There’s a new chocolate in town that has Yinz doodled all over it.
The creators of Yinzer Greeting Cards — standup comedian Jim Krenn, former Post-Gazette cartoonist Rob Rogers and KDKA radio personality Larry Richert — have come out with Yinzer Bars, a collection of three milk chocolate bars made by Sarris Candies in Canonsburg.
The bars’ wrappers celebrate the city’s iconic skyline, along with the Duquesne Incline; the moniker, “City of Champions”; and the Immaculate Reception, which last month was voted as the No. 1 play of all time in NFL history.
The idea for the candy bars arose after a year’s success of the greeting cards, said Mr. Rogers, and their theme was to poke fun at Pittsburgh’s idiosyncrasies.
“We were sitting around asking, ‘What next?’ when chocolate came up,” he said.
He appropriated the drawings for two of the bars’ wrappers from greeting cards he had already designed.
The one with the city’s skyline and incline is a pun on the card, which has an image of the incline, and says, “Another Pixburgh birthday, I hope I’m in your will … ’cause you’re aging like the Incline, slow and steady dahn the hill.”
A second wrapper is a riff on the City of Champions and says “Chocolate of Champions.” The words are bookended with caricatures of two generic Pittsburghers, who appear also on the greeting card.
Mr. Rogers came up with an original design for the third bar, which pays tribute to the “Immaculate Reception” with the “Immaculate Confection.” He had originally thought of a black and gold sports design for the bar. “But when Jim came up with the ‘Immaculate Confection’ idea, I decided to draw my best Franco Harris cartoon catching a chocolate bar,” he said.
The chocolate bars are $2.99 each and available at Giant Eagle Market District stores, Laurie’s Hallmark stores and the Heinz History Center. Thirty percent of the proceeds from each bar will go toward the Spenser’s Voice Fund, an organization that works to curb the opioid epidemic in young adults.
Bill Sarris, president of Sarris Candies, said the milk chocolate has a smooth and rich taste with light notes of caramel.
“We started off with milk chocolate now as it is a bestseller,” Mr. Rogers said. “But we might branch out to more varieties later.”
Arthi Subramaniam: asubramaniam@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1494.
First Published: October 9, 2019, 6:15 p.m.
