old one, after several teeth wrenching and grinding chews, also gets soft and mushy to a point where you forget it was stale, scaled with a white Lord knows what layer!

You can chew on it the whole day, characteristic of a gum that is made to last. If you are new to the game, you may wake up with painful jaw joints in the morrow. 

It was quite educational as well, having hundreds of 'Did you know' questions underneath the wrapper, hundreds looked like thousands when you just learned how to read.

You could quiz each other for days. Stick it to anything and everything, and get your shillings worth, if ever there was a lower denomination to the cent.

Alas, those memories are gone! disillusioned by the myth of the Swiss chocolate, the Lindt, the Gavarny and all names rich and dark, nowadays lighter, silkier and smoother as well...

Beautifully hidden in a gold package, the material a mixture of matt and gloss. So extravagant you would think the contents are just as big.

As you slowly unwrap the dark richness, ever so delicate not to rupture the packaging! You are miles away from the chappies wrapper, you would tear so badly....the 'Did you know' would have to be carefully put together by the same Chappie you chewed or for the lucky few, Mr. Sellophane, the tape.

You hide your disappointment at the size of the promised chocolate. It's barely a fraction of a 10th of the packaging. All that money for this! You pick the first of the lot, not knowing what to expect. The shapes do make for a small conversation, that wont last longer than the packaging. 

Light toffee fills your mouth and the chocolate is left hollow. You try the heart shape, strawberry liquor strools out, not quite the same as the fruity juicy flavour of the Chappie. You are scared to try the triangle, because after the strawberry the rectangle had an expensive round nut wedged right in the middle of the shape, that could have been a macadamia or re moulded pistachio. It was hard to figure it out with all that noughart around it.

You look underneath the box, an immaculate, description of what's inside each piece stares back at you. No interesting facts. I won't be suprised tomorrow when I buy the same box of chocolates! I won't share anymore nor quizz anyone what I learned today. 

It can never be stale because the shop assistant would have removed it of the shelf before it frots. Then you realize life is like a box of chocolates, once you have had it all, you know it all, and, it always  stares back at you. You are no longer suprised by what you will get!  

You look back and miss your Chappie, always there until you decide to chuck it. Always knowledgeable, always good to share, laugh and put together. It lasted.

You got deceived by the box that looked pretty but had luxuries that melted away in your mouth, with no new fun or interesting fact but confusion at first bite and predictability after each purchase, at a very expensive price.

You miss your Chappie, cheap, affordable and always there! 

-wink wink-