Last night our Mappy Hour theme was s’mores – the classic campfire dessert.
We arrived at CAMP Brooklyn to find a deer head on the wall, a kayak near the back and comfy “mountain lodge” type chairs to relax on. Name tag making, beer drinking and temporary tattoo application then began – with a focus on the s’mores tattoo (which also happens to be an icon option in the new TripPix photo book app):
The presentation focused on the History of S’mores with appearances from a Reverend, the girl scouts and even the USDA. Here are a few take-aways:
THE HISTORY OF THE S’MORES
-Early 1900’s: Marshmallows, chocolate and sweetened Graham crackers all became low-priced, mass produced commodity’s so campers like ourselves could afford the ingredients (in the past marshmallows especially were a food only for the very rich).
-Graham Crackers were available in the 1800’s but were generally a bland, unsweetened product invented by Reverand Sylvester Graham as part of a “pure” diet he believed would quell certain carnal urges.*
*Shoutout to November 2014 Mappy Hour presenter Matthew Wills for this article on the history of the Graham cracker.
-1927 was the first public evidence of the “Some Mores” by non other than delicious dessert mavens: The Girl Scouts (it wasn’t until years later that the contraction “s’more” gained popularity)
-A 2011 article in Smithsonian Magazine argues that the s’more is one of the most distinctly American desserts as only some of the ingredients have history elsewhere.
-May 2015: USDA recommends we should take away chocolate & marshmallows and add strawberries & yogurt instead
After that we got to actually try this campfire classic over nifty indoor stoves from CAMP Brooklyn. Everyone got a chance to show off their own s’mores style (burned marshmallow? melted chocolate?) and chow down.
The end of the night was all prizes as we announced the winner of the overall #OFNYC15 contest by TripPix as @Mo_Skel:
And the winner of our mini #MappyHour instagram contest was @Jeffzilla (also the photographer behind the header photo and right most s’mores photo)
Both winners will be receiving a FREE code to make a TripPix photo album on their next adventures.
To see ours come back to the blog tomorrow…
TripPix by Shutterfly is a NEW app that turns your iPhone photos into a rad travel book. Combine your top photos with TripPix’s unique map and fun icon features, and you’ll have a super sweet 6×6 book to remember all your crazy-fun adventures. So now you can bring your adventures to life in minutes without breaking your wallet.
