Darrel Lea

For many years in Queensland, Darrell Lea was a much-loved name. I presume that there was a Mr Lea named Darrel but I may be wrong.

Anyway, there were rather a lot of Darrell Lea shops around the place and what they sold was CHOCOLATE - but not just any chocolate -- chocolate confectionery in all its forms -- with ginger, with nuts etc.  And they did a good Rocky Road too, if I remember rightly.

So when the twins were still around 9 or 10 or  11 or around that age, Darrel Lea was a magnet.

At that time Jenny would usually feel an urge to go out somewhere on a Friday night.  Being a homebody, I did not feel part of that. So I helped by giving Jenny $10 to spend each Friday night.  $10 bought a lot more then than it does now. More like $50 now.

So on Friday night Jenny and her girls would go out to "spend John's money".  And the first port of call was the Darrell Lea shop in Queen St. -- sadly no longer there.

But despite the great following they had, Darrell Lea messed up big time and just about went broke.

At the last ditch, however, they got in some chap as  manager  who revived the business.  They no longer have their own stores but they now have little kiosks in chemists etc. that sell their stuff.  They trade on the good name they have,

And much to my surprise, I found that Woolworths have their stuff too.  I bought a box of of that enormously traditional   Australian confection called "coconut ice" recently when I was in Woolworths -- and it was a Darrel Lea version. And it tasted exactly as it should! So there may also be generations to come who enjoy their Darrell Lea.